well Elms farm didnt go to plan, and in the end pony got a bit of a telling off whilst in the ring.....which i think ended up being a good thing. although we didnt go to Addington PL in the end, he has since come out the other side of the terrible teens and................qualified for the open novice regionals,woo woo!!!!
did two fanstastic tests at vale view and won the qual on 67.5%, in fact must go and tot up his points .....not that it matters because next weekend we are doing our first elem (E50)!!! nothing like chucking us both in at the deep end!
will be aiming for the open elem area festivals rather than regionals as i dont think he would be mature enough to be a serious contender at open elem level yet.
pics here
so, can now breathe a big sigh of relief and concentrate on the training.have really worked this week on him staying 100% in front of the leg in the collection,esp in canter, so have been bringing him back off the seat and the doing a bit of *legs away* and really rewarding him when that quickens the hind leg.if no respone he is sent forward immediately in to an extension so he learns to stay taking me forward in the collection.
this really got the canter pinging so took advantage of that and did some changes-across the diagonal they are pretty much bang on now so have upped this work to include doing them on the serpentine, which he seems to find a piece of cake.vastly tempted to try for 2 x4's but chewed my own legs off at the knee and resisted temptation! its all there, i must not rush it......
harry tomorrow :)
Sunday, 30 May 2010
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
big ole catch up...
so, I think star is going though the terrible teens!
Took him to Hargate last weekend, and he got himself terribly worked up over something (we still arent quite sure what), to the point he was in a white foam sweat, red nostrils, veins up etc. ended up retiring from both tests as there is no point him having an awful score on his record when he is genuinely upset.
dithered all week over whether to go to Keysoe Premier League, or not ,and in the end, we went.
Decided it would be good experience for us both.
i did eventually ride him though the tension, but it was at the expense of the canter work, which was rather tight, rather up and down and not at all over the back. so we got dinged for that rather badly. in the national test he threw in some random tempis, and in the international shot off like a rocket in the medium canter and then bucked, little sod!
ended up on 6.08 and 6.2 which is not horrifically bad, but i just wish id been able to get my leg on and show him off to his full potential.oh well, im 99% sure im going to do Addington PL in 2 weeks, and im determined to be able to show him off better there.
pics here
pony has had a bit of a bollocking this week about keeping his shoulders up,arse down and canter in front of the leg! feels fantastic, so im really hoping the brat stage is short lived.
Elms farm *normal show* next weekend, then addington.fingers crossed.......
Took him to Hargate last weekend, and he got himself terribly worked up over something (we still arent quite sure what), to the point he was in a white foam sweat, red nostrils, veins up etc. ended up retiring from both tests as there is no point him having an awful score on his record when he is genuinely upset.
dithered all week over whether to go to Keysoe Premier League, or not ,and in the end, we went.
Decided it would be good experience for us both.
i did eventually ride him though the tension, but it was at the expense of the canter work, which was rather tight, rather up and down and not at all over the back. so we got dinged for that rather badly. in the national test he threw in some random tempis, and in the international shot off like a rocket in the medium canter and then bucked, little sod!
ended up on 6.08 and 6.2 which is not horrifically bad, but i just wish id been able to get my leg on and show him off to his full potential.oh well, im 99% sure im going to do Addington PL in 2 weeks, and im determined to be able to show him off better there.
pics here
pony has had a bit of a bollocking this week about keeping his shoulders up,arse down and canter in front of the leg! feels fantastic, so im really hoping the brat stage is short lived.
Elms farm *normal show* next weekend, then addington.fingers crossed.......
Monday, 29 March 2010
part 2....
so tonight i got that lovely canter again and so decided to have a sneaky play with some changes......well i got 2 perfect ones right-left and then two perfect ones left-right so called it a day.
that horse is far too clever!
that horse is far too clever!
training our butts off...
well, he feels spot on and i cant wait for the premier league now!
had a super harry lesson on say, really working on getting him straight and uphill to the outside rein and making sure i keep my inside hand still and not curling him up and over bend him to the inside.
worked on the walk a lot, picking him up and then stretching him down and doing transitions to trot only when he felt relaxed and in front of the leg. this semi worked, as he demonstrated some lovely piaffe a couple of times lol!!!
played with leg yields from the corners to centre line and the shoulder in, and finally HP,making sure we kept the engagement and suspension through the lateral work.
