standing and sharing and snoozling...

This was first thing this morning - I'd tied molly up with a haynet whilst I mucked out, and blake decided to share (even though he had one of his own!). neither of them were bothered!

and this was taken by Kirstie, blake's owner, some time later, before she went home herself - always amazes me how good a photo you can get on a mobile!

Anyway, a visit to Queenie in Allendale via the tack shop in hexham (which produced a pair of caldene sticky bum jod's, half price (£19.99) pleased with them!

Queenie had a very nasty cut on her foot....not sure how well the photo of that has worked, it was a bit dark in the stable - but lucky not to take her entire foot off. But looked ok, sound on it, will see how it goes. she'll have to be on box rest until it heals a lot more than it is.then via Ikea to buy stool to use as mounting block (£7.50) which I built after i finally got to the yard again about 4. the weather by then was glorious!

And Molly? up to the mounting block, stood like a lamb! very good. and picked all her feet out without a debate as well! She wasn't so good after I got on, but I think that was my fault, i didn't feel quite square. at one point I put my full weight on that left foot and it hurt, so I guess i'm right in supposing i'm favouring it when riding. we had a lot of rattling the bit about, and unsettled head, and waving it around a bit, interspersed with some nice work when she did round under me. We did a little bit of trot as well - it was at this point I realised how much i was favouring that left foot!

So given that we now have light nights, might start the odd small hack out with Julie on Susie if the weather's ok as well.....but at the least sign of her going back to her old ways for mounting, it's back in the arena! if I go on a hack, I can't keep Julie waiting whilst I do 10 minutes or so ground work as well....don't think that would be fair!

ok, you've been waiting

to know how we got on.





that was the start. So you can all see what she does, and that it wasn't just me (the pale jacket is me, the pink is natasha! and yes, natasha did get a hat on shortly thereafter!)

but WE CRACKED IT

or more to the point, natasha did.

the real problem was, by the time we did that, the light had gone & it was raining and I couldn't get any vid of the successful moment! sorry and all that!

essentially, instead of doing what i have been doing (one night riding, if i'm doing ground work, not tacking up and riding after) i need to be doing ground work before riding). and of course often it's easier for someone else to deal with this sort of thing....


there is some more video of the work that led up to success, but it is on the camcorder, not the digital camera, so is going to take some while to sort. and it's a lot of ropecircling, backing up circling, backing up ... and so on.

but I feel a whole lot happier.

and to investigate new yard - went up to visit a chap & his horses we've known for a while, nice yard, 3 arenas of much better quality than i have ATM, hacking without gates it seems! £30 pw inclusive of haylage & straw (possible discount available since i'm on shavings). so will go back, check out mileage, their terms, etc

the plan for tomorrow

involves natasha coming up in the afternoon, then boxing molly up to the indoor - which is on another yard on the estate - and spending time working on the mounting issue. i hope that plan comes off (i.e., nothing prevents natasha from turning up!). we're going up there as the weather is forecast to be not good! of course, if the forecast is wrong, we'll stick with the original plan, i expect, which is for tash to fetch a horse up and try getting molly out as well!

we'll see.

planning on taking camera as well, so if that works we'll have some video tomorrow night as well....

one achievement in 3 1/2 years

is that molly will lunge to the right! we did 15 minutes lunging tonight - it wasn't raining (although thinking about it) and wasn't blowing, and everyone else was pretty much away so I decided that was the thing to do.

will need to go back to a few basics on the feet picking up, whilst she is a lot better it's not completely there yet and i need to reinforce that training with some more click/treat until I know she's consistent about it. would be good to be able to surprise the farrier in a fortnight!

I didn't say on Tuesday, but Queenie had to have the vet again Monday night - so busy trying to eat over the fence that she knocked it down and hurt her foot. alison wasn't going to call out as she knew what to do per clean up etc, but then decided on balance some antibiotics and bute were a good idea. at that point Queenie was showing her age - by the morning she was kicking hell out of the door to be out again, so probably not much wrong overall.

looking forward to the weekend - hope the weather is a vast improvement on last weekend, and i get some solid work done with her. Partner away to see a friend for the weekend so no one nagging as to why i'm not back yet...

and it's worming weekend, which means they aren't allowed out from saturday 10am until monday morning save for exercise, so an afternoon practising stuff is probably going to be a good idea!

general consensus

is that the longline idea is a bad one - which is pretty much the conclusion i'd come to thinking about the tangles one could get into, let alone rearing possibilities!

friend's coming up on saturday so we'll have a conference...

the other option, of course, is doncaster sales.....and invest proceeds in an ottb....or see if someone has something available on long term loan....

don't think i'm wholly prepared to give up just yet....despite my frustrations!

an idea

Kirstie had an idea that might work if it isn't dangerous.....and it might not be if I can get it right.

she suggests I clip a long line to the outside bit ring, gather it up in my hands going round Molly's bum as i lead her up to the mounting block. Thus, as she starts to turn her quarters away, I am preventing that happening. then of course once I was on I'd have to gather the line up quickly in my hand and tie it to the saddle such that it doesn't fall down again.

Thoughts anyone?

the other thing I have to think about, as I reminded myself this morning and forgot to say yesterday - if the stool I'm using in the arena isn't high enough - and most of them arent' - then Molly, when she isn't turning quarters away, is moving her body IN to me and thus pushing me off the stool! which isn't helpful, especially to the poorly foot which is the one I usually end up landing on....

For partners birthday today we went to Harlow Carr, the RHS Garden in Harrogate (which also has a Betty's....) and then on the way home to Brimham Rocks. We will go back to Brimham Rocks on a warmer day with our walking gear and a packed lunch - if we'd known they were there and that good before, we'd have done that instead of Harlow Carr! But it was itneresting to see the work they'd done at the Garden, and how the "gardens through time" are developing.

So Molly had nothing done with her - shame, as of course the weather at least wasn't windy, if a bit cold!

I was rung this morning whilst we were on our way south and reminded i have a meeting after work tomorrow night - burgers.

nearly in tears

me, that is.

Decided to go downthis morning, as we're meant to be out this afternoon. So after i'd mucked out etc got her in and groomed. By the time i was tacked up there was no one there but Liz was out on a ride. After 1/2 hour of me trying to get on on my own and failing - the usual bollocks, get her so far and then the quarters go round - Liz came back and came to help me on. so far so good you would think.

Molly set her jaw and set off for the 20 acre - which would have been all very well if she hadn't planted at the top of the hill. turned her round, planted again. turned again, planted again. said, ok then, down the hill - planted again. turned her round, planted again. Now this is quite a steep hill so not a good place for sitting out a plant at all - she was getting to a situtation where we would have been planted at the steepest bit, rather than the bit you can go down. So i got off and walked back, and whilst doing that saw Liz getting in her car and she drove through the yard in front of me on foot.

There was no way i was getting back on - Molly went back to quarters round when i got anywhere near.

No one will be back now until this afternoon.

so i called her several names and turned her out again.

The bit i had in was the new one I'm trying out.

and please don't tell me i shouldn't have got off. I'll scream at you if you do.

I know the idea of putting straw bales opposite the mounting block. There aren't any, and if I did I would have to put them there every time then move them away again, as they would be totally in the way of everyone else trying to do anything with their horse. don't think my back would be up to all that moving straw bales around.

And we did have a period when she did stand to be mounted, I don't know what happened to decide her to stop doing so.

finally got on!

after how many days? Mind, i rather wished i hadn't - or rather, I'd wished I'd gone down in the morning, the weather was better! Managed to miss the actual snow, but the wind had got up again so my hands froze before we'd done the first half hour, and I had to get off as i was then too cold to do anything! Had got a bit of sideways, which pleased me!

