Summer Solstice

February 2012

2012-02-01T16:09:00.013Z

Saturday 11th February

Pretty cold today but sun tried to come out and it was positively warm for a couple of hours this afternoon. I spent a while poo picking paddock one again, only one I seem to be able to keep clean at the moment but it's the one they eat in so that's good. Just before finishing poo picking the herd (well three of them) decided to run fast from paddock 3, over two wooden bridges, over ground that is potholed and rough with slippery mud on surface and hard mud underneath and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why? Maybe they all realised that Tara was with me slowly eating her way through the left over hay and thought they'd better come and claim some? lol. Silly billies.

The herd of three running to paddock 1

Stormy getting serious over space and his rightful place at top of the herd!

Solly got the picture straight away and moved off...
when Stormy gets serious, believe me, you MOVE! lol

After a quick lunch I decided to put the horses out to graze a bit. Mark has a sore back today so I put Holly and Stormy in an electric fenced paddock outside the garden gate and left them to it. Tara went into an electric roundpen near them and grazed away and Solly stayed with me where I groomed him and then played a bit with him ;-)

It was only a short, but good session, with Solly today, working with a neck rope as I can't do liberty here at moment. I really noticed the difference between liberty and halter/rope with this and how my horsemanship changes. The neck rope has introduced a new dimension for me. Love liberty and we enjoy that very much but have found myself being not so light when I have halter/rope and this way helps me to analyse my hand/rope holding without being able to wiggle as wiggling around his neck isn't as effective as wiggling on his nose. I've found that, like at liberty, I have to use my THOUGHT/ENERGY properly and hopefully this will make my rope handling more refined thougth re-shaping my brain/hand actions ;)

Today was just about working with space and direction with Solly today with thought and quick lead phases. It was fun and showed me things I can work on even though not in the big play field at moment.

Sideways away with neck rope...pretty light today

Try a bit of circling....just talking to his shoulder here as he
was sticking it into my personal bubble space

Circle a bit more curved here...
What I call being straight on a circle ;-)

Lovely draw from a back up

Z5 friendly and back ups ;)

and he even did some sideways away from Z5....
not easy at all as ground VERY ROUGH and slighty uphill too...
He's a clever boy who, when asked nicely, will try his heart out ;)

Stepping up over some large stone steps ;)

and hanging out with mum and some grazing

What a good boy ;)

After some grazing Solly went into the single roundpen and I took Tara out. I gave her a big groom as she was very muddy and she grazed happily. I then mounted her bareback and moseyed around the roundpens letting her graze. I get the feeling Tara wants, and misses, our 'together alone' time. May sort that out in next couple of days and maybe take her down to the big field with me to figure out this years arena/pens ;)

My bestest girl ;)

Unfortunately just when I was thinking about getting Stormy and/or Holly out for a grooming/play session there was some clay pigeon shooting behind our house and the two big babies got a bit worried, running about SO I put them back into their paddocks where they ran to the outtermost paddock and stuck together as far away from the noise as they could get and I went inside to be with the dogs who were rather worried too ;( Hey ho, at least I got some play in ;)

Tuesday 7th February

Take horses out again, this is beginning to be a good habit. Mark w/Storm and Holly online which is now creating a good habit of them being either side of him and following him which will be good training for when he starts riding/leading them. And today I go out a bit earlier, groom, saddle and play with Solly and then spend the entire hour on him instead of Tara. This gives Tara a break and also gets Solly used to being saddled/ridden more again and also as I've done most of the grazing work off Tara, she's good at being a lead but not so good at leading so this is good to get her used to flapping ropes and that a twist of the rope means sidepass not backup.

It has also helped with Solly as every now and again I give directional aids which are usually either walk on/breath out/halt/graze or move forehand over quarter of a circle, or move hindquarters over quarter of a circle. SO although this gives us lots of undemanding time together, it's also good with some quality commands with plenty of rewards ;-) lol

Me and Solly helping Tara be better at leading from the saddle

Undemanding time ;))

Mark and his babies getting more synchronised ;)

Monday 6th February

Snow still on the ground but it's steadily going. Mark and I again took the herd in-hand grazing. Again I rode Tara out and rode Solly back...enjoying this grazing lark ;))

Sunday 5th February

Although snowy Mark and I take the herd for in-hand grazing. It was a good hour of us moseying around with them, Mark walking with Holly & Stormy and me riding Tara bareback out and Solly back in ;-)

Moseying with my herd of two

Sidling Solly up to Tara for my horse-switch ;)

Ride Solly back...this is FUN ;)

Mark with his beauties

Friday 3rd February

Cold, blue skies and sunshine and actually it was quite warm around 12-3 today and I managed to get out with the horses from 12 noon...yeehaa. They were all sunning themselves in the top third paddock behind the house and I took my equipment over to the far gate to see who wanted to play today...first up was Solly. He very much wanted to be with me and I stood and groomed him whilst we got connected and then we did some very nice haltering.

We then went out onto the grassland in front of the house on the 22' feather light line and I just had the plan to take him around the area, over the stream and play as many games as I could whilst wandering around. That loose plan worked well. We grazed and played friendly at good points, squeezed over the burn a few times whilst doing circles too and L&R too. Then we squeezed down the hillock and into/over the frozen burn there which was good. On the way back we did some sideways L&R along the track and whenever we were walking forwards we did some nice S2M transitions (w/h/bk/w/t/w/h/bk ;-)

Solly was very connected, light and willing so that by the time we got back to the paddock I decided to saddle him and take him out again doing a similar thing but with him getting used to the saddle again. All the in-hand walking/grazing has prepared him for this, got him used to the area, bareback pad and playing around whilst grazing. I took these principles out with me again to play with the saddle on. He did so well that at the bottom of the grassland I mounted and then rode him back. FIRST saddled ride this year on Solly ;-))

Riding was nice too, used exactly the same games as we played online, lots of friendly/grazing moments, shoulder-in along the track, backups whenever felt soft and good, small circles just before the paddock to help him connect with me and not the horses in the field...then up to the house for a treat from Mark who was watching and back to the paddock...we did it all in walk apart from the last 20' where we did a nice slow trot to the gate. Nice, connected, light and relaxed ride out ;-))

Solly jumping the burn

Solly sceptical about the iced over burn here today ;)

but a nice calm, walk across the burn after he'd thought about it

Mounted and riding calmly back to the house

Plenty of grazing spots to reward him for relaxation

Back ups nice and soft and connected

His walk was focussed and 'with me'

Some bits of shoulder-in

Back along the track, away from the herd, to the house for a treat ;-))

After that lovely session I asked Stormy if he wanted to come out and play and he most definitely did. He haltered very well, lowering his head for me and relaxing his head towards me nicely. I groom him to get him clean and to get some connection before we go off and then lead him out of the paddock. He is very 'with me' and light on the 22' line but he's quite interested in grazing as this is what he's used to doing when out here. I remind him to stay connected and remember to give him grazing for rewards so that we both get what we want out of this session ;-)

I do a similar walk as I did with Solly, over the burn a few times, down the hillock into the icey burn and back doing some circles and sideways along the way and S2M. He starts getting very connected to me and his w/t/w/h/bk up transitions are very light and soft. I think he had as much fun as I did and went back to the field happy with a bit of grass in his belly too ;-))

Big Stormy jumping the burn ;-)

and again...lol

Checking out the ice on the burn....

...and going over it and up the hillock beautifully once he was okay about it all

Standing at the top of the hillock having a think about it all

and then coming down the other way without a worry ;0)

Lastly going through some rough winter bushes without
worrying about his legs or under his belly ;-)

Stormy had fun and our connection was very good, he stopped worrying about the herd in the paddock, stopped worrying about being on his own without them and really started to concentrate on my energy, where I was going and what I was asking for. He's such a good boy. I hope to be able to continue these short play sessions and hopefully ride him back like I am Solly.

Thursday 2nd February

Today is cold but blue skies and sunshine make it seem warmer. I poo pick one paddock this morning (regularly doing this by hand at moment to keep me fitter! lol) and in afternoon I go and find the horses lazing about.

Solly and Holly laying down with Stormy and Tara watching over them,
all enjoying the sunshine

I went and haltered Stormy and Holly and brought them around to the front of the house where, this morning, I put up an electric fence so that they could get some grazing. I then went and got Solly and Tara and gave them a groom, put a bareback pad on Solly (friendly game with it more than anything and to get him accustomed more to cinching) and mounted Tara bareback and then grazed them next to the other two in the pen. This helps me to be able to graze all 4 horses quicker if Mark is busy elsewhere. Holly and Stormy ran around the pen for a while but then settled down. I think having the other two near helped, all just adjustements to a new situation/environment.

Stormy and Holly quietly grazing...I'm sitting on Tara, ponying Solly

After about a quarter of a hour Mark came out and he haltered up his two horses and we all moseyed over to the big area of grass to the right of the above piccie. He kept his two online today. I think this really helps Holly relax whilst out as she can release her leadership of the herd for a while when Mark is in charge of the halters ;-) It is also a good opportunity for Mark to play now and then whilst grazing, especially asking Stormy to move his HQ's or FQ's, slow down, yo-yo etc. All good stuff.

It was VERY VERY cold out and I forgot my gloves so after about 40 mins I decide that it's time to go home, my fingers were frozen and not working as well as normal. Mark decides that maybe he can ride Holly back and pony Stormy. We had a nice play around with that scenario last year in the arena so Mark and the horses had done it before. He found a stone, made reins with Holly's 12' line and jumped on bareback.

Now, he's not done this for a while, not ridden Holly for about 2 months but it was lovely to watch. Holly was perfect, didn't rush off, kept him safe and Stormy followed her like a puppy ;-)) I followed on riding Tara and ponying Solly. This is the first time we've done this out together and hopefully, maybe, we can actually take all 4 out on hacks this year when we go out. It will be good for the two boys to pony from the girls as the girls are more experienced on more hacks and the boys will learn and feel safe doing some different rides out being in the company of their girlies ;-)) should be fun.

Mark on Holly, ponying the big Stormy

Mark and his beauties nearly home,
so well behaved...fab

Mark and his horses getting home safe and sound ;-)

What I liked more than anything was (1) Mark's horses were so well behaved and knew exactly what to do and (2) My two were calm and connnected to me and even though Mark and the herd leaders were quite a way away (taking piccie's of them meant my two could graze for a bit longer) they were calm and with me which felt good.

Just after negotiating the stream I got Solly to sidle over and I slid over to his back ready to ride back on him but as I was trying to get Tara's reins back into a 12' line my fingers fumbled the line and I dropped Tara's rope. This meant that she was loose and I was riding Solly. I asked Solly to move over towards her so that I could get the reins back but Tara moved too and my fingers were SO cold that moving them properly was becomming a problem SO I jumped off Solly and just walked back with them in-hand. Not a problem, missed the riding part but slid from one horse to another which was good for today ;-) Apart from the freezing cold it was a lovely hour out with the horses.

Wednesday 1st February

WhooWhoo...it's Feb already ;) Last night I decided that two months off is enough for the horses (and me) and if the weather is good then I shall be out doing whatever I can with some training, hopefully with Solly but also with Stormy as the boys are the ones that need more input SO, on that note, today I manage to get out and go ask Solly to catch me for some play on the grassland infront of the house and he was very happy to do so.

First Stormy wanted everyone to know that is it HIS bridge...lol

I've been spending some afternoons recently getting Solly's haltering better. It's been good for quite a while but the last few months he's been putting in some negative behaviours, tossing his head, being awkward to halter, trying to bite me etc. I know these are his way of playing and getting the lead status from me and I let it go on too long but have now got it back to nice, calm, happy haltering and will continue to do this. I may have to do the play sessions of haltering (where I'm not actually taking him out or using the halter, just haltering and unhaltering and going off!) with Solly as he is a very playful horse by nature and if I don't do this then bad habits kick in quickly when he knows I've not got the time to take to keep it good...he's way too clever and knows exactly what he can do to win the alpha-games ;))

Anyway, today, haltering was very good, calm, slow and easy. I took the 12' line and we squeezed out of the gateway and backed up past the trailer. I've written a list of things to go over to check we're all system go for riding later on, basically go back to the beginning, haltering, stick 2 me in walk with tons of transitions and play the 7 games in walk being specific about where feet are, is there a connection between us, are we both happy and relaxed and if so can we move on easily and keep it fun.

So we start off with S2M, going down the track and onto the grassland and we mosey together putting in some w/h/bkups along the way. Half way down the field there's a lovely little stream/pond with bank and I asked Solly to cross the stream before the pond and then we could play at the pond area.

Solly standing across the stream taking in the scenery

I ask Solly to draw towards me slowly
which he does very well and decides he needs a drink ;)

And then calmly he crosses the stream to be with me on the other side...cool

We then wander over the other side of the grassland and we put in some nice walking circles with some very smooth changes of direction. Must admit he did very well, walking over this very very rough land with stones, holes and spates of rough grazing all over is extremely hard, he even put in a couple of bits of trot for me.

When we came to the quad bike track I asked for sideways 10' away L&R which was good, he had a bit of 'trying to sneak forward' when going to the right but generally pretty good for a horse that's had some time off.

Then I see a nice piece of tall grass, it was hard to see but from 20' away (using the light weight 22' line) I asked if he could go to the grass and when there he could graze...he did it beautifully.

Solly stopped and grazing the tall tuft of grass...you can just see it ;)

Then we had some more circling fun as just up from that grass is a small gully lane, looks like where a truck has been or a river flowed, so Solly had some good slow, walk, exercise down into the dip and back up again...great for his muscles.

Solly going down into the gully...

...and then back up out of the gully ;)

And for fun he stood on a small stone when I asked him if he could. He seemed to be enjoying himself, not worried about the herd, totally connected to me, relaxed and willing.

Standing on small stone

So after the small stone we did some more S2M up to the large mounting block stone and he was very willing to stand on that with his front feet too ;))

Solly standing on mounting block stone ;)

I then sat on the stone for a while and let him graze as a reward for being so good today. I think, like me, he was missing playing but it really does have to be good ground up here as there is so much more to contend with over this rough patch that if it was too hard or too soft then that would just be too much to cope with and I really don't want any lameness due to me being impatient with training. I would think that the herd will be back in their main field by 1st April so not long to go and it's good to just be pottering around with them rather than nothing ;)

SO, then moseying back towards home and the paddocks, there again is the small stream (very small little burn at this point) and Solly jumps it 3 times...pics not great but show he did do them.

2nd jump...

...and 3rd jump

Well it wasn't the fastest, biggest, yeehaa play session BUT it was a very good start again after 2 months off and I was very pleased with Solly's lightness, willingness, calmness and he remembered everything I asked of him.

January 2012

2012-01-01T13:38:00.034Z

Tuesday 31st January

Today whilst poo picking the herd were very peaceful, it's pretty cold here today so any thoughts of Spring Play with the boys has gone and they were very much into their pair bonds today and it was lovely to see.

