Field Frivolities

Today was the first day of SUMMER TIME TURNOUT - woohoo. Each time I think Summer Time Turnout - I get Lana Del Rey's Summertime Sadness stuck in my head. The girls get out a whole week earlier than usual, normally summer turnout starts on the 1st of May - but this year we got the green light to go ahead so the 4-horses, 3-humans & 2-dogs caravan headed off on our trek through the woods to the summer turnout field.

Map of our route to the summer field.
Purple is the route I take by car from my house
 Blue is the route the 'caravan' took

Please don't panic, I have plenty pictures to share from yesterday & today! Without too many words - makes for a change, huh? ;-)
There may also be some video of horsey's having fun letting loose on their first turnout - but we'll get to that...

I spent 7 days in Ireland, where I spent lots of time with my lovely grandmother & many other fabulous family and friends as I pottered around Dublin/Tullamore - Leinster area where we had a family outing to War Horse which was fantabulous, the story and actors were a bit wishy-washy for me. I'm getting cranky in my old age and bitter about "happy endings".
However the horse puppets were AMAZING! So life like in their interactions with the other 'horses' and humans - fantastic. If you ever get the chance to see the stage production I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Scoffing in Winter Turnout

I sadly arrived back too late to jump on Wednesday evening, but did get a spin in on Kika Thursday. Nothing fancy just re-establishing my buttons after the Guru played with the girls over the days I was away. I really used the session to focus on me, my position, my heels & hands - in saying all that, I didn't use the mirror as much as I should in such a scenario and probably didn't make any progress...but every little helps and hopefully some day muscle memory will kick - well hopefully ;-)

Nancy ponying Kika

I didn't end up riding Nancy as I was stupid and hadn't eaten enough before going to the yard so after hand grazing her and O for half an hour before turning them out (then riding Kika) and undoing fencing around the middle section of the winter turnout area which we tend to keep the monsters off of during the winter months to protect baby trees that are trying to go there - however as you can see from the photo I shared above & on instagram there was plenty green in the middle for them to scoff in preparation for summer turnout without too much risk of them overindulging too quickly for their sensitive tum-tums.

I cannot express how happy being able
to do this makes me

I went back last night to catch up with L and we hand-grazed the ponios for another good hour before tucking the little darlings in for their last night indoors for the foreseeable future - all going well.

Tried to get all of us in the photo,
K and N are not fighting

Today was a fun day as I flooted about the place getting stuff set up for turning them out - the horsebox had to be packed with the essentials that we wold be leaving near the field as it got ready to take up residence alongside the summer field so that we can store stuff like first aid kits, brushes, feed, carrots, halters, leadropes, knight-gear (fly blankets), numnahs (so they don't stink up the cars as we journey there and back every evening) etc etc. The blacksmith had been due to get the girls some new kicks for our summer of forestry hacking at 5pm, but sadly he had to attend to some emergency earlier in the day and everything got derailed so we're rescheduling for some time next week hopefully. I don't think poor Nancy's feet will survive summer hacking without front shoes, so they may have to go back on - we've had such a gloriously dry spring that the ground is super hard and not ideal for barefoot hacking sadly (sort of sad as in I don't want monsoon weather for the rest of the summer for softer ground thanks weathergods!)

Wheeeeee

So much like last summer (LINK) the caravan headed on it's merry way to summer turnout, I shall now leave you with the videos of the frolicking that ensued the initial releasing of the gee-gees and whatever photos remain while I shut up ...SORRY as always this post has been considerably wordier than i thought it would be - hopefully all the photos make up for the word vomit.

Who'sa pretty pony?!

Dramatic posing

Worked up an appetite

Solo Shot 1

Solo Shot 2

PS -  I may or may not be heading off on my overnight driving road trip tomorrow which may or may not include a stopover at

LINK

Sproinging

I took yesterday off to make use of the extra hours I've worked up of late. For the first time since the autumn I was able to jump my girls!

