11th - 22nd February - Riding in the snow, Jumping and Disneyland!

Hacking in the snow!

On Saturday morning there was still snow everywhere and it was all getting a bit frustrating. The boys were going out in the field everyday but I was desperate to ride. Guinness has little, fairly flat thoroughbred feet and I noticed when walking him through the snow he didn’t really suffer with snow balling up in his shoes or get ‘snow stilts’. Our yard is only a 10 metres walk down a quiet country lane to direct access into acres of woodland. The woodland was still full of thick snow and so I decided to brave it!!

I tacked Guinness up (including 2 exercise sheets and loads of florescent gear) and walked him in hand down the lane. Once in the woods, the snow was surprisingly deep and not slippery at all. I mounted at the entrance to the woods and Guinness marched on. It was so beautiful I can’t describe it. It was deadly silent apart from the crunching of hooves in the snow. Guinness was completely unfazed by hacking out on the ‘white stuff’ and didn’t put a foot wrong. When we got to the track where we usually trot, Guinness automatically started trotting. I’d been poodling along, holding the buckle of the reins, looking at all the different animal footprints in the snow so could do nothing immediately to stop him. He wasn’t slipping or unsteady at all so we carried on trotting up the track and even did a few strides of canter before walking back towards home. It was brilliant!!!!

Jumping practise

By Sunday much of the snow on the lane had started to melt. Joules (riding Big) and I hired out Waylands indoor school for an hour to do some jumping, and Martina and Dawn came along to help put up the jumps and film.

We began with canter poles and bounces and progressed onto doubles. They have some brightly coloured fillers and a water tray, all of which Guinness took in his stride. It was really fun to jump again and I think Guinness enjoyed it too. After about 40 minutes Guinness was quite tired but I was very pleased with him.

Half Term Trip

In half term week, Dave, Joshua and I had 3 nights away in Disneyland Paris (Joshua’s 8^th birthday present). It was exhausting but I have some great memories to keep, most vividly, Joshua doing his first ‘loop the loop’ on the Aerosmith Rock n’ Roll rollercoaster (and then 3 more times before we came home!!) and meeting ‘Sully’ from Monsters Inc!

Chloe babysits Guinness

Whilst I was away, Chloe was in charge of looking after and exercising Guinness. On the Saturday I had booked a lesson for her with my trainer Sue Edwards. If Chloe is going to start riding Guinness more it’s important we both ask in the same ways and are working on the same principles. Chloe said she was very nervous as it was windy and rainy and she was worried Guinness might be ‘light footed’. Guinness was excellent though and Chloe thoroughly enjoyed it. She realised how tense she rides in her back and her thighs and also how to engage Guinness with her body instead of her legs. She gained a lot of confidence from her lesson and hopefully she will start riding him a little each week. She’s already said she’d like another lesson in 3 weeks when Sue next comes.

Back to work...

When I got back from Disneyland, despite being exhausted, I was eager to ride again. On the Monday evening, I couldn’t wait to finish work so I could see Guinness and he seemed pleased to see me. I gave him a thorough groom before I rode. We stuck to the basics and worked on relaxation and softness over the back. Guinness was a little hesitant to take the contact down and forward at first, but gradually he took the contact more and more and produced some lovely work by the end.

Tuesday I lunged Guinness for 25 minutes, mostly trot and canter work, with walk breaks interspersed. Despite his brief break after his hospital trip and then with the snow, even after a few laps at speed (and a few bucks) he wasn’t even breathing more heavily than normal, so this is an encouraging sign he hasn’t lost much fitness.

Wednesday I woke up several times before my alarm went off at 5.10am (I know- I’m crazy!), as I was excited to have my first ‘early morning’ hack before work of the year. It’s now light enough at 6.45am to fit a 45 minute hack round the woods. Guinness was full of beans and we trotted and cantered through the woods.  I wasn’t alone as the woods was a hive of activity for the local wildlife; a fox trotted across my path, a couple of munkjack deer darted through the thicket next to me and lots of squirrels were busy darting up and down trees all over the place. We really are extremely lucky to have such a wonderful woodland with such excellent bridle paths right on our doorstep!

This weekend I’m going to go to the Hodgemoor Riding Association Dressage competition at Waylands and if this goes well the aim is to finally do our first British Dressage competition at Windmill in March – finger crossed! 

1st - 10th February - Physio, first ride in 20days and then Snow!!

