Videos

Technical issues meant we only have the second half of Max's test. Which means we get all the canter but not much trot! But look, he CAN canter!!

Riding wise, I didn't feel I rode him as well as I can.... I forgot boards. And sheering. Ho hum. But mainly I managed to get the feel of "lift" the back, not reel the head in. And I guess that is quite tricky in itself when you consider how long he is. But compared with our photos from the spring, I think he doesn't look nearly as long and gangly as he did!



And then Magic, being c.a.l.m! Not a single spook. Never thought I'd see the day. Especially on his first outing in there for ages!

Me, still not matching the forces or rising enough... Still a bit square wheeled, but better, much better and certainly some nearly round wheeled moments :-))

Stressage with M&M!

What can I say? Apart from it being freezing and raining all morning, we've had a fab day!

Two very kind friends stepped in to nanny the pair of M's first joint outing - so thanks folks, much appreciated and good to have a gossip and catch up!

We got there, got them both off, and then stuck Magic back on. Expected a little bit of a fuss, but was totally prepared to ignore him as he is officially the "grown up" in this scenario!

Max and I went off to warm up. Cue firebreathing dinosaur again. Definitely should have called him T-Rex! We trotted round. A lot. And then some more. Then we risked canter. We couldn't stop. We didn't walk for at least 20mins. Then we seemed somewhat calmer.

We had no leap/buck combos, but plenty of T-Rex roars and "I'll stick my head in the clouds and my fingers in my ears and see how many poor unsuspecting members of the public I can plough through in my excitement". Sigh.

Bless him though he tires fast!! And he's so much easier to ride than Magic that trotting and cantering for half an hour was no problem. Unfortunately, an early competitor got shipped off by ambulance (never let anyone tell you stressage is a SAFE sport!) so everything was running 40mins late. Which worked well as was able to take him back to the lorry for a rest for a bit (where Magic kicked off again, despite having been perfect when no one around.... hmmm).

Got back on and did a bit more work, but he was truly sensible by now and I didn't want him tired (pony club kicks to get canter is not the done thing daaaarling!).

Went into the indoor school, away from all others, where he's never been before and bimbled round doing his test in a little world of his own. I love him so much! I can just imagine his internal dialogue, it'd go..... "hummm, mmmm,mmm," (sings to self) "wonder why she wants me to trot round here then" "hum hum mmm" "This is quite repetitive, still she must have her reasons." "oooh, she only wants me to CANTER as well, hooooow much like hard work?" "hmmm, mmmm" "Oh good, we've stopped." "Oh good, a carrot". "Odd mother!" :-)))

Gotta love a switched off baby ex-racer. I think they broke the mold!

So we saunter back, get Magic out and let them both have some haylage for a bit. Then I stick Max back in lorry thinking it'd all kick off..... and nothing. He stood and ate his haylage. Even when we left! I was sooo worried warming up Magic that I was quite relieved when I heard him bang a few times. I was beginning to think he'd strung himself up or something. So his halo is WELL adjusted today! Perfect pone.

Magic and I warmed up. I can't say he was quite as relaxed as last Sunday, but very good none the less. I could barely match his forces so did minimal warm up. Canter was lush though. Don't know where THAT'S come from but am very very pleased!!

In we went. Only thing I wanted was calm Magic. And I got it! And the ears! Granted, every 10 trot strides or so he felt the need to try to hollow, but each time I worked on what I needed to do, as WELL as maintaining some sort of outline, and he came back to me. He was very calm, no pre-empting and the canter was as good as outdoors. Even the trot work he was pushing the neck away from me at times. It felt gooood!

Came out and gave him loads of fuss. I think he likes the new me :-))) I certainly like the new Magic :-)))

Put him away (Max still being a star) and went to look at scores. Not bothered, but pleased to see that Max got 60%. Really really lovely comments about how he just gets too long and loses balance but generally good! No comment that read "get that cripple outa here"!!!

Magic got 63% which I'm happy about. Didn't wait for sheet but will get it posted on.

I have videos thanks to the aformentioned friends, so shall upload them when I have a mo.

But, and its a huge thing - my two Ms can go parties together and be sensible left in the lorry! AND Magic did a calm test, in the indoor where he ALWAYS had mega spooks.

Very tired happy bunny tonight!! :-))

OK, hands up, who stole my navicular cripple?

