Blasting away the cobwebs

The cruise was fab. It was the perfect break that we needed at just the right time. If you ever get an opportunity to sail on a Clipper, absolutely go for it! 

Back to real life, and I'm getting back in the swing of things with Rio. His confidence has taken a bit of a hit under saddle, and he's been a bit spooky, but on the plus side he's much improved in hand. Yesterday we went for a ride around the village with Millie and Bailey and finished with a little canter up the field which was interesting. It's been a while since he's had a proper leg stretching canter out on a track. The first half was very much a rocking horse gone mad, with his head between his knees! There was nothing malicious, but he was certainly happy to be out and moving some. 

This evening we hit the track up the road for a proper blast to try and clear some cobwebs. The wind was pretty gusty, but I wasn't about to start down that "nervous in bad weather rider" road. We tacked up, mounted, and headed off. We were so busy chatting away that I barely even noticed the wind. The ride was pretty relaxed all the way, and we had a fantastic canter up the hill and across the fields including a little bit of a gallop across the top! He was very responsive, keen and I think we both had an absolutely fab time. He's a little star, and I'm so pleased to be enjoying him again. 

Stuck like glue!

We have had a smattering of snow over the course of this last week, but whilst the snowfall has looked impressive at times, it's not lasted long! This was on Thursday afternoon - I was lucky enough to be granted a late request for a half day's holiday at work. I took Rio out around the village with one of the girls whose 4 year old TB can be a bit of a crazy boy, and Rio was a bit fresh. I intended on changing his numnah back to his woolly white one, but ran short on time with the weather threatening. His new one has been rubbing a bit at the back of the saddle, so I had temporarily padded it out with the half pad which seemed to fit much better too. I think he may be changing shape again a little. It could have been the numnah that caused him to do a speedy stomp around the village, or maybe he just knew the snow was coming! 

I finally got around to putting my photos in my frame! Such a gorgeous boy, and now I get to admire him all of the time. 

Today we went out in the trailer with Sarah and Franks, and Rio got to try out his big boy pants and take the lead! We had an interesting start, to the point that I thought his saddle must really be causing him aggravation. Whenever I asked anything of him, and again in between, he was skipping around being a bit silly. We gave him the benefit of the doubt, and took the boys up the canter hill for a leg stretching trot and it seemed to do the trick. Franks was being super good, so Rio and I took the lead, to give him something to think about, and test his brave pants!

He did have a couple of moments, as you can see in the video haha. It was a fab ride. We still have plenty to work on, but it was just great. Sadly the SD card was full before we finished our hack, so we didn't get footage of the uphill gallop at the end of our ride. My seat has improved so much, as has my confidence and trust in Rio. Not long ago, if he had taken off up the hill at the rate he did, I would have been genuinely scared, and pulling him up. Not only that, but he ducked abruptly to the right once we hit the track at the top - straight into a low hanging branch. I've no clue how I stayed on, as I had to duck down over his left shoulder to avoid getting smacked in the face, and of course that's the way my balance was thrown by him jumping across to the right. A quick glance at the floor reminded me that's not where I wanted to be, so I looked straight ahead and we carried on!

This month is looking to be an expensive one on Rio's part! Just as well I'm accustomed to being poor on his behalf hey. I'm running desperately short on hay, and have somehow got to try and make it last until Saturday. I've managed to make up a haynet from some of the fresher stuff around his bale for the morning, and I'm just going to have to hope the rest is enough... (I do have a backup offer from Sarah should this fail! I can't let my poor baby go hungry in this horrible cold weather)

Merry Christmas, the rocky start...

Merry Christmas everyone!

We made it out for our Christmas day ride yesterday, after a rocky start at the yard. Rio has been a beautiful field ornament for a week and a half so a good blast was in order to blow away those cobwebs. However, when I went to lead him around the barn to go onto the trailer, and he spooked and fell over, that wasn't the first thought on my mind. Luckily he had his cooler on, so whilst he did scuff a chunk of hair off his left knee, the main damage was to his cooler rug... He now has armpit ventilation! 