Stormy (dominant 2nd in herd) watching over Holly (Alpha mare)

Solly (dominant 3rd) being watched over by Tara (passive at bottom of herd)

Monday 30th January

Yesterday whilst I was poo picking the boys must have got it into their heads that it was Springtime! lol. Here's some pic's from their play/fight session:

Saturday 28th January

Not bad weather, frosty, bit cold but shine shine is nice. Mark and I take the horses out midday for some well needed grazing. Mark's two were off leads and as normal I rode Tara bareback and led Solly....they behaved well together ;-)

We were all enjoying some relaxing time when from behind the house comes some shots...we thought it would be a quiet weekend but seems there was some clay pigeon shooting and they did it behind our house...to be honest a bit of a pain! ;( Horses were not bad but dogs, who were sunning in the garden, got very concerned, Rusty barking like crazy and then Frodo, our retriever, got so worried he jumped out of the garden and came over to where we were grazing the horses...poor boy, he HATES shooting and worry's a LOT poor boy.

So, I ride Tara back,leading Solly, who at this point is digging in his heels as wants too know why Stormy and Holly are trotting about a bit worried. I get Frodo back in the garden, S&T in the paddock again and then waited for Mark to catch his two babies and put them in the paddock too ;)

All back to normal Mark does some poo picking to stay in the field whilst the guns go off and I take the opportunity to do some 'good haltering' with Solly. I'm doing this as Solly has started 'playing' when haltering....tossing head, biting ropes, snaps and sometimes me so I needed to go right back to the beginning of haltering ie. turn head towards me with softness, then work on softness and acceptance of putting nose piece on.

SO, we do this slowly and just one little baby step at a time. I leave it about an hour later on a very good,soft,confident, acceptance note ;-)) Now I will have to do this for a few days running to help keep the haltering nice from now on....here's some pics from the day:

Tara, just over ditch...Solly contemplating it

Solly stumbled over the ditch
(he usually jumps them!)

Whoop whoop...made it over ;)

Nicely grazing in the sunshine

The herd enjoying the grazing together

After some very nice haltering ;)

Friday 27th January

Well this week has flown by, there's been two days of shoots up on the estate (nothing bad but a little unsettling for the horses) and a day of fox hounds (again nothing bad but the herd was on alert for quite a long time), I also did two good sessions on two days of poo picking and that feels good ;-)

Apart from all that not much going on with the horses apart from feeding, fussing, grooming, rug on/off with Holly, once on/off with Solly as he was totally muddy and wet, wet, wet. Hopefully over the weekend we will spend some quality time with them, maybe walk them out and definitely grazing in front of the house.

For now here are a couple of pictures I took today, I was down a hill poo picking and the sky was just stunningly blue:

The boys: Stormy & Solly

Holly enjoying the sun on her back

Dear Tara enjoying the view ;-)

Monday 23rd January

Lovely day today, spent some time with my best friend down the road looking at her lovely new horse. Then back home for tea and home made rock cakes, then took the 4 horses out in-hand for grazing with Mark.

I rode Tara out bareback and moseyed along ponying Solly. Mark let Holly and Stormy off and they hung around nicely with me and my two. We grazed around for about an hour and before heading back Islid over to Solly's back and moseyed him back to the field...just before the field I slid back onto Tara again...first time going left to right ;-)

Mark then fed the horses whilst I walked our two doggies and when I got back I stood outside the paddock fence and Solly managed to bring all 4 bowls to me again...he's so clever.

Sunday 22nd January

Cold but very nice day, sun trying it's hardest to stay shining (although a couple of short rain showers came by) so Mark and I poo pick the third paddock and get that cleaned up and then take the herd out for in-hand grazing and undemanding time.

I ride Tara bareback for the start and then switch over to Solly for the mosey back. It is good to do this and whilst Mark's horses were going here, there and everywhere, my two stayed mentally, physically and emotionally connected with me at all times which was GREAT ;-)

Best way to graze in-hand ;-)

Mark's two horses kept connected to us, often wandering over to be closer

After jumping from one horse to the other,

well not jumping, but sliding bareback one to the other ;)

Mark following Stormy to where his horses like to graze

They really do like the shorter grasses, whilst my two love the rough longer stuff

Holly and Stormy find the stream for a drink ;)

Mark hanging out with his two beauties

THE MUD MONSTER

Here is a sequence of pic's showing how Solly goes from a mud monster to a groomed, clean boy...and back again! lol

yesterday...completely covered in wet mud, not groom-able...

...this morning after being rugged in a med winter turnout rug last night,
the mud underneath the rug dried out, he is now dry and the mud cleanable,
so groomed him well. Mud on neck and mane still wet but with sunshine that may
dry out by this afternoon...

...yeehaa, sun dried the mud all over him so a good groom with a rubber mud brush and a

hard dandy brush brings him back upto a presentable

horse that can go out and be ridden if wanted...

...ooops,,,,after grazing, back in field he rolled again and is back to being a
MUD MONSTER! lol

and Stormy who is the main
MUD MONSTER around here...
think he either likes being groomed
or wants to be a piebald or bay ;)

Saturday 21st January

Very cold here today and all the weather you could think of, such as: wind, rain, sleet, snow, sun in rotation all day! ;( But Mark and I decided an hour before horsey feeding time to just take the horses out for some grass in front of the house, we got pretty wet and as you can see from the piccie the two white boys were totally muddy but they enjoyed the grazing ;-) Holly and Stormy were free and I kept Solly and Tara on-line, that way they don't all just gallop about like wild things! lol.

Thursday 19th January

Cold and weatherman says it's going to be colder later with sleet and maybe snow? eek. Yesterday I promised Tara a hack out to the shop for a carrot and apple (also some small supplies for us) and didn't want to dissapoint her. I love being alone hacking with Tara, we get our special bond back and it feels like just me and her left in the world ;-)

So, after 11am I ask her to come with me to get groomed and saddled up. I decide to do the ride with just the saddle and pad as it is today, no shims (use these to raise the front of saddle slightly to put me in a balanced position).

It was very cold and a lot of the track where water accumulates was iced over so I dismounted and walked quite a lot of it as it's mostly downhill to the shop. Tara was perfect, following me quietly and calmly with no tension in the rope at all ;) We did manage a nice lively trot going around the village green which was lovely.

She stood tied up outside the shop whilst I made my purchases and she loved the carrot then apple I bought for her...perfect. I then remounted and rode the whole way back (easier as uphill).....getting a great trot and a short canter on the village green! lol

Just managed to get home before the weather started to turn very cold, windy and snow in the air ;-(

Wednesday 18th January

Here is a short video from this morning showing Solly bringing his bowl to me. He picks the bowl up all the time on his own so put in a cue and asked him to do it 'for me'. The first time he does it, on the video, I hadn't asked for it so quickly went to asking him for it, you can really see him thinking about what I want. I clap hands when he steps into my bubble space when coming forward without being asked. I am trying to do a lot of things without stick/string to get my thought/energy/body cue better ;)

Afternoon I groomed Tara, trimmed her hooves and then saddled her up for a very short jaunt across the grassland infront of the house, put saddle on without any shims today, think this suits her back shape better but will experiment regularly. Coming back to the field she offered a very exuberant canter which I gladly took, she must have given that yeehaa energy off to the herd too as they went cantering around the paddocks too ;0)

Tuesday 17th January

Winter is taking it's toll up here. First snow and then mud, too slidy, slippery and dangerous to do much so just took to walking out in-hand for smidgens of grazing available. Now we have very cold freezing weather and HARD HARD ground so too hard to do much and not condusive to much playing SO...had to think up something to do with Solly as he gets playful and then when not played with gets bitey!

What I came up with to start with was a better draw, from a standstill (using strategies from natural horsemanship instructor Ingela Larsson Smith) and then picking up his feed bowl. Over the last month I have been trying to put the two together...pick up bowl and walk to me with the bowl. Solly just had HUGE difficulty even thinking about putting the two together. He'd pick up the bowl, drop it then walk forward, I'd ask him back to try again. OR he'd pick up bowl, throw it at me (very clever) and then walk forward! lol.

FINALLY, yesterday, and now today to confirm it, he managed to pick up the bowl and walk 7 stept to me, put it in my hand to receive his reward (LBint, needs motivation) and he did it with three of the 4 bowls in the field from his herd mates. At last, Solly has figured this out. I never really changed the style of teaching him this BUT I did try lots of different 'TC bubble' scenario's and think I found the right one for him to draw best to. I put a bubble around him and draw the front of the bubble towards me whilst mentally thinking about the back of the bubble pushing him forwards...will try to get a video of him doing this. Nothing spectacular but a very cool process of figuring out personal bubble communication ;)

Saturday 14th January

Pretty quiet day today, very cold and frost stayed on the ground, this side of the glen, all day ;-( But in the afternoon Mark and I took the horses for a walk down to the big field to let them stretch their legs a bit and to give us something to do. The ground was really hard today so no running about or playing much but it was good to get out.

I rode Tara down bareback, ponying Solly and rode her back again afterwards, just before we get back to the field I ask Solly to sidle up to Tara and I move from Tara to Solly and then ride him back to the field ;-)

A very enjoyable day, quiet, peaceful and fun.

Here's a couple of pic's from today:

Mark going through a squeeze of farmers equipmemt
on the track with Holly & Stormy

Solly circling at liberty, I ask for more bend in his ribs

Nice change of direction at walk,
very focussed and connected

Light backup ;)

Nice draw ;)

Solly trying to bite Mark's palm...
Mark keeps his hand big and flat, Solly can't
figure out why he can't eat his hand. lol

Riding back...
had tons of layers on as very cold today

Holly, Mark & Stormy on the way home...
gateway, farmers equipment and herd of cattle all at once! lol

Friday 13th January

Not much done out and about with horses but Mark did trim Stormy and Holly's feet and I trimmed Sollys yesterday, just Tara to do and I'll get around to hers next week. I spent an hour or so just grooming them thoroughly today and think that this year, sometime, they should have baths....Solly's mane and tail are decidely 'un-white'. lol.

Mark trimming Holly

Just brushed....Holly and Stormy
(he spent about an hour clean and then went and rolled in the mud again! lol)

Stormy and Holly ;)

My beautiful Solly
(mane needs a clean BIG time! lol)

and again ;)

Tuesday 10th January

Well we were first without any electricity for a few days and now we've just been without a phone line for 5 days, hence no internet BUT we're back up and running smoothly again now ;-)

SO, here is some pic's and a short video from the fun we've had over the few days, as you can see from the piccie's the weather is spring-like, mild and all snow/ice now gone BUT we still know it's winter and wonder what the weather is going to do next! lol. We're are enjoying this respite though ;))

Muddy conditions around the bridge had us putting rotten hay
and an old carpet down to save the horses legs from going
knee deep into mud...luckily because of their NH training
going over it was FUN and not worrying at all...

...and Solly going back again over the other carpet! lol

Mark and his two beauties enjoying some grazing and sunshine

Solly enjoying a scratch

Tara, Solly and me moseying around for grazing

Mark with his loose horses, they don't run off as I'm with the other two ;)

Asking Solly to sidle up to Tara for mounting from her back to his...

...and the actual swap from Tara's back to Solly...

...and back to the house riding a different horse. lol

Holly keeping an eye on some people in the field below...
she doesn't mind sheep, cows, horses or most other animals BUT
when people move about she really watches them intently! lol

Me and my beauties...Tara lead beautifully too
as wasn't sure how it'd go as normall I ALWAYS lead from her ;)

Another day, same thing going on...Riding Tara, leading Solly

Holly and Stormy kicking up their heels loose, I sat on Tara
keeping calm hoping my two wouldn't think they were loose too! lol

Yup...my two calm, there's too much grazing to go cantering about! lol

Our herd...me on Tara, Solly lead from her
and Stormy to the left behind us and Holly on the right ;)

Bareback swap from Tara to Solly

Monday 2nd January

Snow fell last night and again today...the greenery that was outside our door is now a white-out again. Very pretty but pretty freezing! lol.

Can't do much with horses, they're just eating and staying warm so here for a laugh is a short video from the end of December when the herd were taken back to their fabulous Summer field for two days...this was their yehaa back into the field...enjoy ;-)

Sunday 1st January 2012

Happy New Year to everyone out there. May 2012 be fantastic for you all and your horses ;)

Today our snow seems to be going quickly again and there's old grass to be had SO Mark and I take the horses out for some peaceful grazing amongst rainbows as it was on/off drizzle today. Just a couple of pic's for you today...

Mark w/Stormy and Holly
Storm's foot/leg are much better now and he's walking without lamenes,
he seems to be taking it all much easier so maybe some tenderness still there
but being more cautious will serve him well ;-)

My two beauties enjoying the grazing they can now easily see
in the grassland in front of their paddocks

Giving Tara a good massage with my battery operated little massager
that I bought for the horses a few years ago.
When I was on the sore spots she raised her head and stopped grazing.
She seemed to enjoy it very much and hope it's helped her a bit.
Will probably do this again regularly if it helps her;)

December 2011

2011-12-02T15:21:00.028Z

Tuesday 27th December

2 Horse LibertyFun
(just reconnecting and playing with Solly and Tara after a couple
of months without play or riding due to winter)

Still very mild here and no sign of snow again...yet! lol. There is a big shoot on the estate where we live tomorrow and so we decided that the horses would be happier with more space to run if scared in their old big Summer field. So, today Mark and I walked them back to their big field ;-)

They were very happy to be there and had a fabulous canter/gallop around the field a few times and then settled to graze and roll in the mud. I then asked Solly and Tara into the roundpen that is still there and I played with them together at liberty and rode Tara a bit bareback and bridleless ;-)) FUN...here is some pic's of them enjoying the field again:

Monday 26th December

Another grey day but a great opportunity to take the horses out for another walk/graze session around the cottage and to have some fun/play too. I LOVE that we have SO MANY natural OBSTACLES to play with, just need imagination and away we go ;-) Here are some pic's:

Holly, Mark and Stormy at the top of the hill behind out house

Solly jumping a tree that had blown over in the wind last night

Tara over too, although she lazily and clumsily stepped over it!

Walking in harmony up to the top of the hill

Play: backing Solly up whilst Tara grazed ;)

Walking back down the hill, both horses were very calm and not worried by the
huge amounts of tree branches that have fallen down so far this winter...excellent ;-)

Tara JUMPED the fallen tree this time, with much
encourgement from me ;-)

Solly has no trouble with it, even going down hill. Good boy ;)

I stand on the tree trunk and back them up, draw them to me
and then back them up again....nicely done horses ;)

Backing Solly up whilst drawing Tara behind me

A quiet moment of thought and grazing ;-)

Standing on my stone 'mounting block' and
circling my two babies together ;)

Circling nicely together

Nice double disengagement ;-)

FIRST TIME EVER....both Solly and Tara standing on a
block together....so cool...love my horses ;-)

Squeezing individual horses over a burn

Bringing them back over together ;)

Hanging out together ;))

Mark with big Stormy

Mark and his lovely mare Holly ;)

Saturday 24th December

All the snow has gone, almost overnight and there's some nice grass to be had SO Mark w/Stomy & Holly and me w/Solly & Tara went for a nice walk in the grassland in front of our cottage and the hill behind our cottage for the horses to stretch their legs outside their paddocks and to have some lovely grass. It was a nice mosey together and the horses loved it. Here are some pics:

Mark w/Stormy & Holly

Tara & Solly grazing peacefully side-by-side ;)

Stormy has become herd 'look out',
Mark actually looks small beside him here

My two happily grazing again ;-))
it's what they do best. lol

Walking up the hill in harmony

gosh....grazing again! lol

Lovely sunlight up on the hill today

Asking Solly to practice his shoulder-in walking on the track ;)

Love that I can walk these two together in harmony

My bestest beauties

oops...caught grazing again. lol

Me with the herd: Solly, Tara, Holly & Stormy
and below, Mark with them ;-)

Tara, me and Solly hanging out,
notice ropes over their backs ;-)

Wednesday 21st December

WINTER SOLSTICE

Tara and I sledging on our home made sledge today ;)

Sunday 18th December

EPONA DAY

Today is the 'Festival of the Horse' - Epona Day in the Pagan calendar, SO, to celebrate our own horses I went out in the big freeze and groomed them one at a time thoroughly then donned my best dress and jewellery and went and fed them treats and gave them hugs for being the bestest horses ;-)

It was fun and although freezing luckily my dress was actually warm...with thermals underneath it! lol. I will try during the year to get our herd to actually stand in a line one next to the other with me in the middle so that in future photo calls we can get all 4 horses together nicely ;-)

Here's some of the best pic's that Mark took for me...