I lengthened my stirrups by one hole, which i'd been wanting to do for a long time. It is better- at least, in walk it is! - my legs felt more draped and more effective and I felt more able to use less leg, if you see what i mean. so even though it was short and cold, i learnt something. Oh and I did get one moment of "up" with lightness as well! which was a first, usually it's "up" with a set jaw! hopefully i can repeat that when the weather's better!

but I wish she'd stand to be mounted...she will insist on turning quarters away, and she knows what she's doing, and there's nothing i seem to be able to do about it! get her so far to the block, and she turns away... depressing. One of the chaps insists i can do it, but the trouble is when he comes over then she stands - she always does when someone comes to her head. I'm sure i'ts just badness....well, not totally, but she knows what she's doing!

partner promised to come and video the exercise one day - i'll hold her to that one on one warmer day! someone might be able to think of something that might be persuading the moo to do this...

Natasha thinks I should aim to do a walk/trot test by august. I think, that's probably a good idea, as it gives me a goal to work to ....

weather...?

eventually the wind dropped - at about 5pm or thereabouts - by which time we'd done a load of stuff in howling gales and freezing cold and blizzards, so wehn i got back to the yard i was stunned to find NO WIND - but everyone else had gone home, of course, and i was knackered....

hopefully, it stays that way for tomorrow!

rainbow girls

today we went up to the Scottish Borders to visit a friend and her two fillies - one 2, one 3, from the iberian peninsula - crosses not purebreds, but they're going to be stunning nontheless.

The only photo you're going to get is one eye of each horse....it was VERY VERY windy (still is) and kept snowing off and on ....it was too cold to be out more than 5 minutes

but I think you can tell they're pretty special and very friendly.

and we were given a fantastic lunch, won't need to eat again until the morning, so many thanks for that.

I wouldn't have been able to do anything with Molly even if I had stayed at home - it's been AWFUL. the only good thing about that was that the A1 north wasn't as bad as it normally is on Good Friday, as most people probably had the sense to stay at home LOL.

I'd arranged for Molly to be brought in this evening and left all ready (I turned them all out this morning....) as I didn't know what time we'd get back - that road is known for horrid accidents, no guarantees at all as there's too many people insist on breaking the speed limit, passing wagons where they shouldn't, and so on....

hopefully it'll improve for the rest of the weekend..

ENT

you will remember the dizzy spells I was getting? had my ENT appintment this morning - the consultant thought he was seeing me at the end of labrynthitis running its course...keep on with the tablets but run them down and get referred back if it all goes wrong again. and I had an audiogram done, which was interesting - i was right in supposing my left ear to be worse than my right! but really not bad at all - couple of dips at the higher frequencies in the left ear (which means i don't hear those frequencies as well, early sign of age related deafness) - hate to think what it'll look like in a few years time!

and easter weekend is starting with a howling gale. swept the yard in front of the stables, put it in barrow - it immediately all blew out again.

early start tomorrow, going up just north of Berwick to see a friend & her 2 horses, looking forward to that - will have a lie in on Saturday!

the innards are settling down but will take all weekend to come back to normal with no pain, i expect! hope quicker, would like to be able to try molly with the new loan bit i've been left with!

not well

IBS kicked in after i got home last night ...did spend some time today wondering why i'd gone to work! but it's settling down slowly so hope it'll be fine by the morning. in the circumstances, i thought riding wasn't a good plan - turned out everyone else had gone home anyway!

RIP Blackie

parter's cat - seen here with partner! PTS today - he'd been failing since last summer when we found him motionless under a tree - reckoned to have fractured a hip - then had a lot of teeth out earlier this year - he'd been a rescue cat and always had bad teeth - been slowly giving up since christmas really and today had to be the day. last week vet persuaded partner that another steroid injection would or might do the trick, but it didn't.....she'll kill me for putting this photo up but it's the only one immediately to hand on the PC!

and Molly? natasha & philip came and lent me their myler 01 to try - complete wit hthe bridle it was attached to which happened to fit perfectly with no ajustment required! We tried it for about 10 minutes - it was dark and very very cold - molly wasn't objecting to it. So they've left it with me to see how we go with it - will need to change reins (i can't be doing with those thick rubber reins, they hurt my hand!). we did well for that time, pleased with her. she was a bit stunned, had been wondering where her tea was! it was nearly 730 when they arrived.... 1 1/2 hours later than originally planned!

daylight! WOW

until about 6.40 - put the lights on anyway (they were mended Friday) as it was going to get dark before I'd finished, but it makes such a difference.

i decided to lunge with the BB on molly, rather than a bit, as I just wanted to see how she's going re going right and being more balanced with it, and that was a good idea. we did both reins twice, and she didn't argue about it more than half heartedly.

The rope circling techniques that max teaches are quite effective when done just with the end of a lunge line if there is a minor protest.

and molly is becoming much more balanced going right

So we're getting there, slowly but surely.

oh, just to remind us - the left foot is the broken foot.....but yes, i see what you mean!

ok, pictures.....

less may be more

but the video shows i wasn't really doing less....paul got his camera, i'll post something later once I sort them out (he kindly gave me the memory stick so i've put them straight on the pc...) but i look too big for the saddle.

She did do some nice stuff, but he wasn't videoing that - maybe i was conscious of being watched?

we started off tiggering round to the car park area in front of the arena and it was a bit scary as she was really hyper for a moment - i wasn't surprised, as she had been unsettled whilst i was grooming her, which is most unlike her.

i reckon the wind, and it was not in the usual direction (which meant it was a bit nippy in the arena, no shelter today!)

but we got in and then she settled down.

i must try and keep my hands stiller, i hadn't realised they were moving as much as they were (forwards/backwards, rather than up down!) and i was doing too much with my seat as well (possibly because i was trying to warm it up).

paul said we both looked much more relaxed, and certainly i think that's right...

i got better circles and serpentines, and we finished with three soft halt/walk/halt transitions, which pleased me! and i made sure we were on left rein for that so i could get off without landing in the fence.

you'll gather my back was a lot better - kept the back support on, of course, and kept taking the painkillers. that, of course, has the advantage of ensuring i stay upright!

update on yesterday

the warmblood came 3rd, and philip was 6th, so everyone is really pleased....i don't think i said, that was Novice 30

back support

is still needed unfortunately - better when i move about with painkillers inside me (ibuprofen for the inflammation) but not right - and not assisted (indeed the cause is probably) by having to wrestle with soaked hay. i think i must have made a mistake at some point earlier in the week in that i can't have been straight in myself when hauling the hay up to drain, and i think that's what's done it.

so today, went up to watch natasha and her fiance philip stressaging at holmeside hall; got there, and natasha had me call her test (i do a good line in clear stentorian bellow specially for the purpose!) which meant she didn't get it on video - they hadn't brought their camera. that was a shame, he did some really nice work - 4 year old on his second outing - if it hadn't been for his canter transition, which was pants, he'd have won the class. as it was, he came 7th and got a rosette, just over 60% and nothing lower than a 5. TBF, as Tash & I agreed, the canter trans was only worth a 2 or 3, but each such transition was part of another sequence of movements, so judge justified in marking it overall up.

