Happy Horsey Weekend

We've had a lovely weekend! Yesterday, Millie and I spent almost 9 hours "at the yard" (we did pop out to the local tack store, which counts as being at the yard in my eyes!) You may have seen a picture of Millie's little pony on my last post - meet Brandy. He's a darling little twenty year old pony from the New Forest, who loves being in his cart. It was my first time driving, I've never been in a cart before! We had decided we needed to pop to the shop to get a drink and maybe an ice cream, so Brandy took us. We parked up in the car park, and boy do people come and talk to you. Several people came over to stroke him, and were asking all sorts of questions. That was new. I'm not really a people person... Interesting experience! I even got to take up the reins on the way back home, and we had a little trot and everything. It was awesome.

Today was pamper day, and my cousin kindly pulled Rio's mane for me this morning. He looks so super handsome now, and his short tufty bit doesn't look quite so short and tufty. I begrudgingly let her pull his forelock, but wouldn't let her do more than one pull as I love his forelock long. Admittedly, it does look very smart now. We decided that before he had his bath, we would ride round the village and stop off at the shop on the way back as there was a little bit of cloud coverage and a slight breeze. Rio wanted to show off his new 'do' to the world as he's a posh boy now. They were a little fidgety whilst waiting in the car park, but overall it was pretty successful. Who needs to park a car in a car park when you can park ponies?

So when we got back, it was bath time. He was much better than usual on the left side, I even managed to hose him down, lather him up with the shampoo, and rinse him off on my own without too much fuss. However, the other side wasn't so successful, and ended up with me holding him whilst Millie hosed him. He was very naughty at one point as he kicked out when his hind end was being hosed. Due to his left brain thinking, however, he didn't kick towards anyone or anything, rather he kicked out behind him like he had an annoying twitch. After a telling off from Millie and I, there were no more legs going out where they weren't wanted, and although he didn't stand still, we made it through. Perhaps whilst the weather is still warm, he may get hosed down daily for the next week to see if we can't get rid of this silly behaviour around the hose. 

Just because he's such a poser!

Amazingly, and possibly for the first time ever, he didn't even roll when I turned him out in his field. It's a big night tonight, he's spending tonight AND the day tomorrow in with Franks. We've extended the fencing in their paddock so there's more grass in there again so fingers crossed there will be no bitten bottoms. He's also back to having a hard feed once a day, as they're not getting all the nutrients needed from the grazing at the moment, so he's on chaff and a low calorie balancer to make sure he's getting all he needs whilst he is (still!) growing. Come on Rio, let's get that last inch or two out of you!

Ride / play safe x

Needle in a haystack (or field)

Rio had a long hard night on Thursday. Sarah goes down a little after me in the mornings, and it would appear that the boys had a little routine going. (Past tense as Rio bit Franks on the bum Thursday between my visit and Sarah's, and is now back in his own field...)

• Graze at opposite ends of paddock when mum comes down, Franks to acknowledge presence, and possibly say hi, Rio to come and loiter around the wheelbarrow ready for poo quality control checks
• Graze together for a bit as mum leaves
• Rio to lay down for nap time in prep for Sarah's arrival, and Franks to stand watch
• General grazing after Franks has had breakfast, including extra curricular activity such as sliding stops, cantering up the long side of the field in pairs, and apparently a smidge of cannibalism (although this can be thrown in whenever fancied...)

It's a shame really, as they seemed to be doing very well together in the field. They will be having supervised play dates in future, as although I don't want him tearing poor Franks to shreds, being able to interact with another horse is invaluable at his age. Having been the one with the horse on the end of the bullying originally, I don't want to be the mummy of the bully... 

How can such a funny boy be capable of such things hey?! This has to be one of my fave snaps Sarah has sent to me so far.

I spent my evening last night fencing Rio's field off so that he's got an L shape to roam and graze. There's still a LOT of grass in there, but thankfully the sheep have grazed down a little bit of it. I'm hoping it will be a good incentive for me to keep up the riding routine, so he doesn't balloon again. With any luck Franks can come over and visit for a bit and help with the grazing down too. 

I was just tidying all the bits up, when I realised that I had pinged the inch-long pin out of the fencing reel (the one that holds the end in place so it doesn't all unravel in storage)... I wasn't prepared to accept that vet bill, should Rio find it whilst grazing, so I had to walk the fence line in the hope it hadn't gone far. Would you believe I managed to find it? I was so pleased. I'm not sure I would have slept last night if I hadn't!