Friday 16th December

Today I was determined to get the Dec OLHA Liberty course done, there are only 8 tasks but I know that I need to do it soon before more snow comes SO today was the day. It was very very cold and slippery so trotting over tarp and trying to ask Solly to trot at all wasn't really an option, he knows how to take care of his feet and legs that boy ;-)

Again we didn't get piccie's but I managed to snapshot some stills from the video, sorry about quality:

Task 1) flow through a curtain together

Task 2) Jump a very narrow jump

Task 3) Back up together

Task 4) Trot over a tarp...no trotting today though! ;(

Task 5) Scary corner...more like frozen corner! lol

Task 6) Bounce ball over horse...
you can see the blue ball going over Solly here ;)

Task 7) Jump hoop

Task 8) Pick up and hand me a feed bowl ;-)

Thursday 15th December

We had a wonderfully sunny part of the day around noon today so I went and groomed a very muddy Mr Solly and then grabbed a very hard working video director (Mark ;-) and went and and filmed it in one go. It wasn't perfect but Solly and I had a fun, short session that we enjoyed together ;-) So, that's going to be winging it's way to the OLHA competition asap. We didn't take any still pic's for it BUT I managed to get some stills from the video...here they are:

Task 1) put sacks over Sollys back

...successful and trot for 12' ;)

Task 2) Trot onto tarp, stop, backup
then trot over tarp

Hugs after task 2 ;-))

Task 3) Trotting the weave

Task 4) Jump

...end of task 4...stop ;-)

Task 5) I eat something, Solly stands still
without trying to pinch my food. lol

Task 6) Back through the curtain

Task 7) Back through 3' squeeze...today it's chairs ;)

Task 8) Back through bottle bank

Task 9) Pop balloon with hoof...first try...

...Second try 'POP'...clever boy ;))

Task 10) Our own choice task,
walking through some pine branches,
they came from a tree that fell during the recent hurricane.

Wednesday 14th December

Good to be back, it's been a week since my last blog post. Nothing much happening apart from hurricane's, snow blizzards, sleet and rain falling. We have very icy tracks and pathways and the horses have been rugged for two days when the weather was really bad. Today though it's melted a bit, the wind has died down and it's not quite so cold SO, time to get my Dec OLHA course in actions me thinks. Solly is sound now (thank goodness) and it will be good to have some play/bonding sessions starting up again.

I set up the main course a day ago but spent a while replacing balloons that had blown away or burst in freezing conditions! lol. I then went and asked Mr Solly to join me...and he caught me beautifully, with just a jesture and love in my heart ;-)

We spent some time getting back our friendly game as being in the back garden is strange for him again. Eveything he did well I praised him and gave him a treat. I then went through the obstacles out of order and then in order. The biggest things were backing through three obstacles one after the other (curtain, small squeeze, bottle bank), the last obstacle (my choice) to walk calmly over some pine branches that came down with a tree last week, trotting onto and off the tarp (as it's a bit slippery ontop of and underneath!) and lastly popping the balloon with his foot!! Actually popping the balloon wasn't such a big deal, the cheaper balloons that I got from a well known big local store actually don't pop with a BANG like I was expecting, they sort of popped with a thin skinned sort of plop! lol. I also found nice long balloons which I felt would be easier for Solly to focus on and stay still more ;-)) He managed to pop two balloons and didn't hardly react at all, he was much more interested in getting treats for good behaviour! lol. Nothing better than positive reinforcement ;-))

Here's a couple of piccie's from the practise session:

Solly pretending to be a reindeer! lol

Playing touch it with his nose on balloons ;)

First attempt, really BIG try...

...just missed it!

Next try, just missed again but you can see he's
trying to focus on it with his right eye!

Third try, really focussing on it, lowering his head to see it better ;)

Manages to touch it...

...and then manages to paw it off the target mat and underneath him...
Big treat for trying so hard. The next time he tried he managed
to pop it and didn't scare himself doing it...good boy ;-)

Tuesday 6th December

Nice bright day today, chilly but I got warm getting 5 barrow loads of poo picking off the paddocks! phew. lol. One way of getting warm that's for sure. Then Mark trimmed Stormy's back feet (did the fronts the other day) and I did Solly's feet. Sollys feet seem to be getting better, still a long way to go but the hard snowy ground is helping them to dry out and harden up...fab ;-)

After trimming I took Solly out for a 15min walk in the grassland in front of our house. He wasn't sure about coming out to start with, he's not been out of the field for about 4 weeks I think, since he came up when he was lame. But I just stood and waited and when he got to me he got a few pony nuts as a treat ;-) He then walked out nicely, grazing here and there but no hastle at all. He enjoyed the views, watched a deer walk by in the tree enclosure and we did some casual Stick 2 Me in walk we me on the left and right and put in some lovely backups with a very very light phase 1 (thought) from me ;-) We also did some S2M in trot along a nice flattish track and he is SOUND...whoop, whoop. Not lame at all now, thank goodness. The dry ground may have something to do with that, will keep an eye on his feet and also going to get some thrush cream together (Pete Ramey's treatment) to make sure there's no infection harbouring in his frogs and heels.

Here's some of today's pictures....

Holly being watched over by the ever attentive boys ;-)

Stormy coming into the garden for trimming

Solly enjoying his grazing out on our walk

Solly enthralled by the view from the bottom of the grassland,
he holds the rope sometimes when unsure of anything! ;)

Monday 5th December

Still snowy up here, it often doesn't snow for much but it STAYS on the ground FOREVER! ;-( But today took advantage of it not being too slippery in the middle section of the track and took Tara out for a hack to the village to post a letter for Mark ;)

It was VERY cold so I wrapped up well but the ride was nice, mostly walk with a bit of trot down on the nice flat village green. Here's some pic's from the trip....

The sun glinting off the broken puddles along the track

My original 4x4 going up snowy hill tracks ;-)

Tara doing very well walking through the small herd
of cattle we walk through on the track ;)

Tara and me on the last bit of the hack

Home ;-))

Sunday 4th December

Last night and this morning we had a bit of snow...bit early for my liking but it happened like this last year too ;-( It was lucky that Mark 'read' Holly well on Friday that all the herd are now with us at the house for the start of the bad weather...HOLLY KNEW! she's a clever girl ;-)

SO, there is still grazing in paddocks 2 & 3 (paddock 1 has been eaten down when Tara and Solly were here on their own, last couple of weeks) and all the paddocks are open to them all now. There are two fabulous bridges that Mark made this year for them to cross between each paddock which saves them from jumping a small stream or walking in a deep bog ;-) Thank you Mark, fabulous job. Here are some piccie's from when we opened up the last paddock to them this morning, the bridge was used by all 4 and this was Solly's first time over this bridge. It's interesting to see that they go over the bridges in herd order, usually...Holly, Stormy, Solly, Tara ;-))

Breakfast time in the first snow this winter

Holly first over new bridge,
in her rug which only got put on last night and is
only put on in very cold or cold/wet weather ;)

Stormy over the bridge next

First timer over this bridge, Solly comes up very close to Stormy ;)

Last, but by no means least, dear Tara wanders over

In the new paddock they make sure the herd dynamics
are still in order by pushing each other around....
here is a three horse squeeze for Tara between the
top horses and the fence, she cantered through this squeeze ;-)

Stormy relaxed enough to lay down and roll..his favorite pastime.
Solly making sure Tara (out of picture) knows her place in the herd...
he's looking good, engaged and no lameness from recent injury ;-)

Holly showing her proficiency at scraping snow for grazing ;)

Solly checking in with Mark who had just come over the
bridge into the new paddock

Horses nicely settled and grazing,
me coming back over the lovely bridge ;0)

Sunday 4th afternoon

Now that the herd are together again I can actually take one horse out to ride...namely Tara, who needs riding for exercise at the moment SO out we go this afternoon, in the snow. It wasn't fast, it wasn't a lot but we got out and enjoyed ourselves mostly in walk with a small bit of trot back home ;-)

Tara at the gate up the hill behind the house

Tara at the gate by the sheep field in front of the house ;)

Saturday 3rd December

Today the herd is happy, peaceful and looking like they've never been apart. Before their breakfast this morning I changed their routine today, Mark walked the dogs up the hill behind their paddocks and I took Tara and rode her bareback up the hill with them. The rest of the herd were a little worried about where she was going and called out to her but when we got back (only gone for about 15 mins) they were calmly watchign out for her and were ready for their breakfast.

When we went in to poo pick Holly was lying down, Solly watching over her VERY close, Stormy just to the right of them watching the horizon to the North and Tara was just to the right but further down the hillock dozing (in the picture next she was to the left, just out of the piccie). It was lovely to see them all dozing and relaxing together on their little patch of grass. Now at least they can graze these last two paddocks over December and we won't have to give them hay for now ;-))

Solly and Holly on the top of the hillock,
Stormy watching to the right

Tara just below Stormy, all dozing and happily content ;-)

Friday 2nd December

The weather has started to be very VERY cold in the evenings and overnight, last night it was about -4* and when Mark went to see/feed Holly and Stormy, still down in the main grazing field, this morning he got the distinct feeling they wanted to come home now. At least if they're home with the others feeding is easier and we can keep a regular check on Holly and put a rug on her if she's showing signs of being cold. She is our main concern with rugs, usually by this time of year she's got a rug on overnight but so far she's been okay, her coat is good and she's fit and keeping good weight on her. But the time will be soon, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, when the temperature is just too cold for her during the night time and having her at home makes it easier to just go out and put it on when it's needed ;-)

So we take the car down the track to collect all the 'bits and pieces' we need from the field and I drive home whilst Mark leads the two monsters back home. I say 'lead' but actually Holly led (Mark leading from Zone 5) and Stormy led behind him, it was good to see that the 'games' we regularly play in the field have got a good purpose. Here are some pictures of them coming home and the lovely greeting they got from Solly and Tara when they got there....

Holly leading, Stormy following ;-)

Holly and Stormy catch sight of Solly and Tara...
they've been apart for about 3 weeks now

Stormy's first attempt over one of Mark's new bridges in the paddocks ;-)

Solly and Tara excited about being with the herd again...

...and so are Holly and Stormy ;-))

Tara waiting to say hello to her friends

Tara and Stormy saying a big HELLO

Solly and Stormy getting reaquainted...
just before Solly put his foot over the fencing and broke the fence to be
back with his best friends! I ws trying to keep them seperated so that
Tara didn't get too fat on the other paddocks grazing AND Solly's bad
foot would get 100% better before prancing about playing with Stormy,
BUT who am I to keep a herd apart ;)

The herd running, happy to be back together again...
miss Fortune's beautiful chestnut still in our herd ;-(

The herd beginning to settle

November 2011

2011-11-02T17:53:00.150Z

Saturday 26th November

Today is windy and it's been wet, wet, wet for a few days now. Solly is still midly lame and he and Tara are staying at the house paddocks, quietly eating down the grazing and enjoying their peaceful, calm time together ;-)

Mark and I decide to take Holly and Stormy (who are still in the main grazing field down the track) for a walk out, they're too wet and in Stormy's case too muddy to groom or saddle up and we enjoy just hanging out with them for a walk...SO, a walk to the village for some apples and carrots sounds like fun.

It took Stormy a bit to settle down but he and Holly enjoyed the change of scene and also the fruit and veg half way. We gave them plenty of grazing spots and just made it fun and enjoyable for all of us. Here are some piccies from the day:

Tuesday 22nd November

Managed to do the same as yesterday today, visit Mark's two horses down the track, groom them at liberty and do a short piece of liberty play with both too ;-) Stormy decided right after I'd spent a long time grooming him to go down and roll in the mud again!! hey ho, he WAS clean for about ten minutes. lol.

Liberty session was kept to S2M w/Holly, w/s/bkup going to cones and over poles and some DHQ's to change direction, once played with she is 'stuck' on you for ages so spent some time on the mounting block doing some sidling up and resting for ages with her ;-)

Stormy is high energy so I kept the S2M w/t/bkups quicker than when with Holly and I have to take my territory a LOT with him as he is a 'space invader' and if I allow him my bubble space near me he tends to be too high energy with him trying to bite me often SO I put mental and physical boundaries up with my mind and training arm and once he's at a decent distance I ask him to trot more ;-) Works well and he manages a few large S2M fig 8's around cones with a fab shoulder draw with an engaged trot to me to end. Excellent. His sidling up for grooming whilst I was on the mounting block was good too, he had a few difficulties keeping his butt near me when he walked further forward but I just stayed on my block and re-directed him back to where we were and he eventually got it well. Love the liberty grooming game, really tests our connection and our communication ;-))

Monday 21st November

Went and saw Holly and Stormy down the track today, they seem calm and very together even though the other two are at the house. I went and asked them to come into the round pen for grooming and a short play session. They both started to follow me and then Holly took off up the hill with Stormy fast behind her, I think they thought it must be feeding time. I just sat at the bottom whistling and calling to them. Eventually Stormy's curiosity got the better of him and he came down the hill to see what I was doing, followed very shortly by the effervescent Holly ;-) Here they are coming to me....

Stormy coming off the hill to 'catch me....

...and Holly following soon after for her grooming session ;-)

Sunday 20th November

Well after the boys played BIG time yesterday when we were hacking the girls to the village dear Solly's foot seems more lame today SO, after my breakfast I go and collect both Solly and Tara and slowly, slowly bring them back to the house.

Solly staying away from the herd today, bad foot outstretched here...
very wise to not be in a place of 'play' with Stormy ;)

So, now at home nice and calm I put an abcess bandage around his bad foot, if it's an abcess than this will help draw it out hopefully. The only thing we can actually see wrong is the heel bulbs are very low AND there is a cleft/split half way along his collateral groove...very strange and could be the place of an abcess or just hurts because of the split! We'll have to wait and see. At least here at home things are quieter, he rests more and the small paddock they're on at moment is flat and not too wet, although not totally dry either.

I found he wanted to be on the grass all the way back, he had HUGE trouble standing and walking on the rocky pathway so softish mud it is ;)

I then went out and gave Sol and then Tara a FULL groom, mud off, dust off, manes and tails flowing and even trimmed Tara's feathers on her feet and her little moustache too. I then gave them both a short but enjoyable massage with my battery masseur. Not sure how long they'll be at the house, as long as Solly is lame he'll stay here.