Visit from the Physio

Anna Johnson the equine physiotherapist ( www.annajohnson.co.uk) came to see Guinness on Thursday 2^nd February. Guinness was completely sound (always a relief) and Anna did some stretches to test his manoeuvrability. Using a carrot we encouraged his neck in all different directions. He was slightly stiffer flexing to the left, but only minutely.

I’ve never had Anna before as Guinness has his regular massages from Ros and I know she will always pick up on anything more serious, but Anna was lovely. I must have told her my whole life story before she left and she was very fond of Guinness (even though he made a few ugly faces when she did the ‘slapping’ bit!).She was more than happy for Guinness to come back in to work which was exactly what I wanted to hear!

Guinness and Anna

The weather forecast said the snow was coming on Saturday night so I wasn’t going to take any chances. On Saturday morning after Guinness had eaten his breakfast and I’d mucked out and done all my jobs I got the tack out….

First ride in 3 weeks!

Guinness was so excited, he was prancing up and down in his stable and I struggled to get his boots on as he wouldn’t stand still!  When I lifted the bridle up to put it on, he opened his mouth wide (as if he was saying ‘ahhhhhhh’ in the dentist’s chair!) and couldn’t wait to get out the stable. I was limited to walking for the first few day and I was dubious if I would be ale to keep him in walk! Once I mounted, he marched off down the yard out on to the lane, then saw 2 new red signs just outside the gate and decided to make a run back for home!  Cheeky….. I turned him around and he shuffled sideways past the new scary monsters and we made our way into the woods. Despite the fact he’d not been ridden for 20 days, he was so grown up and well behaved. We marched through the woods on a long rein, and although I could feel the energy beneath me and he was watching the bushes with eagle eyes whenever a bird or squirrel rustled the leaves, he never acted on it. I know I say this often, but I’m so proud of how far we’ve come with our hacking. It took a long time and a lot of patience but I feel he now trusts me as well as respects me and consequently hacking has become a pleasure.

Guinness before the snow came (happy to see his Mummy)

Snow!

As predicted, everything was covered in white the following morning. I rugged Guinness up in the afternoon and took him down to the lunge arena to stretch his legs. I let him loose and we played tag for 10 minutes, first me chasing him then him chasing me. Playing together in the snow was really enjoyable. Guinness spent most of the day tucked up in his stable with lots of haynets and didn’t seem to mind too much.

Widmer in the snow.....so beautiful!

Back to Flatwork

By Tuesday, a track around the edge of the school had been cleared of snow. I was desperate to ride again so Guinness and I did lots of walk and suppling work. We practised our shoulder in, shoulder fore and travers down the long sides. In trot he felt a bit ‘stuffy’ and wasn’t really coming through from behind or working over his back as well as he was before his treatment. He was also evading the contact and twisting his head. It was bitterly freezing and my fingers were numb from the knuckles down, so after 20 minutes we called it an evening.

On Thursday evening we went back in the school. It wasn’t as cold but the snow had started falling again. Again, he felt stuffy and wiggly and I couldn’t keep him straight on the long sides. The slightest touch of my leg sent him sideways and getting the correct bend on the corners was impossible. I could feel I was tensing up and this wasn’t going to help. I realised I was all on my own and it was very peaceful and with the snow starting to fall, I decided to start singing ‘let it snow’. This relaxed me and I let Guinness out on a longer rein (about 1/3 of the way to free walk on a long rein) and just let him march on. He produced a fantastic walk and I just concentrated on keeping my hands really still, sitting quietly, and keeping my legs completely away from his sides whilst asking for the impulsion with my seat. I used the mirrors and followed the track trying to stay as straight as possible. It worked!! Then we did this in trot, all very relaxed on a longish rein. Although he felt like he was really low in front, when I looked in the mirror he was still in a beautiful outline and relaxed in his mouth and in the contact. I concentrated on looking up, keeping an even (if somewhat light) contact in both hands and staying straight both down the long sides and round the corners. In hindsight, lots of lateral work was probably not the best thing to have done on Tuesday as his first venture back into the school after his break and I expect this confused things.

After a walk break, next we worked on our transitions. Guinness was nice and relaxed now and our trot to walk transitions were excellent using only my breathing. Trot-halt –trot and trot-walk-trot all went very well. By the end I had a much more ‘normal’ head carriage and a stronger, consistent contact in both reins whilst still being relaxed. He produced some great trot work as I could really feel him powering through from behind and swinging over his back. I was very pleased.

It reminded me of Sue telling me not to be afraid to take a step back when you need to. If I had pushed on with a stronger contact and tried to push him to go forward more I wouldn’t have got anywhere today, but by taking a step back, allowing Guinness to stretch into a longer contact first and find his rhythm, by the end he was beautifully engaged without ever having to use my leg.