philip's horse went tense as soon as it got into the arena - it was an indoor, you'd think he'd be used to them, and possibly some rider tension as well - so didn't do as well. the other horse they brought ridden by a friend, 8 year old warmblood, did a fantastic test spoilt by her failing to count 4 seconds for the immobility at A and when she went for her second canter transition, her calf cramped so she had to tickle with the whip and the horse put in a minor buck (he doesn't approve of your not asking for the movement in the correct fashion!). but she had no choice and did really well, i know when my calf cramps all i want to do is scream with pain and rub it! happily that has never happened when riding (yet....)

then went and mucked out etc, and decided to just do a bit of rope circling- the painkillers i'd taken earlier were wearing off by then, and it was spitting on to rain.....

but a good day. am now going to check the video to make sure it came out!

sun! warmth!

so good i took her rug off this morning. i reckon i'll have to leave it off now - hopefully no more of those howling gales!

but i spent most of the day with my back support on - total agony!

rabbits

that's what we had one of in the bedroom last night - a live one! simba the hunter... at least it was live, the other day we found the back half of another rabbit downstairs.....euch.

evening meeting tonight, which means i'll have to soak tomorrow nights hay in the morning....

spoke too soon

at about 4.30 i looked out at a lovely blue sky and said (out loud, very rash) looks like it might just not rain.

how wrong can i be? huge black cloud followed me north (being blown by 60mhp+ winds) and started to rain about 1 1/2 miles from the yard. hasn't stopped yet. I don't know why i think i can do consistent work with molly in the winter, it ain't going to happen unless i change yards!

i came out of the office

and looked at the black cloud to the north and thought, it's raining at the yard. I was right, it was. wet horse, wet arena ....

put hay order in, be delivered tomorrow (and he'll stack for us as well, which is cool!)

then had to go buy a new kitchen bin, ours broke, and finished up at caroline's favourite place - MacDonald's, as the gale started - horizontal rain, rather than just vertical! That had stopped by the time i got home, thank goodness, for long enough to unload the car....

it's raining

absolutely teeming down...but since they were forecasting howling gales as well, that's not a problem. a bit windy this morning but in the scale of things we can't argue. apparently it was sunny the other side of the pennines...but the south has had the forecast gales (about what we got the other week, i expect..)

interrupted

by a phone call whilst riding - don't really know why i had the phone on me, save that i always do!

Anyway, Molly and I are improving - certainly she is, in that she's softer, quicker, than she has been, so the work in walk is starting to pay off.

I'd left the poles where I'd had them last night - between B & E, parallel to the fence so that if you turned off the track at B you had to go over the poles to get to the track at E. so they were usefully placed for variation, Molly never knew when she might be asked to go over round or through them (the were either side of the centre line as well).

So some useful work. She moved up to trot 2/3 times, but I think i must have accidentally asked for it; it was a softer trot than it has been in the past!

I got a shoulder in position once (yes, i did ask for it!)

and half way through this good work the phone rang - friend having a whinge....interestingly, after the stand still whilst i had that conversation, Molly was moving forward better.

Had Rhona (hello Rhona!) check to see if the pad was still moving side to side under the saddle, and apparently not, so that's good.

and lovely daylight even when i finished...mind, that was only 17:20! roll on the end of the month when the clocks go forward...

Left her rug off in the stable. I get the feeling that she's shedding so much and getting so warm in the stable, she's itching with the rug on.... (bed all over when it isn't usually.... bit of a giveaway that). I might regret it, as i'll end up having to brush her to rug up before i can turn out in the morning (supposed to be a horrendous storm, and rain, tomorrow). so we'll see.

perfect timing

in terms of the weather. This morning i really thought i'd not be able to do anything with Molly - it was raining, then when that stopped the rain got up, then later it was horizontal rain... got to the yard about 4, having put dinner (stew) in the oven and had lunch after a day out (been to pay for queenie's keep) - blue sky, wind slightly dropped, arena sheltered...

So after i'd done the chores (and everyone had got their's in for the night at only 5 pm!) i lunged

Bitless bridle, lunged over poles. First just one pole, both directions, then two poles, both directions.

That REALLY woke Molly up. First time going right she wasn't having it and I had to go back to MAx's techniques to get her back listening to me (advantage of the BB, it acts like a pressure halter as well when needed, not as much, but enough to make a difference).

Then she decided canter was good, so I moved myself so she was circling round the poles rather than cantering over them (actually, i was impressed, it's AGES since she's cantered!) then when she'd calmed down a bit moved back down so she was trotting over the poles again.

When she was eventually trotting over them calmly, brought her in and changed rein again, then two more times each rein, finishing on the left rein.

I can really see the way this is helping her use her back end, and work out where her feet are, and it should help her balance right rein as well much more than she as, as she's also forced to think about what she's doing rather than just rushing round.

I could really see her thinking about it as she was going round (the lick/chew thing...)

This was, of course, what I'd had planned for Monday, but probably its as well I did it in daylight first!

and then as I was leaving the yard, the rain started again, so even more perfect!

just to say

i am still here, and not looking forward to the weekend (weather going to be pants). Fay forgot to tell the lads about the arena lights, and they're now off until monday. phooey

frogs

two of us left the yard more or less at the same time, i was second (still in the dark, by the way, someone's going to tell the lads tomorrow about the lights!) anyway, person in front kept stopping, driving erratically, whatever, i was starting to think either there was something wrong with the car or with her. this is still on the private drive, not the main road. eventually she stopped and came to tell me - she was stopping for the frogs! i hadn't seen any (because she was in front, i assume) but she was trying not to run them over and occasionally getting out and physically moving one!

so spring is springing -they're on the way down to the River Wear, which runs through the estate, clearly. and that must mean we should soon get some frogs in our new pond, as well, which is the idea (slug control!).

this is going to be a boring week

as there's still no lights in the arena. not that it made much difference tonight - had to get partner packed for a weekend in carcassonne (friend's hen weekend!!!!) - didn't know until i got home that also involved laundry, thus leaving heating on all night to get laundry dry.....phooey.

still in the dark!

no arena lights again... phooey. dont know if anyone's had a chance to see the lads to say and have them find out what's wrong....

no lights

in the arena this time - i can see in the stable, but that of course did nothing to assist the plan, which was to lunge, possibly over poles. goodness knows what was the matter with them, but at nearly 7, there was no way enough light to see by

poles

put some poles out = over them each way, round them, through them, diagonally over them - at one point it was "OOH can we trot over them please mam?" - no, of course - took about 30 minutes again before we got some softening but since I was also trying to keep her "through" behind it was harder work, whilst trying to keep "less is more" in mind. i think i've said before, relaxing myself takes nearly as long - not so much the top half, more getting the hips stretched. and we got some sideways as well, a couple of times, which was good.

not so good on the halt/walk/halt transitions, but i wasn't really working for them , was working for more activity and softness at the same time.

and half way home remembered i'd forgotten to put the poles away, oops.

But it was COLD - could have done with an extra layer to proteect me from the bit breeze coming from across the field. but againn, I chose the right time of day the wind seems to drop abour 4 ish and not get back up again until after 6 or so. if we're lucky it'll have dropped altogether - but i don't think so.

Amazingly, looking out of our kitchen window this morning at the trees being blown about, their was neighbour sitting outside on her patio eating her cooked breakfast.... that patio is very sheltered from the prevailing wind, but didn't think that much. and it was a suntrap as well - her own microclimate! where our back allotment about 10 feet in front of her, you couldn't have done that...

and to add

she's shedding! huge amounts. woulnd't have thought it was warm enough yet, but Molly clearly thinks it is.

and thanks to caroline for introducing me to the benefits of a shedding blade!

less is more

less is more, less is more. the less i did, the more i got...must remember that. she was quicker to remember soft and round - not consistent with it, but it was there.

i chose the only calm moment of the day - so that was well planned. what i call a good drying day (so have lots of dry washing as well :-)). needed help to get on of course, but was very impressed when molly's first reaction when i picked the reins up was to come to the bit. lost it again fairly quick but in a calm sort of fashion.

i was concentrating on not having my hands so close together, keeping a consistent length (have the continental reins on the mullen mouth - prefer the libbys, not so big in the hand and stickier!) and keeping myself upright. seemed to be helping a lot. i was pleased with both of us.