up in to canter and was going medium-collected-medium large and on a circle, and had a super uphill canter when harry said " ja ja now lets see the canter half pass"............."um harry.......do we HAVE a canter HP???!!!"
well apparently we do! i need to think of it more as a leg yield and then change the flexion at the minutes as he just isnt strong enough to start off with so much bend, but he did two really good attempts each way so left it on that, what a trier!
piccies here
had a super harry lesson on say, really working on getting him straight and uphill to the outside rein and making sure i keep my inside hand still and not curling him up and over bend him to the inside.
worked on the walk a lot, picking him up and then stretching him down and doing transitions to trot only when he felt relaxed and in front of the leg. this semi worked, as he demonstrated some lovely piaffe a couple of times lol!!!
played with leg yields from the corners to centre line and the shoulder in, and finally HP,making sure we kept the engagement and suspension through the lateral work.
up in to canter and was going medium-collected-medium large and on a circle, and had a super uphill canter when harry said " ja ja now lets see the canter half pass"............."um harry.......do we HAVE a canter HP???!!!"
well apparently we do! i need to think of it more as a leg yield and then change the flexion at the minutes as he just isnt strong enough to start off with so much bend, but he did two really good attempts each way so left it on that, what a trier!
piccies here
Sunday, 21 March 2010
biggest grin ever:
i am so thrilled with the boy today, yes we had a few leaps and launches when i first went in to the warm up, but he settled beautifully in the ring and held his breath as he scuttled past the scary judges hut, instead of spooking and was just so grown up bless him.
some complete twat came thundering across the car park in a jack hammer trot, cantered down the track to the warm up and shot in to the midst, scattering people left right and centre which really didnt help get the canter soft over the back and swinging. fortunately we beat said twat by a metric mile, despite him passaging and extended cantering his poor horse for an hour.......
second warm up for N38 was much more relaxed and i got the trot iv been getting at home, and we even took it in to the ring in parts :)
kitty, my 13yo livery, and i made a pact on sat that we would both ride our canters, instead of freezing rabbit in headlight style and im pleased to report that she set a flying standard on sat with 67.5 in novice trailblazers and 64 in her first elem trailblazers, so a lot for me to live up to...
...really tried to keep the canter rocking on and up and not too delicate show pony-ish, and was pleased to see from pics that we managed 2 perfect square halts (this has been something iv worked on all damn week so at last, hurrah!).
im gobsmacked and proud to report 73.8% in N22 and 69.6% in N38 and TWO red ones, so thats 2/3 of a regional qual in the bag,yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!
3 weeks off now for ken, then general plan is to do keysoe and addington premier league 5yo classes and get our final novice regional win, before end of june. fingers crossed!
pics here
some complete twat came thundering across the car park in a jack hammer trot, cantered down the track to the warm up and shot in to the midst, scattering people left right and centre which really didnt help get the canter soft over the back and swinging. fortunately we beat said twat by a metric mile, despite him passaging and extended cantering his poor horse for an hour.......
second warm up for N38 was much more relaxed and i got the trot iv been getting at home, and we even took it in to the ring in parts :)
kitty, my 13yo livery, and i made a pact on sat that we would both ride our canters, instead of freezing rabbit in headlight style and im pleased to report that she set a flying standard on sat with 67.5 in novice trailblazers and 64 in her first elem trailblazers, so a lot for me to live up to...
...really tried to keep the canter rocking on and up and not too delicate show pony-ish, and was pleased to see from pics that we managed 2 perfect square halts (this has been something iv worked on all damn week so at last, hurrah!).
im gobsmacked and proud to report 73.8% in N22 and 69.6% in N38 and TWO red ones, so thats 2/3 of a regional qual in the bag,yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!
3 weeks off now for ken, then general plan is to do keysoe and addington premier league 5yo classes and get our final novice regional win, before end of june. fingers crossed!
pics here
Monday, 8 March 2010
lovely start to the 2010 season...
