There's another Haflinger show coming up! Full of furry haflingers this time, and quite a bit colder... Niels and Opal are both going. Opal's just entered in the Youngstock class, and it'll be her last youngstock class. *violins* Niels is doing two elementary classes (open and restricted sections) and one preliminary with my younger brother.
Opal's put on tonnes of weight, the grass in my area is clearly just ridiculously good. Doesn't help that I can't really exercise her like I need to! Nevermind, she's a growing girl!
Niels is going good. His simple changes are more hit than miss now, been building up counter canter, collected canter and working on laterals in trot. He can now do shoulder ins and travers down the whole length of the school, and straight/parallel leg yields are nice and basic for him too now. :) Oh and I tricked him the other day, and he did travers on a circle. I swear he's having me on sometimes! Started using poles recently, I never bothered before because he's a bit of a clutz and I tend to fear for my life! It's teaching how to flick out his toes in trot though, maybe eventually we'll be able to incorporate that into a respectable medium trot?
Can't wait to get started on Opal. Plans, plans, plans!
I'll take lots of photos at the breed show, and maybe buy some pro ones too. :)
Tuesday 23 November 2010
Tuesday 26 October 2010
Long Time No Blog!
Been pretty busy. Niels is in a real 'willing to learn' phase, so I took full advantage of it and over the summer we've got ready to do our first elementary tests together! Not expecting to do amazingly well, and I don't know how he'll react to being asked to do more complicated things in a different environment... Usually it improves him, but we shall see.
I ran through the tests at the weekend, and here they are:
Medium trot and free walk are still pretty much non-existent, and walk to canter is hit and miss. :/ I'll try not to over analyse, makes for a very boring post!
I clipped Niels naked at the weekend too. He had an immense woolly coat, so now he must feel a lot better!
Opal went to a Trailblazers qualifier last weekend (even though she'll be too old for the actual championship...) and she came second! :D Very proud of my baby girl, she behaved herself so well.
I ran through the tests at the weekend, and here they are:
Medium trot and free walk are still pretty much non-existent, and walk to canter is hit and miss. :/ I'll try not to over analyse, makes for a very boring post!
I clipped Niels naked at the weekend too. He had an immense woolly coat, so now he must feel a lot better!
Opal went to a Trailblazers qualifier last weekend (even though she'll be too old for the actual championship...) and she came second! :D Very proud of my baby girl, she behaved herself so well.
Tuesday 24 August 2010
4th on 68.93%!
At Allens Hill, Pinvin. 68.93% and we came 4th amongst some really stiff competition. Still can't believe we even placed!
Six 8s! Lost most of our marks this time on the transitions, and that last centre line where Niels thought we were doing leg yielding. :/
lol @ me gathering my reins after the (attempt at) free walk! Couldn't work out which rein was which! Bloody plait fell out after 5 minutes by the way...
We qualified for the Championships at that venue on bank holiday monday (next Monday)!
We're now moving on up to competing at Elementary! :D
Wednesday 11 August 2010
I have photos!
These two are from the Novice Ridden 21 and under showing class I did with Niels at the Haflinger Show this year:
(Bit too uphill for showing. haha But he's not a showing pony!)
This is Niels with his 1st First Place rosette from Solihull Riding Club a few weeks ago:
This was Sunday at Swallowfield Equestrian Centre, where we came 4th in the Novice dressage section:
(I love this one. If it was more abstract you'd think he was 16.2hh. :P)
In other news: We're going to get Opal tomorrow!
(Bit too uphill for showing. haha But he's not a showing pony!)
This is Niels with his 1st First Place rosette from Solihull Riding Club a few weeks ago:
This was Sunday at Swallowfield Equestrian Centre, where we came 4th in the Novice dressage section:
(I love this one. If it was more abstract you'd think he was 16.2hh. :P)
In other news: We're going to get Opal tomorrow!
Sunday 8 August 2010
Need to blog more!
Haflinger Show! It was brilliant. The first day was the dressage, it went terribly... My mum rode like she does when our instructor isn't there, so she got a pretty bad score. haha My brother had stage fright and forgot to ride Niels... Whoops.