Now, how do I stop her overbending? lift my hands?

oh, and she blinked! so that's fine - must find a way of having her face me properly!

photo review

i think my hands are too close together as well....

+ 70 mph winds again

and no one had any electrics - there's a line down. got there in time to just be able to see the feed bins.....

in the dark

amazingly, i could just about see to muck out this morning - vaguely dawn, and light from the tack room next door (there's a big hole in the wall high up...); it won't be the best ever mucking out but at least i could do it!

not so easy to groom tonight though (can't tie up outside, there's only room for one horse, blake was already there and even if he hadn't been they'd have got at each other over his door!) so decided to do some rope circling. that was a good move, she was maintaining the pace by herself much better than she has in the past and was listenign to me well - not perfectly, but well. She still likes to come in to me when i haven't asked her.

i'd just pulled the gate to, rather than shutting it properly, and a smallish gust of wind blew it open - so she started looking at that but didn't spook.

I found myself wondering if there isn't something wrong with her right eye - because, when she stands, she always looks at me with her left - does not face me straight on as she should - and since i can move her legs where i want, move round, back etc, i did start to wonder....

and whilst i was answering emails just now i nearly burnt dinner! just catching on the base of the pan! oops.

partner's car

wasn't quite the nightmare anticipated, but not far off! and when i eventually got back to the yard, Molly's stable light had popped (and taken the electrics with it, someone had to go find the trip switch and put it right).

so will have to see if someone can get hold of the man tomorrow to get a new bulb in - can't see a thing otherwise. might muck out by the light of the car headlights in the morning....not quite light enough to do without altogether (and i don't get a lot of light in there, unless the sun is exactly right, which it isn't at 0630 in february!)

+70 mhp winds

worse than last week......lorries blown over on the tyne bridge, house blown down at whitley bay! aarrgh. partner has taken my car to newcastle.... and tomorrow her's goes to the dealer to be mended, if possible, that'll be a nightmare as well....

and more

yet more photos

those that paul took yesterday .. as i said, the video he took was at the beginning when we weren't warmed up, and whilst it is hugely better than saturday, it's still crap. but at least i can see it is crap! but interesting nonetheless - I was still doing too much, and I really do think I need my stirrup a hole longer....sorry they're huge here, had to go to photobucket, blogger has a problem tonight with photos! and i wonder why getting on the horse makes me look even bigger? because I'm cockeyed? not sitting up? it's the jacket? i used not to look such a lump! but then.... it's partly a time of life thing with me as well, i think....(my excuse and i'm sticking to it!)

much better today!

for me.

just because i'm not going to show you all the vid of me from yesterday, don't mean i haven't learnt from it. and of course i'm reminded of what i'd got wrong again!

I Think i said i'd decided i'd been having my reins too short again, so today i kept em longer, but still with a contact. I also put the mullen mouth back in...partly just to see!

once I was on (you know, she doesn't actually need her head held, she just needs to know she can't get away so when george walked towards her, having been asked to come help, she stood like a lamb. that was my 5th attempt. George doesn't believe i have any trouble at all :-)) she was easy to get into the arena and we started work - i knew it would take a long time to warm her up, i reckon myself it's about 30 minutes before she really starts accepting (and that is of course an improvement on pre december! or any time pre last summer when i started to get it better....).

After about 5 minutes paul turned up with his camera, which i think he'd brought specially, and has taken some video and stills. the still isn't bad - i've told him to email me the lot - but the vids of course we're still not soft in the jaw etc and i'm not fully relaxed into it. i think sometimes it takes me as long as it does her.

BUT i was getting circles much better than i have been (Natasha did a lot of them yesterday) and changes of rein a lot better, and when she did try to say she'd had enough (by walking into the wall, today!) i used the move the head trick which worked.

after about 30 minutes she was coming really soft and not long afterwards i could feel her back lifting under me, it felt really good.

then we got to a point where i got a soft halt, followed by a soft (no head up to resist, she maintained her position!) up into walk, and another soft halt.

That should, of course, have been the good time to stop. the trouble was, had i tried to get off at that point, i would definitely have landed on the fence! which would have been painful and broken something else.

this morning if you'd been listening carefully you might have heard me banging my head for forgetting that the suberpanel is meant to be used damp .....

now i'm off to put up a myler with hooks on ebay, and a stephens half pad (grey/black, if anyone's interested?)

one more video

this one from the mobile - this is first in time and probably should be looked at before th eones in last nights post:



very poor quality but you get an idea of what went before....

videos

i sometimes wish this camera didn't do sound!

the video of the major tantrum was on the mobile phone and hasn't really worked very well...

a visitor - a good day! video to follow

my friend natasha, who's a much better rider than me (she says not, but she is....has several more horses to ride regularly and trains with, inter alia, the bartles at YRC) came up to ride Molly today at my invitation, we talk about molly all the time and the troubles i have so i said, come up and get on.

so she did.

There is a load of video but it will take forever to up load (broadband? fast? not here!) and i will put it on when it's ready. We also have some video of me, but it's totally awful, for private viewing only (i was doing too much, got trot when i didn't want it, didn't have a bra on....dreadful!) Plus, I hadn't realised I'd shortened the reins up too much again .... and we shouldn't have been trotting of course! this was just after I'd got on so not really got warmed up (Gaynor had my camera to take photos of Charlie's sarcoid for the vet ....and before she went off to do that, decided to video me!)

So, 20 metre circles in walk working on getting her to accept the bit and work through etc - Molly threw her toys out a bit early on, but unfortunatley at that point I only had the mobile phone and the video of it is fairly dire....gaynor had my camera! My heart was in my mouth somewhat, but natasha got her through that and got her working nicely. every now and again molly planted in her favourite way, and Natasha showed me a good way to get her out of it without it getting into overload, which i did video and will put up, it was clever (one of Max's ... - move the head side to side). She was working really well for about 5 minutes, then would plant, then be pushed out of it, and so on ....but by the finish was really smooth and accepting changes of rein without going tense again. At one point she did a really nice leg yield, which i managed to miss with the video (i was conserving battery - new battery in, and by 3/4 hour no battery left...ggrrhh)

so you've got that to look forward to, and i'm reminded that less is more....

and we had our hair done this morning, 3 hours in the hairdressers (colour) - would only have been 2, but hairdresser decided allison needed her highlights doing after all (as well as her roots...) ggrrhh - but i read a lot of podhajsky whilst we were there, so it wasn't wasted time!

oh - but one not so good thing that i could see from being on the ground - the saddle moves slightly laterally on molly's back, not a huge amount, but enough to be noticeable! boo hoo..... :-(

as i said

late meeting. didn't get home till 9 - but went via favourite curry house on the way, so we're well fed!

wind even stronger ... scary. north sea ferry got loose at port of tyne, ended up crashing into an oil rig on the other side of the river!

