hot and humid

you can taste the humidity.

did think about groundwork... apart form anything else, my numnah is still drying on the line having been washed! ... but neither of us could be bothered and the flies were a nightmare.

have decided not to take up the suggestion of the market harborough... looks a shade too much like a draw rein, even though it isn't quite, and am not quite sure how it would help me, which was the point of the suggestion...

i could go back to continentals (currently taking up space on the back of the kitchen door!) but i do like the libby's ones i'm using at the moment, especialy as they have clips and i change bridles a fair bit (one bridle ordinary bit, one bridle myler combi, and the bitless!)

they have the advantage that if they do slip you can easily see how far they've slipped and where you should be!

lesson from BHSI

unfortunately without any pics or video - was expecting regular RI to come and watch but she had to work LOL

shortened stirrups one more hole (i'd already taken them up one) and that did help me a lot.

after that i really need to work on keeping my reins firmly between thumb and finger! She suggested I try a market harborough... and turns out a friend has one! My preference would be reinbows, which i've recently come across, but theyonly fit those really thick horrid rubber reins ATM so no good. we need a tool to help me!

not really anything too different from what we've been trying anyway, in essence, and molly did work better than she has recently (assisted by my being better balanced i suspect) but still really having to push her through the tranter/skipping malarkey!

One thing I wasn't sure of what she was saying - using the outside rein to keep her to the outside... but think that may have been another way of saying inside leg into holding outside hand.

and wanting me to use my hands to slow the trot, rather than slowing my rise! But i rather think that was because the trot was such that slowing my rise was difficult on occasion!

instructor used to run dressage comps and trains for BHS exams and so on, and thought Molly looks very pretty & good when working nicely!

good lesson .. and both molly and i got hosed off afterwards (I hosed my head!)

edited to add - forgot to tell yo the most exciting bit! a branch brok off from a tree in the copse next to the arena... happily we weren't right next to it, but clearly that could have been really hairy. she bounced a bit.. but neither of us could see it, so fine! she was a bit dubious about going down that side but eventually settled...

another ride...

after 1/2 hour trooping round the field trying to catch her! she and the other adult mare have a competition going to see who can be closest to the nearly 3 year old baby - who's an ID cross bigger than either of them by about a hand, ATM! so it got a bit dodgy, and a bit tedious. and the sun had got out so the flies were killing...

hope some of the other mares come back from stud soon, i think this could be a bit dodgy!

then, had to wash her bum... the light wasn't good enough yesterday anywhere to see anything, but in the sunshine today it was clear she'd had a major season...euch.

then out for a ride with other owner on her large wide pony .. her saddle slipped, she had to get off at harbour house (well, before we got there) to sort it out, i had to get off as molly had a one on as alan (the pony) wasn't following her...so had to have a hand to get back on .. then back. found a new way i hadn't know about to avoid the ford.....but needs all cutting down, very high grass (above our toes!)

and a barbecue tonight ... sun had gone in by the time we'd eaten!

guess what i found?

that's right, the phone i lost last friday... doh. I have a tyre in the stable into which goes Molly's feed dish... it had fallen into that, inside the rim, and clearly i therefore didn't hear it fall .. and it was the last place i thought to look. I found it because i actually picked the tyre up to muck out the stable...

Anyway, lunged Molly. She's becoming a nightmare to get the bit into her mouth...managed it eventually, but it was a bit of a struggle...due the tooth person end of july, appointment already made, but she gets checked every 6 so i can't see how anything too bad can have gone wrong in that time..

anyway, once we got that in, she worked very nicely, I was pleased with her. Tried some canter, but that's not so clever .. surface a bit too deep in places.

can see her muscles working in the right places!

and she'd been in since 10.30 - i got a text at 1 asking if i wanted her turned out again! i said not, since i would then have struggled to get her back in again, but hadn't known she wasin ... chap with the other 2 mares obviously came down early today! i could have gone down then as well had i known...ah well.

molly the leader!!!

only once, through the ford on the way back, but i was still pretty impressed!

friend now keeping her horse on my yard came up to ride out, and as I was unexpectedly free I went ....when she first texted me i thought i wouldn't be free but i was ... and it was raining! but molly had already been brought in before it started (the owner of the other 2 mares having brought both his in!) so was dry ... so off we went, me being visible for miles around in my bright yellow riding mac!

along the road, down the back drive, through the ford, through a couple of gates (tash had to wrestle with those!) through harbour house, down the hill, round the 20 acre, back through the ford up the track and back along the road to the arena for 10 minutes....

friend's horse came out of training about 2 months ago .... good as gold, save he'd never met water before... so 5 minutes thinking about that one and he went through first.. on the way back, i managed to get molly past him, she gave half a thought to not going through but did and gave him a lead (he was stil a bit dubious!).

the yellow mac came into it's own when we were nearly back, big wagon behind us that was half thinking about passing us on a blind bend where we knew he couldn't but he didn't.... and we were turning right .. so I put my hand out to show him that he couldn't and that we were turning, and he slowed right up and hung back till we had turned!