My tests should have been amazing, there were parts of it where I watch and I tear up, especially some of the trot work. A lovely bouncy trot, wonderful self carriage, nice and uphill... but the judges hated it. All I can think is that it was because it was a haflinger show, and they didn't like that I was making him look dressage-y or something. NOT A CLUE! We had a lot of problems throughout the test because I was having my test called... erm, not particularly well we shall say. Niels was super tense because I was and we got the lowest scores we've ever got. Still got us 5th in the Novice. lol Hate to see how 6th's test went!
So much fail.
The second day however! I did a 2ft 3" show jumping round, my first ever sj class in my life. I didn't get lost, we knocked down only one jump, but refused a grand total of 6 times. XD I really don't blame him though, I'm not a confident jumper and he's not a confident anything! (Except eating. ;))
We did the Novice Ridden Stallions and Geldings (under 21s) and we came second last. *snort* Niels is not exactly breed standard, we think he's beautiful, but he's not the modern haflinger look. Plus he's 14! I didn't expect anything special, I just enjoy doing the classes. Niels went brilliantly, really easy ride (except for one minor napping issue in the first canter. "No judge I wasn't aiming for a 20m circle, an oblong circle thing was planned all along!") and we did come away with a rosette and a lovely photo! :D
Then the last class of that day was the accumulator. A jumping round with various jump heights and points attached to the jumps. We jumped mostly the small jumps, all cleanly, not a single refusal, and then near the end we went for it and jumped a 'big' 2ft 9" spread, the second highest of all of them. The only one bigger was easily 3ft 6" and had this box filler underneath it that Niels refused twice in the previous jumping round and was spooking at throughout the accumulator round. haha I assured him I'd never make him do that one. :P
The last day, I didn't do anything. My mum took him in the Novice Handler class... we don't need to explain how we placed there! Then my mum and brother did the family pony class where they both had to do a show for the judge. There were 4/5 pairs and Team Niels came 2nd! So proud of that one. :D I warmed him up for them, so he was a super responsive ride, and then William hopped on and in the ring they went! Really nice atmosphere in that class. Lots of Mums and Daughters (fyi I'm too old to be the 'daughter' in the class), mums proud of their daughters and most common was daughters proud of their mums!
BIG NEWS!
I'm getting a 3 year old haflinger filly! She's called Oxnead Opal. If you fancy having a look at her breeding, she's by Norvic, out of Oxnead Ovation (by Alpine). She won the 3 yo filly class at the haflinger show, and has the nicest temperament. She did the potential RDA class and the potential driving for the disabled class as well, and did pretty well. There was a man-in-a-hedge-asaurus watching her whilst she was being ridden and people entering and leave the paddock we were in. Horses calling out to her... the list of things going on was endless. She was calmer than Niels, calmer about it than any horse I've ever seen.
She's so willing, and so friendly. I'm in absolute love, and extremely excited for our future together. We were laughing yesterday about how when she's 30 I'll be 48!
I have so many plans for us, we'll be doing handy pony classes galore, she's coming with us whenever we go to any shows and I'd really like to do some serious in hand showing with her as well. It'll be at least another year and a bit before we can do any ridden shows of course, we'll just keep that ticking along in the background. She turns 4 in March btw.
I'm going to learn so much, it's nerve wracking, but exciting at the same time!
Here she is:
Not the best conformation shot unfortunately. She's got some coat damage on her hind that you can see in the photo. That happened when she was a foal apparently, she was kicked. She doesn't favour that side though, and the judges don't care about it either! We'll point the vet at the area during the vet check to be on the safe side.
Went to a Swallowfield Equestrian Centre today. My brother did a prelim test, and I did a Novice test. He wasn't going very well yesterday, I was hoping it was just because of his complete day off the day before, not even lunged or handled, which he hardly ever gets. He's like a baby himself, has to be kept busy! He usually goes better at shows anyway, looks to me for confidence, so he listens like a dream. The adrenaline creates a fabulous trot, but sometimes makes the canter strong, and the walk staccato. It all depends on the day with him though. :) It went really well though, he was an absolute dream to ride. Self carriage to dream of, we were going to be perfect and ready to enter the ring at our allotted time. Then we get told that the judge was running late, so I had to keep just walking Niels and then do a bit of work so that we'd be ready if he suddenly turned up... and he did. After we'd been in the warm up arena for about 45 minutes.