+50 mph winds

started up this morning - getting blown about the motorway going to work, no better coming home, so no riding.

got the feet picked out though. better tonight than last night. and i worked out how to stop her following me about hte stable so i could get the job done! she of course gets excited because she likes this game!

nothing tomorrow - got an evening meeting! friend coming on saturday, hopefully, to ride Molly and give a second view (this is the one whose partner is a vet...)

a clicker fix

the success for tonight - using clicker training to get her to pick her feet up without trying to kick me in the head - not that she really tries to do that, but her back feet in particular are difficult to do. She had an accident to her near hind in a wagon when she was 3 1/2 (will never pass the vet and you can still see the scars, although she's not lame on it) (same leg she hurt on the wire fence last may...) so she really dislikes picking the foot up on the other side, especially if she's the slightest bit unlevel/it's not flat ground. And there's not much flat ground about, even her stable has a slight slope.

I got them all picked out. I did have to tie her up = otherwise she wanted to follow me round the stable to see what the game was!

So more of that for that task, I think....

this morning, it was -5 when i got to the yard.

tonight, it was +6 when i left (and rising, had been =3 when i got there from work). So she's back in her lightweight rug (with the new vest on!) and i can put my thermal trousers in the wash. that's been one of the best investments of the winter... equigear thermal trouser, with sticky bum seat, from anna dressur on ebay. Highly recommended!

temperature

at the moment, in newcastle, is -9...

ok, so it was unexpected

but what persuaded me to go back to hay, that needs to be soaked, when the temperature is down to -7 overnight and not above 0 during the day? (-1 at lunchtime) granted this is not common over here.....

Mollys new anti rub vest, which i ordered sunday night, arrived today so that will go on in the morning before she goes out. She's my 4th horse, and the 1st one to need such a thing....http://www.bossysbibs.com/ if anyones interested, the feedback is good, as are the before/after pics, so hopefully it does the job and i bought the right size!

so there's no way i'm riding or anything else after dark in this = too horrid. might have been ok during the day, apparently the sun was out, but there are limits to everything, and this is it!

off to check the weather forecast, if it's going to continue like this my very last bale of haylage is going to get opened...(i was going to keep it, it don't go off...)

minus 5

this morning and forecast to be -7 tonight (that's centigrade Jean :-)).

This morning the soaked net i'd left hanging up to drain had frozen - it had thawed out by tonight though. and the tap was frozen. tomorrow night's got soaked then put in the barrow and left inside! (i'm soaking one night what i'll need for the next night). Molly got a heavier rug on... it was supposed to warm up through the day, but i don't think it did and she felt cool tonight, which she doesn't normally.

I lunged her for 10 minutes and by then two fingers on my right hand felt as though they were going to drop off they were so cold... so didn't keep her out as long as I might have. if it keeps this cold, can't see me riding this week at night - doesn't work when it gets so cold you actually can't function!

And jean - I've never had a rodent get into the haylage if it is still wrapped - they'll get into the hay, but not the haylage...

not as good as yesterday

i had to get help to get on. i put the treats on teh wall again, but she wasn't positioned right - my fault - and the second time we tried she was too far away from me, so went round to the barn for a hand.

after that, not too bad - but i think when it's as cold as this its hard to feel the seatbones, they sometimes seize up with cold!

but it was quicker to get molly thinking about it than yesterday.... and she did start to do some nice softer work....at one point we had a really nice halt, she stayed soft for about 2 or 3 minutes - i just thought i'll keep that just there so we can remember the feeling if nothing else!

and the hay ? is being soaked. it was very dusty i realised, and she coughed today (whilst she was eating her soaked net whilst i was grooming her...) so will keep an eye on that. if i have to go back to haylage, so be it ....we'll see how it goes this week.

a good day

a busy day, but a good one (apart from being unable to find holmeside hall arena - thought I'd not need the satnav for that, could see where it should be on the map, but couldn't find it...so didn't see mate & her fiancé do their successful dressage tests).

Molly.

1. let me get on (i put some treats on the wall in front of the mounting block - so she faces the wall and eats the treats whilst i get on, and we can then move off left. Hope that works again next time I try it, which will be tomorrow!)

2. didn't nap away from the arena - i think she half thought about it but didn't, and i was really pleased as, quite apart from not wanting her to, i was wearing "slippy" jodhs - i.e., not my sticky bums - and it was very slippy!

3. was listening to me

And I was pleased with me, as I've FINALLY worked out what is meant, and what one then feels, when slightly weighting a seatbone by putting that foot deeper into the stirrup. AND it works, we went in the relevant direction every time I got it right.

I did about 45/50 minutes in walk, again working on pushing her round turns rather than pulling her round them (i don't know if I'll ever get out of the habit of pulling my inside hand back, though....), and halt/walks - basically the same as earlier this week - and by the end she was starting to soften. still got a ways to go but i feel i'm at least getting the idea and so's she.

and I got my storage cupboards and hay all swopped round, looks a lot better (and of course tidied up as well).

but i MUST get molly one of those vests.....

friday night

headache...

and of course everyone going home early, so no riding. i did give a very passing thought to some groundwork, but it IS friday night and i DID (do...) have a headache...

the plan - and the hay

I'd decided to put Molly back on hay - see how she does, but the haylage, whilst good value, is too difficult in the car, it's ok with a van bought in bulk at the start of the season but given that the haylage is very wet and very heavy, and the hay gets delivered, and is good this year, i decided to go back to that. This meant re-organising my area so as to be able to store the hay NOT under the leaky bit of roof.

I'd been told he was delivering Monday, so i put my order on the board this morning. could move stuff on the weekend.

email at lunchtime - it had been delivered today, and was in the barn.

so the plan had been to ride - the result was, woman-handling 12 bales of hay (4 trips with the wheelbarrow) round the yard from the barn to my storage area. the stuff didn't get re-organised of course, and Molly didn't get anything done with her...

rotherham

was where i went today - that's 100 miles from the office - to see a client. on the way back called at a friend's and discovered i'm going to miss her wedding - they set the day on Friday, and its in the middle of our france holiday. boo hoo.....holiday's al booked up, and in any event we;re house sitting and are relied on .....ah well, will try and get them a nice present, we know where to get rather nice RED champagne, gorgeous!

rode again

had to practice our circles at first, as Liz was lunging at one end (and it's a small arena so they weren't huge circles)..but i was pleased to have to do that, as it forced me to think about what i'm doing. sometimes i end up twisting myself instead of moving the inside seatbone on its own...

after liz had gone we went large and worked on trying to get her to soften. eventually i was doing walk/halt transitions and then moving into 20 metre circles again and she was starting to get there...

then everyone left and i had to get off. i suppose about 1/2 hour or thereabouts? not sure. freezing again...

3/4 hour

ridden work, in walk, in the arena. YAY. one of the chaps came roudn with me, we took a chair, he held her head whilst i got on. and shut the gate so she coulnd't nap out.

She went really well... considering she hadn't been ridden since well before christmas, i was really pleased.

Interestingly, having the suberpanel underneath makes it feel narrower - seems to add a bit of a "twist" feel to the saddle, which i'm not going to argue with.

a very forward walk, i was working on just ensuring my hands/fingers were right, pushing her round corners with my outside leg rather than pulling her round with my inside hand! did some nice half circles (just about lose it on a full circle, but the half voltes are good!)

she's working out the sideways push of the leg, helped by thinking about where to put it!

and we have much more control of her shoulders - no where near what it could be, but compared to what i had pre December, a major improvement.

stopped when the last person in the barn switched the lights off, as after that I'd be on my own.. anyway, it was pretty damn cold!

subject to the weather (and a potential trip to Sheffield on Wednesday, it doesn't look as though the case will settle till we get to the door of the court!) will try and ride if only for 5 minutes a night from now on....

the suberpanel i reserve judgement on for her. she doesn't object to it, but i do need to keep an eye on the fabric underneath. when I had a suberpad under the cheyenne, the fabric wrinkled. having said that, the cork felt looser in that than it does in this...

well......

i had to go to the yard when i knew there'd be no-one about - my ma's coming here at 4.30 - but it hought i'd try to ride.

