Weekend plans

Well Salts and I survived her first indoor experience... actually I think she's going to be a good indoor horse - not as much to gawp at when you're confined between 4 walls :o She was a little bit snorty on arrival but when I got on, she was straight to business which was ace because we've had some nappy days at home this week. Relaxed and happy today, even managed to do her work independently of her little buddy who came along too.

Planted the seeds for her to think about doing a big trot - at the moment she doesn't believe that exists - did a little easy counter canter and some more grown up leg yield :) just have to get tougher on the canter transitions now :o

Starting to like this view quite a lot

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Oh fab MP that sounds positive.

iKMV that sounds just like my lessons. Amazing what you can do with someone yelling at you in the middle of the ring!
 
Having such a bad year so far. Got snowed out of one clinic then tb got the maximum time off for a very small cut. Finally back in work and had a xc clinic booked for sunday but it's very much on standby at the moment with the weather forecast.
 
Good luck to all those competing (especially you SOS, I hope things aren't too frozen on Sunday...the forecast isn't too promising)!
Embo - sorry to read you're off games, fingers crossed you can get back on board soon (even bareback!).
MP - Salty looks to be coming along well!

I'm taking Pocholo xc schooling at Tweseldown tomorrow. They've pushed us back from 9 to 10 and hopefully the ground is ok by then, I hacked on the downs this morning at 10.30 and the frost had gone so I reckon it should be ok. I haven't done any xc in well over 6 months so it should be fun!

Sunday I have to trek to the far side of Kent for my brother's surprise birthday bash. It will be great to see him and all his old friends but I'm not looking forward to the M25 on a Sunday evening..!
 
We may be hacking tomo! It's a big deal for us - hadn't hacked out since pre KS surgery, which was June 2015...! Horses are now in livery as I'm between equestrian properties (the house I sold was on a busy road, which precluded hacking unless I was bored of being alive), and I ventured out for the first time in a looooooong while last w'end. He is an ex-racer and is strongly averse to doing anything by himself, so we had the camel walk, got stuck in reverse a few times, had a half-hearted rear, etc etc. But in the end a good time was had by all, and the adventure included crossing a scarey bridge over the scarey A14, and we're hoping to repeat the exercise. Maybe without the reversing and rearing, although I doubt if we'll avoid the camel walk. We just have to scuttle 100m down a quiet road to get to endless offroad hacking.
 
I can join in for the first time in a long time as my rising 5yr old is going to her first clinic. If we focus for longer than 3 seconds I will count it as a victory. Hopefully we can become regulars on here as Spring arrives and life becomes a bit easier to fit in riding a baby horse with enough consistancy ti risk going to parties!
 
I am taking my horse to his first ever combined training. Only very small but hoping he will be chilled for the event.
 
DabDab said:
I'm very impressed at you showing at this time of year - good luck
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Thank you! Having spent about another 2 hours tail washing and raking and trying unsuccessfully to get a decidedly orange face back to some kind of whiteness, I can't decide whether I am brave or foolish for even considering showing a grey horse in February. :lol:
 
We had a good lesson today. As is her way, Cassie likes to find new spanners to throw in the works and today's was a head tilt, but that got nipped in the bud fairly quickly. We worked on some counter canter, riding 5 m loops on the long side. The anticipation in the trot to canter transitions is getting far easier to manage, and she will wait for me to give the aid before popping into canter. She's also getting much better about coming back to concentration after a break/stretch in the middle of sessions. All the good work in the lesson meant she redeemed herself after having an impatient tantrum in the lorry when we arrived. She hasn't had to stand on the lorry for tacking up etc. for a couple of months and let me know how annoyed she was about having to do it today. I think I will spend the rest of the weekend praying that the anticipated snow does a U turn and heads back to where it's coming from! Have a good time all those who are out and about - and keep warm!! Token photo of her looking like butter wouldn't melt. :) xx

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Cassie is just gorgeous nikicb :) :)

Weather permitting, I am wondering about an eventer challenge at a local venue on Sunday - what do you reckon HHOers, yay or nay? :)
 
Lévrier;13730657 said:
Cassie is just gorgeous nikicb :) :)

Weather permitting, I am wondering about an eventer challenge at a local venue on Sunday - what do you reckon HHOers, yay or nay? :)
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go for it!
 
