Cool Little Article

While researching jump saddles today I came across a little ripper of an article.

It isn't too long - have a read!

Bits and Pieces.

I have just spent my Sunday morning doing horse chores. I cleaned both my and Natalie's saddles and bridles, trimmed both the horses and cleaned the float out.

I was going to ride but I never get time to do any of that stuff so I decided to give Allie a day off. I wondered - when do you guys clean your tack? How often do you clean it?

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Yesterday Nat and I took the girls back up to Mulgoa for another trail ride. It was awesome. We had the girls charging up hills and having extended trotting sessions, with about 3 big gallops in there too. I finally was able to get Allie to understand what galloping actually is - I honestly think she just didn't realise she could make her legs go that quick!

Both the girls were super sound on the rocky, hilly, sandy terrain. When I say rocky, I mean quite rocky! No boots, just a bit of extra wall (they were both due for a trim). Love it when my barefoot ponies kick arse like that.

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On my lunch break Thursday I drove to the saddlery and bought this book:

I took Allie to the indoor that night and we played around with a few of the warm up exercises. She particularly enjoyed this one:

The book says to do this one for 10 solid minutes in sitting trot! I did it for 5 minutes half sitting half rising. I concentrated on precise shapes and flexion. It was super fun.

The book is pretty good - just a bunch of different exercises for different things (warming up, looseness, lateral work etc etc). I'm excited to incorporate our favorite exercises into our regular schooling routine. I really want to get my head around shoulder-in. Any tips?

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Funny story - Natalie took Gracie on a road ride around our home suburb with her friend on another pony. Apparently there was a little girl with her father watching the horses go past. Nat said "want to have a pat?" and the little girl said to her dad "I want to pat the dirty horse!" while pointing at Gracie. I loled when Nat told me - Gracie is quite a grub - she always rolls and ends up with mud chunks on her forehead.

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My trimming is picking up - I have picked up so many clients recently that I am trimming most of the day every Saturday and almost every Sunday too. I can't wait for daylight savings so I can trim after work to free up my weekends a bit. I am loving it though. I am getting quicker and quicker every trim. I can easily trim 5 horses one after the other without a break. I have my website up and running, have a new logo and am waiting for my cards to be printed. I am booked in to start my diploma of podiotherapy next year -I start my first block in February. This really is turning into a career for me. I can't wait until I can do it more then just part time. :)

A recent trim.

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Oh - best of all - it is spring next week. :)

Decision Made

So I went with the majority vote (sorry Dom!) and went with the silver and pearls.

Can't wait for them to arrive!

On a Lesson High

Ever been on a lesson high? That is me right now. I'm addicted. :)

We went to Ann's today - Allie went amazing again - riding there is like magic!

We finally figured out left flexion. I got in trouble for fussing with her at the walk when I should be leaving her to figure out going forward into the contact herself. We had a BEAUTIFUL right canter, we had a pretty good left canter. We had some AH-MAZING trot work. We had a stretchy trot, stretchy walk. Allie was loving it too.

Best of all, Ann said Allie could very easily be an advanced level dressage horse. The more Ann sees of her, the more she likes her. She says Als has three lovely paces. My horse is just amazing, I am so so so lucky to have her. :D

Have a few crappy pictures.

Haha!

Help me pick!

My friend texted me a couple of websites this morning to look at and now I have a dilemma!

OPTION A

AND

OR

OPTION B

AND

???

Your thoughts please?

We spend too much on rent. My place is good for keeping horses, but not for riding. No arena, not even a flat area to ride in. No trails, just streets where cars speed past and scare Gracie and Nat. The footing is shit when we have had no rain, or un-rideable of we have even one day's rain.

There is nothing out there to rent where there is good fencing, flat area for riding, safe roads/trails. We have been looking for months and months.

Move back to suburbia and agist my horse somewhere seems to be the only option. Rent would need to be cheap enough to allow for agistment prices. Rent in Sydney normally sits around $400-$450 a week for a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1 car garage house. Then agistment sits around at least $100 a week for safe fencing, feeds, waters, rugging, arena, float parking etc etc. then put on top of that petrol to drive there and back at least 4 days a week, plus my husband not seeing me three nights a week while i'm off at the horses, him eating dinner alone and getting jealous of Allie.

We currently pay $580 a week rent. You see my dilemma?

But I can't ride my horse properly at home. Especially not in winter. I'm back to getting up early and riding before work, or floating over to the indoor and paying $30 to school my horse under their floodlights for one hour. I do this at least once a week.

But I loathe the idea of having my horses looked after by someone else, not having them there close by, not seeing them every morning and every evening. I am a stickler for night checks, making sure gut sounds are normal and all feeds have been polished off. Getting 11pm cuddles from Allie.

Gah. What would you do? I know there will need to be a compromise there. What is it I compromise on?

Le Sigh...

Is it possible to wish summer back? You northern hemisphere-ites are just hogging it now.

Back on Track

We had our lesson with Ann today. It went really well.

No pictures or video though as I had to go by myself. Sucks, I know.

I asked Ann for homework - told her how abysmal our tests last week were. Told her how fussy Allie gets, how offended she can be when I take up a contact. Ann said Allie sounds exactly like her mare when they first started. Told me she knew exactly how to get past this.

It was a great ride. Basically, Als is way overdue to put her big girl pants on and deal with contact. Like super consistent contact that she has to move forward into. And to be honest, she did for most of the ride. Plus I need to put my big girl pants on too and take the responsibility of helping her go correctly. We had some fairly awesome moments, the very best being a left lead canter depart where she was truly through the whole time. We only held the canter for about 2 strides but the try was there. I smiled almost the whole lesson.

I'm going back again on the 18th - in the meantime our homework is to get Allie moving forward into the contact, at all times.

I'm very excited about where we are headed. We are going to smash our next test, really nail it. :)