Today was one of those good days. Rio walked straight out of the field with me, walked up nicely, tried being a little cheeky on the last stretch and came back to me when I put my foot down. Stood nicely at the barn, picked his feet up with minimal fuss (he's been a little impatient the last few days with his feet). Stood perfectly to be tacked up, moved over when asked, and took his new bit without question. SIDENOTE: We are definitely keeping the Neue Schule, the new wider bit fits him perfectly, and I was actually sent a brand new one to trial this time! No need to even return it for a new replacement to keep. Result. Rio seemed indifferent to it being any different to his current bit, which I will take as a positive. It's a bit narrower than the steel one, but I'm hoping the Salox will even out the difference. Now to work on the contact... 

I actually schooled again today. We did a few transitions (nowhere near enough though now that I think about it) from walk to halt, and then from trot to walk to trot and some that were just trot to walk. He felt active underneath me, and although his shoulder was falling in on the end of some of our circles, we were trotting shapes in a nice forward way. We have a bit of an issue with Rio's canter transitions. He's picking them up much better in the bottom corners of the school. This is where I usually ask for canter. He's still struggling to maintain a canter for a full circuit, but the transitions into canter (in his "canter corners") are becoming much easier to make. So now we need to try cantering from other parts of the school. 

We finished off doing some trot poles, after getting some advice from Sarah on how to try and work him onto the bit. It didn't go so well today, but it's something I'm just going to have to work on with him and find our own way of discussing. I've never really worked "on the bit" before, so am not exactly sure how to ask what I want to ask, and because he hasn't particularly been taught to work on the bit, he's not sure what I'm asking yet either. Any advice welcome! I've had him take up a contact whilst out hacking on the field once before, but at the time, I wasn't specifically asking it of him, I guess I just found the right combination of things and was properly relaxed without intending on it. The trot poles were great fun though! We will definitely play with those more.

In other news, my cousin has got her new 4 year old OTTB at my yard for a little while whilst a space comes up at her place. He's fresh off the track, and is a cute leggy little chestnut. Watch this space!

Ride/play safe x

Bella's Breakthrough

It's been a bit of a mixed bag this week. A bit of good, a bit of bad, and a bit of exhaustion. Since Monday night, I've been down every evening and brought Rio up to the barn (except Friday - had a MacMillan Night In and raised a ton of cash with a lot of lovely ladies!) This has been with varying results. 

I have felt like screaming at times, and have instead found myself talking out loud asking questions I know I am never going to get the answer to but it helps me to calm down again. Frustratingly, the more we do this, the further away he seems to be getting from the second gate when he plants himself. We have now tried walking through when the power is completely off across the yard (big storm caused big powercut!) and still with the same results. 

Don't get me wrong, once I have committed to bringing him out of the field, that's it, and however long it may take, it will happen. I was sort of hoping for some change by now though, and that he might have realised that we ARE coming out of the field when I'm suggesting it! A friend is coming up this morning to try the same exercise for me, so I can establish if it's behavioural in general, or just with me. I will be a little sad if he walks straight on out, but we will see. 

All of this boils down to insignificance in the field. I love just being in there with him. We are working on personal space (trying to!) as he's very good at standing with his nose on your shoulder whilst you poo pick. He's actually had the barrow over a couple of times this week too. So now I'm wondering if I have done right by him putting him in his own paddock. Should he be in a herd situation? Would that be better with one other pony or maybe two? Who could I put him in with? Is he bored? Maybe he doesn't want to come up to the yard because I've been keeping it so simple for myself that he feels it's not worth the effort of leaving his field? (Do horses even have a trail of thought that long?) 

So last night whilst Hubster caught up on the football final, I decided to head back down to the yard. My friend picked up a new neddie yesterday, a very green, malnourished TB mare of 9 years. She's very sweet, and appears not to be a nervous type, although she did ask some questions when we took her off the lovely long grass to put her back in her stall! Got to love a bit of sass! Anyway, she gave me a brainwave, as she didn't want to load but was happy to walk straight up the ramp without hesitation with a feed bucket in the equation. Same goes for persuading her that the barn was the place to be. 

Rio loves feed. He no longer has breakfast, as to be honest, even with the grass munched down, the new shoots are very rich, he certainly needs no extra energy from his sugarbeet, and it seemed a bit of a waste. Sweep the cobwebs off the feed bins, Laura. Handful of chaff, a dozen pony nuts, and a sprinkling of garlic, and let's do this. 

