metronomic canter

on the lunge, yet! very impressed with that i was, as it's a pace i've always had trouble getting her to do on the lunge at all, AND it was good both reins!

So, shows she's becoming much more balanced, as she was quite happy to just continue on in canter, which she hasn't been keen on before at all... i'm doing something right somewhere! shame it's taken me so long, LOL...

this wasn't the original plan, of course, but we couldn't ride out as Gaynor had no child care as her OH had gone to band practice that we hadn't known about, so youngster sat in buggy and watched us work horses, and then came with us when we turned them out - how to despook your horse to a buggy!

particularly impressed when said buggy lost its balance in a rut - charlie didn't spook, and infant didn't protest at all, and molly (we were ahead) didn't notice.

so we were all done by noon

and i've just overcooked the baguette i was going to have for lunch as i was so engrossed in book i was finished i didn't notice the timer go off.... this is the woman who can sleep through house alarm going off, LOL

and it's a lovely day, after the naff weather yesterday...

rain and wind stops play

but what do we expect, it's a bank holiday weekend!

got some work done, and at least the wind was a drying wind once it stopped raining...

a really good day!

And we missed the rain hurray - saw your post, mary lou, you were very nearly right!

First up, got some washign on the line (it's still there, soaked...)

then got horses in

then went in to durham with Gaynor and her mother - went our separate ways and on my way round spotted a good deal on a smart phone - 5 hours talk time, unlimited web, texts and emails for £15 pcm.

Then back to stables and we went for a hack, gaynor and I.

had a really good ride - set off up the road, trotted them up the hill; then turn right and along to the harbour house drive; through a couple of gates and down a field hill; through another gate to the back drive that goes to the ford; round the 20 acre (remember the joys i've had NOT riding round there on my own? then instead of going back up the hill to harbour house and up to the park, we carried on along the river, through the bluebell wood - and so to the horse's field. let them off there, filled up the water buckets and then of course had to carry our tack back. that was a bit of a struggle, and i dropped my girth and had to go back for it....

then in to gaynor's for a well earned cuppa; she and her mother had had a burger whilst i was wrestling with trying to get through to the people i had my current phone from ... i was still unfed, but copoing..;

anyway, it started raining AFTER we got in the house, hurray!

then 40 minutes on hold to get through to the hpone people to cancel my mobile bundle with them and get the code to port my number to the new phone, then back into durham to get new phone (currently on charge downstairs)

THEN to shops...finally back to village about 6 pm, and decided to get a pizza from the takeaway as i was by then totally starving and couldn't be bothered to start cooking...

have just come upstairs to discover some feathers and dead bird remains on the landing, looks like nessie kitten has now fully grown up, that'll be fun!

and i need to find out how to synchronise phone with pc for contacts etc, as new phone does not appear to have software in the box!

so, we both thoroughly enjoyed our day, first day gaynor has had to herself totally for ages!

plan for tomorrow, get them in a.m, leave them whilst gaynor watches the grand prix and i do something else, then hopefully (weather permitting) ride later.

bedded up

ready to bring them in in the morning, small haynet ready soaked (not that she'll want to eat much!) plan then is to go to durham and then ride or something in the afternoon, fingers crossed....

then i came home and strimmed neighbour's lawn as promised

3200 and odd steps...

to the field and back again! Gaynor had a pedometer and had me put it on .. so that was the total!

plan for the weekend is bring them in saturday morning, do something saturday afternoon, keep them in, do something sunday morning then turn out again..

hope nothing gets in the way!

poooo

it rained. heavily, for most of the afternoon.

lightened up a bit by evening, but we felt sure it was going to rain again, the clouds were certainly heavy enough. so turned out without doing anything, soaking not being part of the plan.

and guess what?

that's it, it didn't rain again (but is going to at some point...heavy black clouds looking seriously threatening).

so fish and chip supper, and then the joys of scanning a huge amount of paperwork into computer.

phone still not sorted, dammit.

well i did say tonight we might work

and i did, with molly, but we had to get them in mid-afternoon; and we're keeping them in until tomorrow night so we can do something tomorrow as well

i lunged .. she worked well on left rein, i could really see her rounding; not quite so well on right but then she never did like that rein!

will ride tomorrow

the bad news - i recently changed phone/broadband provider, and of course set up a direct debit.

guess what?

that's right, they didn't put the dratted DD through, so i had to do it on the phone this morning, and pay the bill that had mounted up in consequence! pah!

thank goodness for mobile phone and mobile broadband, now plugged in to pc! but i did my neck in, due to the place i have to have the mobile phone and still have a signal!

