Naughty horses

This past week i have spent every day putting horses back in their paddock after escape missions, and its the horses fault this time (i think namely Violet as ring leader).

Today however the horses have redeemed themselves for now. All were back this side of the river and mum went and put them all back in their paddocks while i was at work.

I visited them with dinner tonight and all seemed ok so while i was there i made some adjustments to the gate way since it has just been two strands of electric tape so far and got some pics.

I called mum to say thanks when i got home and she informed me violet was so lame to the point of almost falling over, although mum said it was mainly walking to the paddock because once inside she stormed around until her friends where all with her. So tomorrow i will give her a good check over and make sure i can't see anything serious, she has lost a shoe so i think she may be a bit bruised from crossing the river with a bare foot.

more wintery pics.

Another rare day of sunshine today. As i arrived at the paddock i saw a lump of horse rug in the paddock and i started to get that nervous feeling in my stomach as any horse owner would have felt before. As i walked closer i noticed Violet laying flat out in a shallow ditch not moving, it took me a few moments before i was close enough to see her belly rising and falling, the poor girl was having a snooze in the sun (how dare she scare me like that)!

I decided to catch a quick photo before i called her name to make sure she was ok, as soon as i spoke her head shot up and she looked at me with sleepy eyes as though how dare i wake her on a sunny morning.

I am very happy with how she's held her weight over winter, such a easy horsey to look after. Both Vi and Taani have lost a shoe while getting out and cavorting around the farm so i will have to call the farrier this week.

Sunshine :)

Took Nick with me this morning to go retrieve the horses from over the farm again this morning. Lucky for all although still a bit cold the sun is shining so we gave the horses a naked day. I'm guessing when i go back down later to ride/feed/rug i'm gonna have a heap of grooming to do!

While i was there i managed to snap some shots and am quite happy with how they're looking so far this winter (apart from being very woolly).

Winter :(

Well the paddocks consist of mud and lakes, the river is swollen and running fast. The cow's keep going through my tape and letting my horses out. The other day they took themselves off to visit the neighbors!!! So quite frankly i've had enough.

The horses are going back into their little paddocks if the weather holds enough for me to do it tomorrow. And i just hope there will be enough grass to keep them going. In the meantime i'm on the look out for new grazing, i love where i am, i've been there at least 10 years, i have lots of room and no other grazers but its just getting too unsafe not having proper fences to keep my horses safe.

No lessons happening at present i'm not allowed to tow because the jeeps brakes keep playing up so Nick wants to sort those out first. And well the weather hasn't really allowed much riding to happen full stop. On a good note the horses are all happy and healthy and holding their condition well.

Lesson time again

Today the weather was nice to us and we were able to have another lesson. Violet and I have been continuing to improve on the basics and since our last lesson our canter work is a lot straighter and we're not collapsing on the inside when on the left rein. Today we worked some more on looking out while working on a circle, we're making progress at walk and trot, but canter work especially the left side is still quite difficult.

Being winter i'm only able to ride weekends which means vi is only getting one or two rides a week, so i'm going to leave it a little longer before our next lesson. This will allow us to get in some decent practice and if i do too much to often her poor muscles will just get too sore.

I've also decided to ride bareback when i take taani for rides over winter to improve my balance, core strength and position for next season.

New rugs

On the weekend Nick and I went down to change paddocks for the start of real winter, and put the new supersnugs on Taani and Violet. The cattle had taken the tape down and let the horses out, who had taken themselves over the farm to visit the neighbors.

We made the new paddock then missioned over the farm to bring back the escapees. I decided to chuck Nick on Vi and hope she wouldn't misbehave then i jumped on Taani, leading Katrina with Bobby running along behind. Violet didn't disappoint and just plodded along behind for Nick.

Once we had the prisoners back behind bars we fed them and put the new rugs on, i'm super impressed with everything about the rugs especially the extra front padding which stops the straps rubbing on Violets chest, Yay no more rub pimples.

Lesson

On Sunday Vi and I headed of down the road for our next lesson to have use of an arena. Vi arrived all puffed up and excited. After saddling up we wandered around the arena for a look see, cause everything was so scary!

Last time we worked on the basic stop and go and getting a more immediate go response. It was good to see our practice had paid off and everything had improved by our second lesson. So our second lesson was learning direct and indirect turns, and stopping vi from leaning on my hands. Near the end we did some canter work and because vi likes to lean on the forehand and collapse on the inside we worked on getting her straighter. Which she found quite difficult after getting away with being lazy with me for so long. Poor girl she kept trying to counter canter instead of just turning her head out on the circle.

I'm looking forward to practicing what we learnt over the next couple of weeks and our next lesson with more canter work, i think correcting our canter will help us so much in all our other aspects of riding. No more tanking!

RESTART

Well for anyone that still bothers to take a interest i've decided to get my A into G and restart this Blog.

This past season has been very mixed. Vi and i got out and about quite a lot, went to our first ever overnighter together and another ODE as well as the usual local shows. We've had a very mixed bag of success and some periods of no brakes.

Winter is beginning and i've decided to spend it getting lessons and do the odd local dressage day. So far we've had one lesson (the McLean method) and have another tomorrow so will get nick to take some photos for a update.

I've also been having a clean out of gear so aiming to have less gear but good quality stuff for next season. Have bought brand new Zilco Supersnug's for the girls, they're just not allowed to wear them yet.

Waikanae Sports Day

Today i took Vi to Waikanae to do some Hunter classes and SJ. It was steady drizzle all morning which soaked us right through by the time we had finished our flat classes, so i decided to go home and forget the SJ. Partially since Vi wasn't studded and i wanted to avoid any accidents.

Our Hunter classes went very well, Violet was such an angel for me all morning i couldn't ask for more. She just keeps giving me more confidence in myself every time i ride.

Our results were:

1st - Best rider over 17yrs

2nd - Open Hunter

3rd - Paced and Mannered and Working Hunter

I also got my first ever prize money so yay for that too!!!