Playtime in the snow!

On Friday morning there was a fresh blanket of snow and Guinness, Big and Remi couldn’t wait to get out and roll in the stuff. 

Remi rolling....

then Guinness had to copy!

I’ll be glad when the snow has finally gone but the boys don’t seem to mind an easy life at the moment!

Lastly, I would just like to say huge congratulations to my friend Ros (www.horseandhand.co.uk) he gave birth to a beautiful little girl on Monday 6^th February. Can’t wait to meet her!

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The Waiting Game - 22nd - 31st January

 The last week has been hard. I’m not used to not being able to ride Guinness and pottering around is not my forte! Still - I’ve taken the winter rugs to the repairers/ cleaners, sorted out my boxes, cleaned my tack and boots (well, not quite yet but I’m going to!), given Guinness lots of grooms….. but I can’t wait to get back on!! God knows how people (like my sister Chloe) who’ horses are off for months and months cope! It’s only been 10 days and we are both going stir-crazy!!

 Guinness enjoying a haynet in his paddock

Guinness too has been feeling the boredom. He was in a little paddock by himself for a few hours a day with a haynet which I had been threading carrots in to daily to add to his entertainment levels, but he was clearly getting bored of his being in his stable. I decided to put him back out with Big and Remi a few days early and Guinness couldn’t wait to hang out with his friends again, rearing up and making it near impossible for Chloe to get his headcollar off!!!  Clearly he doesn’t think he’s got anything wrong with himself!!!

Anna Johnson the Physiotherapist is due on Thursday and Fraser is coming to do Guinness shoes on Monday so all fingers are crossed that we can get on track soon.

Lesson on Remi – pole work

Thankfully Remi has been a pleasure recently. After his time off after our visit to Rossdales, he was a little tense again, but quickly got back into the routine, of bending, relaxing and softening. In my lesson with Sue, we got some poles out and used these as problem solving exercise and also to test Remi’s confidence in me as a rider. At first when we got them out, even though we didn’t go near them I could feel Remi tense through his back and shorten his stride. So I just completely ignored them and carried on exactly the same as before until he forgot about them.

We then circled around them until we were now quite close without any tension. Then came the moment of truth, walking over one! Remi can walk over poles but he is scared, so ‘making him’ doesn’t really achieve anything. Our aim was to get Remi to walk over the poles without fear or tension, so that he not only showed the confidence in me as a rider, that what I was asking was safe, but that also he could judge the situation and decide for himself.

When we walked up to the first pole I let Remi walk as slowly as he wanted and ensured I didn’t touch him with my leg. He stopped a few strides away and hollowed. I encouraged him to lower his head and look at the problem. When he edged forward, I gave him a big rub and told him how brave he was! We got to the edge of the pole and Remi took a few moments, clearly thinking about his current situation and the best way to get out of it, you could almost see the cogs turning in his brain. This is what we were aiming for. He wasn’t panicking or evading (as I wasn’t giving him any aids to evade!) but was thinking. Eventually, I offered a little encouragement and quietly whispered ‘walk on’ at which he took one very large step over the pole. He didn’t break into trot or rush off and after all the praise and rubs he was clearly very proud of himself!!! Next time he walked straight over and I did this again and again and again whilst chatting away to Sue, not really paying much attention to Remi. Whereas previously every time he walked over the pole he gave it plenty of clearance, by the end he was so relaxed that he actually knocked it once.

When we came to a different pole, Remi needed a few moments to assess the ‘new’ situation, but didn’t take as long to walk on and get lots of cuddles. By the end we were walking over difference poles, in different directions, without Remi ever hollowing, tensing or changing his rhythm. I think I can honestly say Remi enjoyed this lesson as much as I did and by the end of it almost looked smug with how well he had done.

Joshua continues to gain confidence in trot

Joshua has also been making great progress in his lessons with Jodie. At the weekend his grandparents came to watch his lesson and were very proud! His hands are still a little wobbly but it's hard trying to multi-task, steering and rising trot at the same time!! He's such a natural and after only 4 lessons, I think he will be showing me up in the not too distant future. 

Taffy and Josh (last summer.. he has proper boots and chaps now!)

Taffy is such a star though, and we are so lucky to have such a wonderful pony in our family. He was my first pony when I was ten years old and took me to the BSJA British novice finals when I was 12. Now my son is learning to ride on him and he will enjoy the rest of his (hopefully many) days to come in as much luxury as we can provide, as he owes us nothing.