rescuing lambs

there well not me personally - but it was me that became aware that there was a lamb in the river (or at least, so far down the bank that it was not going to get up again, and it couldn't be seen!) Walking along to molly's field to check her over, noticed a sheep with a very small lamb bawling it's head off; response from below bank, it seemed ... odd... as i roounded the bend i looked back and couldn't see anything; thought i may have been hearing things. anyway, Molly and charlie both ok, fed molly (outside the gate, LOL) got some more water, went back. sheep still there. still bawling. lamb still responding. went to place where you can walk down to a beach and looked back (nearly back to stables at this point) but still couldn't see anything. but by this time i was convinced there WAS a lamb in the river. sheep ran towards edge, still bawling. so rang YM. she later rang me, to say i was right. new born lamb had fallen down, had been in river, was on very narrow ledge, duly rescued, happy sheep.

so that was my good deed for the day.

couldn't get molly in as gaynor's OH out at work till who knows what time...hopefully, tomorrow!

came home and set hose to putting more water in pond. Nessie brave and came out to that side of the house, she has been very dubious about that in the past, as a result:

bathed and bitted

it was a really hot day .. we got them in before lunch - the plan was to ride in the afternoon, but gaynor's OH had accepted an invitation for them to go out... doh.

so i went home and mowed lawns and had lunch...

then went back, gave her a bath, dried her off in the sun, tacked up and went over to the arena

only took 2 goes to get the bit in her mouth!

once i got on and had warmed up and adjusted the stirrup (she woudn't stand for that one, had to get someone to hold her head!)i only worked on getting her to accept it, and to remind myself how to anticipate when she wasn't going to (you can tell, but it's subtle of course and i often don't anticipate properly!)

eventually got one circuit right rein nicely, left rein wasn't so good

a very delicate balance between contact and not contact ....

then i came home and set the tea cooking, washed the car, watered the allotment and finally ate tea about 9.15 ....have left hose refilling pond, which is evaporating..

gorgeous day for a wedding

which is where i've been.

the wedding was at St Philip's John Dalton Memorial Church just outside Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth.

the reception was at Loweswater Village Hall - excellent buffet, and fantastic views...

and came back over whinlatter (didn't intend to, particularly, set satnav for fastest route and that was the way it took me - a gated road!) and then fast roads after that, home by 10! nessie please to see me!

slight change of weekend plan...

i did manage to ride tonight - lunged first, then rode, about 35 minutes altogether... better on lunge than ridden, usual difficulty getting lightness in the bitless....

the plan to keep them in over the weekend was abandoned, though; firstly because they were desperate to be out again, secondly because I'm going to a wedding tomorrow in cumbria; so we turned them out, and will get them in early Sunday morning and do something Sunday afternoon. hopefully with no problems as gaynor's mother has the kids...

i handed my month's notice in; was offered something else on the estate, but decided to stick with the plan i made last night. new yard has excellent arena, and i already know someone on it (she highly recommends it). YM has said something will be sorted out for Charlie so he won't be left on his own...

in for the weekend...

gaynor rang this afternoon and suggested we bring them in and keep them in until sunday, so we can in fact do something Friday and Sunday (I'm going to a wedding saturday, and nessie has to go back to the vets as well). i thought, that's a plan, so thats what we did.

when we got them in, they really didn't want to move, and were far to tired and full to be asked to do anything. it is VERY hot in that field. and they had hardly touched the water ... i suppose it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that they'd been down to the river itself, but most unlikely...and molly had a good drink when she came in

so they both got really good grooms, washed between the legs and under the belly which they both were pleased with, and left with hay which they probably won't eat. my best guess they'll do a lot of sleeping, LOL

how to catch your horse in a massive field

when you can't see her...

call, then wander off to fill water buckets from the river....

time i got back up with the first one, they were both nearly there, perfect!

but not, sadly, to be brought in and ridden.....

boo hoo.....

both got 1 1/2 apples each, fly sprayed and checked over, did another water bucket...

hopefully, tomorrow.....

neither g nor i happy.....really....

different horse?

well, we didn't fully test it.

Gaynor went down when she got home from work to check Charlie, and had no trouble catching him and no grief from Molly - although she did send Molly away once!

I went down later to check molly (it was nessie's day for the "op" andhad to collect her for 6 pm, so not planning any work with Molly).