Solly enjoying his liberty massage.
showing off his blue bandage on front left foot.

Tara's first ever massage with battery masseur...
she was quite sceptical having been stung by a bee in the past,
but after some retreat, re-approach, retreat she did well.
Like doing this sort of thing at liberty as they have the choice to leave if they want to ;-)

Saturday 19th November

Manage to get out with horses by 11am today, weather not bad but underfoot is slippery in a lot of places. Seems we've not had much dry ground underfoot this year and it shows in the frogs of our horses feet ;-( too soft. Solly is on/off lame at the moment and I think he and Stormy have been being silly-billies slipping around in the mud together play/fighting! Boys will be boys. SO, no play/riding with him over the weekend, in fact I think he and Tara will have to come to the house and have some TLC, it's the only place where there is a smidgen of hard standing where Solly will be able to get dry hooves, in case it is wet field problem with his feet he may have ie. thrush!

Anyway, we get to the field and Holly catches Mark and Tara catches me and we go out via the forest, groom and saddle up and head on out to the village for a short, calm, slow ride...mostly in walk to help stop the beasties getting sweaty ;-)

Me on Tara photogaphing Mark....

...photogaphing me! lol

The boys watching as we go by the top of the field

Tara and I lead on the way down to the village...gives Holly a nice rest from being leader

Tara and I having a rest and bite together..Tara nicely parked ;)

Holly leads on the way home

Mark and Holly taking it nice and easy

Me and Tara taking it even easier ;-)) lol

Last trot before home....lovely ride out

Wednesday 16th November

Decided today to bring Tara and Solly to the house, have some grazing and Solly and I can practise our Nov OLHA course whilst Tara keeps him company and has a change of scene herself within our herd of 3 ;-)

So around 11am I walk down to the field and Tara ISN'T on her view point spot...yeehaa. She's down the hill grazing with Solly close by...fantastic. I mosey on down the hill, fix some fencing and then go into her 'bubble' and ask her to catch me which she did very nicely, I hand groom her a bit and scratch the spots she indicates that need scratching for her and then ask her to halter up, again which she does very nicely. I then ask her to walk with me so that I can do exactly the same with Solly.

All goes well and I have both horses walking nicely along with me back up the hill and out of the field. Holly and Stormy seem okay left together (seems that they prefer to be left boy/girl in their pair bonds which is cool) so our herd of three slowly mosey on back to the house, three gates later and quite close past some young cattle in the field who were down dozing and both horses behaved beautifully without worry as I was a confident leader and made sure they all know what to do and what I expected of them. We took two short grazing spots along the way but both of them were wonderfully confident and happy to be going to the house ;-)

At the house I set them free in the small first paddock and went over to help Mark move some hay, neither horse worried about the very large bales being moved or the enormous tarpaulin being put over them in a mild wind. I then go inside to do some paperwork and have a cup of tea. At around 2pm I go out and ask Solly to catch me again, halter up (without him trying to bite the halter) and slowly worked through the Nov OLHA tasks. A bit better than last time and when he did well I put a few pony nuts on the floor for him as a reward ;-) Then I went and stood on a mounting block and did a very quick session of sidling up to the block and don't bite me thank you dear Solly...he did well and I didn't get on him but leant over his back with him resting and at peace without trying to bite something...yeehaa....think we're slowly getting some communication going at a higher level now, refinement can sometimes be a tricky thing to figure out but SO fab once going well ;)

When I was happy to leave the practise on a good note I set him free but he wanted to be with me still so I just ran around and he followed me, over the poles, through the narrow gap, through the curtain, up to the ball, around the paddock and over the bridge and back and we had some fun. Here are a couple of piccie's of him following me around:

The catching game ;-)

Uncertain about the curtain squeeze at libety!

Peekaboo with the curtain, still a bit sceptical about going through at liberty
I just wait and keep my thought on him to do it

and he finally makes it through with lovely 'I'm coming mum' ears ;-)

He came over the bridge a couple of times, once in trot ;-)

getting him more confident over the very close poles,
using some treats on the floor to encourage him

yeehaa...over the poles and a big lick and chew ;)

At around 3.30pm I gather S&T up and ride Tara whilst ponying Solly from her, we have a really nice ride back to the field. BUT on the way I had a huge revelation....the strategy that Ingela Larsson Smith gave me to help deal with Solly's biting in a leadership way was exactly what I do with him when ponying him off Tara! lol.

Her strategy was if he tried to bite me once, block him. If he tries to bite me twice block him and move his FQ's away from me. If he tries to do it a third time block and move his FQ's further and faster. This has been workinig well and I do it in a very quick quiet way showing leadership NOT dominance. The thing I noticed was that when he tries to bite Tara when I'm riding her I do exactly this to help keep her space...I seem to be quick to figure it out when saving Tara's space and now I need to keep using that same strategy to keep my space too ;-))

Tuesday 15th November

Solly hiding behind Stormy this morning...
or more likely that Stormy put his butt in front of Solly! lol

Went down to the horses again early today, Tara wasn't on her 'view spot' this morning which is a good sign. I went in and asked her to catch me and gave her a treat for her quickness. She seems much more 'awake' today, noticing everything more and taking part more in our interactions.

I haltered her and we walked together up to the top of the hill, made a big fuss of grooming her thoroughly and then put her bareback pad on, put my hard hat on and we went for a walk together. About 100yds along I got on her back from a gate and we walked, trotted and cantered to the village again. This time I needed jam and butter and of course the obligatory carrot and apple ;-) Tara waited VERY patiently tied to her tree whilst I did my shopping and again the tourists thought she was beautiful and well behaved.

On the way home she livened up her step and the herd were pleased to have her home again, we went into the field and I took Tara with me down to the round pen again. The herd followed (or led sometimes! lol) and Solly decided to leave Holly and Stormy to be with me and Tara in the pen ;-))

Solly leaving herd to be with me and Tara

In the pen I hand groomed Solly whilst Tara rested and then we played some wonderful S2M games. Transitions w/h/bk go well and then some S2M fig 8's...they're getting better with this as we stop at X when it goes well, they're both beginning to understand their responsibilities of going slower when on the inside of the circle and going faster when on the outside. This is fun working dual horses that are actually listening to me more and more ;-)

I then ask Tara to go and rest up and graze a little whilst I do some seperate things with Solly. First I put him online and saddle him with the bareback pad and then we work on asking him to put his feet slowly over two poles only 12" apart, first feet first, then back up and then repeat until he's slowly thinking his way over them. Once he gets this we get to rest and then we work on trying to get all 4 feet over and then back. Having the poles so close together Solly can fluff it up if he goes too quickly so this is a real test of slow thinking. We end on a good note and I give him some pony nuts on the floor as a reward.

My bestest babies ;-)

Next I work on walking him about and then stopping, I've got some new tactics to use when he tries to bite me from Ingela Larsson Smith (my mentor and wonderful NHS instructor). If he tries to bite me once I block his intention, if he tries to bite me twice or more then I have to move his forehand away from me giving me more personal space until he learns that biting is NOT an option I am going to allow. Trying to be Solly's leader is mentally tiring and he tried to bite me a few times each time I followed Ingelas advice.

After about 20mins we managed to have some walk/stops without him trying to bite me, the stick or the rope at any time...we get to rest and I stroke him gently. SO, we venture up to the mounting block to repeat some sidling up and waiting to be mounted. Solly decided THIS was the place to bite me so again I follow Ingelas advice and blcck him and then move his forehand away. After about 4 attempts to bite me I get frustrated and decide that he needs to move his feet (helps me not get frustrated if he's further away from me) so I put him to liberty circling where I play around with asking him for energy, consistant gaits and being able to move his feet in any direction I ask. I do some blocking on the circle to change his direction and also ask him for changes of direction with a shoulder draw, all of these go well, he goes into canter and all goes well but then he tries the tactic of 'taking territory' from me by standing still so I have to rush around taking back my territory, the only place he's allowed to stand and relax is WITH ME but only WHEN I ASK HIM IN!! This is a fun game but has very serious outcomes if done well.

When Solly is doing as I ask, his head starts to lower and relax and we have some good communication going on I ask him back into me with an engaged draw....fab. Dear Solly rests, head down in a very relaxed manner and with a look of willing obedience ;-) Dear boy, I love him so but he can be so frustrating.

After some rest and some fussing we go back to the mounting block, I make sure in my mind that I am very much in control of where he's allowed to stand and where he's not allowed to stand and exactly where his head should be. I allow him to sniff me but any sign of a bite and I'm ready to respond by moving him away making my personal space bubble bigger. He doesn't try and I manage to mount quietly and peacefully ;-) Phew...big sigh out, lots of rest and scratches. Phew that was exhausting.

I then go through a very quick routine, LF to L&R and then circle 10m to left and DHQ's 180* and circle 10m to right, come back to where we started, nice soft back up and then dismount quickly, take off bareback pad and halter and reward with some pony nuts and scratches.

Next I get Tara back from her resting on the fence line and I ask both of them to leave the pen one at a time and then tell Solly to stay with Tara whilst I pack up my things and head for home. It was a difficult session but very rewarding. The biting game is a game I need to win so that we can progress our journey even more, where he starts to really take me as leader in ANY and ALL situations, I know that this will help improve our aim for relaxed riding and hopefully hacking out later on too ;-)

Monday 14th November

Today was interesting with the horses, I've been away over the weekend teaching and thinking a lot about Tara's reluctance to want to have anyone/horse near her and her staying in one place on a 'vigil' spot that seems to be where she stands a LOT, here's a picture of her in said spot this morning...

...SO, my thought today, whilst I was in the field quardening off a muddy patch, was that Tara is a FOLLOWER...she's bottom of the herd hierarchy and is happy there. She is the one horse we have that I allow to follow behind me when being led and I know she's not driving me, she's following. My thoughts got deeper, if she's a FOLLOWER then I need to be a better LEADER for her to follow.

I began to think/realise that maybe Tara was tetchy with me and Mark because we were grieving WITH her, she doesn't need or want to help us with our grief, we need to support her as leaders in her grief and if I'm a gentle, good leader she is actually happier being asked to help me and do things, keep her routine and not try to be all human, huggy and trying to figure out her emotions WITH her, she will take the time it takes to do that herself, what I and Mark need to do is support her as good leaders by getting on with the routine, being together but not moping about!

So, with that in mind, today I walked to the field with Tara's bareback pad, riding hat and halter so that Tara and I could go to the village shop, get some electricity, post a letter and buy an apple and carrot for Tara's efforts. I started off by grooming her as normal, taking advice from Tara where her itchy spots were but giving her a good, hard groom which she enjoyed.

I put her bareback pad on and walked her a bit down the track making sure I did the girth up slowly and in stages and then mounted her from a gate and we walked/trotted/cantered to the shop. She was alert, ears forward, seemingly happy to be out and doing something important with me which was lovely. There were some old guys in the village shop who were admiring her, saying how she looked kind and wise and I looked at her with new eyes, a new appreciation of how far we'd come together in our life journeys and I went out and gave her her treats ;-)

On the way home I basically asked her to listen to my thought/energy/body cues and folded my arms and went home with w/t/c transitions without once picking up the reins. She's such a cool horse. Here are some piccie's from before our ride out:

Our two mares on their view points today ;-)

Herd leader, Holly laying down...
Solly looks after her (used to always be Tara!!)

After our ride the three musketeers are waiting for Tara's return ;-)

So, the ride and being together with Tara was good. Back in the field I keep Tara close to me and snare Solly with the stick/string and ask him to come and be with us in the roundpen for a while. He does this and Tara seems okay with it...I had the feeling that I needed to not abandon Tara once back to the field but to keep her close and not make Solly the bees knees so much. lol.

We do some nice stuff in the pen, two horses S2M in walk and trot today. Two horse S2M fig 8's where inside horse has to learn to slow down, outside horse has to learn to speed up a bit...this was very interesting and I'm learning to be a dual control person, left side and right sides (brain and body) being independent from each other so that I only talk to the horse I want to talk to and they understand...phew...good mental workout for me if nothing else. We also do dual horse S2M walk/trot and stop at cones again...they like this one a lot. Put in a few dual horse backups and then went and put the bareback pad on Solly and did some asked him to circle around me whilst keeping Tara close to me. Tara liked this one, she constantly kept next to my outside shoulder and didn't worry when I had to use a phase 4 with Solly ;-)

Had to ask Solly to w/t/c L&R and to check for lameness but I'm glad to say that there was no sign of lameness today so either whatever was making him lame as gone or our verdict of putting Ekoneem WONDERBALM (for humans....ekoneem with vaseline base) worked wonders on what we thought was probably a split heel. Very happy he's sound again whatever it was.

Tara and Solly looking like good followers ;-)

I then let Tara just graze about, making sure she knew I was setting her free for a while and I played around with Solly with the inclination to ride him a bit bareback. I firstly asked him to sidle up to my mounting block. He does this very well BUT today (and increasingly more often) he has this annoying habit of trying to bite, bite, being mouthy and generally out persisting me in the mouth game!!! arghhhh.

I decide enough is enough and maybe I'm not being a good enough leader with him either, that maybe I've given him slightly too much leaway on what are his and my responsibilities and that he is trying to out persist me so that he can take over leadership...think sometimes he does too but I think I have a stategy now for this. Anyway, today I out persist him by asking him persistently and consistently to keep his head facing front rather than allowing him to swing his head into 'my personal space' and biting me, my stick or lead rope.

I then bounce up and down a LOT on the mounting block and out persist him by blocking him rhythmically with my stick and once he gets the message that he's to stand still, in place, have his head slightly low and straight ahead I mount and relax for ages. I then do some very basic stuff. LF L&R, DHQ L&R and then small circles L&R with stops at the mounting block. Once he does all this well, flowing and happy I dismount and give him some treats...which I am now giving him on the floor rather than from my hand ;)

A good day after all and I walk back home with plenty to think about. I think Tara and Solly were happy with todays activities and they went off together to graze back in the herd so that was good. Now that Solly is sound again I can bring him and Tara to the house every day (weather permitting) to practise the Nov OLHA test. YEEHAA ;-))

Thursday 10th & Friday 11th November

It's been chilly, windy and drizzly on/off these last two days so no playing with horse, also Solly has a cracked heel and is mildly lame on his front left foot and Tara has been acting strangely with everyone. More on her own, staring out into space for long periods and often staying out of the herd. She has also tried to bite Mark and myself over the last week and I feel she is a little lost without her sister and it's hard trying to come to terms with her loss.

So, I've spent an hour or so over these last two days just being with her in the field, mentally connecting with her and hoping that she doesn't shun me for long. On Thurs she didn't want much to do with me, Solly came up and I spent about 40 mins being with him, standing still and connecting mentally and then today I did the same with Tara. She allowed me into her 20' bubble and then I waited for her to connect to me rather than go into her space uninvited. She took her time but I was patient and she came over. I was allowed to stroke her shoulder and just 'be' with her in that space and it felt good.