Lévrier;13730657 said:
Cassie is just gorgeous nikicb :) :)

Weather permitting, I am wondering about an eventer challenge at a local venue on Sunday - what do you reckon HHOers, yay or nay? :)
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Thank you! I'm inclined to agree with you, and she definitely would - never had a horse so keen on posing!! Definitely head out on Sunday if the weather permits!! Jensen is looking amazing at the moment. :) xx
 
Hope everyone has had a good Saturday!

We went to our show. How do I put this politely? I don't think showing is going to be something I'm going to get into! :lol: But we went and had a go and the object of the exercise was to get her out for a longer trailer trip, and Do Something at the other end... rather than a solo hack, which is what we have been doing. Now feel much more confident to take her somewhere and Do Something that involves riding with other horses. She was a very good horse, other than whinnying the place down for about 20 minutes after arriving. :lol: She's never been in an indoor school before so that was something new and she even whinnied at her own reflection such was her desire to be massively over-friendly to the entire world. Then halfway through the class she got hold of the knot in the string holding my number on and pulled it off. :lol: Cue me giggling and trying to tie it back on with my gloves on (couldn't get them off) and Other People giving us "looks".

We came 3rd out of 4. Would have been 4th probably but one of the baby horses wouldn't trot. Also I forgot to put the hairnet I bought yesterday on. Got no comments from the judge so no idea what she thought, so whatever.

Horse settled and ate her haynet while me and hubby had a bacon butty and a coffee, what more can you ask for?

Here she is in all her yellow and fluffy glory.

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Sub-artic evening dressage last night, a sneaky win in the Elem but very small class :p But we did survive it! It was a last min (sub 24 hour notice) wait list entry so 0 prep so can't be too disappointed that the 10m moves proved tight!

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Hoping to organise helpers to get my pair in tomorrow for the first time... we shall see!
 
Mixed day for us - timed it perfectly and arrived with approx ten left to go in the class before mine.

No issues with the fences looking big this time but Beau felt a little too bouncy for my liking once I was onboard. Quick curb adjustment and I no longer felt like I was about to be launched into space every time someone came near us. Almost had someone run into us despite having a big ‘back off’ red ribbon in beau’s tail but luckily it didn’t upset him and I managed to get some decent work from him instead of the get-in-get-out approach I usually favour. ;)

He jumped a lovely round in the 90 although I switched off a little coming into the one-stride double and then had to ride to get out the other side. Finished double clear but just out of the placings in 7th.

The 95 didn’t go so well. Came into number two a little quiet and he stopped instead of helping me out - I do think he could have taken off but think he was feeling a little tired, hence the stop. He popped it fine the second time so I pulled up instead of continuing. Have two jumping lessons booked with my new RC tomorrow so will take him into one of them to make sure the stopping isn’t an ongoing thing.

Video of the 90 as my pics aren’t wanting to play ball and load:
[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zhTFzniWzqU[/video]
 
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Well done PF, rara & everyone above :D

PF I totally understand where you're coming from, I am not terribly sad to not be doing any more showing with Millie I must say :D I'm teetering on the edge of selling my tweed and deciding I'm def not doing any with Kira :p

Kira was fab at our arena hire today, we did some boring basics work which I was supposed to be concentrating on and then had some fun practicing her advanced stuff :D So much for regionals preparation... I have 56 entries in my class next week so I think we're very much just making up the numbers. Anyway, made the most of the space and mirrors to do some tempis: 4s, 3s and 2s all correct :thumbup: straighter and waiting. Hurrah! And then some piris, weirdly today the left was better than the right so we did a 360 turn to the right instead of a 180 to illustrate the point of the exercise :p Finished with the half pass/change/half pass/change from the PSG test which needs a little fine tuning but won't be a problem :) :)

Cute face to brighten the post up

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I didn't have big plans this weekend, but what plans I had were scuppered by my horses. Little cob, who has been steadily increasing his work and is finally feeling like his normal self (arthritic hocks medicated, foot imbalance problems, followed by horrible abscess), came in lame. Assuming another abscess, or the same one back for round 2. Poulticed and staying in tonight, so no lesson with him.