And swapped him for a fire-breathing dinosaur?

Hmm. Own up, tis not funny. I'd like a broken Maxwell back please.....



Pah. :-))

So tonight was RC lesson night. I stuck to my guns about not taking Magic and had decided I would take Max.... so yesterday Max and I were hacking out in the beautiful sunshine at 6.50am :-)

And then, this morning, it was Magic's turn.... and I must say if I can scrape myself out of bed, riding in the dawn is much more preferable than poo picking (which has slipped off the radar this week :whistlesinnocently:).

Then tonight, off we went to RC. Maxwell the perfect pony loaded straight onto the lorry in the dark as if he did it all the time (first time in the lorry at all!). He travelled fab and had loads more room than in trailer.

We got on and walked round early, and someone was very on his toes.... people walking alongside the arena, wind blowing, etc all caused the Maxwell equivalent of a squeal and pee-off (basically, a roar like the T-rex in Jurassic Park, and a few strides of TB "bounce").

Dan was rolling his eyes at him, honestly, I saw him!

Then other folks started to arrive and we had a few more interesting moments.

Max decided that each new horse into the arena had to be checked out and if female, letched over for the foreseeable future. He wasn't particularly impressed when I suggested that tonight wasn't about "picking up birds"!!!

Then, after explaining to instructor that he was baby, blah blah, broken/rehab, blah... not very fit... blah.... no schooling... blah... we set off to warm up, and got to the car park end of the arena and out of NOWHERE he did the leap/buck combo he does in the field. O.M.G. I nearly bit dirt! He didn't have the decency to roar first, oh no, he roared on landing as we legged it across the arena. :smallembarrassedcough:

Humph. Methinks I shall not feel too guilty about him having to work solidly for an hour!

I have a bad shoulder, and that made it worse. Honestly it was like being on one of those rollercoasters when they set off straight down and there's nout in front of you (or seemingly even beneath you!). Fortunately, he wasn't quick enough to twist as well (phew) and he's got such a long neck, that even the amount of force he put in, his neck still was there as we landed. Ickle sh*t.

So we were a bit careful for a few mins.... and then things started to settle down and he went like a dream.

I need to remember to sling shot right back in trot, and rise all the way, but goodness if Magic requires 100% effort 100% time to "get it", with Max I need probably 60%, 4o% of the time to have a good stab at it. So easy AS!!

Even canters he tried very hard, good trans and no ears up nostrils, in fact offering too much nosedive. But he feels like its canter now, allbeit not very balanced yet. Trot on the other hand is fantastic. Even on small circles.

So I guess, yes, someone has swapped my cripple for a new baby project.... cos he sure ain't a cripple any more!! Yippeee :-)))

He travelled home quietly as well, and loading is just a dream. Unloading was pretty cute as he did "flip flop feet" coming off ramp as it was quite steep and dark having come away from the light in the box so he felt his way down the ramp, bless him.

All in all an excellent evenings work.

He's not got a Bredon hack on Fri now, but we have still got stressage on Sun. Please god he doesn't hit the ejector button again when I am there alone with two horses :coldshudder:

:-))))

Foiled

We went jumpies this afternoon.... to find it had been cancelled because of the wind/rain.

Bum.

Fortunately, they let us hire the arena, so I had a happy 3/4 hr schooling Magic instead. I'm not sure P and Dan thought as much of the opportunity as me!

Magic was very spooky about the banners to start with, so we walked a 20m circle round on the right rein and past them over and over again with me getting his attentive (on me!) ears and pushing his neck away. Once I'd pretty much got them (barring incidents!) we changed rein and did left rein. No attempt at all on left rein in walk.

So back to right rein, and trot. Wow. By george I think we've got it! I had control of the speed of his legs, so I remembered more rise and I got big trot! Waiting for ME big trot more to the point. When I lost it I needed more bear down and to drag my feet BACK. Weird, but worked... I think he's sneaking me into a very subtle water ski without me noticing, and then off we went in the same old same old... drawing lower leg back got me out of it!

I really really need to keep getting to top of rise... but I struggle sooooo much when he's tense.... So my learning curve from stressage on Thurs, then today is that its ok to forget the rise as long as I have mega beardown, more than reins.... but rising better helps me GET control of the speed of the legs, so the longer I get defensive and ickle rise, the harder it'll be. But beardown first!

So hey ho, its back to the same old - kneel (enough), slingshot (enough), buffer (enough), beardown (enough), Bulldog clip (enough), rise (enough). Heeeeeeheee. Simples!

So right trot was good, changed to left trot which has been better than right the last few times, and it still was! Excellent. I had leg to hand and throughness. My goodness, I felt like I could ride, and he felt like dressage coblet!

The other biiiig thing though, is his neck. As in, after watching vid and seeing how jacknifed he was, I was determined straight neck. Easy peasy on right rein as we both LIKE working into left hand. Very hard on left rein.... although doable as long as I turned like a bus....

Again, blow me down this stuff works and I can actually see us improving LOADS at the mo!

Then a breather as my thighs had given up ghost. Once thighs are gone, I can't be strong enough in beardown and back so I lose the trot.

Then onto canter. Right canter first. Lovely trans, my new regime of always sit trot so he knows is working. And he only tried to stretch right down! I nearly fell off. It was gorgeous!

Then left canter, did some trot first, but funnily he was loads more relaxed and less pre-emptive than he's been in the field. Got left canter and worked on turning like a bus and KEEPING right rein. It worked, we did feel a bit like turning on a kinda pirouette, but he relaxed and stretched down this way too. The ONLY time he tensed was when my left hand started trying to steer/flex.... then I had to remember my mandtra (see above!) and release the rein, whilst apologising for bad habits.

Transitions were mainly brilliant. He did one walk/trot where he hollowed. So I halted him with my core, and asked again and he stayed lovely and soft, so I'd suspect I'd "ridden" the trans rather than "working me" on the trans. He did one rubbish left trot/canter one, but otherwise they were fab.

And we have balanced canter/trot trans - soooo nice, he just comes through all balanced as long as (yes, you've guessed it) I keep my mantra running!

The tricky thing for me now is this neck straight on thing. But it soo helps him that I will crack it. I just have to remember that, on top of all else.

The best bit was how calm he was. Yes he spooked, yes we had a couple of whip round/piss off levitate manouvres, but he stopped and carried on without taking a breath/missing a stride.... so now he doesn't STAY panicked by stuff. And there was a horse looning around in field by school that he thoroughly managed to ignore. No mean feat!

We even did some medium trots, where I got to feel a real medium, and transition to working purely from rise/beardown etc. Really really exciting! Plus I can sit trot for at least 2 strides to get canter :-))

We had round wheels for sure today, and I'm now loads more confident that even though I'll probably have "lost" them next time I school I CAN get them back!!!

I'm so proud of him and I'm actually quite proud of me too! We can do this! :-)))

Trims, when and who

Aero -
7/12/08 (9.5 weeks)
12/2/09 (6.5 weeks)
30/3/09 (5.5 weeks, only a little rasp round the flare really)
7/5/09 (6 weeks)
18/6/09 (3.5 weeks! - desperate, think last of really bad flare)
12/7/09 (5 weeks)
14/8/09 (8 weeks)
7/10/09


Magic -
1/1/09 (7 weeks)
20/2/09 (7 weeks)
10/4/09 (5 weeks)
15/5/09 (8 weeks)
12/7/09 (5 weeks)
14/8/09 (5 weeks til Exmoor 20-27th Sept. Self trimmed nicely!)
25/10/09 (10 weeks total)


Dan -
17/12/08 (8 weeks)
12/2/09 (7 weeks)
3/4/09 (5 weeks) Was footy around this time so they came off the big fields!
7/5/09 (7 weeks) and boy were they ugly flared things!
24/6/09 (2 weeks and as I had the rasp out, I took the flare off again... can't believe how quick they are growing at mo.
12/7/09 (4 weeks) we have another ducks bill section of flare on the lower third... not long now!
14/8/09 (5 weeks)
19/9/09


Max -
17/12/08 (fronts - 5 weeks til...)
20/1/09 (all 4, then 5.5 til)
1/3/09 (fronts - then 5 til)
3/4/09 (all 4, then 5 weeks, (all 4) only a little rasp round the flare really)
7/5/09 (6 weeks) Proper trim at a proper time!
18/6/09 (5 weeks) last of major flare off, whoohoo.
24/7/09 Experimenting with no trim.... as medial/lateral deviation seems to be serving a purpose....
Checked 7/10/09. Roll at toe nearly grown out, great length at quarters has self trimmed out, leaving very self made quarter scoop. Heels still very weedy, but much higher (1 cm?) than sole at heel. Frogs very in ground contact though so assume heels will reduce in height when back of foot can take more ground contact. New hoof at coronet got 1 inch or so of much much tighter growth, so again the stuff at the ground looks very flared. Its going to take a while until this guy grows his perfect foot! (13 weeks!)
25/10/09 Gave in, flare off!

