last week this week

what's the difference?

this week is darker and less wet, apart from that not a lot to choose....

and tonight i got stuck in the most horrendous traffic jam and had to ring to ask that molly be brought in, then muck out round her once i got there... very tedious.....

burnt fingers

literally.

i was busy putting tea together; stew, which i make in a cast iron pot .... so of course the handles get hot. i forgot to put the oven gloves on to pick it up to put it in the oven. i think i'll regret this by tomorrow ...

in the meantime, it was a gorgeous day. i mowed the lawn, hung some laundry out, vac'd up all the leaves from our maple

and rode Molly round the 20 acre in company. Gaynor on Charlie & young Emily on Katie, walk round the 20 acre. the only problem we had was when we met a horse coming the other way, she thought she ought to follow it back ... but that was because she was so far ahead of the other two (far be it from Molly to walk slowly!) that she'd forgot she was with them and wanted some company.

Mind, she'd been a bit of a pain before we set off, wanting to nap back to the stable - but that soon stopped once she clocked charlie! - and when we got to the end of the 20 acre she set off hom in fast trot, but I did get her settled back to a walk.

So I was pleased with her.

Not so pleased with the grandeur pad still. It doesn't sit square under the saddle and slips backwards .....part of which is probably her asymmetry.

If i hadn't had to spend so much on the d*** car i might have been able to afford a fhoenix by now ....

But i know someone who would like to buy my cheyenne if i get round to selling it.... I still need to sell the treed saddle as well....

and Molly was in and done by 4pm. you can tell it's winter coming when the clocks go back an hour and it's dark by 5 or so. TBF i could have gone down later, but then I'd have missed the chance of company going round the field.

more progress?

partner came to the yard with me today. i thought we'd try an experiment since i wasn't on my own.

partner went ahead of molly (had to walk backwards) with polo in hand. that got us as far as the house, which is further than she'd go that way in hand last weekend.

i was really pleased

but she still wouldn't go down the lane, and then a car came down .... wasn't worth the argument enough to hold everyone up, so went back.

but it was some sort of progress!

and we need a new fridge freezer, ours has acquired a leak

and we had to have the aa out to partners car - killed a tyre, and i don't know if you've ever tried to change a tyre on a new car, especially when it was fitted in the tyre shop .... painfull.

so molly's work was the good bit of the day .... rest of it not so exciting!

wind wind wind

not the week for horsing around really!

wet wet wet

but not the band, the weather. i was pleased i'd decided to rug this morning, first time this season - but annoyed as well. i'd bought the rug last spring but molly hadn't had it on; it leaked. not too badly, but her bum was wet. of course, the receipt is history and even if i still had the receipt i wouldn't be able to prove she hadn't had it on.

and she wasn't actually too happy to be in tonight, oddly enough; she was not a happy bunny at all! hope she settled down and remembered she had a friend in the mirror!

hah!

last night i was so knackered i could barely move. so i thought, weather will be good tonight, partners out, ride tonight.

so i was just approaching the entrajnce to the drive, listening to the weather forecaster telling us that it would be a mostly dry night, when it started raining. by the time i got down the yard, 1 mile, it was raining and it got heavier and didn't stop until just now .. if it has...

so HAH!

and i didn't post last night as there was something wrong with blogger, couldn't get on ...

and better again

Molly was back to letting me get on today, I guess yesterday was an aberration.

I was trying to get her to come forward on to the bit and also try and feel the hind legs coming through with a view to trying to get that left hind through more to build some muscle where there should be some ...

don't know if it was working.

it takes her a while to warm up into everything, ages to start thinking about doing it properly.

and whatever i do i can't seem to sit right.

i think it probably is the saddle ... whilst i like the cheyenne, i don't think it's helping my position as such.
and I WISH i could stop my right knee rising so my foot comes out of the stirrup, it's very annoying. it's partly to do with my crook back

but i shouldn't winge, we're making good progress.

might have made better if anyone had been up for walking round the 20 acre with me, but i'd missed everyone.

