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!!!

THE END OF 2009!

Well today is the last day of 2009. I must admit i have been very slack with this whole blog thing. Although in my defense I've been having some terrible back problems so haven't been doing a lot of riding lately.
The start of this season started with on and off lameness from Vi (i think I'll keep her in light work over next winter to see if that helps).
As soon as Vi was ok the Jeep packed a sad and needed seals fixed or something like that.

Finally the Jeep and Vi were ready to go, I've become a bit scared of the whole eventing thing at the moment despite our successful first go together. So it turned to a case of finding a nice local show to start with. Lucky for me Western Hills was postponed so i focused on that being our first day out.

Vi was amazing all day, we had a ok start to our flat classes, the class was absolutely huge and i wasn't really asking/pushing Vi and so she only gave as much as she had to (fair enough too). We had a break during the novice hack classes so i took that opportunity to really work on the two of us. We finished with the open hack class and Vi was amazing every transition was completely on the mark and she was very consistent. Unfortunately the judge didn't like us that day and we finished the Flats empty handed but i was stoked with such a good start for the two of us as a team for the season.
I entered two SH classes the first was a disaster, i rode terribly and Vi cruised around doing her own thing. The judge was awesome gave me some pointers to focus on for my next class. So for the 90cm class i focused on my riding and we did a much better round only pitching into a couple of the jumps finishing in 5th place and a ribbon for our efforts.

I'm hoping our next show will be the Upper Valley Equestrian day where I'm hoping to do some flat classes, dressage and some ring 2 SJ.

In November I came to the difficult decision to find a new home for Amy. She was still lame and thermal imaging showed what looked to be some Arthritic problems in her back legs. She had had a full life and deserved a long and happy retirement.
Lucky for all involved a lovely retired couple offered a forever full retirement home for Amy. She has 17 acres pretty much all to herself, people around 24/7, lots of pampering and free to wander around doing as she pleases.
We couldn't be more happy and i'm allowed to visit anytime, i couldn't have asked for more. It was very sad to see her go.

Tack area spring clean

I decided to clean up my area of the garage since today's weather consists of rain, hail and wind.

unfortunately i didn't get any before photo's but because i'm so lazy everything was just dumped in containers and piles everywhere.

And yes i know its still not even near tidy compared to some haha.

Beautiful spring day.

It was absolutely gorgeous today, Vi and i pottered around the paddock's bareback, then i gave Katrina a little trim.

Amy and Taani have taken themselves across the farm for better grass, so i left them there for now.

Photos added: Vi laxing in the paddock and before and after shots of Katrina's tidy up.

Dental Work

On monday i took Amy and Blondie to the vets to get their teeth done. I was lucky enough to have Kerri take me and them in her truck and she as always had her camera with her.

Both were sedated to get their work done so got some goofy photo's especially from the old fella (Blondie) he's like a drunk when sedated.

sunny winter weekends.

Lately down here we've been lucky enough to have some very nice weekends with beautiful clear sky's. And so yes i couldn't help myself and have started riding Violet again too. We've just been doing little 10min hacks and the odd couple of circles, she is so amazing to bring back into work too.

Both Amy and Violet have been perfect angels for not being ridden in months and minimal handling they have not put a foot wrong at any time, its been so nice.

Next plan of attack is attacking both girls for their spring makeover's although i may have to get someone to do it for me or they might come out worse than they went in lol.

Tomorrow I'm taking Blondie and Amy to the vets for more dental work, as yet they have no idea and am wanting to keep it that way so they'll go on the truck in the morning.

First Ride

I had my first ride since the start of May today, and Amy's first ride since Feb when she went lame.

We just had a short plod around and did a couple of trot circles before dinner and bed. I tried Amy in Vi's rubber mullen mouth, which she seemed to like.

All the others are still in hibernation, I'm wanting to bring Amy on as slowly as possible to make sure she stays sound.

<- (Amy waiting for her dinner)

Amy and Blondie are booked in to get their teeth done at the vets at the end of the month, and Vi will be coming back into work all going well in August.

Winter Woolies

                                                  

                                         

      

 

 

Winter has hit and all the ponies are finally in a paddock they will stay in (touch wood). As you can see from the pics they are all looking fat and hairy; all prepared for the cold weather. I have been busy organising paddocks, feeding out in the cold, wet, dark nights, getting new covers and the old ones repaired.

Taani will be getting hacked by our neighbour as a sort of lease. Blondie is still getting hacked around by the kids, Amy is lame again (she was only right for about a month grr), Katrina is happy being her normal self doing nothing and Violet is being a lady of leisure and looking very good for it too (she even has bare tootsies)!

Thats all the news there is for now, very boring time of the year unfortunately so guessing any blog entries will be few and far between.