He was a bit of a sod to load, having freaked himself out, but after walking a few circuits of the car park, he chilled out and off we went. True to form and living up to expectations, he was super fresh, and we had a bouncy, joggy walk down the track. We had walking and trying to sneak trot strides in, trotting and dropping in canter strides, and cantering with gallop thrown in for good measure! We hopped puddles and dips in the track, yelled ahead for Sarah and Franks to hang on a sec (little did I realise that we were in fact going so fast, we'd already made it to the end of the track, and they were then pulling up anyway!) 

Franks was being such a good boy that we even got to take lead file for a bit, so that Rio could practice his bravery. We went up the super steep hill, where much to my amusement, we launched up and over the crest, and had a lovely canter after that, and then we went out for a trot back towards the trailer on the stubble field. Inevitably, that turned into a canter, which was not so bad until Rio tried to drop his head! Little bugger. I brought him back, and we had a great trot along the grass track, and walked down the hill. Rio was still up for it, so we decided to turn them around and have one last blast! 

Rio went nuts for it, and I had my first "ohmigosh" canter moment. We went hard up the hill, and as we levelled out, Rio's bottom tucked in, his back came up, and we had the perfect canter and I felt on top of the world. (I didn't realise this until afterwards when I explained the sensation to Sarah). He was still up for it, he's obviously feeling much better for having his clip and not being a sweaty blob! When we went to go back down the hill again, he decided that walking was not an option, and much to my horror we trotted pretty much the whole way down. EEK. We survived though! I would like to say that I did stay rather calm (surprisingly).

We even found the Christmas Star on our travels! All in all, I was super pleased that I bit the bullet and took him out despite my concerns. If I can do that after a week and a half of him doing nothing, and come out of it smiling - darn it, I can do anything! Rio enjoyed a special Christmas dinner after working hard. Two parsnips, two carrots and an apple with his usual feed. Yum yum. 

So this afternoon, we did. I tacked him up and we went out around the village on our own. It was rather bumpy. I'm not sure if Rio was trying out Piaffe, but aside from some nice walking down one of the roads, it was certainly not the smoothest ride we've had. We made it though! I was a bit naughty, and forgot to put his sports boots on, which I regretted when I realised after we did the scopiest trot I've had from him on the way back (on the road...) I was hoping it would settle him a bit. We covered the ground faster than I've ever known him to. 

I'm not sure if I'd mentioned the lumpy bump and its prognosis from the second (better) vet when Rio had his jabs. It is a splint, so now it's just a case of looking after it (wearing boots. Please!) and monitoring it. On the downside - it's close to his knee, so I just hope that it's not going to interfere in his later years. Also - a footnote on his clip - it's really not so great now it's growing out a bit again. There are lines everywhere, so that's definitely something I'm going to have to work on for next time... I did get show trimmers for Christmas though, so we will be clipping away at those! 

I'm hoping to get chance to ride tomorrow afternoon, but it all depends on this horrible rainy weather - it sounds awful out there at the moment. Me and hubster are away for a few days after tomorrow night to have a break, so Rio will be mooching around until new year's day when hopefully the fun recommences. Bless his little patchwork rug. He's got a couple of friends at the yard looking out for him whilst I'm away, I'm just hoping the weather isn't too horrible so his rug doesn't end up soaked through! 

Ride / play safe x

Making progress

Just a quick update this evening! After a good ride out Tuesday evening, we braved a little walk out around the village with no equine company. Sarah accompanied us again on her bike, and me and Rio were very relaxed! I was so pleased, so now I just have to get on with trying it on our own, like, on our own. We shall see!

Tonight we went for a ride up onto the stubble fields with Sarah and Franks. Our first proper canters out on a hack (we've just had a little one with Sarah last week) since the river field broncs, and it all went swimmingly. It's all very helpful as the stubble is on a sweeping incline, and we had a little fleeting moment where Rio felt like he wanted to fly, but I checked him on it, and he came straight back to me. We had a little sideways spook whilst cantering the straight, but I was able to sit into it and went with him and just carried on. Overall, I'm very very pleased with both of us!

