Sunny Sundays

I took the opportunity today to ride with Natalie. We did the same as last time - quick school then headed up to the back. This time we walked around the racetrack with a small trot near the end, then headed over to the dam for a play.

Natalie rode the two of them through the dam. I took some video. First up is Gracie - note how cranky she is about the water splashing her in the face on her second go around.



Be warned, I swear at Gracie in the beginning of this video. She was rubbing her head on me.


Allie rolled in the mud AGAIN with me! I thought I had her, we were walking forward but nuh. She has finally discovered the joy of rolling in the mud and I couldn't stop her. And I spent an hour and a half cleaning my saddle before the ride too. Witch.

It was an awesome ride. The weather was stunning and warm, the ponies were happy (if a touch spooky) and we had fun.

Can't ask for more than that on a Sunday.

Concentrating on her tootsies.

She's looking FIIIINE

These are video stills, obviously.

Zoomy pony

Hippo

Allie loves the water, as do most ponies.


She likes to eat the water grass and put her face half under the water to blow bubbles. She's weird.

In ths one, she clobbers herself in the face, like the clever dumbblood she is.

This is about as exciting as it gets! I'm just happy to be on her again.

Hacking Out

Just a quick little video of Allie and I hacking out the back. We agist on a cattle farm/cutting trainers and the view is just stunning.

Making a special guest appearance are the poor Cavallo boots which are taking a beating, going through muddly puddles and dams..

Allie and I

I was snuggling with Allie last night in her stable.

Ever wondered what I sound like? Well, here's a video with me talking.

Lesson Videos

Had another lesson with Ann today. Gracie and Nat came to have a lesson after mine too. While we were getting ready a horse galloped in his yard and spooked our mares - who then proceeded to pull back, break the twine they were tied to (Gracie has NEVER done that before!) then they pranced off to disturb the lesson before us and ran all over the property causing havoc. Allie even ducked under a temporary one strand fence! Brat

Allie was amazing there as per usual. We worked on proper flexion (she tends to tip her nose to the right to avoid that rein) and transitions within the trot.

It was pretty fun, the exercise we were doing - big trot, then little trot (almost walking) then immediately bog trot again, over and over. She did so well!

Then, out of the blue, Ann said "alright, now canter, don't even think about it" and suddenly she gave me the most beautiful right lead canter depart. I laughed out loud it was just perfect and easy and I can't wait to do that again.

Left canter was pretty funny - the video below shows how hard Allie tries to get it right but she just doesn't have the balance there to canter while being through anf forward into the bridle. IT's geting there though.

Seriously though - watch this video, it's pretty funny.

Photo spam of pretty well behaved ponies:

Pretty mareface!

Ann talked Nat through the whole 'lowering the neck' and 'reaching down' and 'taking control' thing. I think it is some sort of initiation into dressage? :P

Next lesson in a month's time. We certainly have some homework to do!

Test - Pics and Video!

Wild beast-pony.

Like I said, Allie went really well today. I didn't want much of a warm up and I htink I sat on her for a total of about 7 minutes today!

To be honest I have schooled her properly only once in the last 3 weeks. She is a superstar! Quiet on the float, quiet while we were there, loaded and unloaded well. Great undersaddle! No complants from me.

During the test there were a few head tossing moments, a few moments were she was slightly behind my leg, but overall she did what I told her to do at the best of her ability. Seriously, can you ask for anything more than that?

The ground was really wet and the arena had a few bad muddy spots which stuffed up our canter-trot transition to the right between the centreline and B (at 3.33 in the video) where she almost walked to keep her balance. Also, walk-trot transition (at 2.33 in the video) is not great.

BUT check out the beautiful trot-canter transition at 3.13!! Could not have asked for more!

Very very happy. Have some warm up pics:

Saddle Fit, Lesson, Happy Ponies.

We had Tony Flynn come do a saddle fitting for both Allie and Gracie yesterday. I bought my saddle from him over a year ago, but I could tell that my saddle wasn't balanced for me (it was fine for Allie). Sure enough, it was tilting me forward and needed a heap of flocking up front. It felt great in my lesson!

Gracie's dressage saddle is no good. It doesn't have a changable gullet so it is now for sale for about $50 if anyone wants it? Natalie's other saddle, a wintec all purpose, DOES have a changeable gullet so he fitted that to her and she went so.much.better. under saddle with it - Nat said it was her best ride on her - ever. He put an extra wide gullet in it! No wonder the poor mare didn't have much forward or want to lift her back before.

We got some photos and video:

Nat was trying to get up off her back here I think - looks like it worked!

Watch this one, it has a lol moment!

Happy pony and rider after the cool down walk up the street.

Our neighbor's cute dog who came for a walk too. LOVE those ears!

I also got a lesson with Ann before Nat rode Gracie - pics and vid of this too! We concentrated on her being 'through' to help with our walk-trot transitions (which are normally 'leaping' - Ann said "we will fix that today!" and so we did!) and then have a little go with the same principles at the trot-canter transition.

Finally - a nice trot-canter transition. Just what I was looking for!

 

I was so satisfied with the lesson - Ann said that with a horse at this stage normally they look for nice moments - Allie rather has bad moments among the nice, if that makes sense? She also said once Allie has the balance and strength, her trot is going to be amazing. I'm so excited. :D

So motivated and excited for my test now!!