after I'd ridden i decided to walk her along through the yard to the house - with the clicker and some treats (wrong ones, it was polos, but hey). she certainly has the idea ..... and we were doing ok but it then got all too distracting what with a sudden rush of cars, and then a steady stream of horses.

at one point she could hear two horses rustling in the leaves that have fallen on the track ... they were only on their way back after a hack - and suddenly decided that was horribly scary! she could hear the noise but not see the horses, so i can understand it.

so i gave up at the finish. I need to pick a time like midday or something when there's no one much around (makes a change from wanting people around all the time!!! LOL)

not quite so good

thought she might have kept up her record of letting me get on - but she didn't. possibly my fault, but i dont' think so ... there was another horse inthe arena (standing still!) with person talking to rider. i don't know. had to get fay to hold her (and then she didnt' get a polo, as she'd already had it!)

and she needs clipping. it was really hot, the sun was out, and i was doing some trot as well as walk .... not quite dripping, but wellk sweaty under the girth and starting to get damp down the neck.

i thought i'd try and get her back through the yard ridden, but not. so i led her through - she didn't want to - and then along towards the big house. she did NOT want to do that. once i got beyond the side of the stables, she didn't want to go further at all. clearly something in her head. circling doesnt' work as she still stops and won't move forward when facing to the lane. very bizarre. she'll come back that way ok if we go round the 20 acre, but not out that way. and i'm not aware of anything ever happening!

i think that might be something for the clicker training! every time she takes a step forward there, click etc. if she doesn't nothing. i imagine she'll soon get the idea.

friday night

and i forgot we're meant to be worming tomorrow.

strongid p double dose.

it had clearly been tipping down at the yard, not long stopped when i got there, and all molly wanted was to be in and be fed. she was being verypathetic at the gate.

she was asleep this morning before i got there..... i'm so pleased with the effect that the stable mirror is having....

i want

one of these - never mind the landrover and trailer, this is mint. and for less than the price of some cars.......

wow.

in the meantime, I was totally knackered tonight - got to the office at 0750, did 10.3 hours chargeable work, didn't leave till about 1730 ....

you can imagine, didn't WANT to do anything with molly tonight.

and she was desperate to be in ..... cantered up to the gate, ran through it (i was lucky not to have a loose horse!!!) .... fed, watered, new shavings in, settled ... left her to it.

and then we had to go back see the builder, as he still hasn't sorted the roof (or at least, the roofer that he thought had come to do it a couple of weeks ago hadn't turned up.....).

still good ..

tonight we found out whether she would still stand still to be mounted when there was another horse in the arena.

answer - yes she would.

had to do the girth up with her moving around, but once i'd done that she was happy to take the polo and stand still

and i was ahead of her in her desire to get out of the gate

but i had to stop before i wanted to - a bit of the fence, which is next to the field, had been loose and katie the pony took the trouble to deliberately knock it down, one rail quite a way into the arena. all it would have taken at that point would be for one of the horses in the field just to step up into the arena. plus there was a risk of nails.

so i got off and put molly away and went back to see what i could do about the fence - not a lot, in the dark....

clicker

i could have done something more than that ....but it was a bit foggy and everyone was going home. so i decided to try to start the clicker training. i think she got the idea!!!!

london

me not the horse. had a case in the court of appeal today - being really posh, i'm blogging this from the train home! decision reserved until whenever sowe'll all be on tenterhooks for that. and i've just had the news that partner managed to do molly's bed very well and molly got to eat some apples from our garden .....

continuing progress ..

Molly still was happy for me to get on wihtout someone holding her head. still needs the polo, but hey, if that's what it takes!

she had one minor glitch. She hadn't been too keen on going left today, and at one point we'd come to a halt by the gate (which was open!!) and out she went - ah, she says, i can go back to the stable and if i have a tantrum i won't have to come back.

wrong.

i didn't get into major fight, we went back to the stable, she decided against the total strop and i turned her round - and she was happy to follow julie (and a carrot!) back to the arena.

so whilst she wasn't totally perfect, still YAY. the lack of total perfection was of course down to me as i hadn't been quick enough to realise she was going to go through the gate ....

my view - i don't want to put her in any more positions where she will have the sort of strop that could put me back on the floor. just don't want to go there. there's more than one way of getting what i want, and eventually if i continue on the 'no you will go back there even if it is slowly' line i'll get further than if i let her strop away and dump me again...

and the computer is running much better tonight; disk clean up and get rid of a trojan ....