I was correct to think that I would be better on the horse than on the ground athte moment. the difficulty being

1. getting on

2. getting her to go where I wanted without setting herself.

At the mounting block next to the muck heap, that was easy - turn the block so as she walks up to it she's facing some hay someone's put on it. she stands still, i get on, easy.

unfortunately, she didn't want to go into the arena. I could have lived with going down the hill and round the 20 acre had she wanted to do that; she didn't in fact know what she wanted, i don't think. But anyway, even if, having got to the top of the hill, she'd consented to go down it, i could see that the gate was shut (goodness knows why, it's always open, there's no stock in there - think a chap i'd seen on trail quad had shut it... ggrrhh).

She's in a bit, the myler combi, that is supposed to be one they can't really set their jaws against - she manages it though.... and i didn't want an argument given my ear ain't TOTALLY right (well, not totally sure that it is!) so got off, led her back. went to get stool and took it into arena. that didn't work. 1/2 hour alter, after being pushed off several times (cue pain in broken foot...) decided to go back to the mounting block next to the muck heap. got on; sorry, she said, not going back in arena. tied her up outside stable whilst i had a smoke and thought about it. decided, if food is motivational i'll tie haynet to arena fence to keep her occupied whilst i get on. good idea, you'd think, given that it worked at the mounting block. NOT. every time i got to the top of the step, she moved... and she does a nice line in pushing me so i have to step off quickly before i fall.

I gave up and turned her out.

and please, don't say I should spend more time on it. i get stressed, she knows she's stressing me, it becomes self defeating. and it hurts my foot.

i'll go back to having someone hold her for a while (ensure i go when there's someone there....) then maybe (assuming the suberpanel is the right thing) she'll eventually work out that it's not a problem again.

very annoying.

we did have a short spell last year when i could get on on my own, i'm sure....

glorious day

so nice i've turned molly out without her rug....the bowl where the field is does get warmer than everywhere else, and it was starting to feel rather warm indeed!

For the first time in 2 weeks I was able to bend down and do her feet without feeling dizzy, which was progress - just as well since Farrier was turning up to trim.

Unfortunately, the idea of lunging wasn't so clever! maybe it was because i could see beyond the horse, being as how it was daylight. Not assisted by the fact that I forgot to take last night's tablet.....

It's got so damp i've had to fetch bridles home to clean, they'd gone mouldy! not had that happen for a long time, but of course i haven't been using them....that generally makes a difference.

just bought Nuno Oliveira's reflections on the equestrian art off ebay - believe it or not, the BHS has an ebay shop and only wanted a £1 postage for it, bargain...

improving

less dizzy spells and this mornign i could feel the liquid in the ear move, which is good! at least I hope it is.

Very warm, hope it stays that way. farrier in the morning first thing to trim, and then will do some ground work with her, not decided what yet; not quite ready to get back on until I'm 100% certain about that ear

And i was talking to an orthopaedic surgeon yesterday who reckons he can mend my broken foot...

suberpanel

has arrived. now all i need is for the ear to recover some more so i am safe to get on! and then we'll see if that helps/works. Might be able to persuade Gaynor to get on Saturday if I'm still not right (improving, but not worth taking chances with obviously!) but that'll depend on her saturday going to the usual plan, which with a 3 year old doesn't always happen! (her son, that is, not her horse!)

the other thing about tonight

the training was in a local hotel. the chemical smell inthe corridor just outside the meeting room was overpowering - thoguht it was justin the corridor, but it was pretty bad in the meeting room as well. i've just emailed them a complaint, told reception about it as i left but no guarantees they'll write it down. probably chlorine from their swimming pool the other side of the wall, but really it was too too much and I'm so pleased i wasn't in the pool itself, would have knocked me out! not what i needed just at the moment, thank goodness I'm not asthmatic (or never have been) - you can imagine, a room full of claimant PI lawyers - not the people they want to be injuring!

training

for work after work....asked partner to go down after 6, by which time molly would be in, to give her her tea; she rang me at 5.15 to say she was wrestling with the mud to get molly in herself - and she had no wellies! silly girl.....

my left ear

the eardrum is dull and doesn't vibrate as it should, there's something wrong with the eusachian tube so there's nowhere for the fluid to go ... got some medication (which, according to the leaflet, is given for vertigo, meniere's disease and related matters) and an appointment for a fortnight. if the medication doesn't bring it right, then i'm off to local ENT department..... seems it's possibly from an old infection that wasn't caught at the time... and it's related to glue ear, which i'm not aware of ever having. right ear's fine.

this was after sitting waiting for 1 1/2 hours..i was a shade early, and he was running VERY late....

in the meantime, anja beran will be in huddersfield in may ....going to go!

doctor

tomorrow. looking forward to it! getting fed up with this.

queenie & AliG

now looks very fit, good muscle tone and shine, outperforming the 21 year old TB owned by neighbour, and still being mistaken for younger pregnant mare... so that's pretty good, considering we nearly lost her in November. Had a bit of a problem with either a new rug or new haylage - not sure which - came out in little blebs - my money's on the stable rug i took up, possibly made her too warm (even though it was her own rug!). Mother and daughter - if you over rug, they get a heat rash type thing, and it's very difficult to get right when the weather changes...

Then went to see Nicola & AliG on the way back - and unfortunately the camera has not performed! took some video, pressed the stop button, then the battery died (and it was new in as i got there.....) - the card says there's no picture now, when if i check the card's properties via "my computer" it says there should be something there.

ggrrhh...

haylage and weather

TBF, i COULD have done something with Molly - but by the time i'd sorted the body out, and then sorted the haylage out (which takes some doing, it weighs a ton and i had to work out leverage to get it out of the car with no assistance at all! and without knacking my back, and, importantly, without leaning forward and going dizzy again!).. then found the garden man waiting for me and seen him and discussed the continuing evolving plan for that - it was getting TOO cold and damp again, so i didn't. Which is very remiss of me.....


anyway i have a doctor's appointment on tuesday.

tomorrow go to see Queenie and pay her keep, and calling to see Nicola on the way back from there...

geographical oddities....

the weather, as we all know, has been truly awful. even if it wasn't snowing, there was a howling gale...

the yard is in a bowl....got down this morning expecting the worst and you'd hardly have known there was a howling gale at the top of the hill - nothing had been blown over. out at the field gate it was a bit blowy but nothing hugely exciting.

just the same tonight

and yet at other times the howling gale is down there! very very strange....

weather forecast

was for once right! it is awful.

wagon blown over on the M6, driver dead, this morning.

horsebox blown over on the A1 north of newcastle, 4 horses loose on the motorway in teh rush hour....

trees down all over.

pouring rain, or snow, and howling gales....with some sunny intervals, but still with howling gales.

horrid.

cold but

I did do some work with molly - wind was starting to get up but the arena is quite sheltered and i thought given that the forecast is pants i'd take the opportunity. just a bit of rope circling, but i kkept it going longer than i'd originally intended as she was challenging me - not wanting to do as I asked - i.e, going right rein! so i worked on that. she did do it several times but was not happy and not really "thinking". so more of that next good weather opportunity!