Despite being tired from the long warm up, we had a great test. No major cock ups. We got three 8s. One of them was for 'riders position and...'. Two of them were for the very beginning of the test, our trot down the centre line and then a 20m circle in trot. Then he started to get tired and fidgety, so he began to get heavy on the forehand unfortunately. We still got a nice lot of 7s throughout the rest of the test, including one for showing some medium trot strides. I really think that's coming along, it's one of the things that Niels finds most difficult.
We got 66.42% and came 4th out of a lot of really good horses, I really can't believe that we were right in amongst that lot!
My tests should have been amazing, there were parts of it where I watch and I tear up, especially some of the trot work. A lovely bouncy trot, wonderful self carriage, nice and uphill... but the judges hated it. All I can think is that it was because it was a haflinger show, and they didn't like that I was making him look dressage-y or something. NOT A CLUE! We had a lot of problems throughout the test because I was having my test called... erm, not particularly well we shall say. Niels was super tense because I was and we got the lowest scores we've ever got. Still got us 5th in the Novice. lol Hate to see how 6th's test went!
So much fail.
The second day however! I did a 2ft 3" show jumping round, my first ever sj class in my life. I didn't get lost, we knocked down only one jump, but refused a grand total of 6 times. XD I really don't blame him though, I'm not a confident jumper and he's not a confident anything! (Except eating. ;))
We did the Novice Ridden Stallions and Geldings (under 21s) and we came second last. *snort* Niels is not exactly breed standard, we think he's beautiful, but he's not the modern haflinger look. Plus he's 14! I didn't expect anything special, I just enjoy doing the classes. Niels went brilliantly, really easy ride (except for one minor napping issue in the first canter. "No judge I wasn't aiming for a 20m circle, an oblong circle thing was planned all along!") and we did come away with a rosette and a lovely photo! :D
Then the last class of that day was the accumulator. A jumping round with various jump heights and points attached to the jumps. We jumped mostly the small jumps, all cleanly, not a single refusal, and then near the end we went for it and jumped a 'big' 2ft 9" spread, the second highest of all of them. The only one bigger was easily 3ft 6" and had this box filler underneath it that Niels refused twice in the previous jumping round and was spooking at throughout the accumulator round. haha I assured him I'd never make him do that one. :P
The last day, I didn't do anything. My mum took him in the Novice Handler class... we don't need to explain how we placed there! Then my mum and brother did the family pony class where they both had to do a show for the judge. There were 4/5 pairs and Team Niels came 2nd! So proud of that one. :D I warmed him up for them, so he was a super responsive ride, and then William hopped on and in the ring they went! Really nice atmosphere in that class. Lots of Mums and Daughters (fyi I'm too old to be the 'daughter' in the class), mums proud of their daughters and most common was daughters proud of their mums!
BIG NEWS!
I'm getting a 3 year old haflinger filly! She's called Oxnead Opal. If you fancy having a look at her breeding, she's by Norvic, out of Oxnead Ovation (by Alpine). She won the 3 yo filly class at the haflinger show, and has the nicest temperament. She did the potential RDA class and the potential driving for the disabled class as well, and did pretty well. There was a man-in-a-hedge-asaurus watching her whilst she was being ridden and people entering and leave the paddock we were in. Horses calling out to her... the list of things going on was endless. She was calmer than Niels, calmer about it than any horse I've ever seen.
She's so willing, and so friendly. I'm in absolute love, and extremely excited for our future together. We were laughing yesterday about how when she's 30 I'll be 48!
I have so many plans for us, we'll be doing handy pony classes galore, she's coming with us whenever we go to any shows and I'd really like to do some serious in hand showing with her as well. It'll be at least another year and a bit before we can do any ridden shows of course, we'll just keep that ticking along in the background. She turns 4 in March btw.
I'm going to learn so much, it's nerve wracking, but exciting at the same time!
Here she is:
Not the best conformation shot unfortunately. She's got some coat damage on her hind that you can see in the photo. That happened when she was a foal apparently, she was kicked. She doesn't favour that side though, and the judges don't care about it either! We'll point the vet at the area during the vet check to be on the safe side.