We stood like this for a while and then she moved forward indicating that she was allowing me to rub her elsewhere. Her favorite spots usually are scratches on her belly and udders but I went slowly so as to make sure I didn't go anywhere inapropriate. She loved the soft scratches on her udders and when I moved forwards to her belly line she moved forwards to put me back at her udders and inside legs. I didn't scratch long or hard but did as she bade me in a nice soft way and then stroked her whole body getting her fur nap up and working well again after being wet from this morning's drizzle. I then just stood with her, kept the other herd members away from us and I mentally drew pictures of a big orange heart pumping love into her body as my way of letting her know that I love her huge amounts and that she would be with me forever and ever ;)

I also have a good friend sending me a concoction of flower remedies for grief which I hope Tara will take off my hand to help her with her feelings of loss and maybe lonliness. She and Fortune, although not always together in the same field before us, were together mentally and emotionally for their whole lives, 17yrs and I know that they had a very strong bond. Only time, patience and a ton of love are all that I have to help Tara through her grief and I have plenty of all of those for her, my soul horse ;)

Wednesday 9th November

2nd day in a row with grey, grey skies but today no drizzle and by 12noon I was walking down to the horses field to see how they were. This morning I went to the shop and saw the herd from the road, Holly was laying down half way down the hill, Stormy and Solly standing protecting her and dear Tara was way down the hill on her own...I felt sad for her not having her sister Fortune to stand with her anymore and I hoped that she wasn't sad standing there on her own SO I went into the field more than anything to see if she was alright!

She was with the herd when I got there but she was sleeping standing up and looked sort of sad. I asked her to lift her feet so that I could check for stones in her hooves and then asked her to put her head voluntarily into the head collar. I stood there for ages and not sure if she didn't want to or she didn't understand my request SO I stood closer and then put my hand in my pocket and she turned her head thinking I had a treat, she then put her head into the halter beautifully ;-)

I then walked with her to near the top of the field where Solly, Stormy and Holly were grazing (they'd decided to canter around the field when I was talking to Tara. lol). Solly haltered up well and I then hand groomed him and we strolled together to the top of the field, out of the gateway and onto the track. I decided that if there weren't any cattle on the trail home (as now cattle are in two fields on the way home!) then we'd walk to the house for a change and to test the November OLHA test with Solly.

Way back was clear of cattle and they both behaved well going through three gateways, disengageing, backing up and walking nicely without once pushing me or crowding me in the middle of them ;-) FAB. At home Mark was there and took some pic's of me and Solly testing the OLHA course BUT Solly is still lame on his front left foot, showing really in trot and probably an abcess, he had one about this time last year. SO, no trotting today and no OLHA course if it doesn't get better for him. The actual test wasn't too bad, some work needed on backing over two close poles, putting back feet into hulahoop and turning on the hindquarters keeping back feet in hulahoop and also the jump/stop task. Should be fun testing it but only if he's sound. Here's some of the pics that Mark took for us:

Arriving home

Squeezing Sol through paddock gateway

Sol watches intently

Sol standing over poles ready to backup

Solly weaving on a circle nicely ;-)

Relaxed and following me to the next task

Starting off a back up through the curtain, nice pic Mark ;-)

Backup through curtain goes well

Saying hello to the small ball again, it's been a while ;-)

Ball over his back, some sceptism but he's becoming braver

Hindquarters into hulahoop...turn on HQ's...

he managed a quarter of a circle and I left it on a good note ;-)

Jump from a standstill, stop afterwards
was just two strides after so not bad ;-)

Squeezing over bridge on his own...

...he turned and squeezed back towards me...

...brought front feet only over bride, stood for a couple of seconds....

...then backed up onto the bridge again...yeehaa....

...and then backed over the whole bridge....

...he had trouble getting back feet down again,
but tried his heart out for me....
He then stepped full back rested and then came back over it again
to be set free to graze ;-))

Monday 7th November

Another beautiful day, sun shining, blue skies and me at home with the horses. Can't think of anything lovelier ;-)

So, off I go today with trees in hand down to the field and plant one tree over Fortune's grave and two oaks in the same corner but far enough apart that if they mange to grow they won't be over shadowing each other. It felt good to plant these trees. All had been given to me in friendship and hopefully they will be a continuing tribute to Fortune's memory.

Doesn't look much now but hopefully it will get stronger and bigger

After the planting I went to go catch Solly to see if he was up for a short play before I brought Tara to the house as we need to do a small bit of moving some logs with her. Sol and Tara were together grazing so I brought them both into the roundpen together today....thought this could be fun.

I leave them both at liberty and start with just some friendly game with both with the training stick and string. Both very happy with that. Then I ask them to sidle up to me, Solly on my left, Tara on my right...again both happy with that. Then I play some S2M with them in that set up, I put Tara onto the fenceline to help keep her from running off but make sure I give her enough room to not make her feel squeezed between me and the fence. Solly is happy on the inside of the circle and we play w/h/bkups to get our connection good.

The shadows of Solly, Me and Tara playing S2M ;-)

Next we play around with something new... Z5 driving of Solly with Tara still playing S2M w/me in Z2/3. I have to make sure any directions I give to Solly don't get misinterpreted by Tara so I try to keep the side closest to me (hand/arm/shoulder etc) her property and the outside hand/arm/shoulder etc as Sollys property and they 'get that' well. Clever horses ;) I use yesterdays task of Solly stopping on my breathing out at a cone to help our connection and only do walk and halts. We also do it on the L&R which is good.

Z5 drive Solly whilst S2M w/Tara in her Z2/3

Solly walking in front, Tara next to me..this is FUN ;-)

After a short break we next play with sidling up away from me so that they stand in front and do some backups and draws with them both together. They've done this before so it's not difficult but getting them synchronised is an art.

Dual horse backups ;)

And then we had some big fun when I asked them both to go out onto the rail and circle for me. First Tara was in front but Solly bossed her about and they stopped concentrating on me so much but it was fun to see the herd dynamics.

Tara in front, Solly being bossy!

Tara had some lovely paces though, trot and canter ;-)

Then I asked them out again and this time Tara was behind and they concentrated more on me which was good. Tara cantered a bit to keep up with Solly (good again ;-) and Solly looked good leading.

Solly in front is better for Tara's sensitive nature

What blew me away was that they DHQ and came to me TOGETHER.....WOW, love these two.

DHQ off a circle TOGETHER ;-))

So after lots of praise I sent them out again onto their circles, Tara behind again happy to follow and again they DHQ and came off to me TOGETHER....gosh I must have done quite a lot right in their training. lol

Circling to the left, happy bunny's...

....DHQ's together...even their legs are synchronised! FAB

Tara then CANTERED to me in a lovely draw but Solly got stuck behind her when she got closer he could no longer see me...but he drew nicely when Tara stopped and he could see me again. Great fun. Will do this again soon.

Tara's canter draw....confident and happy to come ;-)

I let Solly go back to the herd and I haltered up Tara and then rode her bareback to the house where we have some logging for her to do with us. I will then ride her bareback back to the field at the horses dinner time so that she's home with them for the night.

3 of the 5 large logs she brought up to the house for us today

I also went through the Nov OLHA with her for fun...
she's never done the curtain before (oversight on my part there)...

...but she coped very well with it, forwards and back ;-)

Sunday 6th November

Another chilly night but a lovely blue skied morning that's not too cold. Tara is at the house so I feed her and poo pick the paddock and around 11am I ride her bareback to the horses field where I think the other three were very happy to see her again ;-)

I locked eyes with Solly as he wanted to say 'hello' to me, this is how he does it, but he didn't seem to want to come for play so I wander off to see if he follows me...he did not, he went back to be with Tara but Stormy came over and stood outside the roundpen.

So, I invite him in to the pen and take him to the centre where I put my mounting block crate and start grooming him whilst standing on the block. Doing it this way we work on some communication between us as he needs to move around for me to groom him. He does exceptionally well, walking one step at a time forwards, backwards, hq's towards, turn and putting me in all zones to brush him thoroughly ;-)

After grooming I decide to see what he'll do when at liberty so I start with some S2M and basic DHQ's and move FQ's around. His S2M is good but when at liberty just a small bit of pressure for DHQ, move FQ's makes him turn and trot or canter around the large arena, sometimes it looks like fun, sometimes worry. For a big lad he's very very sensitive so I keep trying to get a bit more willing obedience from him but he goes a bit 'wild'....his draw though (when he's paying attention) is often superb, engaged, drawing from the shoulder with power, often in trot, sometimes in canter...WOW.

Draw at canter, engaged and powerful!

Big canter strides, me ready to ask him to stop...please! lol

and stop he does, beautifully ;-)

But he isn't being very obedient so I put him on a 22' feather lite and start again. The first two times I ask for a DHQ he pulls away in a 'play run away from me' stance....I stop him with a quick hold and release on the line and I'm thankful I'm wearing gloves with this thin line.

So, once Stormy realised he was online he calmed down, I used the line very very loosely to give him the chance to pretend it was liberty and we got some very nice play together. He did DHQ's and moving FQ's 360* lightly and politely. He sidepassed away and towards without a fence. Sidepassed over a cone L&R, fig 8 in walk and trot with me just walking back and forward to get the change of direction and he did some nice circles, almost without me having to redirect his focus ;-)) He did manage 2 x circles L&R in walk and then the same in trot..yeehaa ;)

Back online I ask for some willing obedience and circle/trot/two circles...thank you ;)

And some nice fig 8's without any tantrums ;-)) thank you again

I then take the halter off and we do some nice liberty work WITHOUT him running off or taking over play ;-) He does DHQ and move FQ, sidepass over cone L&R, sidepass away/towards and a S2M fig 8 in walk. Much much better.

Beautiful stand, ready to back up for me ;)

Stick 2 Me goes much better now

Circle around me close for some S2M fig 8's

Moving his forehand over for me without running off ;)

Glad I took some time to play with the big boy today, he needed some relaxed obedience as he's really been too long without enough play.

After this good session I set him back to the herd and he went and grazed by the end of the field. Here also was Tara completely laid out asleep in the sunshine and in front of her Solly...they were both close to, and facing Fortune's grave. I sat on the wooden pedastal and rested with them for about 45 mins, they weren't going to move and seemed So peaceful and at rest I didn't have the heart to ask Solly to play today. I left them as they were and as I went out of the field Holly went and rested very close to Solly and Tara and Stormy hung out grazing quietly there too. It was lovely to see them all together at peace, sleeping in the sunshine and being close to Fortune. Perfect Sunday ;-))

Tara enjoying the sunshine w/Solly in foreground, over looking Fortune's grave

Solly, Tara and Stormy resting just above Fortune's grave ;)

Saturday 5th November

A lovely sunny day today and not too cold although a frost was seen early this morning. After collecting the last of our winter hay, which is now ready and stored at the house ready for snow, we went down to the horses to see how they were, play and hopefully ride out.

I put the roundpen back up...wonder who knocked it down!! Stormy? lol. Once up Mark goes and plays in it with Stormy while I play with Solly outside with the 22' featherlite rope. Solly is a bit sluggish and Stormy is a bit unfocussed. SO, I go and help Mark with Stormy, get them both better focussed and Stormy does a couple of nice circles. Then on the fig 8's Stormy gets himself in a pickle by trying to always touch the cones so Mark asks me to try with him. I make sure that my 'send' on the first circle of the fig 8 is big and away from the cones and then with a bit of concentrated focus and directioning he does some nice fig 8's for me. He needs more consistent play as he knows the games and patterns but doesn't get enough consistency with any of it at the moment ;-( Never mind, he loves being a big horse with his herd and that's good ;-)

Once Mark's taken Stormy out of the pen I play at liberty with Solly....who seems to much prefer liberty to online and so do I ;-) This is what we got up to:

Z5 driving in walk, stopping at cones

Z5 drive/stop at cone

Z5 drive in TROT ;-)
(stopping at cones)

This is a sequence of 4 pics which shows what I do in my body to create the slow/stop/touch cone from Z5.
1) First I am trotting in my body the same as I want Solly to trot in his.
2) Then I draw my energy back, slowing my pace to create a down transition with Solly.

3) Next I bring my gait down to walk and really really focus my eyes, belly button and body onto the stop goal.

4) And then I stop in my body to create a stop in Sollys body ;-)

Next we tested our spins at walk....here is the first bit...move the fq's away from me...

....then I ask his fq's to move even further away using rhythmic pressure with the training stick...

....then he moves his hq's over in front of me and his fq's start to turn towards me...

...and to complete the spin I DHQ's and bring his head back to me ;-))

Then we did some liberty circles, walk and trot but his front left foot seems a bit sore
so didn't push anything or ask for canter today ;-(

He came into me with a lovely expression of a horsey that knows he's done all the right things ;)

Head down and relax ;-)

After good play sessions Mark and I took Holly and Tara out for a hack to the village, we went further than we've been for a while but only up onto the hill and back. Holly and Tara were both sweaty from probably not being quite fit enough and also from starting to get their winter coats in SO both Mark and I walked back down the hill to the shop, got them some apples and walked them ALL the way home too. Holly was pretty much dry when we got back to the field so we gave the herd their dinner and set her free.

The boys were slightly sweaty too from missing the girls whilst they were out but they managed to get a bit dry by rolling in mud ;-( Dirty boys!

Tara was still very sweaty so I rode her back to the house where I gave her a rub down and put a nice warm fleece sweat rug on her and she happily munched away on some lovely new hay. She will stay over night and I'll take her back to the herd tomorrow morning. I love having her at the house though ;-))

Wednesday 3rd November

Haven't done much with herd since Fortune going, tried to just 'be' there for them as much as possible as they get used to being just 4 now, lots of undemanding time. I also went away teaching for 6 days but am back now for a while, got my connection back with the herd yesterday with just hanging out with them again and today was the first day to play ;-)

SO, I went in today and put up a very large round pen in the middle of the field, it's about 80-100' across so nice and large and can be ridden in nicely. I put 4 cones in there too at the quarter marks, about 3 strides in from the fence and these can give me a lot to play with.

Solly came and caught me after Stormy had been to investigate the new pen and I took Sol in the pen at liberty. This is what we did together:

Stick 2 Me:
Walk/stop at cones to get connection and then same in trot going to L&R.

Fig 8's:
Around cones in w/t and some canter too ;-)

Sideways:
Away and towards, went very nicely both ways and then specified each part of him, so did me standing in Z2 asking for hq yield towards only L&R and then standing in Z4 asking for fq yield towards. Not done this for absolutely ages but he remembers it beautifully ;-)

Spins:
Slow, in walk to the L&R, he did them well and very close to me so that I could DHQ with my hand....these have come on really well and I am going to up the task into trot soon.

Z5 Driving:
Checking to make sure all we've done this year is still in place. Asked for Forward in walk,stops and backups with connection to thought/energy. Testing our 'touch it' game by asking for him to stop at cones which was cool.

He was very connected and we started putting in some L&R turns from just me asking him to 'find' me in his eye, turn sharper when I get closer to his tail, straighter when I'm out from his tail and change sides when I go behind his tail to the other side.

This is a great feeling getting the connection in Z5. I decide to start the challenge of testing our connection in Z5 in trot. It takes a physical cue for him to get my idea for trot but slowly he starts to listen to my energy and we stop on a good note.

We then do some liberty circling, close to in walk and trot and then ask for some canter. Then I go back and ask him to trot circles and relax long and low in a really relaxed outline and he does it easily going to the right, does it to the left but takes more time.