same old same old

weather, that is - back to damp (i.e. wet horse) and windy - with more of the same forecast. to be fair, not totally teeming down, but enough to put a block on any work being done tonight.

am i getting better or not?

that is, in relation to the dizziness...

thought i was this morning, but this afternoon i had a hospital appointment (about all my aching joints, but in particular the right hip...)

i told him, i've got something going on in my left ear and would rather not bend forwards... so he had me do just that! and then on the examination couch, i was dizzy going backwards and the world swam when i was on my front so he could see my spine...

then would have it that a lot of my joint pains are down to stress.... duh. no, that's the muscles in my neck. he reckoned ditto with the hips. shoulders. de dah. i don't THINK so ....the shoulders are three falls on each side! the hip, probably the same....the knee - a fall, resulting in a torn medial meniscus and long term chondrolamacia patella...

he's referring me for phsyio, and says osteopath and arnica by mouth....

he was a Pole, it was his first day in that particular hospital.

and Molly? did 15 minutes rope circling.....i don't move my head, i move my entire body round MY inside leg...especially at the moment. I've found that the best way of ensuring i do stand still in the centre of molly's circle is to do that...

wasn't totally sure i should have done that for me, but molly needed the work and I need to watch the dvd again....

in the meantime, anyone watching City of Vice - very interesting, about the brothers Fielding who started off the Bow Street Runners, forbears of that well known institution, the Met....(Metropolitan Police, for those of you outside the UK) - dramatisation. Very good.

a bit better...

me, that is. I wasn't feeling at sea when lying in bed, so that must be progress. Mind, cleaning Molly's legs/feet was never going to be as easy as usual, did the legs by bending mine and didn't do the feet at all!

then did some ground work - some basic rope circling then some longlining - been watching max's DVD as I felt i needed to remind myself of what I should be doing, as I felt sure i'd picked up the odd fault! which i had.

both were a bit better than recently tonight, but i found once she felt she'd done enough right rein she started arguing about it.

If the weather stays as it was today - lovely and still and relatively warm by later afternoon - that'll do me for the week!

and I even got some washing on the line today, first time since about september...

dizzy ...

still. probably not as badly as yesterday, but having to be really careful about bending and stuff still.

finally downloaded a dvd decoder for the PC - good to be able to watch my dvd's upstairs on the pc, easier than the tv/dvd player in many ways and it means i can watch those (horse related ones, of course!) whilst partner watches whatever she wants on telly...

not that she's watching anything tonight, spent the day in bed having been out until 0130 this morning and being very much the worse for wear...

dizzy

twice yesterday through the day, and in bed a couple of times when turning over, and a couple of times more this morning (once when looking up to put headcollar on horse!!!!) - so, clearly not a good plan to decide to drive to thornaby, 25 miles, for work; instead, came home again and got doctor's appointment.

two choices - either infection/ears/like that, likely in view of sinus pain this week, or something in my neck. doctor thought the first choice more likely, there's some fluid behind my left ear apparently (which makes sense!) and see how it settles, or not, over the weekend. i reckon it will settle if the sinuses settle. very scary when you think you're going to fall over and the world swims!

good news!

two lots, in fact.

the really really good news for me is that Pet Plan, the insurance company, have paid out for Queenie's choke! fantastic. I've still got the excess to pay, of course, £115, but in the scale of things that's small. I've won that gamble, then! as they're paying out more than i've paid them over the last 2/3 years....

and the other good news is that mother found her necklace - she'd put it in the bag she swore she'd been through!

on the other hand, the weather's still pants - we're either warm but blown away and/or wet, or we're frozen, probably with added wind...

howling gale

and i don't begin to know where it came from. came out of the office and it was calm, by the time i'd gone 5 miles to get out of stockton you could feel the car being buffeted. so clearly no work with molly again tonight! but i did get the mud off her.

we have a pond (literally!) at the access to the mare's field; the geldings field is as muddy but stickier, felt it pulling my boot this morning.

the result of the pond is that Molly doesn't REALLY want to go through the gate - who can blame her, but at least she will learn that whilst it's horrid, she can do it without being eaten alive by the horse eating shallow water!

cooold

well, i think it was just wind chill. thermometer says it was 6 degrees C - but felt a huge amount colder tonight. surprisingly, Molly was warm, in a thin rug - well, i was surprised, anyway, but the field doesn't get the full on wind and teh stable builds up quite a bit of heat, considering it only has one horse in it!

still recovering from yesterday's drive....

mother's lost her necklace, think she left it there! oops. whitby jet she had from her mother, hope it's retrieved.

we're home!

but the driving conditions! interesting how little time you really lose sticking to 50/60 mph for a lot of the way - too much spray, at one point the heavens opened seriously when i was on the outside lane of a 3 lane stretch, and all of a sudden i couldn't see my hand in front of my face, let alone where i was going. that was scary! but, still did it in 7 hours including stops, so we had a good run, avoided all the rush hour traffic round london (which was amazing, really, expected a bad time getting through the dartford tunnel but we sailed through!). and on 1/2 a tank of diesel, very impressive!

it was a "good" funeral - in that there was a huge turnout, and it was a real celebration of his life. even a singing group Jean, you would have loved them - a capella, old english folk songs I think.

bexhill

is where i am at the moment... uncle's funeral tomorrow. couldn't resist my internet fix and hotel has broadband wi fi....

good drive down, very little traffic in the scale of things, so even with lunch etc stops and mother calling to see a friend of hers in a home in north london, arrived within 8 hours of setting off. that is good going, and i didn't break the speed limit.

interestingly, my sat nav not only tells me where the speed cameras are, it also tells me when i'm doing 5 mph over the national limit, which is very irritating when you want to do 80 and get peeped at at 75!

it irritated mother no end, as of course we were going the right way to her friend;s, but NOT the way mother thought we shoudl go ... she wasn't happy about that at all!

cats and house are of course being minded, as is Molly ...

problem longlining

on right rein!

now, we used to be ok on this, no arguments, especially no arguments with the bit.

now - this time and last, but i didn't say anything last time as it might have been a one off! - she's arguing on right rein, really arguing against going right and takes herself back left as soon as she can if i let her. to prevent that, i would end up really with too much pressure on the inside .

left rein is fine, she's moving nicely - not perfectly, but getting there! - and accepting the bit.

now, we hadn't done this for a while, i suppose, but nothing had happened to turn her against and she's been lunging right rein much better lately!

the only thing that happened between the previous sequence of longlining was the lesson with emma in december and i did more riding and rope circling after that, so maybe i'm doing something wrong now that she doesn't like re the longlining? although really i'm at a loss to think what!

ah well, she'll get another couple of days off now as it's forecast to tip down again for another few days!

wet and wild

that's the weather, so nothing else to say....

one extreme to the other

this morning it was wet and warm. this evening it was very very cold but dry. therefore, Molly got her first shock of the year - given I had the energy, i took her in the arena for 10 minutes ground work. don't think she was overjoyed (it was about 0) but she did what i asked, which is about all i can ask for! then got tucked up for the night in a warmer rug than the one she went out in this morning!!!

Torchwood tonight.

where was I last night?

I was here - but i could hardly keep my eyes open and had absolutely nothing to say save for whinging about how tired i was. If it hadn't been for the fact that I had to drive home, one could say i probably shouldn't have driven....don't know why I was so tired, imagine it was not sleeping as well as I thought I had.

