Sunday Snaps

Walked out in hand with Rio! He's acting all cool with his collar up...

Goat show jumping - my friend's goat, not mine!

Horsing around at a show with my cousin, they did well for their second time out!

Ride safe x

Happy hacker Sunday

"All I pay my psychiatrist is the cost of feed and hay, and he'll listen to me any day"

My little man having a snooze after some good work today! 

I am a proud mummy today. We walked straight up the corrridor of the field to the gate, and straight through it without wiggling, walked straight down the track, stopped at the gate when I asked him to, straight across the schooling paddock, and only stopped once because he wanted to follow my friend instead of going left when she went right. We avoided burrs in the mane, however he got his own back by completely tangling up his feathers with the darn things... 20 minutes and a few bouts of head rush later and he was brushed and ready for a nice relaxed hack. 

We went out up front with his field buddy B, and he was calm and walking steady from the get go. We had a couple of nice trots out in the village, and when we came back across the field we managed a bit of a canter! We walked back to the yard, and we were at the end of the field before I realised I had ridden him on the buckle the whole way after our canter. A little thing I was so happy with, because it means I'm letting myself trust him a bit more too. 

I have a bit of a problem with leaning forward, it's just force of bad habit. I sit in to encourage him into canter, but as soon as he picks it up I can't help but lean forward! When we got back my friend suggested we do some transitions in the schooling paddock walk, a couple of strides of sitting trot, and into canter, to try and encourage me to hold onto my position. My problem is that I sit in, then it all goes to pot when he carries on trotting. We did manage one good one, and a second one when we followed B through, I just need to work on sitting in, and my aids! Still, I'm a happy mummy.

Let me leave you with some photos I took last weekend of my cousin and her horse out jumping.

    

Ride safe x

Quiet contemplation

There are some moments that you just really know that it's worth it. The long hours in the office, the freezing winds, the poo picking in the rain. I had one of these moments this morning, for no particular reason at all, just that I was down in the field doing my morning duties, and realised I was just happy to be there. Even better is that the last two mornings, daybreak has come as I'm finishing up - spring must be just around the corner! I'm so happy we are past the shortest day, and can now look forward to the next few months. 

We've had more rain and the river has invaded the field again a little. The boys have their own paddling pool! 

I'm helping a friend out at the moment feeding her pony and when I went up with her hay after work this evening, popped up to the boys' field to say hello. They were milling around the gate area so I made up for being naughty and not picking out Rio's feet this morning. He was such a good boy, it must be a bit daunting for a walking, talking lightbulb to approach! We had lots of cuddles and head rubs after, I just love this boy so much already. 

I'm hoping to go and see my cousin and her horse tomorrow to take some photos - fingers crossed the weather holds out, although the forecast doesn't look promising. I had great fun photographing them on XC schooling over a year ago, and am hoping to be able to get more involved in photography with horses too. What do you think of my last attempts?

Well, I'm hoping for a hack out tomorrow after the hay delivery. I'm going to be working with Rio in the company of another pony for a little longer to give him some more time to get more comfortable whilst up at the top of the yard. Once he's more settled (and hopefully the weather will be too...) then I will start working him on his own a bit more. Will let you know how it goes!

Ride safe x