Took me a good while to catch her, eventually caught charlie and led him down to the gate and molly followed at a small distance.

not totally sure she wanted to be caught, moved away when i went to her; i got a handful of grass and that did it.

hurray. but i wonder if she was being particularly cautious after the several tellings off she got yesterday when misbehaving? not that i have any issue with her being told off, she deserved it (gaynor still has marks on her arm!)...

i needed her on the other side of the gate for a small amount of feed with her supplements in, and to apply fly spray!

as she put her head down to eat, they were both spooked by the fly fisherman on the beach - i ended up feeding her handfuls from my hand!

i had been going to top up the water, but i could see they had enough and had run out of time, bearing in mind i had to get back to stable, put cycle away etc and then get to houghton for nessie!

if she carries on like she did today

i will have to move molly.

Gaynor went out lunchtime ish to get them both in - she had the day off, so the plan was she would work charlie in the afternoon, then i could do something with molly in ther evening after work...

molly firstly circled round charlie and wouldn't let gaynor near him.

then when she did get him, molly started kicking at her (or at charlie, or both, not wholly sure about that!)

then eventually near the gate she got head collar on molly - who then bit her!

then on the track back along molly was behaving like a right ...cow, to be blunt! fortunately charlie was behaving! had to stand 5 minutes whilst molly pratted about!

kept trying to kick gaynor whilst being walked along

then bucked and messed about in the stable (till she twigged there was some feed...)

butter wouldn't melt, tonight, of course...

anyway, we think there's two causes for this

1. molly being possessive
2. they have no other company in a very big field.

anyone think of any other cause?

Formula 1

motor racing, that is in which i have absolutely no interest whatsoever.

Had i known it was on this afternoon, i would have suggested to Gaynor we get the horses in before it started...

as it was, i didn't know; and since if one comes in they both have to (it's too far away to leave one, and they neither do well on their own! so not safe!) she didn't have time before having to sort out children's tea...

so i shall have to start keeping an eye on that timetable!

Partner has gone to St Kilda - did I mention that before? gone to scotland to her friend's today, ferry to Lewis Tuesday evening, sails away Wednesday morning, hoping the weather's good!

feel the burn...

in the legs with all this exercise!

we got them in lunchtime ish to stand for the afternoon ... cycled along, gaynor rode back with the benefit of my bareback pad, i just walked!

i rode inthe field this afternoon, that was a bit of a pain as the shimming slipped too much so i got off to sort it out, then when doing the girth back up put the strap through the wrong bit of buckle ... couldn't sort that out had to go back in and take it all off..

so rode her back along to the field, then walked back pushing the bike which had the saddle balanced on it.

rode bitless.... easier than the argument about the bit

maybe she's gone off this particular bit? Myler hanging cheek. i could go back to the myler combi for a while, i suppose, see if she's happier with that in? if she'll take it.

it wasn't, by the way, anything to do with her teeth! it's her head...

we will get fit

cycle to field. walk back with horse. exercise horse. walk horse back to field. cycle back to stables & car.

the horses will get lots of grass and i hope we don't end up needing to buy muzzles

could happily take another 4 horses, i would reckon..

pictures of the field and the river running next to it.

showers.....

of course....but not enough to stop me doing some ground work in the field...

we've been told by YM she wants us to move fields asap (told today...) so she's checking whether in fact the work has been done so that we can! it needed rolling, and some junk cleared up from the "beach" where they will go down to drink from the river...

that'll get us fit, walking along there! horses will end up with grass belly, will have to keep a close eye in case we then need to buy muzzles! and i'll have to keep an eye on molly's feet/lameness as it's half on a hill...

the in season mare again...

is not worth riding.

on the other hand i got some wonderful lateral, felt great! ... shame i hadn't asked for it! and I did get the bit into her mouth!

but really, a waste of time.

a heck of a day..

at 10.30 last night we realised that partner's car was booked in for service today ....20 miles away (where she bought it, and its under warranty still...)

an hour or so later, gaynor's oh out walking the dogs went round by the stables and realised they were both really cold so rugged them (very brave of him as his foot has not yet recovered from molly standing on it!) and we're all grateful for that, for a non horsey chap he's a good lad...

so crack of dawn up to get car sorted, then back to drop me off and leave me carless.

you will recall that the equine tooth person was due tonight to do molly's teeth...

before that, my accountant came by appointment - turned out his office hadn't pointed him to the packet of docs i'd sent, so a lot of what he wanted, he had ...we were both relieved when he rang them and they said they did have them! doh.....

got bus to go to local town to collect my DX (a form of private post) expecting to get something of interest (like a cheque!...) .. all there was there was some marketing bumph! so total waste of bus fare and time!

did some work (eventually!) then got cycle out to cycle down to stables, through closed road (lovely and peaceful, it's normally busy as a rat run to avoid a trail through durham city!), we took horses out for some grass on gaynor's lawn...

then i mucked out and got rid of the mud on her coat whilst waiting for tooth person....

int he meantime, any plan for partner to return car was going pear shaped... we ended up with her picking me up from stables and then going to consett, via macdonalds.....she set off for her singing group and i came home via tesco's....

and then her singing was cancelled! doh.

nippy and cold....

the north wind should not be blowing in mid may, dammit!

