Monday Night Lights

We'll start this update off with the "reward" a video of Kika enjoying herself letting off some steam in an arena with her buddy O.

The last few times i rode her I felt she was getting herself a little hett up, hot under the collar and fizzy when asked to trot. So saturday i changed our schooling a little and placed poles around the whole of the arena - 12, 3, 6, 9 o'clock and then two vertically down the center line so that we could work on them on circles as well. This had the desired affect and concentrated her mind on other things and kept her from fizzing - my other thought was that the schooling on the flat i'd been doing had become slightly predictable so had to mix it up a bit!
When i mentioned this fizzyness to friends, they suggested i let her loose to let off some steam as she is no longer getting turn out. I have been doing this anyway, and she gets let loose after riding/lungeing to roll while i do her stable - but above i did manage to catch some of her antics on film on my camera phone - sorry for poor lighting!

Here is another video of herself and O partaking in some synchronised rolling, teehee!

And finally some pics to round out the post!

LINK (If want to see larger photo)

LINK
And last but not least, I managed to purchase myself two cheek pieces in the same colour as the bridle i bought (which was missing a cheek piece) to go with my saddle. Haven't used the whole ensemble yet! But hoping to do so this evening so expect more photos - yippee!

Where did i leave off?

I haven't had much to report of late - yet am sure this post will still manage to be ridiculously long! Apologies in advance!
Let's see since i last update the oseto came to see herself for a check up where teh friend who was helping me out by being there (I was away in Germany at an Equi Expo - where i bought a lovely new bridle amongst other things, unfortunately no photos as yet as a cheek piece is missing and i've to buy two new ones!) reported back that Kika's back and arse-end were alright, one minor manipulation but that the main problem area for her was her head/neck, she hinted that damage to that area may have contributed in some part to her rearing - it may do but i reckon rearing is just her go-to defence to discomfort as since we know she isn't muscled enough for certain requests we have kept rearing to a minimum which is great in my book! My friend M who was there with her also commented on the fact that she had never seen a horse being treated react so indifferently to what the healer was doing, Kika was way more preoccupied with anything and everything that was going on around her then what was being done to her - something i may have eluded to in previous posts when she's being massaged, she's not one to relax and enjoy it (but then again neither am I so perhaps the link is there! Woopsy, more that is my fault/doing!). The osteo also said that there appeared to be a disconnect between Kika's brain and what her legs were doing - which led me to ask another osteo friend if this meant my horse was somehow "retarted" - she laughed and said no that sometimes this comnnected with horses being more clumsy/lazy - words i have previously used to describe her Ladyship. She advised pole work on the lunge and from the saddle to increase herself's awarness of where her feet are and what they are doing! The osteo that visited advised me to concentrate on long and low work to muscle up Kika's neck and stretch down through her back - another thing we are working on but Kika get's herself all strung out distracted by anything and anything else that she tends to spend more time imitating a Giraffe that stretching her nose to the ground - we are managing to work consistently in an outline these days so it's getting ehr to relax further and stretch is being worked on, although typically i can only get her to do this after "proper" work - but baby steps and hopefully we'll get there some day! I have also re-started work with the pessoa once a week/ every two weeks depends on time/work and changed the setting i use it on so that it will encourage her to stretch down into the movement - thereby (hopefully) building up the neck/back muscles! I have a few videos of L lungeing her like this for the first time last friday for me to see how it's done properly and learn from/aim to replicate. However I don't want to kick upa  fuss with anyone who might read this and disagree with the use of lungeing aids - however i have found that this works for me and my horse in the past and she actually enjoys the work she does in the pessoa, or believe me she would kick up such a fuss as to let you know she was having none of it!

As for actual riding we have had a few good sessions, one over trotting poles wedneday week (23.11.11) where i rode for the first time since before our holidays without putting her in the walker or lungeing her first. Not only that but we also worked in the arena she typically behaved worst in and thankfully had no problems! She stelled and worked away like a dream, :-)
Saturday (26.11.11) was our best session just the two of us in a long time! We got lovely calm and controlled walk/trot/canter and worked on our serpentines with volts on each bend, figures of eight, rein changes and increasingly smaller circles when she was well and truly warmed up - we got our tightest circles today without any issues on both reins! I was so happy and proud of her and myself by proxy!
Other spins since then took place wednesday and thursday this week (30.11.11 and 1.12.11), wedensday i lunged for a good 20mins before hand as she hadn't been ridden since saturdays good session - we had worked with trotting poles on the lunge on monday but then i had to miss tuesday as i was unwell and stayed at home in the toasty house - shame on me I know! :-(
Think Madam would settle on the lunge? - not a chance, someone else was lungeing in the small arena at the same time and they were in the top half so we went down by the door - well if Kika is to be believed it is the scariest door in the world as she was incapable fo passing at at walk/trot or canter with anything but scared bug-eyes fixating on it and lopsided un-even circles! Anyways we survived and i went into the "big" arena where one other person was working on his recovering fiesty horse (poor fella can only to a max of 10mins trotting and the rest he has to walk - this is a horse that is so full of beans he literaly explodes occasionaly!), thankfully Kika paid no attention to the one explosion that occured while we did some walk/trot canter work - although I'll admit the canter was woefull and my fault as i just wanted to get the canter in that arena over with without upsetting the big black fella so as not to set him off, so i really did Kika no favours there! But i did come away knowing that she is well capable of behaving and working without a fuss in the biggest arena (I tend to stick to the smaller ones as they are usually less busy)
Last night we attempted to work in the big arena as the evening before but without lungeing first, usually wouldn't have been a problem - only rain was intermittently hammering off the roof, the length of the small side mirror was completely fogged up and there were three other horses in the arena with us, one of which was the fiesty black fella from yesterday spontaneously exploding/buck/cat-leap/farting about the place - all of teh above combined to put both Kika and myself on edge so i bailed before we got into trouble and went to work in a quieter arena. We did get some nice work in the second arena, but she was very much still on edge and i couldn't quite get msyelf to relax either so once we'd had some nicely trotted circles i called it an evening and let her loose in the small luneging arena - if proof was needed that tehre was something off with her she stuck to the door eyes on stalks when i let her loose and wouldn't move anywhere but up and down the small side along the windows and door of the littlest arena. So i grabbed her headcollar and walked her round and around (coaxed her for the first round and avoided being trampled as we got the the terrifying scary corner with the other door which had caused such issues in luneging the previous evening) till she calmed and was walking happy out quiet as a lamb beside me. So i let her loose once more and went about cleaning the stable and sorting her feed. She still wasn't quite right as she stuck close to the non-threatening door but was no longer terrified looking...very odd behaviour if i may say so myself.
She did relax enough to have a roll for herself, typically just as i went to bring her in secretly delighted that she wasn't going to bring half the sand out of the arena with her for a change...not to be. I'm not complaining tough as she stood good as gold to get her feet washed, herself de-sanded and brushed and her rug put back on without necessitating my having to tie her up in cross-ties.

So that's us all caught up no so swiftly as per usual. Fear not as i have a bit of a reward for your perseverenc ein teh form of a snapshot i captured after our polework under saddle session last wednesday (23.11.11) as i left her loose in teh arena we'd been working in and L added her horse O and another friend C tossed in her lad E who Kika had shared the field with during the summer...Here's the reunion fo the wall, ;)

LINK - if it's too small for viewing!

I'm off back to Ireland for the weekend, L is going to help keep an eye on K and possibly give her a lunge/spin if she has time. I will be returning to the yard i use dto keep Kika on in Ireland - as it's owned by my motehrs family and where we stay when we visit, still odd to go there and not have Kika. But i'm not sure if they'll have anything for me to have a spin on or if i'll have time...We'll see!
Thanks if you've read so far, very sorry yet again for the length of it! (oh and apologies if spelling mistakes - afraid my fingers can sometimes go faster than my brain can keep up!)

Wonderful Weekend

As mentioned in previous post Kika experienced a suprise holiday for the last three weeks and between my being away, her pulling a front shoe and our farrier being MIA, there wasn't a whole pile to be done with her - which i can garantee she was not one bit sorry about,
Luckily she was still in the field during the day until the 1st of November when she moved back into her stable full time, she was still excercising herself until then - so well in fact that when released in the morning after a night in the stable she'd tear of down the field at a rate of knots bucking and farting like she hadn't been out in yonks not only in overnight, :rolleyes:

Anyways she got a haircut Sunday week (pics available in earlier post, ) and i got news that the farrier was going to come Thursday evening/Friday morning. Thankfully another farrier passed through the yard on Wednesday and I'd asked the RI before i heard from mine, that if a farrier was to pass through if they'd the time could they remove the three shoes K still had on in the hopes that i could at least work her without shoes in the soft arena sand till my farrier could come. I had been lungeing and loose schooling K, but had noticed that she was sensitive on the foot without a shoe, so preferred to take them all off where possible!
Turned out that the farrier got called away on an emergency on Thursday evening so didn't make it beofre the weekend and is in fact due out this evening - I have asked him to check Kika's feet and see if he thinks it might be feesible to keep her barefoot, so we'll see what comes of that.

Anyways, as always this post is getting longer than I'd intended it to be!

I decided to bite the bullet and get my backside back in the saddle on Friday evening, so i lunged herself in her tack for 20mins before i hoped up to walk and trot her around for a further 10-15mins circling and figures of eight in the smallest (and softest landing if worse came to worst) arena just to refresh requests. All went really well and best of all she wasn't sore for working without shoes,
Organised with my good pal L for a time for her to watch/guide us on Saturday, so that i could get back into the swing of things and start as we mean to continue work wise - mostly i needed a pair of eyes on the ground so that i wouldn't mess up the work we'd done prior to Kika unscheduled break!

Gave herself a bit of a lunge to limber her up before i was to hop up, while waiting for L who had been out for a hack in the woods with another friend. I was just getting up when she found me so timing was perfect, Was just starting my trot work on a circle (as another girl was lungeing in the top half of the arena) when one of L's dogs who were tied up outside the arena managed to poke his nose inside the door and scare the ba-jaysus out of Kika. With a sideways leap (which lost me a stirrup) two I'm-terrified-half-rears, probably some snorting can't really remember as it happened so fast, then some prancing trotting neck arched as i had her re-appraoch the gate to realise the little fluffy face was not going to devour her,
We returned to our trot work with minimal fuss (proud mammy moment for me!) ans swapped arena ends with the girl lungeing who was finished and walking her horse to cool down. Using the full arena then we had one more OMG-Freak-Out leap sideways from Kika when we passed the lungeing equipment removed from the other horse and hanging on the side of the arena, but no loss of stirrup for me this time and we calmly walked passed it once before returning to our trot work once more. I had only been intending to do walk-trot work with K, but was she was going so well L suggested we try some canter - which we did. Kika and I got into a bit of a disagreement whereby herself started bucking, but L explained that i was asking her to go too slowly and that Kika finds it difficult, so in order to get a calm canter out of her I have to push her forwards and keep her balanced at a faster pace. Once i had this tidbit of information canter was better from Kika even if i felt sligthly out of control, Odd to my mind is that although i have mentioned before how Kika has a good and bad rein, she typically tends to struggle more with work on the right rein, however her canter is worse on her left rein! Go Figure!
We finished up shortly after that whith some long and low trot work with an odd circle here and there to help her stretch out. I was over the moon with her and indeed myself (for a change), we still have plenty to work on but to come back after a 3 week break and pretty much pick up right where we left out is great for us! Even L was impressed with her calmness and even though we had the two freak-outs, she settled wonderfully again afterwards into nice calm, balanced work!

Sunday then we went for a nice stroll in the woods, Kika was bugged eyed and spooky for a lot of it, but to be expected really, , and aagin I came home with a smile on my face and well happy with my girl!

Thanks to whoever read this far, you deserve a medal for the mamonth read!

Pre- & Post-Clipping Photos

Title says it all really so one will hope i don't have too much to add in the way of words - thereby taking away from the post with my waffle!
I'll apologise now for the pic overload, i have many more on my camera phone but couldn't slim the portfolio down anymore than these!
Also, please excuse the state of me, the Mammy (photographer) was not supposed to be including me in the shots!:blushing:

Right so Pre-Clipping (all taken 6/11/11)
The Fuzzy-Fuzz-Bear

LINK if larger picture viewing desired

LINK

LINK

Post-Clipping
Playing with L's horse O in the sand arena while we tidied up their stables...

LINK

LINK

Warning - Ham-ness approaching

LINK

Getting Closer...

LINK

HHHHHAAAAAAAAMMMMM!

LINK

Roly-poly-time

LINK

LINK

Lazying about

LINK

Can you hear that?!

LINK

Boo!

LINK

Last one, a failed attempted close up of clip as missus didn't want to pose!

LINK
Brief update for those who may not have seen elsewhere. Kika's supposed bootcamp with L while I was off high-tailing it around Thailand didn't materialise due to Madam pulling a front shoe and my farrier being MIA. Unfortunately haven't heard from him since he shod her 5 weeks ago, despite the fact he was supposed to come back 4 days later to put roadstuds on her shoes to stop her slipping on the tarmac after 2 weeks - so she only had temporary nails in this set to begin with - no suprise then that she lost a shoe hooning around the field like a Looney-toon (as reported in my absence). I'm worried about the blacksmith as the friend who put me on to him (our horses are shod on the same 6 week cycle) has used him for the past 4 years and reports he has never been MIA like this before, the only time he didn't get back to her previously he was hospitalised for something - so crossing my fingers that nothing sinister has happened!
Needless to say this means that Miss Kika's unexpected holiday has been extended, hoping another farrier can remove the reamining shoes this week so that i can even her up and get her back to some sort of work while waiting to hear from our shoe-man. He usually comes every 6 weeks, so if still no word next week going to have to link up with L's farrier who comes the week after mine normally and see if he can squeeze us in! But so long as i can get the remaining shoes off her I can get her back to work in the sand arenas without fear of un-balancing her and hurting her...

Final Oct Update for 2011

Well this will be my final October 2011 update as I'm off on holidays tomorrow until the 2nd of November, haven't had too many this month - Phew! I hear you sigh...
I didn't get much riding done last week as was evidenced from the previous blog update; however the weekend brought about a change in Kika's ridden fortune.
I rode her on friday evening, and felt she did really well for here mini-bootcamp weekend with L while i was in Ireland. I could feel a real difference in the way she moved and responded to my requests and she was calm and behaved impeccably. I was well happy with her!

Saturday, I asked L if she would ride her and show me what I am meant to be doing, as I didn't want to ride her two days in a row "unsupervised" and undo all the good work L had put in the previous weekend. She explained that I've to do less with my hands and more with my legs to encourage Kika to work more from behind. She also showed me what she meant by keeping the outside rein and re-inforced that i shouldn't rush changes to try and keep everything (all transitions whether speed or rein changes) as smooth as possible & that Kika is to be treated/ridden almost like a recently backed horse with over exagerated requests if she ignores the subtle ones. Not that she is slow, she said she is very responsive to leg aids and others, but that she needs consistency to help her understand and learn the responses being sought. L is taking over all schooling from Wednesday 19th of Oct (tomorrow and my birthday) until November 2nd when I'll return from my vacation. Kika's bootcamp commences - I'll have to be sure to get a few supervised sessions when i get back to get myself up to speed!

Some pictures and a video, so you loyal readers can see what Kika looks like when ridden properly!

LINK - incase you want to see images larger

LINK

LINK - my fav of the photos *swoon*

Also a quick video I took, I thought I'd taken a second one later in the session, but i mustn't have saved it properly as it is no longer on my phone! :(

Sunday; L, her mare O, her two dogs, Kika and myself went for a leisurely stroll and a teensy tiny bit of trotting in the woods for an hour. I think we managed to get the final good day of the year - weather was glorious! All went really well, we met loads of people out walking "en famille" and with dogs etc etc for a sunday stroll enjoying the lovely weather as were we - thankfully we had no problems, all went really smoothly including a chance happening upon a group of 4 teenagers all dressed up like Elves or something - 2 had their faces all painted black, one had some sort of a plastic sword strapped to their hip and the other had elf ears. At first i thought they were trick or treating, but as Halloween isn't for another 3 weeks I think they were possibly role playing or something...I have no idea - was deffo an experience and I'm glad there was two of us or no one would believe me if i told them!
All going well L said she hopes to continue to give Kika her change of scenery with weekend hacks while I'm away. Her dad has agreed to go with her on her mare while L takes Kika, can't remember if i mentioned that they tried this arrangement the weekend i was in Ireland and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

So that's it from me for a while, hopefully all goes well in my absence. Unfortunately i didn't remember to take the promised fuzzy-butt photos to show how hairy she is and when I get back L has offered to clip her while I'm away, as she really does get very sweaty in work now which is unpleasant for her. Will snap some shots when i get back of her clip - all going well and fill you in on what she was up to with L while I was away.

Cross your fingers with me that all goes well!

No real news but an update all the same!

Still haven't managed to sit on my ponio since monday week, I did loose lunge the Hairy One for the first time since before her injury (back in May! ) on Tuesday evening and she was good as gold - lazy out but thankfully no mad taking off and crazy buck/farting shenanigans she can be prone to.
I had great plans to ride last night, but vet called to say she would swing by to give her the first of her Sarkoid (dunno if spelling the same in english) injections - she'll get a total of four over the next few months for the warts i found a few months back...thankfully those that were treated in June/July haven't looked like growing back and the one that we couldn't get rid of due to positioning on her hind leg hasn't grown any more - hopefully these are good signs!
L reported back that all went really well with her over the weekend while i was away, she rode her Friday in the outdoor, Saturday in one of the indoors with two others and then on Sunday she hacked out the woods with her while her dad took her mare O. She was very happy with her and said that after a little cooersion/convincing that Kika led most of the way,

I probably won't make it to the barn myself this evening and if i do i won't be able to do anything with her as will probably still be in office clothes, have an art/photography exhibition by the wife of one of the Judges to go to to show face and play nice. Plus my parents have some of her painitings and photographs at home, they are nice - i am actually looking forward to it.
It deffo doesn't help that the weather is after taking a turn for the minging and is dreary, grey and rainy most of the time so ould Fuzzy-bum will have to return to the walker to dry off before i'll be able to de-muckyfy her to tack up and do some work which will result in major sweating due to aforementioned hairiness and further walker time to dry her off afterwards as i don't want to put her back out into the field sweaty! Scared mammy here, thinking she'll catch ponio pneumonia!
Also sucks that it is now dark at 7.20pm in Lux!
Boo Hiss, I miss Spring already!

Right once, more shall have to cut off my waffling there!
I really don't know how i find so much to say considering we haven't actually done anything! Perhaps i use too many words....who knows?!

I'll try to think of snapping some shots of the Hairy One if i cna get her dry before riding her tomorrow or over the weekend!

Another "quick" update

Kika is being a dream, have been meaning to update. Work hasn't quietened down enough for me to update as much as i'd like, but I did get to take herself out for a spin Sat (woods), Sun (arena) and Monday (Pole work)!

I am so happy with her at the moment, Tuesday was her day off and i went to the cinema so haven't had seen her since monday evening, but she is being a very good girl and a big pet - affectionate even which she hasn't been for a while and i am not one bit unhappy about,
Saturday we went for a 2 hour hack in the woods with L and her dogs, we even trotted an cantered and went up and down hills which in Kika's bad time back in March led to tantrums at being asked to go down hills as back not up for it, but she is much more chilled out these days - fingers crossed it all continues to go smoothly! Every outing we do in the woods she relaxes sooner on each occasion, helps that we've been able to get out the last few weekends in a row with the same people so repitition definitely helps! Hoping to keep our weekend hacks as a fixture during autumn and winter so that we don't spend the whole time in arenas! The farrier is actually coming this evening and we'll get "special" shoes with tiny little stud type things to help prevent her slipping on the tarmac as she's to walk on "road" back and forth to access the field and to get to the woods. As the situation currently stands with the "normal" shoes she starts slipping after 2 weeks and then slips on and off, getting progressively worse for the next 4 weeks until she gets shod again.
When i say studs, these aren't the ones I have to put in and remove myself, they are little ones that are permanantly on the heels of her shoes and give her better grip when walking on road...or at least that is the plan, seeing as this will be my first time using them I'll have to see how they work!

Sunday we worked just the two of us in an arena, L opted to watch us as she was hanging around but said she'd leave us to it and try not to comment - she did give me some tips but bit her tongue mostly as I'm sure there was plenty more she could have pulled me up on! Mostly she kept correcting me as i've a terrible habit of being on the wrong diagonal when trotting and not realising!
There was another girl trying out a pony in the arena at the same time as we were riding and all the girls in and around her age (it seemed to me) were there to watch and see how she got on so to say there was a bit of a crowd would be a bit of an understatement, i reckon there was about 10 of them at one stage lol, and as they are like myself and horse-mad I am sure they couldn't help but watch/sneak a peak at myself and Kika (I don't mean to sound big headed here, it's just i know i can't help watching horses no matter who's riding them/owns them etc etc). So L was conscious of this and for fear of gossip and so as not to step on the on-site instructors toes we don't advertise the fact that she helps me out sometimes (*ahem* a lot of the time but we act like it's coincidental! )
What was nice actually was that after i finished up a few of the young ones (15-17/18yr olds) were nicely complimentary of Kika and how well she behaved - they have I'm sure been privy to some if not all of the info/gossip surrounding our difficulties over the last 12months - it's a big yard as in there are close to if not more than 100 liveries, but it's still a gossipy/smallish community, again not meaning to sound big headed but seeing as Kika initially started rearing and dumped instructors back in November I can only assume word spread about her antics.

Monday then I finally got back to some pole work with L, we had wanted to work in an indoor but they were all busy so ended up outside under the floodlights which wasn't ideal as some of the lights weren't working so light was a bit of an issue and the main reason why i opted to stick with pole work and not pop actual cross poles or straight bars as lack of light would lead to mistakes and worse case scenario - injuries!
I felt we did some nice work, even though i was a bit hesitent at first about cantering herself as i could feel her getting fizzy and new i didn't really have her full concentration so was worried about an explosion once we moved up a gear. The chicken that i am let L know that i wasn't feeling the canter straight away, I told her i want to do it/but don't want to do it - but that i would do it in my own time. Happy with that she said she knew what i meant, although i'm not sure i really knew what i meant so fair play to her if she could make sense of it, - and when i felt Kika settled to my liking we did a small circle in canter (bad rein) and L was happy and said to continue with our trotting pole work after that. I don't feel i can do justice in describing the excercices she had us doing but it amounted to lots of turning and circling before pole and after, all keeping Kika bending and supple - which when she is not warmed up sufficiently can still cause us problems. Slowly but surely i do feel like we are getting there - hopefully this does come across in my waffling posts!

Now that I've managed to write another novel length post and am later at work than i intended to be, best sign off! I honestly hadn't intended for this post to get this long!
I'd love to get some new pics or more videos as rewards to those who read my long-winded attempts at blogging, but will have to see when i can next find a pair of hands to do the necessary