Patiently waiting for me to bring them in

Started with Kika, and bless her she gets so excited when she sees the jumps that listening thetto the human on her back becomes a back burner option as her brain processes all the sproinging options ;-)
In saying that she was a very good girl, and listened a lot better then before. My eye was all kinds of out for striding but as always K saved my butt.

Nancy was next for only my second time jumping her & her third time jumping since she came to Lux. Initially we struggled with the jumping concept as I wasn't supporting her enough into the fence - I am too used to Kika's enthusiasm and not always waiting for my signal to take off...whereas Nancy needs that handholding. Great lessson for me & shows how much I let K cheat & decide things that are actually my decisions...hope to be able to work more on that next time I can jump.
The above photo was taken with the jumps at Nancy's height, K had a bigger red cross & slightly higher spread.

Sorry for poor post, but am sitting at train station waiting to go to Brussels to fly back to Ireland for a long Easter weekend.

Photo Dump

The same friend as last week very kindly took photos & videos of myself and Kika's spin yesterday. K was in funny form and had plenty pep in her step as will be seen in vids and photos,  she is such a character.

I really like this photo despite me doing SO MUCH wrong

I cannot complain though as despite the fizz & spice in her step at no time did I feel insecure or threatened by her behaviour and I cannot blame her for being spicy as she had only been ridden (rushed) on Tuesday.

My friend (who is sadly leaving for another yard at the end of this month) kindly offered constructive feedback about my lax outside rein which made an immediate difference to our bad side canter...it's always the simple things I'm doing wrong - now if only I could remember that and FIX them we could make even more progress.

In one of the comments after last weekends post someone (so sorry I cannot remember who) suggested an excercise to help train my heels down. Namely I stand up in the stirrups when warming up at walk & trot (am not balanced enough to do it at canter) and I really concentrated on keeping the weight in my heels and not using them to nudge but rather trying to squeeze with my calves...far from perfect but in the photos my friend got I can see a slight improvement!
Baby steps and I WILL eventually get there...I hope.

I need to shorten my reins and lift my hands & bend the wrists...yikes

Sadly there are no photos or videos of Nancy, which in the long run is probably just as well as N and I have hit another teething phase where she keeps giraffe'ing and pretending not to know what I'm asking for when I want her to bend on the right rein...I do not hold it against her though as I am sure it is my fault as that is my bad side and I am probably all sorts of crooked and therefore knocking her off balance.

Shameless mirror selfie taken today as otherwise there'd be no Nancy in this post

That's not to say she isn't taking advantage ;-)
She has hit the teenage years so I'm hoping to get some eyes on the ground with her this week to see where I am going wrong and/or where she is making fun of me :-p

I worked on more of the same with both today with about the same results from both, as I said though I cannot complain as they were both only sat on once this week. Fingers crossed the few days I am here this coming week (we go to Ireland for Easter on Thursday) I can string a couple of productive riding sessions together. :-D

I did not realise my mug was in frame oops

Right no more talking from me...on with the media dump.

Sitting trot - as always i need work, weird combo of leaning back yet collapsed middle
& horse sneaking btv

Self video analysis - please contribute if inclined...as evidenced from above footage; i need all the help i can get :-p

Video 1:
- Yikes my heels are again shocking, oddly they look better in most of the photo sbapshots - but there it is in colour before my eyes when she gets fussy with me i revert immediately back to nasty heel nagging habit!

Video 2:
Some "good" side cantering; takeaways from this viewing...HEELS DOWN; shorten reins & SIT in the saddle - no wonder she be throwing herself around when i'm as secure as a bobble head bopping about on her back!

Video 3:
Funnily (to me) my heel is better on this rein, our collective bad side. Takeaways from viewing this video; again shorten my reins; look up, shoulders back and be softer in my hands so she has less to say to me.

Video 4:
I need to carry my hands in front of me and get them out of my lap! I also need to better prepare & set her up for the canter transitions - should help to get the correct lead...right?!

Video 5:
Good God my reins are way too long!!! And she is a deceptive little so and so, that canter looks a lot smoother than it felt to ride; I'll tell you that for nothing! In the saddle it felt like she was flailing and tossing her legs about underneath me - what a sod; looks nothing lile that in the video...should i push her foreard more or any suggestions beside to obvious SHORTEN THE DANG REINS!