YAY

yesterday afternoon, Molly stood whilst I got on, again with no assistance save a polo; then, we went for a walk round the 20 acre and round along the lane. YAY.

my partner was on foot, and apart from a glitch leaving the arena - I think Molly was a bit disconcerted by partner standing where she was - she didn't put a foot wrong (molly, that is.). She didn't even try to nap back to her stable. No hesitation going down the hill, no grief at the gates, not bothered by the pheasants (would have surprised me if she were, can't move for d*** pheasants but at least our horses are pheasant proof !).

For 2/3rds of the way roung the field, she sat behind partner, almost with her nose toughing partner's back; then we passed partners and carried out out of the field and left up the lane and back to the yard.

Molly also wasn't phased by a couple of horses coming the other way the other side of the fence on the lane, or by the bullocks, and her least favourite bit of the track (all heavy tree cover, scary undergrowth and a nasty yellow bucket) didn't bother her either.

YAY.

So I am really really really happy!

Still a ways to go, but I think that the initial problem was, as my teacher thought, terror, probably in case someone fell off again, compounded by her consequential behaviour which had us falling off again. If that makes sense. and compounded by some soft tissue damage.

I think in some ways its better for her to go out with someone on foot that with another horse, in that she doesn't then feel a need to be ahead. But now we've done that, I shall see if gaynor is riding this afternoon and she can come round with me (but we'll stick to walk for now).

Then the next thing will be seeing if I can mount in the yard, rather than the arena.....

as to why this wasn't blogged yesterday - coulndn't get on. We coulnd't go anywhere on the internet to speak of, and when we did get somewhere it was painfully slow.

hopefully, I am now sorting that as we speak. either that or there's something wrong with the phone line that is compounded by too many people online at night .....

good news

from last night.

i've been so frustrated, the internet was so slow for me last night i couldn't post this.

byt anyway, for the first time virtually since i got her (never mind virtually) molly stood at the mounting stool and let me get on with no grief whatsoever; didn't even think about moving away, just stood there. I had of course given her a polo, but had my heart in my mouth in case she moved,but she didn't!

YAY!

wet & late ...

didn't leave the office till nearly 6; the traffic was horrendous when it should have been all cleared; the weather was dire; nearly 645 when i got to the yard - and just for a change molly wasn't at the gate and i only knew which she was when she started walking towards me - that white stripe down her face certainly stands out on a dark night! so i think she was pleased to be in to get dry.

it is amazingly warm in this stable we're in now, it's in a corner, so it's going to be much better that way than the barn was.

and then came home and had to do some work ... read a case, ring a client (client was at work as well.....)

lunge? .....

it's amazing what difference doing something different for a couple of days can make.

we were doing the two rein lunging very nicely last week. today, couldn't get it. this was possibly because it was a bit dark even with the lights on, but i don't really think that's an excuse.

i think i should go back to alternating - one night lunge, one night ride (depending on the weather of course!!!!). we need to practice all of it

and i need to find my seatbones!!!

what a day

first up, texted carole - she hadn't got the message i'd left her yesterday (she'd had a BE ODE at her place ...). anyway, she was going to northallerton for a lesson, so i asked, could she pick us up on the way and we could go to teh physion on the way back, as it wasn't out of her way particularly. So that was agreed. then had to let the physio know, he had to rearrange and ask his 2 o'clock to come at 11, which happily worked.

the farrier was due at 9; i rang at 9:05 and he was wrestling with a flat tyre. i said, if the wagon comes, we gotta go.

he arrived and did molly's front feet whilst i found the splits in his tyre he hadn't been able to see himself.

