4yo Anglo Arab x Hanoverian mare. I am in love... :)
Sunday, 21 November 2010
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Well!
I just looked over our last post and it was over 5 months ago! Since then Savanna went home, we had an arab gelding here as company for Gracie and a mount for me (I only rode him about 5 times though...) and he has been sold on too. I got married, went to Hawaii and came back, and now I am looking at buying my very first competition horse. I have had a bit of a look around, seen 3 horses, and have been a bit lazy about the whole thing. HOWEVER I am going to see two very nice mares on the 13th November, so wish me luck. They are both by the stallion Gwaihir Aubusson, and one is out of a TB mare, the other out of a warmblood mare. More on that after I see them I think, trying not to set myself any expectations or get my hopes up.
Gracie is officially a horse now! She can walk, trot AND canter under saddle, plus she has had a couple of rides out in the bush and on the roads, at walk, trot and canter, with cars and dogs and other horses and deer and pigs and kangaroos and baby emus and push bikes! She nearly had me off with a weird stressy-kicky-pigroot-mini-buck thing, but I righted myself and pushed her on and it was all fine.
She had a short schooling session the other night, concentrating on her giving to the bit and encouraging her to step under herself a little bit more. We are lucky that she has plenty of natural impulsion, so it's a matter of getting her soft in the mouth and jaw. She sort of got it, and we could tell it was making her concentrate. I was surprised that she didn't get shitty about it to be honest, I expected at least a little bit more than passive resistance, but I think she actually enjoyed it because she is a very very quick learner and gets bored far too easily. She is one we will have to keep on her toes always looking at new things.
She is all alone at the moment with no paddock mate in with her, but to be honest, she needed it... she was starting to get clingy with the gelding we had here, and it was causing problems with catching her and trying to work her away from him. She seems fine, even grazes up the back far away from the horsey neighbors she has across the road.
Also, she is loving popping over small logs, creeks, ditches etc. I think she will enjoy a career with jumping involved, she has a nice tuck and even does that little kick with a tail swish as her hinds go over the jump if it's a bigger log. Too cute.
She's doing really well. After this summer, we are probably going to send her away for dressage training for about a month, then Nat will have some lessons with that trainer on her, and then take her out next summer to dressage days and ARC and stuff like that. Should be fun, especially as I will be doing the same with my new horsey. :)
And lastly, some trail riding pics (not many):
Gracie is officially a horse now! She can walk, trot AND canter under saddle, plus she has had a couple of rides out in the bush and on the roads, at walk, trot and canter, with cars and dogs and other horses and deer and pigs and kangaroos and baby emus and push bikes! She nearly had me off with a weird stressy-kicky-pigroot-mini-buck thing, but I righted myself and pushed her on and it was all fine.
She had a short schooling session the other night, concentrating on her giving to the bit and encouraging her to step under herself a little bit more. We are lucky that she has plenty of natural impulsion, so it's a matter of getting her soft in the mouth and jaw. She sort of got it, and we could tell it was making her concentrate. I was surprised that she didn't get shitty about it to be honest, I expected at least a little bit more than passive resistance, but I think she actually enjoyed it because she is a very very quick learner and gets bored far too easily. She is one we will have to keep on her toes always looking at new things.
She is all alone at the moment with no paddock mate in with her, but to be honest, she needed it... she was starting to get clingy with the gelding we had here, and it was causing problems with catching her and trying to work her away from him. She seems fine, even grazes up the back far away from the horsey neighbors she has across the road.
Also, she is loving popping over small logs, creeks, ditches etc. I think she will enjoy a career with jumping involved, she has a nice tuck and even does that little kick with a tail swish as her hinds go over the jump if it's a bigger log. Too cute.
She's doing really well. After this summer, we are probably going to send her away for dressage training for about a month, then Nat will have some lessons with that trainer on her, and then take her out next summer to dressage days and ARC and stuff like that. Should be fun, especially as I will be doing the same with my new horsey. :)
And lastly, some trail riding pics (not many):
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