3rd with 62.5% in N27 and 2nd with 65.7% in N37 woo hoo go star!!!
i thought the 62 was possibly a bit mean as aside from a jog in the medium walk there wasnt much to dislike and he is very balanced and supple etc, yes it needs more power and oomph but this is only a novice mrs judge..........oh well...we were chuffed to bits and he beat loads of flash warmbloods!
also a well respected GP rider sought me out to tell me i had a class mover and that he would be a GP horse so that made me smile too, that even a pro was fooled (he was gobsmacked when he found out star is a TB!!!).
was nto as wild in teh warm up as i anticipated, 3 good frog leaps and one fantastic 360 rear to show everyone his new girth guard (!) but then settled fabulously.
love my pony!
piccies here
i thought the 62 was possibly a bit mean as aside from a jog in the medium walk there wasnt much to dislike and he is very balanced and supple etc, yes it needs more power and oomph but this is only a novice mrs judge..........oh well...we were chuffed to bits and he beat loads of flash warmbloods!
also a well respected GP rider sought me out to tell me i had a class mover and that he would be a GP horse so that made me smile too, that even a pro was fooled (he was gobsmacked when he found out star is a TB!!!).
was nto as wild in teh warm up as i anticipated, 3 good frog leaps and one fantastic 360 rear to show everyone his new girth guard (!) but then settled fabulously.
love my pony!
piccies here
Thursday, 11 February 2010
growing up...
Long time.....no blog.......
Toddlerpone (cant call him babypone anymore!!!) is now 5 and is starting to feel really grown up.
Had a super Harry lesson last weekend, the trot work swings and carries me (even in sitting trot) and the shoulder in was effortless.
Best of all we got a fabulously straight, through and uphill change on his worst side, first time!!! so any demons about left-right flying changes have been firmly laid to rest.
I am considering if it would be very awful of me to buy some pink sheep snuggy jams for Star in the sale......hmmmmmm......
Am ordering a new quarter sheet for shows from my lovely Lili at furfeathermeds.com-navy edged grey with my initials in the corner, cant wait :)
My whiter than white dead sheep arrived yesterday and perfectly matches the white dead sheep girth sleeve I got for xmas so im even more excited about getting out to a show now-roll on 7th March!!!
Toddlerpone (cant call him babypone anymore!!!) is now 5 and is starting to feel really grown up.
Had a super Harry lesson last weekend, the trot work swings and carries me (even in sitting trot) and the shoulder in was effortless.
Best of all we got a fabulously straight, through and uphill change on his worst side, first time!!! so any demons about left-right flying changes have been firmly laid to rest.
I am considering if it would be very awful of me to buy some pink sheep snuggy jams for Star in the sale......hmmmmmm......
Am ordering a new quarter sheet for shows from my lovely Lili at furfeathermeds.com-navy edged grey with my initials in the corner, cant wait :)
My whiter than white dead sheep arrived yesterday and perfectly matches the white dead sheep girth sleeve I got for xmas so im even more excited about getting out to a show now-roll on 7th March!!!
Sunday, 10 January 2010
if horses could swear...
Star would be cursing my father right now, virtually every horse we know has had at least 3 weeks off due to snow but my *poor pony* has worked as normal!
Really feel that he is starting to come uphill AND take the contact forward and not brace on it or suck back from it. Doing a lot of working giving and re-taking, and offering the inside hand to keep him loose on the neck, and again not bracing.
Surface is not great, but workable with so just not asking for huge super forward trot/canter as dont think it fair.
Had a pop yesterday, just a placing pole to an upright to a ground pole, to get him to drop his head over the fence and literally *pop* not launch over it. He got the hang of it straight away and was very careful too, clever pony. Ordered him a nathe straight bar for jumping as feel like he is backing off even just the happy mouth mid air and if i dont drop the contact totally he will stop next time, so hoping the nathe being bendy and squishy will encourage him to let me keep a light contact over the fence as throwing the reins at him is not going to be viable round a course.if not, might try a little hackamore.
Really feel that he is starting to come uphill AND take the contact forward and not brace on it or suck back from it. Doing a lot of working giving and re-taking, and offering the inside hand to keep him loose on the neck, and again not bracing.
Surface is not great, but workable with so just not asking for huge super forward trot/canter as dont think it fair.
Had a pop yesterday, just a placing pole to an upright to a ground pole, to get him to drop his head over the fence and literally *pop* not launch over it. He got the hang of it straight away and was very careful too, clever pony. Ordered him a nathe straight bar for jumping as feel like he is backing off even just the happy mouth mid air and if i dont drop the contact totally he will stop next time, so hoping the nathe being bendy and squishy will encourage him to let me keep a light contact over the fence as throwing the reins at him is not going to be viable round a course.if not, might try a little hackamore.
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