I then spend some time trimming his hooves and then set him loose...we have some hugs and undemanding time and I think he's glad to have me back home ;-)

I then go and see if Tara wants to connect and she comes straight over, so does Holly and we have some scratches and then I halter Tara up and invite her to the new playpen. I stand on my mounting block and she sidles over to be mounted bareback. I start off with LF L&R and then DHQ L&R. From there we play around with walk and then trot to cones, stopping and backing 2 steps totally at freestyle...no touching the reins at all ;-)...love this girl, she's so cool.

We then try out some circling around a cone to X in the centre of the roundpen and stopping, then I put a left circle/stop and right circle/stop together to make fig 8's. Then we do trot fig 8's without stopping for a while. All's going well and her L&R turns are pretty good, still doing mostly with no rein contact.

I expand on the fig 8's and go to some cloverleaf to the left two circuits and stop at X and then twice to the right. She really remembered the pattern as we've not done this for over a year ;) After all this I take her to the electric fence gate, open it, go through it, close it again all mounted and then we go and find the herd which has gone up the hill. She needed to see them as she's been a bit worried since Fortune went SO going to where she can see them helps her relax.

She begins to get a bit lively and her trot is really lovely so I ask her to go up and down at the bottom of the hill in her nice trot and ask her to leg yield a few strides left, straighten up and then go right, turn near the fence and go back the other way leg yield left and then leg yield right. I'm not sure how decent her leg yields were but I could feel and see our line was definitely diangonalling across the grass and I felt much straighter in 'in' the movement instead of pushing her over ike I used to. It felt good ;-))

I praise her and then know she wants to go to the herd so we trot and canter up the hill to be with them, I dismount and let her go to the herd after a hug and kiss. Solly comes over and touches me as I pass him by and I then leave them to it.

It felt like a really good session with some good connection, lightness, harmony and some new tasks started which we can continue through November. Good day ;-)

Z5 driving

Z5 driving, heading for a 'touch it' to the cone....

....BINGO, lower thought/energy and he totally 'gets it' ;-)

Solly relaxing on trotting circles to the right

and to the left

Looking good on his circles here ;-)

October 2011

2011-10-04T16:26:00.016+01:00

Tuesday 18th October

Fortune this Summer ;)

Well it is with a sad heart that I have to say our beloved Fortune was peacefully put to sleep yesterday. She went with dignity and grace and our vet was stunned at how quick and quiet it was.

Fortune had been with us for nearly 10yrs and although lame from an accident with her previous owner (who died) which left Fortune lame for life, she never let it hold her back. She kept up with the herd no matter what gait and was very spirited and opinionated and so much fun with a cheeky sense of joy about trying to pick pockets, opening gates and picking up her feed bowl when she'd finished eating ;-)

She was 2nd in command in our herd of 5 until the beginning of this year when the boys Stormy and Solly decided that she needed to go down the ranks due to her lameness getting a bit worse. She went to 2nd from the bottom and made a niche in the herd with her sister Tara in that place. Tara and Fortune were often to be seen together away from the herd and more so this last month.

We knew that last winter was a bit difficult for her, our paddocks over winter are smaller and the herd moved her around alot and she slipped badly on the ice when it was very bad. This year she has been moving about well and had a couple of sessions where she galloped for sheer joy with the herd but it's taken it's toll on her body. The last month she has been looking very sad, laying down and sleeping a lot and not coming up the hill for water or feed. She also has a look of laminitis about her (thick crest, puffy eyes, slightly swollen lower limbs) and we knew that lack of exercise was not doing her any good but with her initial lameness this isnt' something that could be controlled in a dignified manner.

So, Mark and I made the joint decision that she would not have to suffer another cruel, hard winter (believe me there is snow on the glenshee mountains already...in October!!!) and the kindest thing would be to put her to sleep and so we called the vet on Monday am and he came out Monday afternoon.

She was surrounded by her herd (although we made sure they didn't see her actually going down) and they kept a vigil over her body last night and today over the grave. Holly and Solly intially were very worried and ran about a bit, Stormy was worried but then very curious. Tara seemed to understand that it was Fortune's time and didn't come over at all although she was watching and looking from a distance.

Today Holly was very quiet and her eyes shone with knowing sadness. Stormy was very curious still but Holly kept him close. Tara was away from the herd a bit but kept with them when they went for breakfast. Dear Solly seemed to have taken it the hardest, Fortune was after all 'his girl' and he seemed to be wanting to 'be' with her...they all watched as our friend put her in her grave and covered it all. They all went and sniffed the place where she had lain overnight and Solly was licking the mud scrape that the digger had made. They all looked over the muddy grave and watched, pensive, often lowering their heads and then 'flehming' a lot as if to take the last essense of her into their souls.

It was a very moving experience and very sad. We have thousands of happy memories of Fortune with us, walking through forests and fields, grazing her in-hand at tasty spots and walking miles with her when we moved one time down this very glen we are in now. We are very glad that the estate we live on gave us permission to bury our dearest heart in the field where the horses live, where she will always be with the herd in spirit as she was in life. We are going to plant a wonderful tree and herbage over her so that her body can live again in the shape of the tree, bear fruit and make other trees, support birds and be a good part of nature again although she is gone in the guise of a horse.

RIP dearest soul Fortune. (1994-2011) Always in our hearts and minds, a spirit of pure nature embodded in the finest looking horse ever ;-)

Fortune at 17yrs old, from this Sat 15/10/11

FOR FORTUNE
May this freedom send you on your way
To the fresh fields and forests of your youth

May the air stream fast through your mane and tail
To take you back to the horse you once were

May the love in our hearts stay with you wherever you go
As you will stay in our hearts forever more

We will see you across the Rainbow Bridge
When our time comes to meet again ;-)

Sunday 16th October

Another nice peaceful dry day and down to the horses for a couple of hours. I firstly took a bucket of water down to Fortune as she's not getting up for water and she played around with the spare bucket and flipped water about which was cute to see. I also haltered her up and asked her to walk to see how bad she was with her feet and I don't think it would be fair to ask her to walk to the house (about a mile and a half away) for the vet to come out to her...funnily enough she wasn't limping (something she's been doing since she was 4 and she's now 17) so my instinctual thought was that ALL her feet/legs are hurting (maybe due to the beginnings of laminitis) and so not one individual hoof needs to be limped on!!! it's not good anyway and the other horses seem to gather around her more and more...they know she's not well or happy. We're hoping that we'll be able to dig a hole for her in this field as then the herd can say their goodbyes, mourn for her and know she's not been taken away from them ;-(

So, back to the play...Mark again took Stormy as he came trotting up to the HA arena very enthusiastic to be played with and I took Solly again. I started with some impulsion work on the 22' and then went straight into trying to film the Oct OLHA test again, there was one thing I wasn't happy about in yesterdays BUT Solly and I both felt bored doing it again...nothing bad boring but just 'we've done this yesterday...move on, sort of bored SO I stopped and we went back onto the 22' featherlite and went out into the big field to play big circles and Z5 driving with some leg yielding...it was much more fun and something we are getting to grips with more and more ;-)

Here are some piccie's from todays sessions:

Stormy sidepassing over barrels

Stormy jumping

Me getting Storm's circling more balanced.....

...so that his jumping is more balanced ;)

Seeing how Solly's jumping is going...

...and how balanced he is AFTER the jump ;)

and again to the right ;)

Onto Z5 legyields to the right, nice back leg cross over...

...nice front leg cross over...

...and nice stretch for next cross over...

...and to the left (harder side)...

...lovely front leg stretch and back leg cross over...

...and front leg cross over ;-))
not bad for Z5 fun

And a nice peaceful spot to stop for a rest

And a good stretch

Liberty fun: circling at walk

Circling at liberty in trot

and circling at liberty in canter....
he offered this canter and I take all good offereings ;)

A nice end of session hug...he's so much happier when he's been played with,
more relaxed, flexible, non-mouthy....mentally, emotionally and physically exercised ;))

Saturday 15th October

Today my back and leg aren't feeling too bad (taken a few days off to recouperate from osteopath visit on Weds ;-) so we went down and saw the herd. Stormy and Solly were filthy with caked on mud and they must have been rolling in it for a while to have gotten SO filthy! lol. As Stormy came up to the HA arena Mark got straight to grooming him and he looked fabulous when finished.

Mark then played with Stormy and they were very good and got into harmony better with their S2M today. Stormy picked up his feet over the cartwheel very well, stood on things, backed up over, through and under things and was generally a very well behaved boy. Was lovely to watch.

Then Holly came up and Mark brushed and played with her too ;-) She was a bit sticky over jumps and Mark asked me to try to help her with that which I did. She is a bit un-flexible on the circling game so I worked on her becomming more flexible to L&R on circles in trot and that helped her become more flexible going over the jumps...first some doubled up tyres and then the large barrels lying down. I also asked her to jump on a circle and that didn't mean stopping straight after the jump but to continue circling until asked to do something else. I asked her to DHQ about half way from doing the jump and doing it again...this gave her the incentive to carry on with the jump rather than anticipate and stop right after it ;-)

When Mark was grooming Stormy (which takes quite a time as there's plenty of him to groom! lol) I went and put my electric fence back up into the arena (Stormy had knocked about 95% of it down including my dressage letters!) and then I went and said hello to Fortune who was lying down. She's not having a very easy time at the moment but I petted her and said I'd come back later when she was standing.

I then went and walked past Solly and asked him to catch me, which he did willingly and we walked to the HA arena together. In the arena I groomed his dried mud off and then played on the 22' line with some circles, jumps, obedience, willingness, focus and transitions. I didn't play with the OLHA tasks, just played with the ingredients that make up the tasks and then Mark filmed our attempts at the course.

He actually did most of the tasks very well and I was pleased with the result apart from us trotting around the outside of the cartwheel (tyre laying down with 6 poles off it evenly laying down in a cartwheel shape). We are supposed to go around the shape with Solly trotting over the poles but he has difficulty with staying in trot, staying over the poles and staying with me rather than rushing in front of me. I am going to keep the video in case I don't get to do a better one but know that the cartwheel mistakes will take a few vital points from the results SO I'll do my best to get out there and ask Mark to video another attempt ;-)

After I let Solly back with the herd I went over to Fortune who was now standing and groomed her head to toe. I think she really enjoyed it and she looked fabulous after it. We're trying to spend lots of quality time with her as she is probably not going to be around this winter, her lameness is really playing up and she's stopped walking around so much now, laying down a LOT and generally looking tired and sad. She's only 17 (same age as her sister Tara) but has been lame due to an injury since she was around 3yrs old. It's going to be a very very sad day soon when she goes to the 'Rainbow Bridge' but she's had a lovely, calm, retirement in the herd, brought up our boisterous Stormy and been a valued member of the herd. It's very noticable how little she moves now and with not exercising so much this is the first year when she was looking fatter and more liable to laminitis.

Here are some lovely pictures that Mark took of her and me today after being groomed...

Then we left her in peace and I went and found big Tara....she really could do with not being in this field but she seemed very anxioius to be with Fortune, to support her in her when she's not feeling good. I know they don't know what we're planning (or maybe they do) but I know that Tara was fretting about something at the house at exactly the time when Fortune stopped walking around so much and they've been seen hanging out together and laying down together which they have never done much of in the past....they know that things are different and I know that Tara wants to be with her sister so she is staying in the field with the others for now and I will just have to get back into riding her to the village when my leg and back are feeling up to it so that she doesn't put on enormous amounts of fat or she'll get laminitis.

Here are a couple of piccie's of me riding her this afternoon...

Tuesday 11th October

Well today's blog is about a horse that I've been helping out, I wanted to share his story and how well he's done as he's taken a small part of my heart, he's such a lovely boy. His name is MAX...a 15.2hh Cob (probably Welsh Cob x Dales) and he's 7yrs old. I've been calling him 'Wild Max' as he's had very little done with him...ever. He was bought by a friend of mine as a 6 month old baby when she was at a sale down in Devon and the mother was sold but he was left....bit of a severe weaning for dear Max...she couldn't let him go to the meat man and bought him and brought him home from Devon all the way to Perthshire, Scotland.

Since then she has managed to catch him and halter him (and that wasn't an easy job in itself) and lead him around, stable him and groom him but he wouldn't pick his feet up and they need looking at, not badly considering (pics in a minute!). I have been working on him in 2hr sessions and total 13 sessions up to today. He is a very sceptical horse but trusts his 'human' when that human has taken the time to bond with him and never let him down. I have been taking everything really SLOWLY as he doesn't like change, he doesn't like ropes dangling, he doesn't like sudden movements but is very good with easy, soft, sweeping movements and a very confident human ;-)

He has been very confident with his owner but strangers are a problem for him.

Over the 26hrs I've spent with him, from not being able to hold the rope long or touching him much this is what I can now do with him:

1) Bring him out of his field and walk him to the yard

2) Touch and groom him all over, including his thick tangly mane and tail.

3) Touch him all over with a folded up rope, a training stick, a farriers rasp, a glove, three different types of brushes and with gloved hands.

4) Ask him by touching or with intent (porcupine and driving games) to back up, move his forehand and hindquarters.

5) Go up to him and handle him with the rope longer and touching his shoulders, withers, neck, sides and face.

6) Picking all 4 feet up and holding them for at least 10 seconds each.

7) Rasping and cutting with a knife some excess bits and chips off his hoof wall on the front feet.

8) Holding him at the head and asking Mark to touch him all over both sides of his body.

9) Holding him and asking him to let Mark pick up all 4 of his feet.

10) Walking him back to the field with plenty of halt/walk transitions and not pulling for grazing along the verge ;-))

MISSION: To have Max pick up and start to hold his feet up for a visit from the farrier.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
(Owner now has daily homework of building up the time he hold his feet up for now and to start finding some balance on three legs. Also to get him ready to get some x-rays to his front feet to see if his pigeon toed walk is fixable ;-)

Here are some piccies I wanted to share...I've got rather attached to Max and will miss him on my daily/weekly visits.

Max and me today ;-)

Max and I walking to the yard...connected and relaxed

Just me and Max getting more connected at the yard ;-)

AND his feet....these are the first piccie's of his feet, he's never had his feet picked up or trimmed in his life until me ;-)

Front left

Front right

Right hind

Left hind

Sunday 9th October

Did a few jobs at home today, sorting out the paddocks and electric fencing, some more logs to dam the river and pruning the beech hedge (the cuttings of which I took to the horses for a treat to eat). We went down to the herd around 4pm and I just did an hour with Solly playing around with the OLHA course first at liberty and then online and then just a bit of fun at liberty to finish off. Here are the piccie's from the OLHA course, some liberty fun pics and a short video of today...enjoy ;-)

FIRST: AT LIBERTY

Our Spectators...always welcome ;-))

SECOND: ONLINE

FINALLY: LIBERTY FUN :0))

Is he watching, is he following! lol

Starting up a chase...for fun ;-)

start of fig 8's through the curtain!!!

and through the other way too

trot and canter through the weave with some fig 8's thrown in for fun

superb change of direction...