Molly's teeth have been deferred to tomorrow, dental technician texted to change the appointment...

road to yard will be closed for roadworks until, apparently 16.30 tomorrow and the next day .. that'll be interesting! gaynor's doing morning turnout and i'll go down later, both days...

lovely canter

on the lunge in the field, i was pleased with it...

and her trot was pretty good too!

i'm feeling a bit better... still a bit painful but the medicine is encouraging appropriate activity

no prescription required

for the medicine i knew i needed (that gp has prescribed twice previously for issue i currently have) so i was pleased about that - a shade pricier than it would have been on prescription (for american readers, if you get a drug on prescription then you only pay the standard prescription charge even if the full price is a huge amount more) but not by a huge amount.. and hopefully, when it starts working, well worth the extra!

so only brought molly in and got the mud off, as i hadn't done that yesterday...

apparently she was very unhappy left alone in the field whilst charlie was ridden, and charlie wasn't very impressed either!

poorly me...

the human version of colic...

decided to come home....

but just as i was about to leave, the hay delivery we were expecting tomorrow morning arrived...

just as well he trusts us! we hadn't got our cheque books with us, of course! drop money off tomorrow

we needed the rain

but shame it couldn't have been warmer!

kept the horses in, as it was raining pretty hard and we also want to give the grass a chance... so they went out at about 4.15 this afternoon when it finally stopped ... so no way they wanted to be in at 5.30! so molly had another night off...

anyway, if i had got her in, it would have taken forever to get the mud off her!

rein back bitless

granted only a step, but still ... didn't seriously expect to get it and was stunned when i did!

You'll gather that i rode. Took her over to the arena and she was very calm, no grief about mounting

took a good while to settle though and didn't get sensible trot for about 1/2 hour (attempts interspersed with a lot of walk circles and serpentines) .. partly me, getting used to the bitless again, partly her, not sure which

but eventually got some really nice trot, not heavy which she often is...

overall pleased

Charlie wasn't, as usual could hear him shouting!

and Jean .. our back lane is a dead end, nothing comes past... but whichever way a cat goes out, it's not too far to a road so they take their chances...not like yours though

clever nessie...

has worked out how to go round the outside - and bravely went out the lane side today, instead of the garden side, first time she's done that!

Molly? well yet again, nothing done; we could have sworn it was about to teem down ...

it still hasn't, but it's cooooooold (well, it isn't really, but feels it after the last few weeks and the wind chill is making it feel worse than it is...)

i'm turning very much into a fair weather rider... plus, of course, waiting for tooth person next monday so that adds to the demotivation...

had to go to partner's sisters tonight to feed/water her birds (two cages birds, not sure what sort ..) .. but they had plenty of feed so i just topped up their water...

plan was to go again thursday but not sure i need to, could leave it for partner to do friday, think that's a good plan (it's a bit of a hike!)

witton point to point

that should be, rather, the zetland point to point at witton ...

and a freezing cold wet may bank holiday it was! never mind smart, layers were the order of the day!

bbrrrrr

but at least it stayed dry until after dark (not that we want it to, necessarily, as the ground is bone dry but still...)

Longlined round the park and had some interesting debates on direction ...and she really doesn't like going down really steep bits!

then she deigned to do some nice trot on the lines before we went back in... and i turned her out again.

but then she blotted her copy book in the rush to get in - granted quite late, and granted Gaynor got her OH to do it.. but there was no need to stand on his foot and draw blood!

he had caterpillar boots on, so that doesn't say much for them as safety footwear!

and considering she hasn't got shoes on ...

Gaynor texted me a pic of the damage - NOT nice!

forgot to say

this morning when i turned the horses out....

2 deer running across the park, chased for a few hundred yards by some lambs

it was brilliant to watch, shame i didn't have a suitable camera on me, only the phone and the camera on that doesn't have a good enough zoom...

kept an eye on the deer for a few minutes until they vanished round a corner...

more black coffee

which is what happens when you get up early anyway, and work, and hurt your neck going round local office supplies store (turning neck/head to look at displays whilst pushing trolley round....) and then get really really cold taking molly out into park for some grass.

thought i had some energy left when i arrived at the stables... before i knew where i was i was yawning my head off and trying not to fall asleep standing up!

but it was nippy - just temperature drop from earlier in the week, plus a bit of a breeze ... did for me! so sitting here drinking black coffee before i start making my tea...