edited to add: i needed wipers on my glasses though... it were a bit damp!

diagonals

what is is, on right rein Molly wants me to be on the wrong diagonal....that doesn't help

got on first time, which pleased me as we've been a bit dubious about mounting since the saddle slipping incident!

walk was nice.

trot left was ok, got direction i wanted as well and some nice circles..

right rein ...tranter ... boot on ....very iffy ... as soon as i put myself on the correct diagonal she dislikes that...mmmm to work on.

the other good thing .. first time for a good while she didn't argue about me picking her back feet up!

more trot...

we can't accuse molly of not being forward anymore, she's certainly that...

but what we've found is, we have to let her trot on at her pace with no contact at all to speak of and then let her slow herself down.

trying to keep a contact for her to work into results in the impossible to sit to tranter sort of thing (canter in front, trot behind, nightmare..)

and jean you were right, we are co-operating in putting me on one side....but which sides depends on which way we are going!

anyway it was a good lesson, and molly worked so hard i had to hose her off....that doesn't happen often!

i still have a bit of a thing in my head about canter though...

not quite so good...

but at least not as muggy as yesterday, just nicely hot with a nice breeze where needed!

went over to the arena and someone had just finished setting jumps up ... so i got on (decided to get some assistance since it was there to be had!) and walk/trot round the jumps. couldn't get down outside track, circles either end with a diagonal one way and a dog leg the other way down the length. she was setting her jaw and i couldn't get her to soften...but at least she was happy to be forward again!

friend turned up about 2 hours later than she said she would .. she'd forgot her hat! so was read a lecture on the subject. since she had got on, i said we'll just walk up to the riding school and back, which was good for her confidence as well as last time she was on that particular horse she was off again ...

and i lent her richard hinrichs book & video on inhand work, as she hadn't known what i meant by that...

!!!! TROT !!!!!

first time since when? about a month before I left Leamside?

Granted it wasn't the best trot on this earth, but considering teh grief we've been having getting it at all!

I reckon all this massage must have something to do with it ...

but anyway, i was quite pleased with her!

not quite so pleased with me .. when i took the saddle off, it was clear from the sweat pattern that i'm weighting the left seatbone too much (or the right one not enough, whichever way you want to look at it!) so will have RI look at that - probably wednesday it'll be now. Saw her tonight .. what a chapter of disasters, hope i don't lose any more phones (although as i said to someone tonight, it did mean i couldn't be rung up and nagged as to when i was coming home!)

the trouble with having no mobile....

is that if RI did text me i didn't, of course, get it; and didn't have her number as it is on the missing phone, which i hadn't synchronised with PC recently....and ALSO i'd misremembered which venue she was competing at today, so no wonder i couldn't find her either! doh.

so molly got turned out again not long after 5, having been in since just after 12, well hacked off, and hopefully RI and I can touch base soon...

it didn't rain, either...

flaming june....

it rained, of course... from when i got to the yard about 2.15 till now and it still is....pah. soaked through, of course.

happily got molly in just before it got really heavy ... and she was in for about 3 hours... stood her in a different box round in the enclosed yard, which apparently might come free September (there's some confusion); will contact YM and check it out, as i think she'll settle better .. she seemed to this afternoon .. could see all happening in the yard and didn't have the distraction of a field to look at

got massaged, and i tried some flexions again but she wasn't having it...

turned her and her friend out in a downpour and i'll have to get them both in tomorrow as the 3rd mare is in tonight and will be at a show tomorrow...

and no sign of the phone. of course, what i'd forgotten when ringing virgin mobile this morning and them suspending it, was that suspending it meant that it couldn't be found by ringing it up... doh. no sign of it, and i even dug out the area of the muck heap where i'd dumped my barrowload yesterday... and it won't be in the middle of the field as the horses were at the gate yesterday, so i looked round there and no sign.. and it wasn't on the track down to the field... so that's that. it either got dropped outside the post office and i shall check that on monday in case someone handed it in (certainly wasn't on the road outside the PO!) or it landed in the river! i've a feeling it's history and may as well be replaced...of course, i didn't have it insured, so not sure how that works on the contract!

lost my phone....

half way through seeing to miss molly .. probably after her massage... i realised i didn't have my mobile phone (cell phone for american readers...)i felt sure i'd brought it out with me ... but hoped not. anyway, jsut got home and rung myself and it is neither in the car nor the house. drat. so need to borrow someone else's (find partner's work mobile, if nothing else!) and take it out to the yard and ring myself there...

and molly?

whilst the massage was doing its thing, i spent 10 minutes trying to persuader her that the stable is a good place to pay attention to me. not that successfully, i have to say .. the attractions of looking outside are more vital... never mind, it's too late to swop boxes now, i think...

after that tacked up for longlining with the bitless, so did 5 minutes rope circling and such first, and she was paying full attention to me and even went backwards with very little pressure (just a twirl of the leather bit on the end of the rope).

longlining was good, she wasn't wholly keen on going right in trot, but happy to in walk so we played with transitions, and also serpentining in walk up and down the arena, interspersed with trot circles..

she does work nicely on the longlines in the bitless. i think the reason it don't work bitted is that she's not that confident about the bit and sets against it more, which she's pretty much stopped doing ridden (hope that's not famous last words!)

early bird....

woke up and thought it was 7.30 ... only just realised i misread watch (through not having glasses on ) and it's only 5.30 ... but not tired and have a very bad back....i'm going to regret this tonight, i think!

ggrrrhhh ... at the weather!

plan was, ride molly, then come home and get the laundry in off the line and mow the lawn, which is starting to look like a hayfield (should have been dry enough by then).

