Weekend plans :) :) :)

Back on board (again!). Diva had been lame since Christmas Eve, then was sound after the New Year so I got back up in January and managed a couple of short walking hacks, then she suddenly appeared lame again a few days later, so gave her more time off. She is now good to start 4 weeks walking so we ventured out for a twenty minute amble around the Farm.

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I had an altercation with my cats claws yesterday and she hooked a vein in my thumb- much very dark blood and instant swelling and bruising. The pain is awful and I feel like I’ve had a blood test in the wrong place! Now sporting a very bruised and sore thumb which made doing this mornings jobs a nightmare (we really take our thumbs for granted!).
 
Sounds like some good stuff happening for the weekend planners :)
Cute pics Fiona! :)

Salty had a good outing today, first time she's come off the box and not looked like a goggle eyed giraffe, so I think she's getting the hang of going out and just doing her work somewhere else. If anything, she was a bit quiet, but she mostly tried hard and then loaded well to go home too,so can't complain :D she is starting to feel like she's got a bit more stamina now, the clips below were at the end of her 45 min session and she is staying in better balance now when she's tiring :)
Might hunt for an indoor to take her to next time ;)

[video=youtube_share;Fj0ISRridqc]https://youtu.be/Fj0ISRridqc[/video]
 
Sounds like pretty good results for everyone so far! Fiona, shame your son came off but I'm sure they'll get a bit more used to each other soon! Good result for you too :)

Fiona said:
On your new share pony? How did it go?

We were forecast heavy showers but thank God they never arrived, it was cold enough without...

Fiona
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Yep! He's such a sweet and fun pony, bombproof but plenty forward going. Think he's just happy to have a job to do again! found out that he's 16/17 but he certainly doesn't act like it! :D
 
Wheeeee SO much fun at the show-jumping today:) (which is amazing because I hate show-jumping :D )

Arrived at 11 just as the 65cm class was starting with 16 in it!! Had been planning to do the 75 and 85cm classes but it was very busy and freezing cold so I quickly swapped to the 65 and 75 classes to reduce waiting around!

Jensen was just amazing, he loves his jumping so much! We went round the first class and he didn’t bat an eyelid at anything, took me into all the fences, got a bit strong at times and knocked one behind where he got a bit flat. I was so pleased :)

Into the 75cm class and again he got very strong (he’d been nearly wiped out by kid-on-a-pony in the warm up) so we knocked a couple due to being flat - he jumped like they weren’t there, it was awesome :) Just a stop at the last as it was a triple bar - he has never seen anything remotely like that before - I really wasn’t fussed, today was all about schooling and I was over the moon with him yet again!

It really feels so much fun at the moment - the little things all help, he loads first time now with the Eskadron control headcollar, I’ve got the knack of reversing the trailer round a 90 degree bend back into its space - I love it :)
 
No placings for Henry today but still a good outing. Rider said he was a little
Tense and look-y but he jumped well - just got a little distracted coming into the last fence in the BN and had it down. Plenty of positives though.

Also had a mini breakthrough with the baby today. She only tried to strop once but quickly changed her mind when she realised she’d get a tap with the whip. Got some really lovely work from her and I’m feeling much more comfortable on board now. :)
 
I binned competing today and went out on a farm ride. I've had a bit of a confidence knock this week so decided to take the pressure off and just do something fun. I rode Max while my other daughter was on Ginny and we just had a few good gallops and lots of ambling along on the buckle. Perfect day.
 
had a great day at combined training. 68.5% in the dressage (prelim 12) and clear in the show jumping, which meant that we won our class :)
Very proud of my boy, especially as I basically forgot to ride around most of the jumping, so he had to sort himself out.
 
We. done everyone. I did more long walk hacks. Forgot they can be a bit uncomfortable.. Have ordered a seat saver and I should have a great half seat by the time horse is fit :p
 
Had an unexpected lesson on a mechinical horse today! Mum spotted the ad on facebook last night and booked me in while I was at work, so cancelled Sunday lie in for a 60 mile round trip.

Half hour lesson was excellent, we focused on canter as been having problems with using my core and backside coming out the saddle. Found it really useful not to have to worry about what the horse was doing and the fact it's movements were modelled on a 17.2 warmblood gave you loads of time to think about each stride - I'm tiny, so normally stick to 14.2s!

Mum, who's spent most of her life as a riding instructor, was fascinated by the whole concept and spent the trip home musing about potential lesson plans and ways of utilising them...
 
Some great updates.
Had a fab dressage today with a first and second. Totally in love with my wee mare, she just keeps getting better every time out.
Fiona - your ponies are super cute.
 
Not competing but we were out and about, ground work lesson on Saturday so Daisy will now park herself at a mounting block on queue. That is a very handy trick.
Then yesterday we went for a hack round Kings Forest. I haven't sat on her for 16 days, she's never been off for a hack somewhere else or round a forest but she didn't bat an eyelid. Over logs, bracken through brambles and trees to get round blocked paths and those little squeeze through size gaps to get past gates and she didn't turn a hair. Had some lovely trots and a couple of canters too. Very impressed with my little QH and her no worries can do attitude. Loaded all OK as well , here's hoping this continues.
 
Well done mcfluff! Sounds like a very good outing.

I had a lesson with my classical trainer on Saturday. The focus was on keeping the back swinging just the same whether we are stretching or collecting, finding the spot where he starts to brace a little at the edge of his comfort zone and then playing around with that to keep him in a brace free state for as long as possible and then asking again for a little more each time.

