Always Apologising!

Sorry again for the delay in my updating, my laptop broke a few weeks ago, I gave it into repair shop. However I haven't been back to see what the story is yet and blogging from my phone is just a nightmare - we need an app for this! :p
Plus I have become super addicted to instagram (apologies to those who follow my updates there & have seen the photos already) and as there is an app for that it is so quick to share the snapshots there. Although I do take a lot more photos than I share - I should share the excess here to keep things fresh & interesting for those who read...food for thought!

Girlies modeling their Amigo Hero Lite turnouts

 I last updated prior to heading back to Ireland unexpectedly due to illness of a family member - thankfully they came out of the woods this time and shall fight on. It was great to see them and a lot of other family members including Nancy's birthmom and getting celebrate my grandmother's 87th birthday with her was great!
She is some woman for one woman - still on the dance floor @1am - long after I was gone to bed!





That weekend the Guru rode Kika in the training clinic with an external trainer - who she had ridden Kika for twice before. Sadly no one could document this stage, so there are no videos or photos to share from it - however all reports have been very positive. With the best compliment coming from the trainer himself who said that he wouldn't recognise the horse as the same one he'd seen twice before, that the work done with her was beyond anything he'd have thought possible in the time since he last saw her in January!
Amazing compliment - probably had more to do with the fact that L had her in bootcamp for the week before the clinic and very little to do with anything K & I have done :p

Love the Autumn colours!

I have been riding both girls as often as I can and having great fun with them. My confidence with Nancy is growing, we alternate our work between only doing walk & trot work one day and then adding canter another day all the while changing up the scenery by riding in different arenas with different people. She is getting more exposed to riding with others and holds her concentration really well until left "alone" (with me) in the arena when all others leave - when she gets a bit giraffy & wobbly before settling back down really quickly again.
She is very good when the other riders in the arena get too close or come up behind her at greater speeds then she is going - she doesn't break stride or even look at them. They make me a little mad as everyone knows she is a young horse, yet they would mow us down if they could - some riders are just disrespectful when sharing an arena. *Le Sad Times*


She is also very good when sharing the arena with someone lunging another horse - even when that horse suddenly bursts into buck/farting mode - she does wobble a little when this happens, but only if it happens "behind her back" if she is facing them when they explode she doesn't bat an eyelid. She is so good that I forget she is only 4 years old - such a cool head on young shoulders.
I was bad and let my frustration with others get the better of me last night, as one of my fellow liveries after lunging her horse in the arena with us, knowing that N is very young - returned with the wheelbarrow to collect her horse's poop! Thankfully N didn't give it too much notice, however as this lady was moving around the arena, seemingly oblivious to me...we kept to walk in case one of the clankings would spook Nancy and I'd lose my steering & brakes.
She then stood in the corner rolling back up her lunging gear, hitting the clasps off the plastic chairs in the corner & wrapping everything back in their rustling plastic bags. Yes young horses need desensitization to things, but they don't need to be goaded into reactions either or have their limits tested when they are on their own in the arena with no other horses to help steady their nerves. I wouldn't mind but both this ladies horses are nervy animals and if someone was to do to her what she did to Nancy & I, she would hit the roof.
I try to be respectful of those I share the arenas with and am sensitive to the animals they ride & ages etc - it is always a pity when others don't extend the same courtesies to you.

Hedge-trimming Round 1, aka: Kika's mane got pulled

Kika and I have been plodding away, doing what we do - as best we can. I am weaning us off the martingale with her, rode her for the first time in a while without it last night and she was a doll. Stupidly i forgot my schooling whip and had to use my legs more than I have become used to.

Note to self: ride-more-without-artificial-aids to build leg strength. It made me realise how bad I have become and reliant upon the odd tap here and there from the schooling whip for more pep in her step. *LeShame*

I have been relatively good at keeping up with my sit-ups for L. Williams @ Viva Carlos' October challenge. Namely to do 100 sit-ups a day for the month of October - which would mean 3100 sit-ups by the end of the month. I was a day late starting this challenge & tried to ease myself into it by only doing 25 that first night and then 50 morning & evening since. On days I don't ride i try to increase one of my sessions to 75 - I also missed a couple 50s sets when I was in Ireland for the weekend. However I am keeping track of how many I am doing and shall keep going beyond the 31st of Oct to get the 3100 goal - in fact I am sneakily enchanted with the idea of having toned abs and who knows a 6 pack some day, so I may try to keep doing them for the foreseeable future - here's hoping i don't loose interest as I am renowndly lazy as I would like to be "ripped" LOL!



I think that's me all caught up for now, here's hoping i can get back into the swing of blogging & keep things better updated for myself and you kind forgiving followers who read all my waffle!