He sees me walking down, and clearly clocks his favourite blue feed bucket. I'm not going to make this game too easy for him, so the feed bucket is left within a couple of feet of "scary gate". I walk down to him, get his headcollar on, and he stands there. I walk across in front of him to start the wiggly worm game, and he follows after one go. Phew. We get half way across his second paddock when he starts to slow. We're not stopping tonight Rio! I walk across in front of him again out into the field, before doing a shallow loop back to the fence line. I think he's spotted the bucket again. I'm focussed on the bucket, and walking with intent, we make it! In one sweeping motion, I grab the bucket and keep walking. It's amazing how insignificant a gate is when there's feed involved. Rio doesn't care about the gate any more, and we're off through the main metal gate, he's having a little prance, trying to get the better of me and my bucket. I push him back half a dozen times, and what do you know? He walks up just behind me, doesn't spook, scare or question at "scary spot #2", and has a beautiful forward walk coming up. We reach the barn, where he gets a big scratch on his neck, and to enjoy the little feed. Well done Rio. There's a light at the end of this tunnel - I just need to find out how far away that is!

Honestly - I know that this is not a permanent fix. If I can make it into a bit of a game for him in the meantime though, I'm hoping if he's bored it will get him interested, and if it's something else, well I'll just have to re-assess. On Wednesday I plan to pop him in with a friend's horse for an hour or so - a pony play date! If I can get him out of his own field of course! 

It's not even like he has no friends around him - he has one on two of the four sides of his field, and can see at least 4 others further over. I'm quite sure that he plays with his TB neighbour over the fence and that they groom as this is all that's left of this bit of his mane! Or perhaps, he's just happy playing in his field like I am - and maybe that's my fault. It's the only place we play at Liberty, and perhaps I'm wrong to do that as it's his place of rest? So many questions... 

Ride/play safe x

One step forward three steps sideways

This is how terrifying the scary gate is. Does it look terrifying? 

We had what I took as a positive evening yesterday, Rio appears to be taking objection to leaving his field at the moment, but once I got him out of the first gate, last night he walked through here and stood nicely when I closed it. Today, we disagreed about leaving the field, and then spent 10 minutes around this gate trying to establish that the grass ghouls had left the area. 

Last night, I was very proud of myself and how calm I stayed when he was being a bit silly and playing up. Tonight, I had to remind myself to breathe, and that we aren't raising voices any more. I had to opt for keeping his feet moving and having him move laterally in the hope that it would generate him some confidence in what I was asking of him. 

I resorted myself to just making it out of the field, we had a little wander and Rio had some grass to settle. I decided that we would head up to the barn after all, and we had another discussion at scary point number 2 by the bath tubs. After a lot of walking in wiggly snaking lines, and some more lateral work, we made it past. 

I have simple aims with each evening at the moment:

1. Getting out of the field, hopefully with less disagreements as time goes on
2. Tying up at the barn, to get Rio used to standing quietly on his own, and getting accustomed to his surroundings in his own time
3. Picking feet without argument, and remaining relaxed (both of us!)
4. Having Rio stand at the mounting ramp with me standing next to him on it, and leaning on/over him

I hope that this little routine will gradually build my confidence and his trust, because although we have issues at the beginning of the evening, he is more than happy to play at liberty when we get back to the field! If only he trusted me as much out of the field as he does in it. He's so funny bless him. Just need to get working on my parelli games so that he knows where my personal space is, and then hopefully it will help us get further together. With being off on holiday in 8 days, I could really do with him being less stubborn coming out of the field as friends are going to be taking care of him!!

Just in case you hadn't noticed, I have a bit of a thing for the skies at the moment. Aren't they just lovely? They are all from the last few days, the last one was this evening, and I was expecting a storm to break out any minute, but the skies were blue 20 minutes later!

Ride/play safe x

And my education begins

I'm going to give Parelli a go. It makes sense to continue to work on our relationship on the ground whilst I'm nervous of hopping into the saddle, so I'm going to take it as a positive thing, and hopefully work on improving our trust in each other. From now on I will try to focus on the positives, and we can work on the rest, so here goes.

Achievements of today:

• Walking out of the second electric gate without much fuss (we won't mention the first for now!)
• Facing down a stray green balloon
• Not completely trampling me at the sight of the two terrifying geese, although it was a bit hairy for a second!
• Walking past said geese when they had flown off and regrouped further up without any fuss at all
• Walking in and out of the arena gate three times with only one hesitation
• Standing quietly by the mounting ramp, even with me above him, and leaning on him for a moment

Ride / play safe x

Building blocks

Rio is a people person, which is very helpful. However, whilst he is brave on the outside, and the obvious "scaries" don't seem to phase him, he does revert to being a baby in the most peculiar situations. He was so brave at the play day on Sunday, and then twice this week he has planted himself before we get to the second electric gate again. I wish I knew what caused it, because he doesn't fuss (at the moment!) at the first electric gate. 