Same with the walk halt transitions as he was getting a little anxious in the downward transition so we looked at just starting with a half halt, just slowing enough until he started to become anxious and then letting him forward. It took maybe 3 times of just asking for a half halt before he was ready to do a full halt in a relaxed manner

Good lesson even though we didn't get out of walk lol

Yesterday we had a great hack out, the weather was perfect and he is such fun to hack, forward without pulling and so alert to his durroundings without spooking. Cool dude
 
I’m so far behind that I didn’t manage to share my plans let alone update as I went! Well done to everyone, sounds like lots of fun and success was had.

I took Pocholo to AM Dressage for two lessons with Matt Frost on Thursday and Friday. It was fab! I said I’m working towards medium and I wanted to work on travers / half pass, as P finds it a lot harder than Indio. Matt helped to really break it down for P and also for me, he did a great job of working on both of us at the same time. For comedy value I also got Matt to ride - his legs are longer than Pocholo’s :D

Some photos and videos here: https://www.facebook.com/annette.scottc/posts/10155992782949043

Sunday I took P to Hartpury for a couple of Elementaries - his first outing since October. Looking at the positives, he warmed up well, didn’t spook in the big arena (his first time there), did everything in the right place and got 7.5s for rein-back and halt.

However he completely shut down as we went into the holding area for the first test. He tends to tick his nose in and go ‘show pony’, sitting a bit behind the aids. So it was ok but definitely not as supple or through as needed.

Then he managed to knock me flying in the horse lorry and I landed in a pile of poo!! Thank goodness for sitting trot so the stain wasn’t so obvious. Utterly furious with him, I got after him for the second test so he was more forward and on the aids but also a tad cross! A couple of mistakes but he was more rideable.

Slightly disappointed with the scores - the judge absolutely slammed us for his wag of going, saying he was tight and tense. He wasn’t as supple as he can be but still a huge improvement on last year. 59 and 61% - ho hum...

I can’t share the vids for some reason, if anyone’s really interested let me know and I’ll upload to YouTube!
 
Love the pic of Matt on P! That's how I feel on Kira, lol :D Looking good, shame about the scores at Hartpury but it sounds like just a bad day that you can put behind you.
 
milliepops said:
Love the pic of Matt on P! That's how I feel on Kira, lol :D Looking good, shame about the scores at Hartpury but it sounds like just a bad day that you can put behind you.
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At least it’s a low baseline for the rest of the year..!

He’s a real marmite horse for judges. At our Area Final we had 9% difference in the Prelim (61-70%) and 8% difference in the Novice (59-66%). He’d be an interesting guinea pig for judge training..!
 
I'm also super late Jiffy! But well done, and don't be disheartened, Topaz always gets tight/ tension/ etc, but slowly, slowly working on her engagement, push and throughnessthey can get there, I just think sometimes it can take some horses just that bit longer. Love the lesson videos, I'm going to show my friend the trot one as it has been suggested as a way to try and make the penny drop for extensions ;) better get the running shoes ready :lol:!
 
I love how you made your ins work for you there j1ffy in that trot video. Hee. Super naughty re putting you on yer bum. Who'd have thought you need to pack extra white jodhs for these occasions! Are your boys Spanish - I wonder if judges struggle with marking the movement v the WB type paces? Or just have a natural preference?
 
AlexHyde said:
I'm also super late Jiffy! But well done, and don't be disheartened, Topaz always gets tight/ tension/ etc, but slowly, slowly working on her engagement, push and throughnessthey can get there, I just think sometimes it can take some horses just that bit longer. Love the lesson videos, I'm going to show my friend the trot one as it has been suggested as a way to try and make the penny drop for extensions ;) better get the running shoes ready :lol:!
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Thank you! Fingers crossed a few more outings gets us back into the swing of things.

It was funny working on the trot. I told Matt he looked like he was Curling ;). P will never have a true medium so we’re working on the collected trot to get more engagement and expression, then try to carry that into a bigger trot. He got a very mean 4.5 for one of his mediums on Sunday..!
 
j1ffy said:
He got a very mean 4.5 for one of his mediums on Sunday..!
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That is mean!! Poor P :( Give him a kiss from me and tell him not to be too disheartened!! I love your instructor-half because he reminds me a bit of the way I teach and half because he is hilarious and exactly the kind of instructor I do the best with. The "ohh let me out I have to think of three things at once" is something I'd say! And all the accents as well. Except I have not been lucky enough to have a sit on the lovely P!
 
Lévrier;13720332 said:
That's how you look on Kira :p :D :D
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you can go off a person you know...
I have a hilarious photo of me on Millie at the winter champs taken from slightly above, and she looks like a tiny pony with my legs about 6 feet long. And she's bigger than Kira! :o

Finally waving goodbye to the weekend here, Kira went to a show to do M73 (bleugh) and AM92 in the snow. Made a good effort in the first test, not as through as I'd like but up for it again (yay!) to the point where I will be quite happy to just go and do one test now. In AM92 she denied all knowledge of knowing how to do a trot-canter transition, something she usually does really well... bogged off farting with her ears up my nose so an otherwise nice test was brought crashing back to earth with a 1 for the trans :o

Ho hum, 66% and 65% respectively which was about right.

No photos as I was on my own, but here's K learning about 2 tempis yesterday morning... getting there :) :cool3: Now why can she do that without any aggro but hooks off out of control doing something so simple today :D

[video=youtube_share;37nee7OL1QE]https://youtu.be/37nee7OL1QE[/video]
 
MP those are great scores given the silliness! Well done, you’d have been slighted with that a few months ago ;)

RO, I’ll give him a kiss from you! Still not sure he deserves it after knocking me into a pile of poo :P

Levrier - it’s fab there, you should do it! I’ve reallg enjoyed the lessons with Adam and Matt, and heard great things about Justine too. I’m taking Indio for their test riding weekend in March.

Think I may have found the link to the vids. Here’s our second test: https://tinyurl.com/ya578jsa
 
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