...to a fabulous stop with great self-carriage ;-)

Circling at liberty...w/t/c (left & right ;-)

And lastly I asked Sol to fig 8 through the curtain obstacle at liberty...first try, first time...done beautifully ;-)

Solly doing fig 8's with the curtain at Liberty ;-))

Saturday 8th October

Looks like it's going to rain today so we get ourselves together and get out to be with the horses for a while. I set up more of the October OLHA course, putting up some Halloween weaving obstacles for a bit of fun.

Solly was a sweetie, tried everything with his usual hardest try and made me laugh quite a few times. Mark then did the same course with Stormy which made me laugh even more...he's such a jester ;-)

Here's some pictures from the session today:

Helping Solly to figure out how to get around
this cartwheel in trot...walk was difficult enough
so plenty of practise for this obstacle

Small jump went okay today

Trying out the backing through poles!! hard one

Flag over head wasn't too bad but
the wind kept blowing it around!! lol

The cartwheel with me on the outside!

Weaving through poles with some Halloween stuff on...
will make it scarier with some balloons too ;-)

Backing through the curtain...much better than last time we did this ;-)

Putting up the Halloween pumpin...Stormy wants
to investigate!!

Backing up over the tarp....yeehaa ;-)

All 4 feet (nearly) in the hulahoop

Circling at trot

He really was a sweetie today...

...and the first time really ever that he's done this wonderful
standing with me and thinking about all he's done without
trying to bite or push me...aah ;-) Bless him

Stormy's 2 feet in hulahoop...
try to put all 4 feet on (which he wants and can do very well)
would end up with us not having a pedastal! lol

Stormy walking the circles

Stormy has absolutely NO problem backing up over ANYTHING

Flag over the face, walking 5 strides...not a problem..Stormy is fearless ;-))

Weaving around the Halloween obstacles....
he wanted to investigate them all and try to bite them! lol

Backing up through curtain...not a problem at all ;-))

Walking the cartwheel...he actually did better than Solly with this!

Jumping the small jump was good and he cleared it without his usual lagging of his back feet ;-))

Found the best way to do this backing corridor is...
to go through it forwards first...

....then back up through it when the pattern is fresh in the mind...

....but we needed a bit more space for a neat reversal!! lol

Had a lot of fun going through the OLHA course with the two boys today and I think they enjoyed it too ;-))

Tuesday 4th October

At last a couple of dry days...yesterday my good friend Carin came up to Scotland to stay over 24hrs, she walked the dogs and I rode Tara to the field to feed the horses.

Today Carin rode Tara down to the horses, I walked and once there we let Tara graze around the HA arena and I played at liberty with Solly ;-) Then I saddled and played online with him and then mounted.

I did a lot of freestyle working on making sure there was relaxation, focus,energy and balance in place...worked on circles, flexibility and seeing in our seat and mind connections were working well, we've not ridden for a week so it was good to feel him connected to me so well ;-)

So, I dismounted and then put the bridle/bit in and we did about 15mins of finesse...all went well but being in HA arena there were too many obstacles to get properly focused so we just did what we could. what was lovely was that when we did the trot/one step walk/trots to help impulsion he was offering and actually giving canter..yeehaa..how fab.

Then Mark came along and got/saddled Holly up, Carin re-caught Tara and I had Solly and up out of the field we three musketeers went,, out for a hack.

Mark led on Holly, I went second on Solly and Carin on calm, reliable Tara third. All started okay, Holly seemed calm but Solly's head was up a bit from the beginning. I did a few shoulder-in's to focus him back onto me rather than Mark and Holly but he did a few head tosses and he wanted to be right up Holly's bottom and that wasn't an option I wanted. Mark then trotted away from Solly a bit and because I wasn't happy about his high head I stayed in walk but as Mark got further away Solly got more agitated and then BAM....4 bucks in succession....Mark, in front didn't see them but Carin, behind did and I'm so lucky to not have been thrown...I managed to stay on and got off asap, my heart thumping like a bit drum!

I decided if nothing else I would walk and I did that for a bit but then Mark insisted I took Holly and rode her when I felt up to it and he took Solly and rode him. Sol gave him a couple of bucks too at one point but then settled and actually Mark gave him a good, calm ride (w/t/c ;-)

I walked Holly for a bit and then got on and rode at the back behind calm, reliable Tara. Then on the way back I got off before the usual place where Mark canters Holly, we walked a bit and once the others were done with their cantering I got on and cantered Holly back to the last gate home..it was a nice canter but my right sciatic nerve was hurting, as was my left hamstring, left knee and neck...it felt like I'd had a bit of whiplash....darn that bucking. I may have to visit the osteo again if it doesn't get better in a week.

All in all it was a good day out and riding Holly was fun out on the hack and Solly was so good in the arena. Here are a few pic's from, the hack:

Carin and Tara heading to the horses field

Me and Solly, Carin and Tara on the first leg of the hack

Solly just before the bucking....looks SO handsome though ;-)

Mark calmly taking Solly for the hack

Solly being a good boy for Mark ;-)

Solly and Mark leading, Carin and Tara middle
nearing the end of the ride back to the field

Me and Holly cantering for home....yeehaa ;-)

September 2011

2011-09-02T00:10:00.015+01:00

Thursday 29th September

Out this morning teaching but back this afternoon and the weather is very very mild today....balmy almost, so I do some office work and then put the bareback pad on Tara and head on out to the herd. I am tired and decide to spend some undemanding time with the herd and then groom them all thoroughly. They all look fabulous now, clean and their long manes and tails all flowing and shiny. Love just spending time with them individually and they each appreciated their time with me too ;-)

Wednesday 28th September

A whole day at home and the sun is shining....the universe loves me today and I spent 4 hours of it with the herd ;-)) FAB...and here's what I did....

1) Online w/Solly:
I did some small pieces of practise for our OLHA test, backing up over pole and through poles and also the jump as these are often the bits that need most concentration from Solly. Then I got Mark to film our OLHA test for us ;-))) I feel it went very well so will produce that video and send it off.

2) Online w/Stormy:
First Mark went around the same OLHA test w/Stormy and they did very well, Stormy just likes to be involved and hates being left out so this was a good bit of fun for him. Then I did exactly the same thing with him so that he felt he was important enough to have both our attention today. Stormy did very well and here's the pic's to prove it...

Me and the Storm monster ;-)

OLHA obstacle 1) trot thru curtain

OLHA obstacle 2) back through poles

OLHA obstacle 3) jump barrel

OLHA obstacle 4) go around a corner 5' away from handler

OLHA obstacle 5) back all 4 feet over a pole

OLHA obstacle 6) trot onto tarp and DHQ's 360*

OLHA obstacle 7) weave in trot

OLHA obstacle 8) fig 8 around cones

OLHA obstacle 9) trot to scary corner,
stop for 5 seconds and trot out again

OLHA obstacle 10) own item: stand on pedastal 2 feet ;-)

Enjoyed our session today...lots of fun

Monday 26th September

Was away over weekend teaching nr the Lothians and every day this week I'm out in the morning for a couple of hours working on a horse that needs more socialisation with humans and generally getting more un-sceptical about life in general. SO, not had time to see or do anything with our herd until this afternoon when Mark and I went to the field and I got Fortune and Tara to catch me so that Mark could trim Fortune's hooves. I caught them okay but then the other three decided to give me a HUGE welcome home by running around the field almost flat out a few times...not just once ;-) Solly was jumping in the air like a cat and was very very athletic, Stormy was thoroughly enjoying it all and Holly was SO fast it was amazing. Luckily Fortune and Tara on their lead ropes were as calm as anything and I enjoyed the show enormously.

Mark did Fortune's feet and then we let her off but whilst I was grooming her hair and making her comfortable I took some nice pic's of the others....

Stormy showing he IS bigger than Solly ;-)

Mark showing how big Stormy is now...
Mark is 6'2" and Stormy is 18.2hh,
that makes Stormy 6' at the withers !!

Never seen the boys grooming each other so
this was a rarity and so cute

Solly proving that Stormy is HUGE. lol

Solly still trying to make eye contact with me
albeit a HUGE horse was completely in his way. lol

Solly showing what a big horses BUTT is for...
a BIG SCRATCH ;-))

Thursday 22nd September

Well I had a teaching cancellation and it was a PERFECT opportunity to get down with Solly and PLAY ;-)

On Tues I had a student up from Dunfries & Galloway to play/learn with our horses and she did a great job playing and riding Mark's Holly....dear Holly really knows how to take care of people and it was lovely to see her being so good. Yesterday (Weds) I was set to play with horses but it was blowing a gale with torrential heavy rain so I stayed inside instead BUT today was perfect, so outward bound was I.

Firstly I put up the electric fencing around the dressage arena area, it is nicely grazed down now (thanks herd) and so I'm going to leave it up and electrified and hope that the horses leave it alone (fingers crossed! lol)

Whilst putting the fence back up Solly hooked up with me, leaving his beloved Fortune, and followed me around. I took him at liberty to the Horse Agility arena / Play area and I set to grooming him as he was muddy and it gave us a good opportunity to get aquainted again.

Then I haltered him and with 12' line on we went around the OLHA obstacles a couple of times, once individual tasks and then putting them together. Today Solly was a star and I hope he keeps that attitude when we film him next week as it was lovely, light and responsive ;-) THUMBS UP for that.

I then saddled him and played around the HA obstacles on the 22' feather light rope. He did some nice circles with trotting over the large tarp one side and jumping the single barrel the other side of the circle and once he had done all the pre-flight checks I gave him a treat and took him out of the HA area and to the dressage arena.

Today I had a new piece of equipment for us to try out. I bought this a few weeks ago but it only arrived a few days ago as it's beautifully hand made. It's a rope sidepull nose band. I put it on one of Sol's leather bridles and we will try it out. Looks very smart.

Solly's sidepull noseband

Sol showing off his new noseband ;-)

Anyway, started off with some online play to make sure arena okay for him, no spooky spots or scary things in the forest. Then I mounted and tried out the sidepull. Well it was nice and we are still working from my thought/energy connection so it really wouldn't matter what I put on his face really but he felt easier in the regular rope halter...but then he's used to that one more. I will continue to try it out, thought it might be a nice bit of equipment for Mark and Holly too, see how it goes. Must admit it's a beautiful bit of rope work and it was only £25.

After the sidepull, freestyle work to make sure all my body aids are working I dismounted and put the bridle/bit on Solly and remounted. He went into the bit beautifully and much easier than the sidepull...I really think he likes the bit now as it's the right piece of equipment for the job at the moment and it feels lovely to have him in self-carriage without having to use the reins, I pick up the reins to keep a contact with his mouth but I really am not holding him at all....COOL ;-)

We did some warm up stuff, collected circles 10m and 20m, fig 8's 10m and 20m then some serpentines. I really concentrated on where my legs were, where my knees were pointing, looking through Solly's ears and keeping my elbows nearer my body and it all felt good.

I let him have a loose rein for a while and then asked him back into self-carriage and worked on some trot, walk for one step, trot trans for impulsions...these REALLY WORK and he tried a couple of canter strides! ;-) Fab. I then asked him to do leg yield to the right...FAB. Then leg yield to the left, harder but...FAB. Then leg yield to the right in TROT....he really put in some effort and it felt pretty good.

Then I let him have his head for a while, still doing some loose rein circling and keeping our body connection going. Then asked him for collection again and did shoulder-in to the right...PRETTY DARN GOOD, it really flowed when I got my body upright and keeping my left hip moving in the right direction. lol and finally we did a shoulder-in to the left...not bad at all. I will work on my left side as this is harder to do and I really find I'm thinking about where my seat bone is, where my hip is pointing, where my waist is and if my ribs are behind or with the movement in the right direction. It's good to be learning again though and Solly put in a wonderful effort. I then asked him to canter L&R along the long sides and gave him a loose rein after that and brought him down to a walk and halt. He did so well I stopped there and gave him lots of treats and hugs and then set him free with the herd....although he followed me around until I left the field which was super.

Here is some snippets of the lovely work Solly did on the recent clinic we went to...enjoy ;-))

Me and Solly at Perry Wood Clinic - Aug '11

Sunday 18th September

Down to horses with Mark early today. Grey skies but no rain (so far) and the wind isn't too bad. I start off by playing with Solly, Mark takes on big Stormy and also takes off his ergots and chestnuts too as one of his back feet ergots was long and split and he was stamping his foot trying to be rid of it! lol

Solly was in a good mood and we went around the HA course okay. Lots of bits to refine on though:

1) Trot through curtain / okay

2) Back through poles / need to work on getting him set up in position with me doing less and backing more from just my energy

3) Jump barrel / okay but lacked focus today

4) Around corner w/me in hula hoop / not bad but needs me doing less again, may move jump before to put his obstacle in a more fluid place

5) Back over pole, all 4 feet / again positioning is the key, will put two poles together end to end to make this longer so that Sol see's that it's more solid

6) Trot onto tarp, turn on forehand 360* and trot off / trotting onto tarp is hard, he always wants to stop and look before that. The turn isn't a true turn on the forehand, he needs to stop moving his forehand and just move his HQ's so this needs lots of subtle refinement

7) Horse Trots weave, human straight / this was okay after initial turn, maybe move tarp from previous task over slightly to help flow of the course

8) Fig 8, human standing still / not bad but need to work on getting him out of my personal space more...maybe try putting fig 8 cones closer together so I'm not stretching on the 12' so much

9) Horse trot to scary corner, stop in middle, trot out, human outside scary corner / He didn't have a problem with this apart from stopping one step after I asked so not bad at all ;-)

10) Imagination task of own choosing / trot to pedastal and put 4 feet on it, not a problem with this one at all either.

So, a few niggly refinements to work on and making the course so that it flows better would help. I have a few teaching days next week but the last week in Sept I have 3hrs away every morning the whole week so my task will be to take Solly through the obstacles slowly one by one until we're more refined and conneted. Then hopefully on Sat morning Mark can film us and that'll be that. It's good to be stretched in my horsemanship as otherwise things tend to get a little sloppy and lax. I think Solly's enjoying being stretched a bit too ;-)

After our play I set Sol back into the field and took Tara, played, groomed, tacked up and went for a medium hack out with Mark and Holly. Both horses were calm, responsive and enjoyed our ride out together. Was lovely to be back with our herd and back in the saddle again after a couple of weeks working with other people and their horses. It was also good to see how quickly my connection with Solly and the herd comes back now ;-)

Tara, Holly & Mark walking down the hill back to the field
at the end of the ride today ;-)

Stormy, Solly and Fortune welcome us back from our hack out

Saturday 17th September

Back home now after almost 9 days away continuously...teaching horsemanship around Scotland and enjoying every second BUT do miss my home and horses when away and know that my 'connection' will now need to be regained after such a long absence.

SO, today Mark and I try to miss the rain showers and we go down to the field to see the herd. We firstly put back up some electric fencing and the boys come over and see what we're doing which is a great way to start our session. Solly isn't too interested in me, Mark has been his main human contact so I need to get back our partnership but on his terms and in his time.

When walking back to the Horse Agility arena Solly (and Stormy in fact) follow me very nicely. They both stand at the gate and I open it and allow Solly to calmly walk into the arena, Mark is already in here with his Holly. Solly stands at the grooming kit and I spend about 20 mins grooming him at liberty, checking him over, making sure he's relaxed and happy. He just stands there and cocks one back leg and enjoys the handling.