Got Molly in and did her 1/2 hour massage, tacked up, led over to the arena... big black cloud starting chucking rain at us time i got her back to the stable it was pretty wet....

so turned her out (did think about trying to do some clicker/in hand in the stable, but she still isn't paying attention to me in there)

time i got home, through a major rainstorm..... sun has come out. pah. washing is soaked again and lawn too wet to mow.

and i've realised that a major distraction when she's in the stable is that she can hear people going down the hill calling for their horses so she's looking to see who/what is coming in!

perhaps this was the wrong stable to pick.... ah well, too late now.

it rained...

from about 945 until about 6.15 pm .... solidly and largely torrentially ... so by the time i got to the yard i had my shopping in the boot. plan, to muck out from her time in yesterday, feed her at the field gate and go home again.

most of the way through mucking out it managed to stop rainig, but since i had a soaking wet horse i carried on with the plan..

and of course it dried up more as i came home and hasn't rained since!

jean, you're right, it was that horse... but it's lame again tonight in another leg, and is going back whence it came.... it also, apparently, reared up, and was so terrified being without molly, molly had to be taken round to it's stable to say hello...?

so molly back in the original field with the other mares, and youngster being picked up tonight to go away ...

the forecast is for dry tomorrow, i do hope so as i washed all my breeches when i came home and want them on the line in the morning to be dry for tomorrow night!

time off

from anything is never good.

i reminded myself why i'd stopped doing flexions....molly won't stand still, won't stand square, and (in this stable) insists on looking out of the window....

at previous yard she wasn't quite so insistent on that but clearly wasn't quite square which was why she moved forward into me.

until she settles more and is happy in her current stable, i won't be able to do any flexions at all in there... pointless doing them in teh arena, too much space

then when i went to the arena to get on ... had to go back to teh stable for the pressure halter and a rope! she did in due course agree to stand still whilst i got on. she wasn't ansty about it, or stressed, just insisted on moving off!

after that we got nice walk in both directions and circles and round someone lunging her new horse

tonight she's out in another huge field with a new mare (well, mare that was here, hurt itself and has been elsewhere getting better and is now out with molly separate from the other 2 mares...) hope they're ok.

thunder then cue rain...

so no work done at all with molly ... didn't even bring her in, as there were only 2 out and i would have had to bring both of them and in any event she'd have had to stand for a good while to get dry before i could have put the massage pad on ... and it's still raining now 1 1/2 hours later.

i could hear it coming and knew what it was going to do, but couldn't go out as i had people to ring...and had to be in for the bread being ready as well! ah well! hopefully it'll be better tomorrow night

well that was good

a reprise of the work we did with Jenny last July, Emma was trained by Jenny. Steph and I were just spectating (i was videoing, and really thought afterwards I should have been right next to each one separately, rather than trying to get the whole scene and zooming in ...) but eventually i'll have something to send them all.

the downwards flexion and the lateral ...

and then some ridden work in the afternoon...which was interesting...

one lovely 3 year old shire did really well in teh morning, was the star of the show (had only just had a bit in , usually ridden bitless!) but poor lad was knackered by the afternoon!

and a gorgeous black 6 year old, absolutely to die for...struck a pose that was EXACTLY like one of those sketches from Fillis!

and we were really lucky with the weather.. one thunderstorm passed over whilst we were having lunch and then stood over edinburgh south of us for the rest of the afternoon but left us dry

course, had to drive through it coming south, it was horrible! and out the other side.. coming down to newcastle there was ahuge cloud over there and durham, but it cleared away ahead of me.

i'm afraid i spent some more money as well. new ariat bromonts that fit, at an astoundingly low price (very surprised, that vendor usually prices a shade over the odds!)

so must sell the ones that don't fit!

in scotland

at stephanie's today, going to a flexions clinic tomorrow... because partner's away for the week i thought i'll have the weekend! pics tomorrow probably when i get home! went down as i set off to make sure molly still had 4 legs etc, and hopefully will get back before dark to see her tomorrow night....

20 minutes

although i did wonder after the 3rd attempt to get on whether it was going to happen .. which it did after the 4th. i think we were both a bit dubious after monday's events!

still mostly nice and soft, i slightly went into trying too hard mode which is something to be avoided....and pushed her through her attempt to stop after 10!

had remembered my mp3 player so listened to hank marvin and the shadows, and niether of us were distracted by the bouncing lambs!

and of course she was more than happy with her massage... the machine does an automatic 30 minutes and then switches itself off.