Backyard Ponies

 

Dressage lesson 22/12/12

I had been having issues with Allie while schooling for a week or so before I decided to schedule a lesson with Ann. Allie seemed to have lost her trust in the contact in walk and was fussy in the trot and was not going forward into it, to the extent that three rides had me cracking her on the arse with the whip to stop her from reversing violently and just go forward even without a contact. She kept stopping and hitting reverse, ignoring leg and generally chucking a hissy fit. Each of these rides she eventually warmed out of it but I was not happy. She was reefing the reins out of my hands, causing small sores in her mouth. She was fussy. She was not happy. Teeth were fine, she was just blergh. Cue lesson. We had had time off when my bruise was healing after that kick I copped from Gracie, then I bought the jump saddle and fluffed around with that for a few rides, then we have been getting back into schooling properly and I stupidly thought I could pick up where we left off without going through the couple of weeks of suppling rides first. Plus I have been working on my sitting trot which hasn't helped. Ann says the drama was Allie trying to tell me she was a bit sore and we spent the lesson getting her through in a longer frame. She went excellently. Trot work:

Canter is still giving us drama but we just need to work through it. This one is funny - watch what she does when I ask for right canter:

Fairly consistent canter right:

Inconsistent canter left:

Merry Christmas!!

To all my blogging friends - I hope the holidays bring you closer to friends and family and that the new year brings you every happiness.

Photo is of 19 year old Lisa and my first pony Pom on Christmas Day 2003.

Sneak Peek

We had a dressage lesson last Saturday. Here's a sneak peek, full write up (with videos that are pretty freakin funny tbh) to follow!

One Thing I Hate About Summer

Bloody snakes.

I Love Summer Because...

Dapples yo.

Goals for 2013

This is the goal-setting part of the year. We all have a think about what we want to achieve in our lives in the coming 12 months and I think it is important to do this. It can help keep usfocused, even a "drifter" like me.

Next year is a really, REALLY busy year for me. I'm going to compartmentalise my goals, partially for brevity and partially because I need smaller chunks to start biting off!

PERSONAL
Andrew and I are saving for a house. We currently rent and keep the horses at home but the time has come for this to end sadly. Andrew's dream of owning our own home is just as important as my dream of having the horses at home and sadly we can't afford both. Plus, I need facilities and I will need to agist to get the type of facilities I want. And I want a dog and to not have to hide my cats every time we have a stupid rental inspection. I hate renting.

So goal 1 is:

To buy a house.

Second personal goal is:

To loose 10 more kilos and get fit enough to keep up with the trimming and the riding I'll be doing next year.

TRIMMING
As you may or may not know, in February I am starting my Diploma of Equine Podiotherapy. It is a 12 month course that is mostly correspondence but I will need to fly down to country Victoria for 4 blocks of practical and lectures throughout the year. I will get another 12 months after this to complete all my case studies so that I can graduate. I am so excited for this. Hooves are my passion within a passion and my business has been picking up so much lately (to the tune of about $800-$1000 extra spare cash a month) that I really need to learn new skills and get experience with debilitating pathology. My job is working in an office as a PA but I consider my career is as a Barefoot Practitioner/student Podiotherapist. Wow. I am so so so excited. So goal 3:
Complete all necessary work to be eligible to graduate and pick up most (if not all) of my case studies required.

ALLIE
Here is where my little girl dreams come true. In Feb or March I will be sending Allie off to Sam Lyle to be started properly over fences. Then I want to have regular lessons with him to get me to my eventing goal of:

Compete (and try not to be eliminated) in a intro level event closer to the end of the year.

With dressage, I want to get her competing novice by the end of the year. I haven't spoken to Ann about this yet so I don't know if that is a realistic goal but I know I need to install leg yields and extensions on her, and sitting trot on me!! So dressage goals:

Compete at novice level by the end of the year AND place in an official prelim test AND not have a caller at prelim.

To compete official I need to register Allie with the EFA and get her an eventing card and a dressage card. I'll probably do that in January.

They are some pretty lofty goals! I had better get cracking.

Finally!