Tonight, i felt a lot better; I said to people at work before I left, where it was dry, i bet it's raining at home; guess what, it was raining at home & at the yard.

phooey!

but one thing I did do last night was find a rather cool video on you tube - doma vaquera in action, wow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk_n1yQlmT0

rope circling and clicker

today I decided to reinforce some basics with some rope circling, which went well. Molly did try to challenge me a couple of times, but her heart wasn't really in it.

i need to work out how to get her to back up straight - she ALWAYS does it on a backwards curve to my right, her left - now why would that be?

after that, i did some clicker training - with a target. that seemed to go well, she was getting the idea

caroline the work for the garden was necessary - we've got a man in remodelling it and we needed some well rotted stuff for the allotment area! he wants to finish that off this week, so it needed doing and he can only go down there when i'm there in case he gets challenged!

hurray

did some work with Molly - not till it was getting dark, of course, as had had a busy day getting trailer loads of well rotted compost off the muck heap.

Chap who's doing the garden had intended to turn up at 11. he rang - he'd lent his van to his mate; van is diesel, mate put unleaded in it = oopsy. happily it didn't get driven and has been drained off and sorted.

so i went down to yard to muck out etc, then of course was rung to come home again...

anyway, ended up doing the manure at 3, then going for feed etc, and Molly & I went into the arena at about 4.30 or thereabouts.

i decided to lunge - because it didn't require any further effort from me, by thtat time my back was not happy! - and Molly was pretty good. She rushes more right rein when lunged than she does when long lined, but did go right, and second time right she wasn't rushing nearly as much. So i was pleased about that. I lunged her in side reins, quite loose so she'll look for the contact, and she does that, which is also good.

Have loads of time tomorrow if the weather's good, as partner is off for a long walk up near Powburn, which is well up in north northumberland

a bit of luck

won a holiday! one of those where you have to pretend to be interested in a holiday club membershup and be very strict about not spending money - but we've had one of these before with a different organisation - so anyway that's to cheer us up. we would have to pay GBP 64. clealry need to do some research on the organisation, spot of googling tomorrow, but hey.

ho hum

still did nothing. i'm now turning into a bad girl not doing any work. my excuse is that it's thursday and i'm knackered.

the good news is that my clipper blades are sharpened now.

gone back to cold now

and i'm not well today - essentially too much tea last night,and considering we had it really really early ... still feel full, which hasn't left me feeling good today. but it was soooooo cold. awful gales all day, and even when it did drop it was going right through you. did i say i wanted an indoor? not sure how much difference that would have made tonight mind....

the forecast

was for 60 - 70 mph winds; you could feel it really picking up as i arrived at the yard, and the horses were soaked anyway as it had just stoppped raining, so i abandoned any thought of doing anything, fed and came home.

yesterday they change dthe access to the geldings field, back to the gate where i fell. I nearly fell again on the track getting into it, and someone else did, apparently, fall later. because it's a total quagmire and the grit ends before you get to that gate on that side (not so bad the mares side). and last night one of the geldings tied himself up in the electric fence (which was on) because he was going to the gate they'd been going to and got into a panic when his owner, who couldn't see in the dark of course, hadn't realised the access had been changed. happily he's ok, but he did get a bit of a shock.

so we're all well hacked off.

someone at one of the other yards on the estate broke his leg a couple of weeks ago, because he put his foot down an open drain that they'd been complaining about for a few years. so he's suing, I'm told - it was a very serious fracture and he's a policeman...

oh, and this morning i'd finally armed myself with my head torch (you know the sort that walkers wear! so i could see where i was going. was just behind a chap with his horses, who was slightly behind hand with his morning, and he asked me to turn the light off as it was scaring his horses. hence ending up in the dark and nearly falling again, couldn't see as blake the horse i was putting out was blocking what light there was..

teeth

Molly had her teeth done tonight, so i just left her - not fair to have her do anything after that, she dislikes the process so much. and really, it must vibrate through their heads and give them a headache! nex appointment july.

anyway, thinking about longlining - some people say you should start off with the lines in a lower position until the horse becomes more muscled/supple/collected, then move to a higher position....

but, as jean commented on my last post, might it be better to use the position that the handler finds gets the best result, given that the horse is used to the idea of longlining anyway?

And i know own a copy of Xenophon, looking forward to reading that .. i know it can be had online to print off, but then partner would tip it out, less likely to bin an actual book! and only £5...

longlining

did a bit both circles and straight lines round the arena. Molly walks quite quickly and i felt i was getting towed along; not very clever that in the deep end (one end is deeper than the other!). I tried to get her to accept the contact the same way i would riding - give and take - but i don't think it's so effective on the ground, maybe because i have the long lines through the lowest ring on the surcingle?

trot circles weren't too bad - she was seeking the contact, sometimes she did some really nice work; on the other hand, sometimes she didn't. struggled to keep her right on right rein, given half a chance she was turning to go left. some of that was me. some of that was her. so to work on.

and before that? more walking, recce a slight variation on teh walk we did on christmas day, to avoid an overgrown path and 1.8 km of road work!

in hand hurts

my bones. hurts my foot because of the depth of the arena (and the fact that the knee length boots i have, all of them, are not supportive at all!). hurts my back and neck because of the twist to the body. Hurts my shoulders (three falls onto each shoulder, separately - i.e., 6 altogether, one in the bath at my mother's when i was 18, and 5 falling off horses) because keeping one hand out on the bit of the nearside and the other at the girth stretches all that and seems to cause a bit of discomfort...

Molly was getting the general idea from what we've done before, was flexing, did move sideways, but I can't keep it up consistently myself because of the above issues.

not a lot i can do about the depth of the arena (and I'm not wearing short boots in there, a boot full of arena is just as distracting!) and i think it's daft to knack the rest of me further.

So, i guess I'll just stick to longlining & lungeing and rope circling for work on the ground, certainly until the summer when I could always see what I can find in the way of dry flat field.

feeling quite disheartened about that, actually, as it is something I want to do with Molly and it would do her a lot of good. but, don't do either of us any good if I can't do it right because my body ain't up to it...

rain

follows the snow. it started teeming down on my way home and hasn't stopped yet....

snow

so no riding. no anything in fact. Kirstie rang as i was struggling home to the yard, to say our respective horses had been left out in their respective fields on their own which is a big no no for both of them. particularly hacked off we were about Molly being left as she'd been on her own for a good while, where blake hadn't been left for long at all. Plus, Molly was all done, so no reason for anyone not to apply their brain to the subject and leave her out. anyway, kirstie offered to put molly's tea in, and given the state of the weather I was driving through, that was an offer i was all too happy to accept! hate to think what it'll be like in the morning - they had to close the main motorway north today for a good while!

cats

Simba was helping us yesterday - we had the remains of a roll of lino we wanted to cut up to put in the floor of the now tidied cupboards.

this was taken with my mobile, and all i did was point it down the inside of the roll and cross my fingers as I pressed the button:

a sad day

today was Jenny's funeral. there were a few buckets of tears wept quietly by most of us. Emma was very brave to speak, and did so very well. I want a hug smiley...

and some more bad news, i found out another former colleague, Rhod Robinson, died last year - he wasn't very old either, perhaps early 40's - totally out of the blue, apparently.

not a good start to the new year.

and whilst it was warm this morning, and i had no problem turning Molly out in her lightweight, it was really cold tonight, forecast to be no more than zero and snow. She was well ready to come in. the one good thing about the cold, it'll freeze the quaqmire at the gate inside the mare's field, which is becoming treacherous and needs some of the gravel they've put down on the track and on the outside of the gate.

rain

it rained, and it rained, and it rained. i suppose I shouldn't complain too much, we've been very lucky over the holiday, but I will, as I still didn't get the in-hand work done. but we have much tidier cupboards now...