Went to a Swallowfield Equestrian Centre today. My brother did a prelim test, and I did a Novice test. He wasn't going very well yesterday, I was hoping it was just because of his complete day off the day before, not even lunged or handled, which he hardly ever gets. He's like a baby himself, has to be kept busy! He usually goes better at shows anyway, looks to me for confidence, so he listens like a dream. The adrenaline creates a fabulous trot, but sometimes makes the canter strong, and the walk staccato. It all depends on the day with him though. :) It went really well though, he was an absolute dream to ride. Self carriage to dream of, we were going to be perfect and ready to enter the ring at our allotted time. Then we get told that the judge was running late, so I had to keep just walking Niels and then do a bit of work so that we'd be ready if he suddenly turned up... and he did. After we'd been in the warm up arena for about 45 minutes.
Despite being tired from the long warm up, we had a great test. No major cock ups. We got three 8s. One of them was for 'riders position and...'. Two of them were for the very beginning of the test, our trot down the centre line and then a 20m circle in trot. Then he started to get tired and fidgety, so he began to get heavy on the forehand unfortunately. We still got a nice lot of 7s throughout the rest of the test, including one for showing some medium trot strides. I really think that's coming along, it's one of the things that Niels finds most difficult.
We got 66.42% and came 4th out of a lot of really good horses, I really can't believe that we were right in amongst that lot!
Sunday 18 July 2010
Solihull Riding Club 17th July 2010
Finally got to a show! Pony is lovely and sound, and feeling good about himself. :D
He was brilliant, the best to ride he's ever been. Nice lot of energy, but in the right way, so I'm really proud of him!
We would have done so much better if it weren't for the stupid reins! We have a bridle that we only use for competitions, and we used it yesterday properly for the first time. Turns out the reins are super slippery and I couldn't hold the contact for more than a few strides. In the walk sections he kept trying to do free rein, but I couldn't check him to keep the medium walk so I had to push him on instead hoping that would work... so he jogged. In both walk sections! Argh...
We got 61%, but that could have easily have been pushing 65%. We got a nice lot of 7s and 6s, but at least one of those 6s would have been a 7. The walk sections got us 5s, which was generous! At least we know about the reins for next week!
Anyway, long story short we came first! My first ever red rosette, and I'm mega happy!
He was brilliant, the best to ride he's ever been. Nice lot of energy, but in the right way, so I'm really proud of him!
We would have done so much better if it weren't for the stupid reins! We have a bridle that we only use for competitions, and we used it yesterday properly for the first time. Turns out the reins are super slippery and I couldn't hold the contact for more than a few strides. In the walk sections he kept trying to do free rein, but I couldn't check him to keep the medium walk so I had to push him on instead hoping that would work... so he jogged. In both walk sections! Argh...
We got 61%, but that could have easily have been pushing 65%. We got a nice lot of 7s and 6s, but at least one of those 6s would have been a 7. The walk sections got us 5s, which was generous! At least we know about the reins for next week!
Anyway, long story short we came first! My first ever red rosette, and I'm mega happy!
Thursday 8 July 2010
Why does this always happen?
Competition's off this weekend. Niels is a bit lame on his left fore... We think it's his shoulder he's tweaked. He was better today though, so hopefully there'll be no sign of it tomorrow!
Thursday 1 July 2010
Niels is healing well! There's been absolutely no weeping or anything that I was expecting to happen, I need to get myself some of that tissue glue.
He is gradually losing some weight. We're measuring his girth and his widest, grass belly, points about once a week, and recording it. He's getting about 3 days of being ridden and then a day off. Two of those days doing dressage, and then the last day some jumping. Haven't been able to ride out because the ground's too hard, can't believe I'm actually praying for rain. Sacrilege!
We have a couple of competitions lined up before the Haflinger Show. Decided against going to Abbey Dressage, it's a bit too long a journey for his first show of the summer. We should be going to Swallowfield on the 10th July to do some unaffiliated dressage and clear round SJ. I've never done a SJ class in my life, so clear round is probably a good way to start. On the weekend after we'll be going to Solihull Riding Club to do combined training. So a bit more serious show jumping, the weekend before the Haflinger Show.
Busy, busy, busy!
He is gradually losing some weight. We're measuring his girth and his widest, grass belly, points about once a week, and recording it. He's getting about 3 days of being ridden and then a day off. Two of those days doing dressage, and then the last day some jumping. Haven't been able to ride out because the ground's too hard, can't believe I'm actually praying for rain. Sacrilege!
We have a couple of competitions lined up before the Haflinger Show. Decided against going to Abbey Dressage, it's a bit too long a journey for his first show of the summer. We should be going to Swallowfield on the 10th July to do some unaffiliated dressage and clear round SJ. I've never done a SJ class in my life, so clear round is probably a good way to start. On the weekend after we'll be going to Solihull Riding Club to do combined training. So a bit more serious show jumping, the weekend before the Haflinger Show.
Busy, busy, busy!
Wednesday 23 June 2010
First trip of the year.. to the vets.
Thought I'd just update to say that the procedure to remove the cyst went well. He removed only the smallest amount of skin that he possibly could, and stitched it up with 3 sutures. All looks quite neat, and he'll be having the stitches taken out in about 10 days.
He can't be ridden or let out to grass until the weekend, so the next couple of days are going to be boring all around I think! Wish I had my camera to document the healing process...
The vet's also said that he's overweight, and so we're cracking down on it now much harder than before. They're having their field reduced by 2/3 and only out 2 hours a day. We're going to carry on everything else the same, perhaps soak his hay for a bit longer, but he's already being ridden 4 or 5 times a week, an hour each time so we don't think that needs increasing. Hopefully we'll eventually see a change, he's a ridiculously good doer, Benny has lost weight on the diet they've been on the past couple of months, but Niels hasn't changed at all... Fingers crossed.
He can't be ridden or let out to grass until the weekend, so the next couple of days are going to be boring all around I think! Wish I had my camera to document the healing process...
The vet's also said that he's overweight, and so we're cracking down on it now much harder than before. They're having their field reduced by 2/3 and only out 2 hours a day. We're going to carry on everything else the same, perhaps soak his hay for a bit longer, but he's already being ridden 4 or 5 times a week, an hour each time so we don't think that needs increasing. Hopefully we'll eventually see a change, he's a ridiculously good doer, Benny has lost weight on the diet they've been on the past couple of months, but Niels hasn't changed at all... Fingers crossed.
Tuesday 22 June 2010
Guess who left her camera at her boyfriend's house 150 miles away? So no videos or photos for a couple of weeks unfortunately. I'm going to visit again on the 6th July, so I'll get my camera back then I think. I should be going to a show the weekend before though, I might be able to get a crappy quality video of my test using my parents' camera.
I'm planning to go to Abbey Dressage on the 4th July. It's a bit too posh for us really, but I need to get out and doing competitions before the haflinger show and it's the only one available on that weekend I can make.
Niels is doing great. We have an outdoor dressage arena now! It's just in a field, but there's some nice solid markers, and it's quite flat. Brilliant for Niels and I to practice on though, great for his head.
I had a lesson last week which went well. We worked on half halts and showing a distinction between the working trot/canter and the medium trot/canter mostly. I think we'll do ok at the haflinger show in a few weeks! Really excited about it. :)
We've started practicing jumping! I am absolutely appalling at it, I try to stay out of his way as much as possible, although, because of his nature he wants me to tell him what to do... but I don't know what I'm doing either! haha We're working on it. We jumped a 2ft 3" spread last night a couple of times, once very successfully, mostly not so though. :/ It's coming along though.
Niels has to have a cyst removed from his ear tomorrow, so we're traveling to the vets for that. Definitely counting that as one of his trips out! They say that the procedure will take literally 10 minutes, quite a lot of fuss for such a small thing.
We went to the Armscote Show on Sunday to watch and support some people from my yard, Willicote Equestrian Centre, and we saw another Normandy Cob! We were so shocked! He was in the side saddle class too, they looked gorgeous. I spoke to the family that owned him and they were convinced that they only had a 'cob', "just a cob" they kept saying! Hopefully they got back later in the day and googled it. It's funny how some people put cobs into one bracket, the breeds may not be as regimented, but you can still tell the difference between an english cob and an irish cob, so why not a normandy cob?
The horse at 7 seconds is like identical to Benny. Anyone speak french? I'd love a translation. lol
How could you say just a cob?
I'm planning to go to Abbey Dressage on the 4th July. It's a bit too posh for us really, but I need to get out and doing competitions before the haflinger show and it's the only one available on that weekend I can make.
Niels is doing great. We have an outdoor dressage arena now! It's just in a field, but there's some nice solid markers, and it's quite flat. Brilliant for Niels and I to practice on though, great for his head.
I had a lesson last week which went well. We worked on half halts and showing a distinction between the working trot/canter and the medium trot/canter mostly. I think we'll do ok at the haflinger show in a few weeks! Really excited about it. :)
We've started practicing jumping! I am absolutely appalling at it, I try to stay out of his way as much as possible, although, because of his nature he wants me to tell him what to do... but I don't know what I'm doing either! haha We're working on it. We jumped a 2ft 3" spread last night a couple of times, once very successfully, mostly not so though. :/ It's coming along though.
Niels has to have a cyst removed from his ear tomorrow, so we're traveling to the vets for that. Definitely counting that as one of his trips out! They say that the procedure will take literally 10 minutes, quite a lot of fuss for such a small thing.
We went to the Armscote Show on Sunday to watch and support some people from my yard, Willicote Equestrian Centre, and we saw another Normandy Cob! We were so shocked! He was in the side saddle class too, they looked gorgeous. I spoke to the family that owned him and they were convinced that they only had a 'cob', "just a cob" they kept saying! Hopefully they got back later in the day and googled it. It's funny how some people put cobs into one bracket, the breeds may not be as regimented, but you can still tell the difference between an english cob and an irish cob, so why not a normandy cob?
The horse at 7 seconds is like identical to Benny. Anyone speak french? I'd love a translation. lol
How could you say just a cob?
Thursday 10 June 2010
Started Practicing the Dressage Tests Last Night!
"B or C?" "C!" "C? Here?" xD Probably should have looked at the test before hand... Need to work on square halts, my 20m circles are drifting, trot-walk-trot transitions, give and retake the reins in trot (done in hundreds of times in canter, not so much in trot!), left rein trot to canter transitions... Lots to work on.
We started practicing the Novice test, but that turned out to be more complicated, and we couldn't even run it through because I had to keep stopping to look at the test! I have a video where we were sort of practicing it, although we miss read the test and did 3 loops instead of 4, therefore ending up on the wrong rein as well... That confused us!
There's a few places in the test that we really need to work on. The test starts with a halt on the centre line, which we've never done before, so Niels thinks it's finished, but we then have to proceed in trot! There's also a rein back in the test, Niels tends to want to stick his butt out when he does though so we end up a horse's length back and not on the track. Just have to keep practicing it, it'll come. The medium paces need some work as well. All good fun though. :)
Wednesday 9 June 2010
I'm Back Home!
Finally home, and back for good now. (Depending on where I get a job... All a bit confusing at the moment!)
I've only ridden once since I got back, but I bring videos.
In that last video, you just miss a lovely walk to canter. He always does them so much nicer on the right rein, as you can see in the video, it's just a dribble. Used to be better, but he hasn't done them since easter.
The trot video shows that more impulsion is definitely needed, he's looking a bit lazy and distracted. The canter work isn't as controlled as it was before I left, canter's become a big deal to him unfortunately. He'll soon calm down though. :)
My little brother's riding him wonderfully now, he's cantering on both reins and he's started learning a dressage test! So proud.
Haven't got much else to say, I'm riding tonight so hopefully there'll be some more videos!
I've only ridden once since I got back, but I bring videos.
In that last video, you just miss a lovely walk to canter. He always does them so much nicer on the right rein, as you can see in the video, it's just a dribble. Used to be better, but he hasn't done them since easter.
The trot video shows that more impulsion is definitely needed, he's looking a bit lazy and distracted. The canter work isn't as controlled as it was before I left, canter's become a big deal to him unfortunately. He'll soon calm down though. :)
My little brother's riding him wonderfully now, he's cantering on both reins and he's started learning a dressage test! So proud.
Haven't got much else to say, I'm riding tonight so hopefully there'll be some more videos!
Monday 12 April 2010
Quick post. I've been really busy and hardly seeing Niels because of university. I've got a couple of months left, then I'm home and job hunting.
Niels is being treated at the moment for a few sarcoids, luckily not in places that would be bothered by a saddle. The vet has reccommended that we ride him to keep him sane and healthy, so that's what we shall be doing!
Booked in for the Haflinger Show and he's going to be staying for a couple of nights there. I'm entering *deep breath*
Open Prelim Dressage
Open Novice Dressage and thinking about entering the Restricted Elementary...
The Novice Ridden Stallions/Geldings–21yrs & under
Intermediate Show Jumping (not to exceed 2'6")
The Accumulator Jumping class.
That's just what I'm entering though... My Brother's doing:
Restricted Prelim Dressage
Novice show jumping (not to exceed 2'3").
My Mum's doing Restricted Novice Dressage and her and my brother are entering the Family Pony class (one rider over 25 years, and the other between 14 and 18)
Then my Dad's doing two in hand classes. :S The novice handler and then the senior geldings.
I started practicing in hand with Niels over the weekend, he's not the easiest to control from the ground. He trots up so lovely though I'll try and get it on camera next time I'm home.
Can't wait to get back in the saddle!
Niels is being treated at the moment for a few sarcoids, luckily not in places that would be bothered by a saddle. The vet has reccommended that we ride him to keep him sane and healthy, so that's what we shall be doing!
Booked in for the Haflinger Show and he's going to be staying for a couple of nights there. I'm entering *deep breath*
Open Prelim Dressage
Open Novice Dressage and thinking about entering the Restricted Elementary...
The Novice Ridden Stallions/Geldings–21yrs & under
Intermediate Show Jumping (not to exceed 2'6")
The Accumulator Jumping class.
That's just what I'm entering though... My Brother's doing:
Restricted Prelim Dressage
Novice show jumping (not to exceed 2'3").
My Mum's doing Restricted Novice Dressage and her and my brother are entering the Family Pony class (one rider over 25 years, and the other between 14 and 18)
Then my Dad's doing two in hand classes. :S The novice handler and then the senior geldings.
I started practicing in hand with Niels over the weekend, he's not the easiest to control from the ground. He trots up so lovely though I'll try and get it on camera next time I'm home.
Can't wait to get back in the saddle!
Tuesday 2 February 2010
Look at this canter! :D
He had not been ridden for about a week, and when we went in the school another pony was in there, who then pretty much immediately left. Cue pony abandonment symptoms... It took half an hour after that to calm him down. Usually changes of direction works to get him back to me, but after 30 mins of trying that, I went for the opposite, driving him forwards. The above is the result! I can't believe it! He's never cantered that relaxed before in his life. Look at 20 seconds, he's actually stretching down... wow. Canter used to be his worst pace, now it's quickly becoming his better one, we're working on canter to walk transitions and he's getting really balanced. :)
Quite liking that canter to trot transition, it's definitely been helped by the canter to walk work. He was expecting me to ask for walk, so he went into trot nice and balanced. ♥
This was before the 30 mins of nutty pony were up...
He always gets so tense and distracted by the door to the school. What do we think of my sitting trot? (I love that bit at around 15 seconds when we go diagonally across the school. :)) Communication error at the end of that bit across the school, I over did my half halt, nice to know I have breaks though! :P
FYI wearing my body protector because he's been a bit unpredictable lately. haha
He had not been ridden for about a week, and when we went in the school another pony was in there, who then pretty much immediately left. Cue pony abandonment symptoms... It took half an hour after that to calm him down. Usually changes of direction works to get him back to me, but after 30 mins of trying that, I went for the opposite, driving him forwards. The above is the result! I can't believe it! He's never cantered that relaxed before in his life. Look at 20 seconds, he's actually stretching down... wow. Canter used to be his worst pace, now it's quickly becoming his better one, we're working on canter to walk transitions and he's getting really balanced. :)
Quite liking that canter to trot transition, it's definitely been helped by the canter to walk work. He was expecting me to ask for walk, so he went into trot nice and balanced. ♥
This was before the 30 mins of nutty pony were up...
He always gets so tense and distracted by the door to the school. What do we think of my sitting trot? (I love that bit at around 15 seconds when we go diagonally across the school. :)) Communication error at the end of that bit across the school, I over did my half halt, nice to know I have breaks though! :P
FYI wearing my body protector because he's been a bit unpredictable lately. haha
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)