I was reminded to blog today on facebook by another haffy lover starting a new blog tracking her progress with Evers Navarone. So check out her blog! http://haffyholic.blogspot.com/
Niels is being awesome lately. Brilliant to ride, it's warmed up and I think he's liking the weather!
Just a quick update because I'm super busy! He's got canter walk canter now, and he knows what I want him to do, just need to practice practice practice. Leg yields have got so much better recently, now we don't have a change of pace half way through and he's starting to actually step under. :D Clever little boy.
Just starting on the youngster again, taking it slowly to start with so we're going for a potter around the field this weekend. After 3 months off she was perfectly fine with me getting back on again, not a spot of bother. What a cracker I've got! Very exciting. :D
Showing posts with label opal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label opal. Show all posts
Friday, 18 February 2011
Friday, 28 January 2011
January 2011
Niels is doing great lately. Just wish I had time to get out there competiting! Easy rosettes since nobody else can be bothered in this weather. haha
He can now easily do a 10m circle in canter, counter canter is coming, but only when he feels like it. He gets pretty frustrated and panicky when he knows that's what we're going to work on, so I have to sneak it in!
We've got nice and straight leg yields, and without a joggy trot too, staying nice and balanced. Now he's finding it easy in trot, I'll start working on it in canter too.
Not much else to report. Opal's got just over a month left of her holiday, so I'm starting to ask a bit more of her on the ground. Trotting poles have been introduced (Boy can she pick her feet up!) and every couple of weeks I've been lunging her in the pessoa, I'll increase that to once a week I think, she goes really nicely in that.
I'll have some more videos soon!
x
He can now easily do a 10m circle in canter, counter canter is coming, but only when he feels like it. He gets pretty frustrated and panicky when he knows that's what we're going to work on, so I have to sneak it in!
We've got nice and straight leg yields, and without a joggy trot too, staying nice and balanced. Now he's finding it easy in trot, I'll start working on it in canter too.
Not much else to report. Opal's got just over a month left of her holiday, so I'm starting to ask a bit more of her on the ground. Trotting poles have been introduced (Boy can she pick her feet up!) and every couple of weeks I've been lunging her in the pessoa, I'll increase that to once a week I think, she goes really nicely in that.
I'll have some more videos soon!
x
Monday, 3 January 2011
The Haflinger Show was Cancelled :(
The Winter Haflinger Show was cancelled because the weather made it quite dangerous for people to get there. There were people travelling from Scotland and places, so it just wasn't worth the risk. They're planning a spring one though, should be exciting.
Opal's growing! We measured her today and she's grown about 1/2" since she was measured for her passport in the summer. She now stands at 14.1 hh, and she's certainly filling out! (As am I!)
She's such a little character.
On an average week she might get lunged once, free lunged once (maybe more than that depending on the weather) and a proper handling session once(other than the basic ones I do as part of her usual routine). The handling sessions consist of her trotting calmly beside me, getting her to trot more flashy next to me, immediate transitions up to and down to trot, walk and halt, square halts, clockwise circles in trot and walk (got it down to a 10m circle now! This is me on her left side), walking backwards fluidly, side passing in walk, turn on the forehand and quarter walk pirouettes! None too shabby for a 3 year old, with just a schooling whip, headcollar and lead rope.
I can't wait to get on board, she's so intelligent! I lunged her today and she picked up canter on both reins on the correct leg. Proud.
Niels was amazing to ride today! I had that buzzy feeling after I'd ridden and everything. He'd been in his stable for a couple of hours, and I got on at about 5:45, and only rode for 1/2 an hour. Usually it takes that 1/2 an hour to settle him, get him to concentrate and actually listen to me. Today it was more like 15 minutes, and he was more uphill at the end of the session than he's ever been before. It started with some noises outside exciting him, then once he was in that flashy trot there was no stopping him! I think he liked it, released some endorphins or something, because he just kept giving more and more! We did a canter on each rein too, (he's much easier to sit to when he's going like that!) and then stretched in trot and cooled off. Again, proud mama. I can't wait until I can get back out competing, I want to see what scores that can give us!
Here's some of Niels in the snow too:
I'll try not to leave it so long between updates in future and hopefully get some photos and videos of their progress.
Opal's growing! We measured her today and she's grown about 1/2" since she was measured for her passport in the summer. She now stands at 14.1 hh, and she's certainly filling out! (As am I!)
She's such a little character.
On an average week she might get lunged once, free lunged once (maybe more than that depending on the weather) and a proper handling session once(other than the basic ones I do as part of her usual routine). The handling sessions consist of her trotting calmly beside me, getting her to trot more flashy next to me, immediate transitions up to and down to trot, walk and halt, square halts, clockwise circles in trot and walk (got it down to a 10m circle now! This is me on her left side), walking backwards fluidly, side passing in walk, turn on the forehand and quarter walk pirouettes! None too shabby for a 3 year old, with just a schooling whip, headcollar and lead rope.
I can't wait to get on board, she's so intelligent! I lunged her today and she picked up canter on both reins on the correct leg. Proud.
Niels was amazing to ride today! I had that buzzy feeling after I'd ridden and everything. He'd been in his stable for a couple of hours, and I got on at about 5:45, and only rode for 1/2 an hour. Usually it takes that 1/2 an hour to settle him, get him to concentrate and actually listen to me. Today it was more like 15 minutes, and he was more uphill at the end of the session than he's ever been before. It started with some noises outside exciting him, then once he was in that flashy trot there was no stopping him! I think he liked it, released some endorphins or something, because he just kept giving more and more! We did a canter on each rein too, (he's much easier to sit to when he's going like that!) and then stretched in trot and cooled off. Again, proud mama. I can't wait until I can get back out competing, I want to see what scores that can give us!
Here's some of Niels in the snow too:
I'll try not to leave it so long between updates in future and hopefully get some photos and videos of their progress.
Tuesday, 23 November 2010
Winter Breed Show
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. :)
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, 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.
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!
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