Feathers are still on, but fingers are TIGHTLY crossed they are coming off on Saturday morning. Rio has the farrier tomorrow, so new shoes, fresh legs, and if the weather allows, I think he will have a nice bath and I'll try and sort out his mane as it's a bit of a mess! 

Ride / play safe x

Speedy gonzalez!

I couldn't believe the wind was trying to make a comeback when I woke up on Saturday morning. All the same I dutifully trooped to the field and retrieved Rio so that we could go for an adventure to the arena around the corner from our yard. I've been intending to take him there for a few weeks now to see how he dealt with a new environment. Luckily I had little expectation, and we spent a little over half an hour walking around in circles, zig zags, around jumps, trying to get the hang of using an inside bend with inside leg to keep his mind on me and not on the scary signs... It was certainly interesting. 

One of my friends had come over with me, so we walked around with her for a while after he had a rather sudden spook across the school! It was almost the same scenario as when I took my tumble, but luckily I managed to just about hang on - relieved I opted for a neck strap! Another friend who is our yard aficionado, and a wonderful rider came over to see how it went too. I was glad of the focus she gave me. Instead of worrying about what he was looking at, we worked with the scary jumps, and he did begin to calm by the end of the session. 

I worked a little on my leg position and trying to get inside bend walking around the jumps in circles, and experienced the very uncomfortable position that I should be assuming when training him to leg yield and move over from my leg. Ouch. We will have to see how that goes as my knee has definitely been feeling rather painful since the increase in riding workload... There will be more trips to come to the arena to see if we can get him settled enough to have a productive schooling session, but overall I was pleased. It was the first time I've really experienced him being properly scared of something!

On Sunday, I arrived at the yard just as everyone was tacking up for a hack out around the village so we joined the big boys again for a troop out. We had a lovely ride, and came back via the field where it sounded a fun idea to have a canter and see if Rio could keep pace. We took up lead, and Rio decided that he was going to drop back into trot! After that, one of the big boys took over and he soon picked up canter again, before realising that he was getting left in the dust - the immense power that I could feel from behind was an amazing feeling, and we had what must have been close to a flat out gallop for my little dude. My tracker notched a cool 18.3mph maximum speed. Yes, he's no racer, but he's only got little legs! 

It was the first time I've experienced him get so excitable, and though I managed to bring him back down to walk after a few more strides of sitting in than usual, he certainly wasn't so keen on walking the rest of the way back. It was very wiggly, but makes me hopeful that we will be able to stick to the french link snaffle he has at the moment. I really don't want to have to play around with stronger bits if I can help it. Then we got to try and be a stopper as the two other big boys got very excitable too - one of my friend's came haring past and all I heard was "I've got no stirruuuups!!" and the other came past and had to turn three circles to stop. Needless to say, we didn't have much sway in stopping either of them. To give him his due, Rio stood like a rock and I was very proud that he was one of the two young ones and they BOTH behaved so well. 

Grazing after bath time (only a couple of hours...)

After all of that excitement, it was bath time. Rio's first bath since I got him. No matter how much I scrubbed the stains, there are some that just won't come out. We had fairy liquid, shampoo, and a mixture of both, and still couldn't get rid of them. Blue shampoo, and touch of silver shampoo have been recommended, so they will be tried next time. Although it has to be said, I saw another friend at the yard this evening who didn't know he was bathed yesterday, and she did comment that he looked lovely and bright. I think by the end of the bath I was feeling a little disheartened, so it was nice to know he did actually look a bit cleaner!

OH! I almost forgot, Rio had his first chip yesterday... A McDonalds chip. Or 4. It really worked in my favour in the end, as when I went to worm him he thought the syringe was a chip and clamped his teeth around it. Much easier than the last one. Bless him!

Ride safe x