Big cob was thought to have pulled a bum muscle 2 weeks ago, meaning we missed winter regionals at Myerscough. It turned out he had actually pulled his back, and done a good job it. He has been reset by the awesome chiropractor, been seen by the vet but is making slowed progress than hoped. So not back on board yet and today cancelled our entry at Summerhouse Winter Regionals. Hey Ho!

But the number 1 benefit of stabling at a wonderful riding school is the fall back options. I had a fabulous lesson on a lovely ID so today wasn't a total waste. Tomorrow I'm riding another school horse and then walking big cob in hand, dressing little cob's foot and trying not to regret owning horses!
 
blood_magik said:
Mixed day for us - timed it perfectly and arrived with approx ten left to go in the class before mine.

No issues with the fences looking big this time but Beau felt a little too bouncy for my liking once I was onboard. Quick curb adjustment and I no longer felt like I was about to be launched into space every time someone came near us. Almost had someone run into us despite having a big ‘back off’ red ribbon in beau’s tail but luckily it didn’t upset him and I managed to get some decent work from him instead of the get-in-get-out approach I usually favour. ;)

He jumped a lovely round in the 90 although I switched off a little coming into the one-stride double and then had to ride to get out the other side. Finished double clear but just out of the placings in 7th.

The 95 didn’t go so well. Came into number two a little quiet and he stopped instead of helping me out - I do think he could have taken off but think he was feeling a little tired, hence the stop. He popped it fine the second time so I pulled up instead of continuing. Have two jumping lessons booked with my new RC tomorrow so will take him into one of them to make sure the stopping isn’t an ongoing thing.

Video of the 90 as my pics aren’t wanting to play ball and load:
[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zhTFzniWzqU[/video]
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looked a nice round
 
VRIN said:
I am taking my horse to his first ever combined training. Only very small but hoping he will be chilled for the event.
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VRIN - you wouldn't be in the south would you?

I am off to combined training tomorrow. hoping for another good outing but have done no dressage practice, and have had a bit of a crisis of confidence with my jumping recently so we shall see
 
Well done PF, rara and BM for getting out and about. I usually come dog last in all showing attempts PF, so I think 3rd is a serious result, and that's before the bacon sandwich!

Dabs and I managed 6.7 miles in 1 hour 8 minutes this morning, which I was really pleased with as I thought he would've lost far more fitness than that :) After a slightly sticky first 3/4 mile he felt very good too, including a few unplanned canters up the road as his trot just boiled over slightly :o

Token pic as the weather was so nice - over the hills and far away:
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Oh Weekend Plans readers I must confess..... it is a beautiful sunny day, but I have decided not to go to the eventer challenge because I cannot bear to stand around for hours in the cold. Or give him a bath in the cold, even though we have a hot water horse shower. I am ashamed.....that is all.....
 
It is pretty cold Lev, you are forgiven lol

Took M to his first dressage today, intro A - super pleased with his behaviour and attitude, warmed up sweetly and then got a little tense in the test but came away with 70.something % from a pretty tough judge and 1st place. Very proud of my wee man and there is so much more to come from him.
 
Well done Wheels - I'm looking forward to your jumping reports with him :D also, I love the shape of the white on his head, it's quite distinctive

I suppose you can be forgiven this once Lev. Though next time a consolation picture will be required :p
 
Blixen Vixen said:
What a fab result Wheels, you must be thrilled with him. And you both look super smart. Well done!
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I am really thrilled with him. By the end of the test he had relaxed a lot so a few more times in the white boards and he will start of less tense. Our next test is in a month at a different venue so looking forward to that.
 
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