We had been playing the Friendly Game for a bit, I've had to improvise by using my schooling whip and utilising my lead rope - today and last night I opted for my lunge line. He's very steady when playing Friendly, and last night I was swinging the lunge line around both of our heads and he was standing very quietly. As soon as we went to walk out of the field however, he would just stop. I ended up having to send him out on a circle a couple of times then driving him sideways to bring him closer to the gate, before practically dragging him the last three steps through. Once through, he's absolutely fine. Go figure. 

We have plenty to work on, but I'm confident we will get there in the end. He's forever for me, so if it takes years to build our perfect bond, it doesn't matter. 

Rio had his second shoeing today, and was being a bit cheeky for the farrier. He started by moving his foot back a minimal amount, which started to develop to trying to take his foot back completely. With a well timed reaction, he was put back in his place, and didn't try it again. We saw a baby fox cub when walking back down to the field! SO CUTE! Wish I could have taken a photo but when it spotted Rio and me, it was off into the hedge. 

Ride safe x

Absence

I find I am struggling a little bit at the moment, so apologies for the interlude since my last post. I've been in a routine of get up, see Rio, nap, go to work, see Rio, eat, sleep. There hasn't been much thought of doing any more than that. This morning I feel a little more like me again though, so hopefully it's just the end of the Winter blues rearing their ugly heads before the Summer arrives.

Rio seems to know that his 5th birthday is coming up, and thinks that this means he rules the roost a bit at the moment. We've had a few arguments over leaving the field - he took a "dislike" to the electric gate again last week, and we were back to square one snaking up the field to get him out. I hasten to add that this time it is not fear, it is just him trying it on. He's stood right next to the gate since starting this behaviour again whilst I have waved it around him and not flinched the tiniest bit. So anyway, we've been having breakfast outside the field so he has to walk out nicely or he does it again (he's been very good so far though, and not had to repeat!) I'm trying to do it every other day or 2 days in 3 and next week will just do it 2 days out of 7. The intention is to keep him curious as to why he's coming out, and whilst he's not completely food orientated, it does seem to be helping at the moment. That and just having my schooling whip in my left hand for small encouragement if needed.

On Saturday I got up early and rode before anyone else even got up to the yard. That was also a trying incident. Another gate that he's not keen of! We did 20 minutes of schooling in the grass school arena, trying to get him up to the top end of the school gradually as he really doesn't like that end at all. I had to admit a bit of defeat as we didn't manage a full circuit going large without him walking sideways at that bit, or cutting in completely. However, I will take great pride in the fact that I did win the determination award. When we had schooled for a bit, I decided it would be nice to finish on a good note, and that we would go out around the field before I got off. The only problem with that was that Rio was not going to walk out of the gate from the school...

Now, I don't know people's views on neck straps, a couple of friends were bemused when I opted to add one to my tack stash a few weeks ago, but on Saturday it proved its worth! I have a bad habit of crumpling in anticipation of something bad happening when Rio is being a bit of a sod. Not this time. With two fingers looped through the neck strap, I sat up and in, and felt like I was glued to the saddle. Result. 

Rio decided that he wasn't going to walk anywhere near that gate - he took a couple of steps backwards. Light bulb moment, if he wants to go back... We're going back. We backed up almost half way across the school before he got bored and dropped his head. When I asked him forward, he walked almost without hesitation through that gate, then we had to negotiate our way through gate two, and again across the forecourt of the car park. We made it to the main gate where he stopped again. Now by this point I was getting a little frustrated, so I gave him a couple of minutes to recollect himself, and have a look around - so he started to go to eat the grass! Well, that was it, he got a sharp kick, I gathered him up and off we went. Absolutely fine after that. And we had a lovely canter out there.

I'm clearly too soft.

Ride safe x

All in hand!

Yay for good weather, and (slightly) longer days! Today was pretty successful. The boys were both up at the gate when I went to get Rio this morning, so I very carefully opened the gate so it didn't click and scare him off, and we managed to walk out with absolute minimal fuss. He didn't want to walk back toward it for me to close it, so I left him where he was (a few feet away) and shut the gate. I'm happy with a small victory at a time. We can work on waiting around the gate! Once we got up to the second gate, he walked through as normal - we just need to work on convincing him he can walk alongside me and not just trying to go through me all of the time, but we're on it!