Carole arrived with the wagon; thought at one point molly wasn't goint to load, but she did, and off we went.

northallerton for carole's lessone with a trainer from down south; i didn't see any of it, walked molly around northallerton ec (rather nice! she was particularly taken with the showjumping arena!). I wished i'd thought on and chucked my saddle etc in the wagon, could have ridden.

then off to darlington via a diesel stop, and that was a nightmare - missed the sign saying wagons this way, got bollocked by the owner or whatever he was, pah.

then to the physio. found the road ok. couldn't find the place. had to ring up = we'd passed it. the council refuse to allow him to have a sign that people can actually see with his house name on it.

anyway, foudn it eventually, Molly's poll isn't out (or if it had been, it had been sorted out by time/the work i'd been doing) but she's asymmetrical behind. left hip lower than right, probably as a result of the accident in the wagon when she was t3 1/2. glad carole was there, as I didn't know the ins and outs of what had happened and carole did. He treated that, but it can only be temporary. the normal solution is with shoeing, but she's barefoot; so i have to discuss with my farrier how to best trim to get the evenness required. typical, this after the farrier has been.... left side need to be up a bit, right side needs to be down a bit, and if farrier wants to ring physio he should feel free...

and then molly loaded straight on with no hassle at all, which was pleasing; she'd had a bit of a not wanting to leaving northallerton, but by this time she was fine.

and so home. molly in the field for a bit = i'll go back down later - and i got back the house at 16:10. at whcih point i could finally have breakfast!

Carole had had bits of food in the wagon - home made cakes and scones left over from the event - so they'd gone down well. She hadn't had breakfast either...

In the meantime, i've decided i really can't find my seatbones on the cheyenne. is that the saddle or me? carole said that's why she doesn't like that particular saddle, it's the saddle.

farrier was interested to know that molly's front asymmetry is identical to her mothers; and would like photos of both molly's feet and her ma's; when i said that there's another in line, young cleo, his eyes lit up .... he's into this type of research and the thought of seeing three in line, all pretty much of the same stamp, kindles his interest.

Carole was pleased to hear molly's taking to two rein lunging; i think i've said before, she doesn't like to teach it as she's seen too many nasty accidents with the horse panicking at the reins round it's hocks, so we've agreeda lot of that over the winter would be beneficial.

I have to keep Molly's neck suppled to loosen off the tightness inthe muscles by using the polo trick - she has to follow the polo right round .... then gets it when she's done. i've to do that every day.

and when i'm riding, especially on left rein, really make sure her left leg comes through. and the usual of course when hacking, keep changing the diagonal. which is easy to forget.

shredded paper

is scary as a bed. clearly molly thought so. of course, it is bright white, so stands out, so made the bed look really bright. she thought about backing out, so i went and walked all over the bed, and she came in, but turned round to her hay net without standing on the bed. I ended up trying to mix it all up (there was some shavings still underneath) but I've a feeling this isn't going to work.

so the riding today wasn't very successful either, i think because she hadn't been for a wee...

and i still can't get any transport sorted for tomorrow. keep trying, but i've a horrid feeling this is all going seriously pear shaped.

mirrors & let down

are working. Molly is really chilled. Someone was there before me this morning, and Molly had been really quiet. So that is a major success, well worth the £35!!!

but the transport plans for going to the physio tomorrow have gone seriously pear shaped, so i have to try and organise something else between now and teatime .... otherwise it'll all be off. bugger. Partner said, hire a landrover; the place that rents them out is of course shut on sundays ...

and rode

i didn't think i was going to ride today after all - partner was ill this morning (the joys of work leaving do, starts new job monday! so you can imagine) and then we had loads of stuff to do. But, when I did get back down to the yard at about 1730 there were still people about, gaynor was going to ride, so decided I would. At least it had been dry, so I only had to get a bit of mud off .... and Molly went really nicely. Gaynor had Charlie cantering around and Molly woke up a bit but wasn't being stupid, so I decided to do a load of trot work myself. that helped gaynor as well - she tucked in behind me which had the advantage of slowing charlie down! and we did loads of circles turns etc ...

I was very pleased.