Massive thanks to whoever reads this far and comments, i don't deserve friends like you!

Seven Years

A quick post to mark Kika & my 7 year Owniversary today...how time flies!

One of the first photos I took of her
April 2007

Just posting two pics and will do a full update with photos & videos from today's spin tomorrow as I'm afraid I can barely keep my eyes open - sorry!

Snapshot from our spin today
April 2014

PS: As always please excuse the state of me...but K isn't looking too shabby in that quick pic
*blush*

Proud as Punch & VCBH - Commercial Moment

Quick snapshot before turnout today

I was super pleased with myself last night as despite not getting out of work until 7pm (an hour and a half later than I am supposed to finish) I still managed to hightail it to the yard & got a quick spin in on BOTH girls!

Sadly as I was rushing to get them brought in, ridden & bring in and wrap up the other horse on turn out with them (she gets leg wraps for when she is stabled) before lights out at 10pm - my saddle time was far from as productive as it has been of late.
But some saddle time is better than no saddle time which was the barrel of the gun I was looking down with busy social calendar for the rest of the week :-/
Yay & Neigh all at once ;-)




I started with Kika and she was UP - not bad at all just full of fizz & pep in her step, took a while for her to really settle and soften - we deff weren't helped by my clock watching, but I honestly cannot say a bad word about her. She was a little looky & stiff in her neck, not really releasing through her back and choppy in her striding but we got there in the end and managed to finish on some lovely relaxed trot work.

Nancy was another story, she started lovely but got snippy & pissy with me even though I was trying to keep it to the things i had hoped we could do without getting into a fight...suits me right for trying to do things the "easy" way - she just didn't want to know about bending and was all for giraffe'ing her way around. Once i remembered to get out of her face we managed some semi-presentable work and enough for me to finish up feeling happy with weathering the storm & putting in some mileage to tide us over to the weekend so that she didn't go Sunday to Saturday without anyone on her back...not that that would be a problem, but managing to ride last night made my week much more manageable - yes I am that selfish!




Not much of an update - but best I have for this week I'm afraid, now for Viva Carlos' fun Blog Hop - I skipped the last two legs as I figured dedicating posts to the fact that my girls get muesli & hay (both provided by barn) and my lack of tack locker would make for boring reading to blog hoppers...so jumping back on the bandwagon this week as we reveal our Want'list/Wishlist/Need'lists

Blog Hop: Our Commercial Moment

What are you buying next? Not your "Wish I could" list but your actual practical pony shopping list. And if its a high ticket item you are saving for what is it and when do you expect to order/get it? 

1. Like many I have ordered an Ogilvy Half Pad - not directly from the suppliers, but form an online tack store I like to use from Northern Ireland. So no custom colours for me...yet! I can always order a separate cover if i can actually decide on what colour combo I want...darn Libra indecisiveness!
*blush*
Sadly they were out of stock and are awaiting the arrival of more before it can be shipped to me, but fingers crossed I get it before I leave for Ireland myself for Easter weekend as there will be no one here to sign for it and that would be *leGasp* awful!

2. I am need of a new helmet, I am at about the 4 year mark in my current helmet which i broke the peak off of about 2 years back and have probably dropped a couple more times then I should have - have only actually fallen off (from a horse) in it twice - but now that I've said that I'll probably go flying at the weekend!
I have done no concrete research as yet - but the Charles Owen Ayr8 that can be customised with purple options has caught my magpie eye.

3. My paddock boots and gaiters are also looking a little worn but are not ready to bite the dust just yet - but reading everyone talk about Tall Boots has me drooling over Tredstep Ireland options. I have their ProG2 gaiters and love them, I am actually sneakily hoping i can sneak into a stockist when I am back in Ireland (in two weeks) to try them on and see which ones I prefer and what size combo fits my skinny chicken legs best.