We went the opposite way to usual and went to say hello to a couple of friends a few fields down. He kindly cleaned out Leo's food bowl before we wandered up to the yard. He had a small blip and was shying at something at the metal gate but I turned him back and he calmed down.

We did some lovely grooming, standing quietly, met a pony who he'd not met before, and they had cuddles and a little squeal before we went into the outdoor schooling paddock to do some in hand and try and bust some of those scary spooks! We walked lots of circles, serpentines, investigated all of the scary tyres scattered about, walked over and through poles, round the tyres, stopped, started, looked, and then munched some grass (Rio, not me!) We even did a pirhouette, which he did quite well! Ooh and a couple of steps backwards with me. Have I mentioned yet that I love this pony?

I decided it would be nice to take him for a walk around the top of the farm to have a look around as he's only done that once. We went round to see my friend and her pony, and ended up walking out in hand up the road - who needs a dog when you can pony walk?? It was lovely doing something different, and people seem to think I'm mad, but I actually enjoy in hand work as much as riding. We even had to cross a fairly busy road to get across to the road we walked up, and he was as good as gold.

He certainly earned his breakfast today - complete with carrots with tops still on - just like horsey spaghetti!

Aand this was once he was settled back in his field, all nice and relaxed! I would like to add, that our last small victory was that as we got back to the gate he doesn't like, he did try and rush through it, but I wouldn't let him have his headcollar off until he took two steps back toward me, and after a few minutes of standing off from him, he came over.

Ride safe! x

Happy new year! Bring on 2014

Can you believe him? He came up with me to the gate last night - admittedly with a little coaxing and bribery with the wheelbarrow (he has a fascination with it) but once I got him there, he stood quite happily. Had a little sniff, and chilled out. Just goes to show he is probably just testing the boundaries a bit when he is causing trouble walking through it. I even took the bottom half of the gate off so it was clicking a little before this photo was taken and he still had a sniff and stayed put. Did it stop him from having a little argument with me today? Of course not. We followed his field buddy up out of the field today as it was super windy, and to be honest, I was quite impressed. He just needs to learn to take that confidence in me like he does from another horse being around!

Happy new year everyone, I hope you all brought the new year in as you wanted! I must admit to being in bed by 11pm, I was absolutely shattered. This is the first year I haven't officially stayed up to welcome in the new year, but I have already set up 2014 to be an exciting one with this little man, so with everything else already in place, I have no need. The only thing I'm looking to try and sort is finding a new job, but that will come in time. Just to prove that he can do it, here's a video of Rio standing like a trooper whilst we get blown around:

I don't expect him to stand like this on his own any time soon, but it's good to know he's more than capable of it when he feels comfortable in company! I missed the darn burr in his forelock though and by the time I noticed it in the field, he'd had enough of being fussed over! I do love this boy :) he stood here for around 20-30 minutes whilst we chatted and decided against riding before he had his feet picked, got his breakfast and then got to go back to his field. He's really picked up standing still - he was so fidgety when I got him home.

Ride safe! x

Fence hopping

Oh mum! Stop embarrassing me! 

Mum took this picture to prove that I'm just being silly when I refuse to go through the gate. I don't know why. It's scary when I have to go through it! Plus, she tricked me into standing next to her before I even noticed where I was. I must admit, after I had a sniff about, it didn't seem so bad, but I'm pretty sure the monsters were asleep at the time - they're always lurking there whenever the headcollar comes close! 

So I decided I wanted a change of scenery last night. It took mum way too long to come find me when she brought breakfast. She called me a dozen times, but her tiny head light didn't shine far enough for her to see me. She must have noticed I wasn't waiting at the gate like normal! Eventually she came walking down and found me, and I was in the field next door (where all the nice untouched grass is!) but she made me walk all the way back up to the gate where the monsters are, and then told me off a little when I wouldn't go through it - even though she had my breakfast. I had to have my headcollar on for reassurance that they wouldn't come and get me. Anyway, I was very good and it only took two attempts for me to kick my nerves and walk through BOTH scary gates. Mum gave me a  big pat and I tucked in to brekkie. 

It was nice that mum came down to see me after work tonight, that's when she tricked me into standing by the gate for cuddles and I even stood there whilst the electric was clicking a bit. Mum seemed quite impressed, and kept saying "I told you it wasn't that scary!" (I know you don't believe her either...) Don't I look handsome though? Rumour has it that I might have another new rug too. I'm so excited to try it on!