But still not happy with the grandeur pad under the cheyenne. granted this replacement is a lot better than the original in that it is, at least, symmetrical - but it slips backwards under the saddle as we ride, in anything faster than walk. not helpful.

and the other good thing - it was dry and windy everywhere except the yard (where it wasn't windy) so I got a load of laundry done as well....

survived ..

her night in.

she didn't seem as though she'd been at all stressed last night, the place wasn't trashed; not that there's not as much to be trashed with rubber matting down! but she could have made a complete mess anyway with the shavings that are down, and didn't. so i would reckon that the stable mirror is going to turn out to have been a really good idea that i wish i'd heard of before.

and it's a lot quicker to muck out.

just turned her out (i was first there, no one else about!) and will go back later to ride or whatever...

she won, she's in

ok, she's in for the night. she was waiting for me, didn't have to go get her, gaynor said when she was there at 4 yesterday molly was screaming to be in. so this is the night we find out whether the mirror does it's biz!

i really didn't want her in so soon, but hey, listen to your horse!!!

and she was wet again , so no point trying to do anything, would have taken too long for her to dry.

can i come in mum?

molly is desperate to be in. standing at the gate waiting for me every night now, the others aren't bothered at all. my only concern (apart from teh fact that i think she's wimping out) is that she might regret it once she realises she's on her own. on the other hand, it'll be a good test of the mirror. if she's still chilled in the morning, it'll have shown itself to have been a good investment! to get her back out tonight, i had to take the hay net in front of her. otherwise, she'd planted herself and wasn't going anywhere. once she got back to the field she wandered off .... and there was me thinking i could leave her out for ages yet! hah!

she was too wet for me to do anything with her (wet mud, not good ....) but no point rugging her as she'll over heat. if its warm enough for flies, it's too warm to put a rug on her, and we were overrun with little midges tonight.

so i think we'll try her in tomorrow night and see what happens ...

dark

very dark..... mind, i was late out of the office and then go stuck in traffic, but we had to have the lights on when we started, never mind when we finished!

and i was so late that molly was shouting for me (she hears my voice, i think ...)

but we tried some two rein lunging, did quite nicely. we set her off on her bad rein, and she went nicely, then on left rein she was looking for the contact which was good.

didn't do huge amounts. someone else wanted to be in, but what we did was ok.

oh but she does want to be in! she's going soft; none of the others seem that bothered, don't know why molly is!

and edited to add - had the reins through the correct holes...

more lunging

tonight i managed to get her going right rein myself, I was very pleased with me (and with her as well of course, but particularly with me!). This was with two reins. We had a bit of a twist round three times when i went to set her away to the right, and had to untangle everything, but she did it, so i was very pleased. i'd set the reins through the wrong hole on the roller, but not to worry, will get it right tomorrow. and she was on the bit! some of the time which was even more pleased.

tomorrow will try and get the reins through the correct hole and see how we get on.

now all i need is for the tanning place to stay open until they say they do (i'm getting rid of my psoriasis, the tan is just a by product of that, honest!). the man goes home early monday and tuesday and then gets earache from his wife and me. i woudln't have minded so much but yesterday he specifically confirmed to me that he would be there tonight (or i'd have had 6 minutes yesterday instead of my usual 3).

never mind, it is working! for the first time in years I am not spending my days itching and scratching and my elbows are smooth for the first time in 20 years! yay!

rain...

there's a surprise. I should have gone to the yard this morning, it was relatively dry, but ive got into the habit of going in the afternoon. I did a load of work work this morning, then had to go up and see about Queen bee... who apparently is looking young but moving old. well, though, which is good. the person where she is was at work work today (usually is on a weekend, think it works well for her to have her days off through the week...) so it's not often i get to actually see queenie. she's sharing a field with a dance in the dark yearling filly, who thinks she's no fun!

Molly's baby is now backed and ridden away - no problems at all, which puts the kibosh on any notions that Molly might have inherited some problem -her mother is a sweetie, she is too and so is young cleo. another chip off the maternal block.

but by the time i'd done all that it was teeming down. I wasn't surprised, but it did mean i couldn't reinforce what we did yesterday.

isna't that always the way though ...