4. Neither of my girls saddles fit them nor me the best (hence the Ogilvy to tide us over while I save the pennies); I have heard very promising things about Prestige saddles & their adjustability. As the saddler I have had success with is a stockist I hope to pick his brains about their suitability for me & my girls - and hopefully splurge preferably on second hand as at the moment I cannot afford to buy two NEW saddles!

However - besides the Ogilvy and whatever I cannot walk away from IF I make it to tack stores in Ireland (I also really want to hit up the Horseware Outlet store! I needz moar rugs!) these are all long-term penny pinching purchases as I have a trip to see my sister in Canada next month & the flat is steamrolling along at scary speed so all spare pennies are being squirreled away for furniture fund!

Being an adult & finding the pocket change to buy stuff is hard...why are kids always in such a rush to grown up?!    

Mostly Mute Monday...

...only because we all know I am incapable of shutting up! *blush*
Today's photos brought to you courtesy of my Samsung phone & hand-grazing the girls (yesterday) in preparation for 24/7 summer turnout as of May 1st.

Some of these may have been shared on instagram - but I tried to keep most off so that they could be "premiered" here on the blog ;-)

Insta-collage to make side-by-side headshots

All the forelock

All the mane & checkout them dapples

Kika lopsided confo shot;
includes rub marks from my wayward heels

Nancy lopsided confo shot:
yep she is deff filling out a lot

And now for my favourite shot of the pair of them:

Bosom Buddies

There are more snapshots which may be shared later in the week as waffle fillers because my social calendar is after filling up on me all of a sudden - plus workload is still unpredictable so I am not sure I'll have much in the way of horsey updates till the weekend...so I have saved some photos for later posts in necessary.
Well that and it's past my bed time so I gots to get some Zzzzs to be able to function tomorrow ;-)

Polishing Polework

My friend kindly snapped plenty photos of K & myself playing with poles today, sadly she missed N and my spin but we got pics yesterday and I've also 3 videos to share. One of Nancy and I yest and two of Kika and myself today.

To change things up, I started with Nancy this morning; I realised when writing yesterdays post that I typically started with Kika 9 times out of 10. I had previously mixed things up more last year but found I was struggling to connect properly with Kika after Nancy's different way of going - however thankfully there were no issues on that front today.

N & I warmed up lovely w/t/c, thankfully without our previous issues of right rein circling, which while not perfect today was markedly improved. Our sluggish left rein canter from yesterday disappeared today as N was near foot perfect in all that was asked of her.

A little btv and god knows what i'm doing...but have to share the
good with the bad so i can see what i'm doing right/wrong

There was then a gap as I left both girls tied in the cross ties with a fellow livery keeping an eye on them as I walked for 20mins with the friend who took the photos of me as she rode her horse who is coming back from injury.  Remember the photos I posted of the aqua-training a few posts back - well it worked and my friend can now ride again walking for a month.

Then it was Kika's turn for some polework, I have sung Kika's praises of late and I will adnit to being a little apprehensive as to her behaviour today as my friend had said she'd take photos so I figured it'd be typical if K & my communication broke down when we have witnesses. However I needn't have worried, she was very good as I rode her again in the flash - I shall try her a couple days during the week again without to see how it affects our right lead canter after turnout but going off today's good canter work on both leads methinks K is happier with the flash then without...I shall monitor with trial and error ;-)

Oh heels how you make me cringe

I think I'll shut up now and let the photos do the talking; as always I am super disappointed with my heels, hands and now shoulders as I see that I am leaning forward a bit too much. In saying all that I am super happy with how K went and is looking in these photos - there is still plenty of personality & spice in her which I love, thankfully we no longer butt heads like we used to so all in all I am very much enjoying riding both girls :-D

So much cringe in this photo

In admitting my disappointment with myself in these photos I am very glad to have them as I can see what still needs work yet I can also see improvement which at the end of the day keeps us plugging away. :-D

Love this photo, so much to like except heels as always

Our bad rein canter was very good today

Showing some Kika trademark spice

I grazed both girls for 15mins yesterday & 20mins earlier...hope to get 25-30mins again later this evening. I shall share those snapshots in hopefully Mute Monday post tomorrow.