I start off with a halter and 12' rope and do very quiet simple things and in fact we do the Sept OLHA tasks one at a time, seeing if the willingness is there and if we're communicating together nicely. Then we do more impulsion tasks like S2M w/t/h/bkups and circling with a jump or over the tarp.

After 10 days Solly is very curious about Mr Cat now ;-)

We then have a rest while we watch Mark and Holly doing some of the OLHA tasks too. They both did very well considering they've not played for over a week. Solly and I then go through the Sept OLHA Medium test with a bit more clarity. This month there is lots of trot and stopping, more intricate manoeuvres and we need to be very focussed. The session went very well, short and sweet. The rain starts to come down again and we decide a short session is good to start with, Solly did well and tomorrow we can build on that more. Mark also played with Holly and Stormy so it was a good herd play day ;-)

After setting Solly free in the field he stayed close to me a lot which was lovely. Really feel our connection again and only after a couple of hours. I missed him lots and I'm glad we stopped after only a short session as tomorrow hopefully we can do more and still keep sweet about it. Whilst he was 'stuck' to me I asked him to back from his tail, 7 steps, which he did so lightly, I just had his tail laying in the palm of my upturned hand. Then I let his tail go and kept him going back until I was at his shoulder...cool horse, he remembers everything ;-)

Backing from tail

Connecting ;-)

Feels good to be back...Solly thinks so too ;-))

Tuesday 6th September

Well yesterday Mark and I finished pulling all the ragwort in our horses field, it feels so good to have that behind us now. The field below ours and next to ours has qutie a lot of ragwort in them but they're not ours and I just haven't got the energy or time to sort out other fields nowadays. Hopefully the lease holders will do something about it (fingerscrossed!)

But back to today. I'm off teaching over the next 10 days so this is the last opportunity to do something with Solly until I get back. The weather looks grey but I manage to get out when it's still okay and when down in the field I put together the On Line Horse Agility Medium Horse Competition obstacles for September. I have watched last months winning session and now know where I need to be with Solly to get better scores and to try for more refinement. SO, with that in mind I go and ask Solly to catch me, which he does very nicely and I halter him and put him on the 22' featherlite rope.

I play in the open field all the way to the HA arena, we do some S2M, transitions, circles w/t/c/ L&R w/COD's and some yo-yo's. In the HA arena I just pop around the course to see if we have any worry issues about any of the obstacles. Not too bad BUT the wind and rain are now both coming in a bit and Solly just wants to keep his butt to the wind which makes it interesting to try to go in any other direction! lol

But he does okay and today these are the issues with the obstacles:

1) Trot through curtain:
The curtain is really blowing with the wind and he's not bad with it but there could be a bit more relaxation through it SO we practise relaxation techniques and go back to working in walk through it.

2) Back through parallel poles:
His backing is not bad at all BUT his turning around on the forehand (move hindquarters) has much to be desired SO I practise just moving his HQ's and asking him to keep his FQ's still more. Getting better but needs more work and I need to refine my signals more.

3) Jump barrel:
Good but a bit fast, must see if I can slow the exit from the jump more, try to keep him less excited and more controlled. lol.

4) Stand in hulahoop and horse goes around 5' away from me through corner poles:
He does this okay but again could be much better. I need to stop flapping, I'm much more refined when I have my short training arm with me so it's quite challenging to work without that but it's the same for everyone ;-)

5) Back over pole:
Again he does the backing part okay but faffs about when I ask him to just move his HQ's over into place, he keeps overstepping SO I went back to basic's again and worked on being refined and really getting him to STOP when my THOUGHT/ENERGY stops asking for something.

6) Trotting onto tarp, turn on FQ's 360* and trot off again:
Hard one for Solly, with the problem with moving his HQ's without moving his FQ's I decide to give him the chance to not make a mistake and make my tarpaulin the full size. He firstly had a problem with the tarp itself being so large and flapping with the wind (not a good day to try this all out really! lol). And then he has a problem trotting onto it and stopping. As it's in a new place the grass underneath it is long so it's has funny shapes underneath it all. I can see us doing a bit of work on this and today we did some trotting over it often to help with that and then S2M trot/stop/trot and seperately working on the turn on the forehand so that we can put these two together.

7) Weave in trot, horse to weave, handler not:
Buy this time through the process the wind is up and it's starting to rain and we're both getting wet and Solly is very distracted...not sure by what as the herd is peaceful and standing with their backs to the rain on the opposite fence. We practise this at walk and then trot but I can see his energy is a bit too high for any sensible communication and practise so I just go through the process on each obstacle for now.

8) Fig 8, handler stands still:
His fig 8 was okay but not sure really how to do this with myself standing still. I was using the wrong length of rope (didn't have my 12' on me) but probably be okay to swing the end of the rope to teach and then refine to where it's just a point with my finger to get him to do the fig 8...will work on that one ;-)

9) Scary corner, trot into, stop in centre for 5 seconds, trot out:
Scary corner okay, stopping away from me harder but not impossible BUT must refine it so that it's not a rope wiggle!!! this could be very interesting! lol.

10) Own choice obstacle:
Well I have sort of run out of things to think up for own obstacle so I just trot Sol over the arena and ask him to put all 4 feet on the pedastal, which he does very well ;-)

Now as the rain is pouring, the wind is blowing badly and Solly really isn't listening to me anymore I set him free and go to take the curtain down as it's blowing noisily. Solly just canters big time around the arena, it looks like he's looking for a way out and I run to the gateway and open it before he decides it's time to jump the fence and maybe hurt himself as the ground is very slippery now. Once out of the gate he GALLOPS across the field, Stormy galloping behind him and they both go and re-connect with the girls (the girls meantime are quitely minding thier own business waiting for the weather to change. lol) It really felt like Sol and Stormy needed to be with the girls because of the blustery weather...once back where they needed to be they proceed to play/fight and generally be 'boys'. I pack up my things but go and reconnect with Solly and Stormy at the far end of the field to give Solly his treat for being with me today. Not such a good day but then we all have those sorts of days.

Solly cantering down the HA arena fenceline!!
he does look lovely though ;-)

Sol canters hard to the corner, stops and then goes into canter along the next side
trying to find a way out....maybe not a day to ride him. lol

Sol and Stormy galloping/cantering off to the girls

~~~~~~~~~~

On a good note, from the Perry Wood clinic, Kate Robertson took some fabulous pictures of me and Solly on the clinic and here are 4 of my favorites. Thank you Kate for being there and taking these for me ;-)

A wonderful, soft, self-collected trot from my fab Solly

Nice stretch in our leg yield to the left...

...Followed by a nice crossover ;-)

And also a nice shoulder-in ;-)

Sunday 4th September

Solly enjoying the sunshine and peace in the field

Lovely day today, sunshine, not too hot and not chilly at all. Perfect for a hack out. I ride Tara down to the field and Mark gets Holly groomed and tacked up and we head out to the village. Tara and Holly both are not too frisky and we mostly do a nice steady plod along the track and then turn away from the village up into the Kirkmichael hills, going up the hills is a nice tarmac road and I trot tara along this for quite a while to help improve both her and my trotting.

We go up onto the moorland and both horses take it slow and easy. Tara was a bit puffed and although she's been loosing weight up at the house she's not had much exercise up the hill behind the house and so hill work was a bit tiring for her today so we went very easy for her. She will be back with the herd from Tues eve until I get back from working away on Friday week so although more grass there is a huge hill which she will have to venture up to get water ;-)

Mark and Holly on the moor

We then went through a small shady forest which is the mid point of the ride and in the centre of this was an old tree that had fallen down and then been eaten away by insects and fallen away to make this strange statue...cool.

At the very top both Mark and I got off our horses and walked a bit on the downhill part. It's a nice road with a few log cabins along it and it's very pretty at this time of year. The horses enjoyed their breather and we both got back on half way down the hill at the Log Cabin Hotel/Bar. Down through a small track where there was a small tractor backing up, Holly went around it well and showed great bravery. Tara was sceptical so we stayed back and kept an eye on it until we could safely go on our way. Then just over a stream a friend had a small sit-on lawn mower and was just coming out of his putting green and again Holly went past okay but Tara needed to keep an eye on it so we sidepassed down the small road and she did very well, calm but very aware and observant about where the mower was going. lol. She's such a character. ;-)

Just down into the village we went across the bridge and up to the shop where I got two carrots, two apples and two icecreams..yum, yum. We had our picture taken by some tourists having tea at the shop and then we mounted back up and rode down the main track to home.

Going home we went through three fields instead of going along the stony track and in the second field there were piles of wooden fencing that was stacked ready to move from the end of the local Strathardle Highland Games and we took full opportunity to weave, fig 8 and circle around these for fun...love local opportunities for a bit of fun ;-))

Mark and Holly and the stacks....

...Me and Tara having fun with the stacks ;-)

Saturday 3rd September

A few things happen today but mainly the first one is that we sacrifice our riding day out to break the back of the ragworting in our grazing field. It's worse than last year but has to be done. Unfortunately the field below and next to ours has ragwort as well but we can't do all of it unless there's a lot of help as our backs just won't cope ;-( BUT our field is getting straighter now and we've done a whole big trailer load already in two sessions ;-)

I had a good ride of Tara to and back from the grazing field which was nice and I also got my Karen Rohlf SiMoN (School Master Noodle) kit up and running, this is a pool noodle with handles, head and tail to represent a horse and used as a tuition tool to teach riders what position their bodies need to be in to achieve lateral dressage manoeuvres...it will help me to get better with Solly and also work on my position at home in Winter when I can't get out and ride. Here's some pic's from the last couple of days:

Trailer half full, first session of Ragworting

Trailer full after 2nd session of ragworting,
taken to dump where it will be burnt and trailer now
empty ready to do the rest of the field ;-)

Rode Tara to the field and she and Stormy had a good
mutual grooming session over the arena fence

Me in the middle of the 2nd session of ragworting

Riding Tara back to the house today

SiMoN...Karen Rohlf's dressage tool ;-)
I'm sure you'll be seeing more of him on here

Mark improved the ends of the 2nd bridge in the house paddocks

and Tara is the first to try it out ;-))

First one way...

...then back again, she's so cool ;-)

Friday 2nd September

Started out grey today but had very bright, hot moments in the afternoon which was lovely. I rode Tara to the field at about 12noon and first re-connected with the herd and made sure Holly was okay as she was very listless this morning BUT she seemed fine this afternoon and was keeping the herd in line...she must have just had a tummy ache, glad it was nothing else ;-)

I then went and closed up my new 40x20 arena arrangement, I leave it open at other times so that they will help me by eating the grazing in it, part of it is grazed the other part is quite overgrown so it was time to give them the extra grazing and they'll help me by making my arena more rideable as they go along. lol. Once the arena was set up I went and got my equipment (ropes, halters, training sticks, saddle, grooming kit etc) and wheeled it into the side of the arena. Solly was grazing over the side of the field with Fortune and I went and got him...well he came and got me which was good. He was a bit muddy (dry thank goodness) so we started off our session with a lovely liberty groom.

Then we played. Checked all our criteria was in place. He was very relaxed and circled with his head down nicely, blowing out. He was willingly obedient and backed up with just a thought and energy in a nice way and also did some nice sideways away and towards L&R. We worked on his impulsion as this was a bit low but it didn't take long and we did this by doing quick, multiple S2M transitions ;-) Then we put this to circles, COD's and transitions (w/t/c/cod/c/t/c/cod/t) and he was nicely alert and listening to my requests. With those final transition circles we worked on the last pre-requisite of flexibility. I asked him to put his ribs over nicely in an arc when on the trot circles both L&R until he did them more on his own and we also worked on this with some slow nice 'S' bends ;-) So, that was a nice warm up for him, not too long, not too short and ready for saddling.

Once saddled and cinched nicely I mount up. I work first on freestyle with a halter and clip on rope reins. I am doing this so that we both go slowly and work on the essential ingredients of riding, these are that we work together in harmonious partnership, that I give good thought/energy/body cues and he moves lightly off those. That we have stop/go, L&R, backup and that I can move each foot individually. All goes well. We work on RtR for relaxation, turn with HQ's and turn with FQ's and some quick transitions for obedience, the transitions also work for his impulsion and I do a few one step walk (or down one step to walk from trot) and quickly up to trot again that I learned from Perry Wood and this works very well to help him get some fabulous impulsion, always making sure our stop from a thought is always there too ;-) Then we do some circles and serpentines all with a loose rein for his flexibility and it doesn't take very long in freestyle to check our pre-requisites and once I was happy I dismount and ask him to take the bit/bridle for me....this didn't take long either.

Once re-mounted we did a 20 min session of finesse (collection and short reins) and did exactly what we did at the clinic last weekend. Worked on his impulsion in trot on circles, then did some walk leg yields L&R and then shoulder-in L&R in walk. I really was working on me basically remembering all the little tips Perry gave me and going over them in mind/body to get them set in my head better. Things I worked on were: Look between the horses ears at all times, keep my elbows back and in to my sides, keep seat back but body upright, asking for manoeuvres by keeping my butt central in the saddle and learning to have the feeling of my upper body being in harmony with the movement as I was behind the movement beforehand from learning to ride the outside of the saddle freestyle the Parelli way, so before I was always trying to 'push' the horse over in leg yields, now I'm learning to hold the leg yield between my legs and flow with my upper body with the movement. It felt a bit like I was tipping infront of the movement when I first tried this but actually I've been behind the movement so long that my body needs re-training as to where upright and straight is! lol. All went well today on our first homework day. It will get better and better I'm sure and I love that I have a new journey location to go to , a new doorway has been opened up for us and it feels good to be on a learning curve again ;-))

Thursday 1st September

Golly gosh it's September already, where do the months go? I was out teaching this morning but came back and grabbed a quick lunch and then rode Tara to the herd field, set her loose and had some fun putting up a fence over a 20m x 40m flattish area so that me and Solly can do our Perry Wood lateral homework ;-) Very happy with arena, left it open for the boys and girls to graze down and I'm sure they're all happy helping with that. lol

Before I got to do the fence though I had a bit of fun introducing Mr Cat to the horses (mainly Stormy & Solly) and here are the piccie's from that fun session ;-)

Not a problem playing friendly game for Mr Cool (Stormy)

Solly asks Stormy 'what is it?'

Stormy getting to grips with it...he has to put EVERYTHING in his mouth,
although he is super gentle

Mr Cat wriggling around Stormy's neck ;-)

Mr Cat getting adventurous on Stormy's head. lol

Mr Cat thinking about sliding off Stormy's bum ;-))
Stormy is like 'yeah yeah'

Holly checks Mr Cat out ;)

Solly is not really sure about this Mr Cat thingy!!
It moves when you push on it and it's scary ;-)

Not bad on the back, quite soft and doesn't wriggle too much but
Solly's not sold on Mr Cat's good qualities yet

Mr Stormy showing pure curiosity...he just can't help himself. lol

Solly getting braver and touches Mr Cat with his front foot ;-)

Much braver with the head-collar on and he manages to step on Mr Cat...squish ;-)

Then steps on Mr Cat with a back foot....how brave is that ;-)

Head massage anyone? lol

Slowly getting a bit more curious about this strange object

Well that was fun.....is all the silliness over now, I think I'll get back to grazing ;-)
Mr Cat is grateful to still be on one piece albeit he looks a bit RBint now! lol