Tig -
1/1/09 (8 weeks)
1/3/09 (6 weeks)
10/4/09 (4 weeks) Mega trim needed - feet are growing!
7/5/09 (6 weeks) Ditto. Possible abscess 5/6 - lame 4 days, homeopathics. Must have reabsorbed.
18/6/09 (8 weeks) Moved to new yard on 30/7/09.
14/8/09 (9 weeks)
16/10/09

Video

Edited to show just the bits "this" end as nothing to see the other end and takes for hours to load as it is!

You wouldn't believe how much longer he was in the neck warming up, sob!

Stressage

Oh yes. The ears? Had them for most of the warm up, but not much of the test :-)

He warmed up well, concentrating on me and generally trying very hard. Left canter is a complete mare at the mo.... am trying to analyse why but am not really succeeding..... something to do with sliding off the right side of my horse though perhaps?

We warmed up (mainly in walk) for nearly an hour. So I'd cooked myself by the time it was our go. Although thighs are fine today, so obviously wasn't as cooked as I thought!

We went in and he was madly spooking at the wings along the sides of the arena. TBH I let him as I tried once to get the ears but he took it as a reason to be even more spooked. So I let him walk round like a tapir til the bell went.

Then we picked up trot, spooked wildly at A and entered.... He was very tense in the test but I think we both tried our level best. I gave it everything but came out very despondant that my best is sooooo far from being able to successfully match his forces.

He was very spooky, ce la vie.... not helped by them collecting sheets from the judges box AS I WAS TURNING AT C. Now, that peed me off a bit. Since when do they collect sheets in the middle of someone's test? I wouldn't have minded if I'd been the other end, but it gave Magic all he needed to spook at C everytime. So I did my test in a 35 by 18 arena to avoid levitating. Sigh.

Course, he'd have thought I was cross with him, which I wasn't!

Having said that, he was not too bad with the white boards. And we had moments where I could just soften and let him go and he didn't run off (we were going far too slow anyway cos I was soooo not in control of the speed of his legs!).

I'm so glad I got it videod, even though its a bit far away. I came out thinking I'd ridden in my old hunched over, lean right forward way, so it was nice to play it back and see that although he looked tense and like I needed to ride forwards, I was pretty upright and he looks pretty polite.

I even got to the point in right canter where I started half halting, setting him up and then letting him go. I think he will have appreciated that.... I didn't just hang on for grim death as usual.

His canter was pretty sideways and I can see how not straight we are in canter... lots more to work on with withers in and head/neck out to straighten us up, but the left canter looks better than expected (!) so just goes to show I'm feeling much smaller stuff now than I used to.

We got 60%. Given the tension I guess we didn't deserve more but I can see potential there now that I didn't think I'd ever be able to tap... maybe a few more stressage outings and he'll learn to relax at that too.

Then we went jumpies. The jumps were tiny but I was able to focus on hands down and control and keep the canter rhythm, which he seems to be fooling around with just now... he's doing the "I need to drop back to trot to have a good peer at it" routine... but for now I'm letting him as long as he still flows and jumps... its not my fault his peering trot is the most square wheeled in the world, I just have to try to ride it properly! He went clear and is getting more relaxed jumpies.

Dan on the other hand, warmed up beautifully for stressage, even if silly at times to get to Magic, then refused to go into the main arena. at.all. Lots of showing everyone his tummy. Not even going to take a lead from a handy person. Magic and I had to lead him in, but then of course I worried he'd show the judge his belly and leave the arena in his test. But he didn't, phew. Test was tense but everything in the right place. His paces have changed so much and I think he really needs to just chill out a bit... but its mostly Magic so the sooner he's partying with Max the better! He then jumped round clear in his dressage kit, to prove that the jumpies bit is fun and easy!

Dan and Magic jumping on Sun, then flat lesson for Max and Dan on Tues, and a hackety on Bredon for Max on Fri, before Magic and Max's first dual outing on Sun for stressage (P is away).

Busy busy!