I have been saving most of my trimming money for the last 6 weeks into a money tin with a picture of a jump saddle on it.

Last Wednesday, Tony Flynn the saddle fitter visited and I bought a Riviera Nice jump saddle in black (ON SALE! $1000 OFF OMG!!).

Looking like an eventer finally.

Jump saddle, dressage leathers lol.

I am in love. I popped her over a small vertical and it is.so.easy to jump in a proper jump saddle. :P


So I emailed Sam Lyle and I am planning on sending Allie to him either February or March next year. He says he has room at that time. So excited! I'll finally start jumping!


Do I start a new money tin with Sam's face on it this time?

Mini Adventures

Not much to report on, except that we have taken the girls on a few mini adventures. One worked out well, the other not so much, and one was a vet visit.

Colo River
We took the horses up to Colo River for a ride, like we did years ago with our first ponies. We have been talking about doing this for so long, and we were quite excited about getting the horses back up there.

Matchy matchy uniforms for my trimming business. They are PRETTY AWESOME.

It is an hour and a half drive, up and down steep hills. It chews up quite a bit of petrol BUT the last part of the drive is very pretty.

Once we got there we tacked up, rode down to the (shallow) river and promptly got stuck in quicksand. Twice. :(

The horses were so scared and the ride was ruined. Years ago we had galloped up and down that river! But that was during a drought and we are not in drought anymore. The recent rains must have moved the sand about and created sink holes.

We found a part of the river that was safe and just hung out there for a while until the horses weren't scared of sinking anymore. It was a crap day, I was afraid that Allie had hurt herself and we had no reception so I thought Andrew would have worried about us. What a waste of a potentially good day. At least we know now.

Allie was not happy. She kept resting that hind leg and had trouble turning that way. I thought she had damaged her tendon but she pulled up fine and was not lame out of the water. She was just sooking.

Gracie had fun though.

Vet Clinic
We took them on Thursday to the vet clinic for Allie to have a vet exam for insurance and for them both to get their first Hendra vaccine shot. Nothing special to note except that while Gracie was NOT having it when the vet tried to take her temperature (he gave up after she kicked at him), Allie actually LOVED having her temp taken, grooming me while he had the thermometer up there. Even the vet said "Um, yeah. That's not normal". Sigh. She is a weirdo.

Allie passed the exam and we took them home. They are going back again in the beginning of December for the booster shot. Once that is done no more worrying about Hendra! For my foreign readers, all you need to know is that Hendra is a terrifying fruit bat-bourne disease that while not common, kills horses, people and dogs, in a long, drawn out, neuro destroying way. I have been terrified of them dying from it for a long time and was the first owner to have her horse vaccinated. I have copped a bit of criticism on Facebook for making that decision but it is the right one for me and for my horses.

Suburban Ride
Today we took the girls to my home town, parked at Mum's, then went for a road ride/school in the park.

Here is a video of Nat riding Allie.Please excuse/ignore my screeching.

After this video we rode to another park and I got some lovely canter work from Allie. No video of that I'm afraid, just trust me that it was much nicer than this work. They were very well behaved, it was a really nice ride.

That is about it really!

Ugh so I haven't been riding much. Allie has accidentally had a week off and I only got back on her last Wednesday for an (awesome!) trail ride up at Mulgoa, then a short and sweet schooling ride at home after work today.

So that's why I haven't been posting, because nothing much has been happening.

Here's a few photos of Allie freaking out over the neighbour's sheep. What's wally.

Friday Night Cuddles

Gracie and I are friends again.

Bruise Watch

My bruise has reached my foot. Like, gravity has pulled it all down and it is now pooling in my foot. It looks so pretty! Like a purple, brown and yellow sunset!!

-.-

Schooling pics and videos

Natalie schooled both horses today (I'm out for a few days due to my kicked leg) and I got some photos and videos of both horses.

Lots of me talking in the videos - please don't mind me :p. My commentary in the video kind of shows what is going on anyway, so you may as well listen to it.

Let me know how you think Nat did! I think she is an excellent rider with a good feel and a lovely seat.

Video:

Video: