Random Ramblings

**WARNING - WORDY POST**
I am after getting very bad at keeping my blog updated -sorry guys!
But on the other hand this means that things are quiet on the horsey front & there are no dramas. :)

Sleepy Sunbathers

This photo was taken Saturday 21/9/2013 - I had just ridden Nancy and the plan had been to ride Kika but the two horses they share the field with were going on a hack and rather than turn Nancy back out on her own or leave her tied up while I rode Kika. I gave Miss K the day off and shared a bucket of carrots between the two of them.

Sunday 22/9/2013 I did pole work with both girls. The Guru set poles down in the outdoor and gave me a lesson with Kika and then rode her mare O at the same time as I rode Nancy - her first time in the outdoor. Of course she was her usual angelic self, one or two spooks at a pram & a dog that suddenly moved, but Nancy being Nancy those were more sideways scoots than actual "spooks".
I had hoped to attempt to do a paint recreation of the pole work layout - but as it has been so long since I rode them I have forgotten! *shame*


It was, however, very good for both horses & me. Kika and I worked on canter poles and had a funny semi-argument where she knew what I was going to ask and wanted to strike-off in canter before I wanted her to, as this was immediately after a set of trotting poles she almost snotted herself in the process - silly mare! However we got there in the end, managing to calmly canter poles on a bend - it felt awesome when we *ahem* I *cough* got it right and helped rather than hindered her!
Nancy was a doll, we stuck to the trotting poles - neither of us is balanced enough ensemble to tackle canter poles just yet so we worked on our tempo, steering & remaining focused on me and what I was asking as opposed to the distracting things going on around her. L & I then went for a quick hack in the woods to round out the weekend before coming back to tidy up the poles.

Post pole-work & hack matchy-matchy shot ;-)

Monday through Wednesday following that weekend were lazy days for the ponies as I had no energy to do anymore than visit them, sadly. I was a very bad mommy!
Thursday I had an after-work do as one of my 5 colleagues that got married this summer (crazy, right?!) had some cakes & drinks after work so that we could all meet her new husband.
So Friday  27/09 was my first time putting my backside back in the saddle after Sunday. L had asked to ride Kika as she is riding her in a training clinic again this coming weekend, so I got to focus solely on Nancy & not clock-watch to be able to fit the pair of them in. We shared the arena with another rider and we had a great time. L & Kika finished up before we did (they had been working outside) and came to join us as it was after getting too dark so she cooled K off while I finished up with Nancy. I got some helpful tips, mostly to encourage N to stride when walking & not take baby steps. Also to really focus on keeping her head slightly to the inside when working - something she finds quite difficult as her balance is still off. Baby steps but...we'll get there. Our arena work is miles better than it was at the start of the summer - so the summer hacking & trail riding in the woods did the trick and helped me relax & trust Miss Nancy more! :D

Saturday 28/09 The Guru rode Nancy for the first time in the woods while I hacked Miss Kika, who was of course on her toes & a bit of a goon as she hadn't been hacked in these woods in a couple of months - she is such a silly sausage and insisted on spooking/sidestepping sideways at every ray of sunshine and/or bench + tree stump we passed. She is such a character & that is why we love her...allegedly! ;)

Sunday 29/09 ended up being a day off for the ladies as there was a national show for lower level riders at the yard and between a charity walk up the country & family friends visiting I didn't manage to sit on either girl. However myself & the family friend did go visit them and fawn over them in the field for half an hour without realising that much time had passed - woopsy...but yay for pony-lovin-time!

Again "old" photo from 22/09, I was hoping for a N body-shot but she had to keep coming up to me!

Monday 30/09 I rode Kika in the main arena and we had a great session. L had mentioned after her spin on Friday to try to focus more on transitions with her, so that she could better maintain her shape when transitioning between gaits - so we worked on that while doing all the usual circles, serpentines & changing of rein. I spent a lot of time with Kika that evening as L has taken her on "holiday"/bootcamp for a couple of days.

I'll back-track a bit, the reason the Guru had asked to ride her the previous Friday was that she has signed up for a training clinic (I think I mentioned that above) with the instructor that she has ridden Kika for twice before while her mare was out of action this time last year and earlier this year.
Older posts about these occasions can be found for Nov HERE & HERE [videos] and for Jan HERE & HERE [videos].

L has signed up for lessons with both Miss Kika & her own mare (all going well) on Friday & Sunday. She has a good friend from her uni days who has a Riding School/Club just over the border in France who she often goes to visit when she has a week off - can you see where this is going? ;)
L was invited to visit her friend in France for a couple of days and was taking her mare & dogs. Knowing the training clinic/stage was going to be on this weekend I said that if her friend had room at the inn for Kika that I would have no problem with L taking her with for a few days bootcamp to re-establish the bells & whistles before the lessons with the external trainer this coming weekend. So Kika loaded up like a good girl yesterday morning, or so I have been told as I wasn't there, and everyone arrived safe & sound in France. I'm vainly looking forward to Thursday evening when they get back and I can see my Keeks again & hear all about what they've been up to.

Sadly I won't get to see any of the clinic this weekend as I have to make an unplanned trip back to Ireland due to a family member's ill health. :(
Hopefully someone can film it for L, so that we can both watch it & learn from the external teacher.

Gosh, sorry this post is getting super long - I'll make a warning up the top of the post and apologise here!
Last night I had a wonderful spin with Nancy, we worked solely on walk & trot with my focus being on keeping her correct - not letting her rush away from me to avoid work or pull faces/lock her jaw when things got a little harder to maintain and less to her liking. I concentrated on keeping her striding in walk & not running in trot, all the while maintaining our shape and trying to coax her head slightly to the inside, however this is very difficult for her as she still has to build muscle & learn balance better. When we started, she wanted to rush into her trot work and stay there while also refusing to circle nicely, whenever we'd leave the track for our circle she'd stick her nose in the air and try to lock her jaw. So I went back to walk and worked a lot on changing the rein across the center by making a big "S" between circles and only trotting down the long sides to keep things alternated and not allow her to focus on one evasion tactic. By the time we finished up she was nicely trotting and walking circles without locking her jaw and trying to run through my hands.

She is so different to Kika, yet both are such fun to ride and try to work through the kinks with.

I had been hoping that the friend who took the pictures of myself and Kika two weeks ago might be at the yard at the same time as me tonight to take some snapshots/videos of myself and Nancy - the only imagery I have of us under saddle is the first video when I rode her for the first time in July 2012. So apologies to anyone (myself) included who would like to see images of myself & Nancy working under saddle - it looks like we are all going to have to wait a little bit longer. :(

Arena Awakenings

A yard friend was at the arena at the same time as me last night and agreed to snap some photos & videos of myself and Kika as we played in the arena. She has been a dream to work with, I sat on her for the first time in three weeks last Thursday after her Cinderella theatrics in losing her shoe on week 5 of our 6 week shoeing cycle - for the second time in a row. One would be forgiven for thinking she does it on purpose, ;-)

Apologies all slightly blurry & my hands and heels are awful!
This is why I wanted the pictures & videos to see exactly what I am doing and hopefully attempt to fix it!

She was wonderful on Thursday evening, straight back to work in the arena after her summer strolling in the woods and three week prolonged vacay as Cinderella, ;) I was so happy with her I smiles all evening and indeed most of the next day.

Eurgh not sure what my upper body is doing here,
but I LOVE her floppy concentration ears.

I rode again on Friday, I didn't think it was going to go very well as before I sat up she hollered in my ear as she tried to call out to her field-buddies, who couldn't possibly hear her - but the poor sod was obviously lonely & heartbroken and my presence did nothing to assuage the feeling of abandonment...perhaps I am projecting slightly here. Anyways my worries about bad behaviour couldn't have been anymore unfounded as again she worked like a dream!

The vet came to see Nancy on Friday (before I rode Kika), I think I forgot to mention that N had a bit of a growth on the underside of her jaw during the summer, I thought it was a fly bite so kept an eye on it and tried to keep it clean - but when it hadn't gotten any better after our holiday at the beach (I really must get those photos from my friend!) I had the vet out to her in August, she thought it might be an infection from her teeth that was after coming out the underside of her jaw, cue mortified me that she must have been suffering something awful - but she never displayed any unease about her head or mouth or dislike towards being bridled or ridden! Vet prescribed antibiotics which N received twice a day for 4 days and had me go to chemist for a cream that would draw out the infection. This was two weekends before we made our return to the yard. The growth was after decreasing slightly in size, but as it hadn't disappeared completely I asked the vet to come to check on it again last Friday.

Brief pause as someone else joined us in the arena - hence Kika's interest & pointy ears.

Vet & I had a proper look in her mouth, Nancy had to be sedated as the flies (now dying) bite and aggravate the horses something awful when they are inside. Even with the sedation she was a bit of a pill and kept tossing her head & making a general nuisance of herself when we tried to examine her mouth - the stubborn Friesian side made an appearance, she decided she didn't want the vet examining her gob so she made it work for us to make it so. Gargh!
Thankfully the thorough examination was good, and after an initial scare that one of the back teeth might be fractured, once cleaned and examined more closely verdict was no infection in mouth and all teeth looked good, however Nancy did get three milk teeth removed at the front of her mouth as her new teeth were starting to come through behind them - so I now have three of Nancy's teeth which I must clean up and find somewhere for safekeeping.  
Any of you wonderful creative & artsy blog-readers have any tips as to what I might be able to do with them?

Following this, I decided to give Nancy the weekend off to chillax after her "ordeal" - or she'd have had me believe it was an ordeal for her with her carry-on.

Nice soft Kika - gargh my heels!

Plans for a hack in the woods with the Guru & her dogs were scrapped as the day was miserable and wet, so ponies got checked over in the field and two buckets of carrots just cos they are spoiled!

Not quite so soft Kika, she had an eek spell where it took me a good 5 minutes to convince her the arena-monsters weren't going to eat her.

Sunday the girls two field buddies went away to a rally (kind of like huge off-site hack we did in May LINK but instead of foody-pitstops there were games & challenges for horse & rider...think pony club games like walking on overturned buckets while leading your horse etc).
I did feel kind of bad leaving Nancy all alone in the field, but she got used to it before and I didn't want to leave tied up to be devoured by the flies while I rode. So she got a bucket of carrots all to herself to assuage the feelings of abandonment, however judging from the dried sweat when I returned Kika to the field after riding, my guess is she exercised herself on my behalf.

Click to enlarge
Hate me in this,
but had to share as Kika lost a foreleg - LOL!

Horse-Hugging!

Again Kika was a rockstar under saddle on Sunday where we worked in the big arena, just the two of us - she made me giggle as when walking she called out a couple of times, presumably to answer Nancy and probably drive her batty running around the field - but Kika didn't put a foot wrong while being ridden. In fact the friend who took the photos and videos in this post (from yesterday) passed as we were working and commented on how well Kika was looking & riding - she said she has never seen her going so well and wouldn't recognise her as the same horse!

K watching the horse below in the mirror,
but makes for fun snap.

Checking I let the girth out right.

Monday & Tuesday were miserable wet days, where the poor girls were too wet to even attempt to do anything bar checking legs in field on Monday evening and make a vain attempt to dry them off on Tuesday by popping them in the walker in the hopes that I might get their Amigo Hero Lite's on them from my Horseware Ho shopping splurge in the summer - however another friend whose horse is also on 24/7 turnout said she'd lunged her girl for a good 30mins and not made a dent in drying her off, so after a spin in each direction for N & about 30mins for Kika I caved and turned them back out in the rain. Boy did I feel bad about that! *bad-horse-mommy-conscience*

Don't know why - but there is just something I love about this shot

It was Nancy's third time ever on the walker and while she wasn't bad, she didn't relax into it like Kika does. In fact if Kika could she would fall asleep in the walker and regularly walks so slowly that the back bar rests on her backside so she can slow the whole thing down! However Nancy stays up near the front bar and sways back and forth looking for a way to get by it, I don't know if she will settle better with more walker exposure - but i don't think I am going to test the theory and potentially scare & scar her (mentally) as she doesn't need to go in the walker - she can be pulled out of her stable and ridden straight away, unlike Kika who used to need the time on walker as warm up time to get her head in the game before riding - we shall see if this will still be the case this winter or if she has mellowed enough in herself to also be able to be ridden from the stable - although this point may be moot as hopefully we will still have the winter turnout & this year the three (my two + the Guru's O) will go out together every afternoon!

Prob my fav photo of the night!

Sorry, went off on another tangent there! I guess I should just update the blog more regularly and then I wouldn't have so much to say! Although I feel bad updating without pictures, hence the overload today!
Anyway all of this waffle brings us right back to square one and my spins last night, the photographic & video evidence documents Kika and my spin last night in our least favourite arena hence the tension - she has been riding a lot more relaxed than this of late - but our preferred arenas were too busy.

Mirror shot from arena

Close up after work, as always Nancy wanted to snuggle

After the quick Kika spin & photo/video-shoot, I managed to have the time to toss her out and haul in Nancy for her first spin since coming back to the yard last Wednesday. We were alone in the main arena (photo from mirror above), it is the largest arena and although I turned on the radio for some background noise, N was still on edge and antsy. So we stuck to walk & trot down the lower half of the arena to ease ourselves back into "working" mindset after our summer of forestry hacking. While far from perfect and nowhere near relaxed - we both survived and I managed to not stress her out any further like I had been doing prior to our summer of hacking - fingers crossed I can keep our happy hacking attitude when we play in the arenas and our fantastically fun summer in the sun & woods will have totally paid off if i can transfer our relaxed work out there to an arena setting! :D

Videos now - posted in the order they were filmed, as always apologies for sound - I have never figured out how to edit videos and7or remove things like sound & background noise.

Watching this first video on my computer screen has me questioning her soundness at the start, is it just me or is she head-bobbing at the very beginning of the clip? She didn't feel uneven last night - but now I'm worried as I'm not always the most perceptive! *another-bad-mommy-moment*

The second video is the longest at 3mins, features left-rein cantering. Watching it enlarged on my computer screen I can no see why the Guru is always telling me to sit into the saddle when cantering, I swear when riding I don't feel as loose as I appear in these videos - another thing to add to hands & heels on the laundry list for working on - am loving watching these videos as I need them to see where I am going wrong, i honestly don't know the last time I saw a video of myself riding - I'm sure it's on this blog & prob back in December when my sis was home for Christmas!
Coming up to the 1m30 mark, when we change rein, Kika decided that the arena going in this direction was scary and had monsters lurking & hiding down one side - hence more walking then trotting or cantering to get her to settle again. 3m20 mark is where someone asked to join us in the arena - worked to my advantage as K (like any horse) is happier when there is another equine in the vicinity, herd animals, eh? ;-)

Right rein cantering - our more difficult side -although this was a lovely soft canter to ride. Much more relaxed then her previous left-rein canter from previous video.

Final video, my poor attempt at walk to canter transition, there are a couple of trot strides - but on the positive side we have a  correct lead! At the end of this video, my friend turned the camera to finish video, however we can't really flip our computer screens so either tilt your head or stop watching lol - don't want to give anyone motion sickness!

My initial take-aways after watching these videos for the second time are:
- HEELS (as always), I absolutely have to stop lifting them and niggling her with them, it is tipping me forward and looks awful. I really need to strengthen my legs and work on squeezing with my calves & not niggling with my heels. Gosh talk about CRINGE - i didn't know I was this bad!
- HANDS (again as always), I am carrying my hands too low and again niggling at her with them, eurgh! I need to make more of a 90º angle at my elbow and carry my hands, they are practically sitting on the pommel of the saddle. I also need to shorten my reins - Lord, where am I going with them at that length!
- SEAT, I need to sit my ar$e into the saddle, i have been told this before in lessons with the Guru when working on canter, but i honestly didn't feel like I came out of the saddle like this videos are showing me - methinks if i can get a handle on my heels and stop lifting them, I'll stop compensating and gripping with my knees which will hopefully help me keep my bum in the saddle.

I am sure there is much much more for me to work on that is obvious to others that I am failing to see, so please CONSTRUCTIVE criticism welcome - and of course for longtime followers of Kika & my story any improvements will be welcomed...if there is any!

Again sorry for blurry/grainy videos & photos - I forgot to tell my friend that if she taped the screen the camera would focus again. All images taken with my camera phone - so again quality not super - but shows me what i wanted to see - namely what we need to work on!

Missing Motivation

Apologies for the prolonged silence, as the title suggests I have been lacking in motivation to ride the last few weeks.
Well that's not entirely true, I have wanted to ride just not hacking in the woods - reading about the progress people I follow in the blogosphere have been making, has me itching to get back into an arena and get back to work with my girlies again.

Apologies for the poor photo quality! But I can't post an update without some sort of photos!

Kika pulled a front shoe a few weeks back, week 5 of her current cycle to be truthful. That's two shoeing cycles in a  row that she has managed to loose one shoe on the monday of week 5. There are 4 horses in total on this shoeing cycle with this blacksmith and we'd have to get the horses back to the yard for the farrier - so I decided to let Cinderella stew for a while - aka downtime, so probably a party for Kika as she hasn't had to do anything bar eat & poop while wandering around the field for nearly 3 weeks - spoiled or what?!
The Disney Princesses have nothing on her! At least they all had to overcome some sort of strife before Prince Charming showed up & Happily Ever After happened!
K honestly doesn't know how good she has it *sniggers*

Work & weather also conspired against me, that combined with the shorter evenings severely encouraged my lack of motivation towards forestry hacking, although i did get out a couple of time son Nancy who as per usual was an absolute doll! LOVE her so much! *Hearts&Kisses*

Farrier was contacted and said he could come today, the decision was left to me by the two girls I share the field with as to whether we'd go back to the wilderness after shoeing for another week of hacking or if we'd keep the horses at the yard and make use another field & the arenas + forestry hacking there. I selfishly decided to stay at the yard, as the evenings are getting too dark for me to hack safely in the woods where we were. I could never get to the field much before 7pm, which meant I was lucky to be onboard by 7.30 and then it got dark under the trees by 8.15-8.30. Which then meant feeding, hay giving & turning back out in the pitch black. Not the best fun nor particularly motivational when combined with the nasty rain we've had this week.

Again sorry so dark - problem with hacking in woods in the rain, but i wanted a commemorative photo - even if it is fuzzy & dark!

So despite terrible downpours last night the three of us (myself & the two girls who I went to the beach with) braved the downpour last night to meanly tack up wet ponies to hack back to the yard. I rode Nancy & I led Kika for the first time, previously L had always led her from O - but I was a big brave girl and brought both my girls back to the yard myself. Lets also keep in mind that my lack of motivation recently had meant that Nancy hadn't been ridden since last Thursday and that had been the first time I sat on her in almost 2 weeks - did I mention I have a saint horse! *halo-for-Nancy*

I was so happy when we arrived back  to the yard, and despite the lashing rain as we tacked up we managed not to get drowned as we rode back. Thankfully, my brain had actually functioned for a change and I had thought to dig out my rain gear so even if it had rained on us I'd have stayed as dry as I could!

Tous ensemble! Apologies, best photo I could get while we were moving...

We even did some trotting which was great fun as Kika & Nancy kept trying to race - the scamps! So hopefully all went well with the blacksmith this morning, I have asked that he look at N's feet and leave off the front shoes if they are good enough. I had only put the shoes on as I knew we were spending the summer hacking in the woods, now that we are back at the yard and will only be forestry hacking at the weekends, meaning twice at most - I am hoping she can go back to being barefoot & save me some pennies. ;-)
Miss Kika will hopefully have two front shoes put back on as despite being barefoot all around for nearly a year last year, she wore her front feet down too much with her stamping when tied in cross ties, feeding time, hay time & general digging in her stable - she is her own worst enemy the goon!

All going well the three of us will make our returns to arena work this evening and I cannot wait!

Splish Splash

A colleague of mine from work brought her daughter for a spin on Nancy last week, she joined us on her mountain bike as we had a leisurely stroll through the woods in all our fly gear - thankfully we weren't harassed by flies...I have finally learnt the best routes to avoid them.
My colleague snapped the following shots of us on her phone, as there are so rarely any photos of me on horseback I had to share them.
Apologies for the state of me...I'm not usually camera friendly and was really hoping I wouldn't be in these shots!
Argh the state of me!

Water crossing at the start of our hack

 The rest of the photos taken on our way home @ the same water crossing

Kika bravely leading the way in, she is such a water horse - loves splashing about as much as I do! Match made in water-loving heaven we are!

If it wasn't for me looking like a sack, I like the horses in this one!

Also before I forget, please check out these wonderful posts from Lorna @ EquestrianReality and vote for your favourite post of the three (or all three over the coming days if like me you like them all!) LINK
She is one of my favourite bloggers and has had three of her posts nominated for the Irish Blogger Awards - I always get a good laugh out of her posts, she has a unique outlook on life & a wonderful turn of phrase. Hopefully you agree and will vote for her posts to help hopefully win her an award. And who knows, if you like her writing style as much as I do - she may even get a few more followers from this plug! :)
I hope so - as she really is fantastic & inspirational!
Like all the bloggers I stalk *ahem* follow!

Playing Catch Up

Sky as I walked to the field + some instagrammin'

Apologies to those awaiting the promised beach photos, unfortunately the friend who has them on her camera put her back out the evening we got home and is laid up at home - so please send her virtual healing vibes!
 

Nancy coming to meet me

 In the mean time, I have been checking the ponies who are having an easy week after their adventurous fortnight at the seaside - they did nothing Saturday, then the Mammy and I took Nancy & Kika for a stroll in the woods on Sunday and they have been chillaxing in the field since then. I do go to check on them every evening and pick out their hooves, give them treats, love on them and replace any and all removed fly mask...yes O & Kika I do mean you guys! The parentals and I have a mini-routine in the works, whereby I walk to the field and one of them comes to meet me in the car and I drive back!

Girls coming for cuddles

 YES - you read that right! I passed my driver's test on my second attempt just before we left for the beach. I am not quite confident enough to drive on my own yet so we have this little routine going. Unfortunately there will be no set of wheels for me as all my monies are being put aside for my apartment that is being built and into the horsies!

As you will see from the pics I am sharing Kika has also managed to rip her FM & poke a whole in the eye part...whether it will still keep the flies out I am not sure, but until it resembles L Williams Ramone's destruction attempt Kika shall continue to wear it...yes I am an evil Mammy!

It's so rare to catch Nancy making faces

So I am delighted I caught these candid moments!

Speaking of pictures, I must blame Laura @ the Roany Pony, for my getting over my technophobia and joining instagram yesterday.





 It has become an overnight addiction fueled by my pre-existing photo loving condition! It's dangerous guys! Prepare for a photo overload if you decide to follow me - if you think I overload the blog, bear in mind that i only select my fav photos every time for sharing on the blog - the mountains of photos on my phone & laptop will attest to my addiction.

Consider this your warning! :p

Lastly, for this post I have to parting shots from last night which I am only sorry I wasn't closer. A Bambi/Deer visited the neighbouring field last night and I tried to snap a pic + the horses' reaction to it - but I was a bit too far away for my camera phone!

Click to enlarge, although still fuzzy

 I am trying to play catch up on all the blogs I follow, so please bear with me if I haven't commented for a while! 

I will get caught up soon I hope, although we have another short week in work (today is my Friday - woop wopp!) and as that is where i cheekily do most of my blog reading I may fall behind again!

Beach Ball

I am having a ball here in the Netherlands on holidays with my ponies and friends with their ponies. We're one big happy family ;-)

Two Happy Horsies

Daily routine has us up between 7.30 & 7.45 to be at the stables harassing the horses for 8am to have our fun on the beach by 10am when we then ride back to the stables via the local bakery. Taking it in turns to dismount and go in to order breakfast of fresh bread and pastries.
Most mornings I've been taking Nancy as she is such a cool cucumber, but a combination of Kika needing a change of scenery from the arena/field and Little Nancy having been ridden everyday since we got here last monday (29th); had me bite the bullet and try Kika again on the beach. Bless her she tried to be good and mostly suceeded, we had a funny dynamic whereby when she was fine and relaxed I was nervous and worrying about what might set her off and when she was antsy about something I felt weirdly relaxed as wound up Kika I can preemptively deal with - but whatever. I'm an oddball and we've a weird symbiotic relationship which works for us most of the time. I think if you asked my mother she'd tell you we're too similar. I guess the sayings about animals being like their owners aren't all made up...poor Kika!
Anyway she was a great girl despite there being a "lot" of activity for her over stimulated brain. I used quotation marks as this morning was a quiet day on the beach as it was rather overcast but it was still a bit much for Kika to absorb 100% calmly.  However she didn't loose the run of herself and managed to maintain her head and stay polite and rideable - a vast improvement on our previous beach outing.
Yay for making happy memories!

Daily routine continues with our return yo the barn after our pit stop at the bakery where we untack and turn our horses out for their 4hour timeslot window. While the 4 ponies hang out we eat a leisurely brunch on the terrace in lovely sunshine. Then clean our stables and if the mood takes us our tack. We bring the horses back in at 2pm then either go chillax on the beach or head to a neighbouring town/island for some shopping/sightseeing.
Today we snuck off to a tackshop where one of the girls had to buy a new pair of reins after hers broke Sunday evening in a scary incident where herself anf the Guru went for an evening beach hack while I decided to stay home and read. They were walking along the water's edge when they hit a bad patch and the horses sank in the sand! They came back destroyed but thankfully none the worse for weat. Phew!

I think that's me pretty much all caught up, we're heading back across the border to Belgium tomorrow to a lovely town called Brugge which is about half an hour from here for a nosy. I think plan is to skip morning spin  on the beach and pop the horses out a little earlier so that we can bring them in earlier before heading off.
My own plans are to give Kika the day off as she also hasn't had a break sunce we arrived and hack Nancy on the beach in the evening - although if we wake up on our own early myself and the Guru may head for a morning spin on the beach...besides the roadtrip we have no set plan of action gor tomorrow!

I can't believe we heaf home on friday!  :-(
Time flies when you're having fun!

PS: there will be beach photos when I get back yo Lux and get the photos from my friends camera!

Bad Books

Miss Kika is most definitely in the dog house after her carry on yesterday evening. We started out on the beach without any problems,  splashing right into the sea like the fish out of water she is. All was going well till for no reason it wasn't,  she wound herself up into an almighty state and coiled up like a spring.

I hopped off and walked for a while to calm her down, she then made an awful song and dance about my getting back up. One of the other girls had to get off her horse to hold her so that I could get back up then she kindly walked alongside me on the ground till silly Kika settled further. We even went for a little trot (when my kindly helper was back on board her own horse) without issue, yet Kika still wouldn't stay settled. She started jigging and trotting in the spot, being really obnoxious. I sat it out and tried to weather the storm but it just got too much for me as I couldn't find a way to difuse the timebomb I was sitting on. So I hopped off again and walked her home.

Back at the yard we went straight into the arena for some propper ridden work, where low and behold she didn't put a toe out of line. She has never felt so good under me, it felt like we were floating/flying along lovely.
The Guru kindly offered to ride Nancy for me as I was so mad at Kika, I didn't want my mood to affect easy going N. So the pair of them joined us in the arena gor a quick school. Once done we decided to go for a walk around the outdoor 'arena' (huge field) to cool out as indoor was quite warm so both girls and us riders were quite sweatty.

Kika led the way into the field like the good girl she was pretending to be, but the further we got from the gate the more obnoxious she became again, she was predictably worse when the other horses that had been there proceeded to leave the arena. We kept walking till she calmed down, but as soon as she'd settle her pea brain she'd endeavour to find something else to set her off - cow.
So more schooling insued after she finally made good on her threats to rear, she took advantage of my being distracted trying to stop her walking on a man's dog who was near the exit when she snuck up on me. Thankfully she didn't scare me, just fuelled my anger which had dissipated after the good arena work but then came back with a vengeance afterher carry on when we got outside. Gargh, some days I just despair for us as she works herself into such a state. Needless to say she was soaked with sweat again once I'd managed to convince her to calm down enough to walk by the entrance a couple of times. Poor old Nancy stood there good as gold watching Kika's silly carry on, she really is a model young horse - almost inflapable...bar initial introduction to the sea.

Speaking of Nancy, she continues to impress. We made a return to the beach this morning and had no issues with going into the sea or indeed walking along in it. We even went for a trot and a canter, she is such a godsend when Kika pulls these tricks out of her repertoire of annoying habits.

My plan for this evening is to ride Kika in the arena and make our way back outdoors over the weekend. Our return to the beach is behaviour dependent and weather dependent as if the beach is going to be super crowded I am not going near it with Kika.
Also I am on my holidays and don't want to be stressing and getting into arguments with her potentially undoing all the good work we've done over the last 12-18months. If she's not yet zen enough for the beach and/or never is I don't care so long as I can still enjoy riding & working with her elsewhere.

Apologies for lack of photos with this post, but I had to get something up to docunent the ups and downs while on hols.