A place where I record the adventures of myself and my Irish Sport Horse mare, Kika. Who I purchased as an un-backed 3yr old in 2007. This blog follows the trials and tribulations of first-time horse ownership since moving from Ireland to Luxembourg in 2010. UPDATE: as of 2013, Kika is being joined by Nancy a Friesan X ISH mare bred by my family who I had my eye on since she was a foal and have been lucky enough to buy and add to my equine family.
View from the parapets(?)
from the bridge between
the two towers
Hopefully the info is somewhat legible
regarding the "Follies"/Towers
One of the vistas from The Vee viewpoint
in Co. Tipperary
09/05/2016
Beautiful Bluebell lined strolls in the grounds
around Charleville Castle in Tullamore Co. Offaly
Charleville Castle,
Tullamore, Co. Offaly
Apparently one of the oldest trees in Ireland
Photos of foals and a small riding adventure to follow tomorrow. Apologies for the poor phone quality photos, I wish I was better at photography to properly share these snapshots *blush*
PL very kindly nabbed a few videos of the girls and myself sunday afternoon.
As always I'm a bit of an all over the place shambles, however both girls are angels to put up with my "riding".
I accidentally deleted the video on this rein so sadly this blurry shot is all I've got of Kika
Kika hadn't been ridden in 3 to 4 weeks, however she did get the odd lunge with pessoa and was still being turned out most afternoons so she wasn't completely idle. You wouldn't know it to see the belly on her mind and I know it won't get any smaller now that she's on 24/7 turnout - oops. She and I are going into Boot Camp when I get back from Ireland on the 12th.
I am pretty disappointed in myself and frustrated to see how much I nag at her with my heels, how rounded my shoulders are and that I am seriously collapsing through my core. Not to mention the length of my reins in all these videos is shocking! I need to get my hands up out of my lap, bring them closer together and give a bit more with them. It looks to me like I am being very heavy handed.
My leg also appears to far back and is tipping me forward so i grip with my knees - negative cycle that one. Shall have to work extra hard to break the hands/heels/leg axis of suck.
I also cannot get over how much it looks like I am riding a pony! K looks tiny in the dressage saddle, she was sticked at 165cms shortly after arriving in Lux and I know she is quite a compact model, but seriously?! I look like a giant and i am not overly tall at 172cms (roughly 5'7 I think)
Oddly I thought the Nancy videos were going to be an awful lot worse, I felt like she was fighting me a lot on the right rein and as if she was trying to stick her ears up my nose. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it looks nothing like that on the videos. I need to reevaluate my feel & expectations *shameonme*
I just hopped up for these few videos, and bless her she slipped a little in some poop at one stage but valiantly carried on like the good girl she is.
Although my reins are still way too long and my hands are too far apart; my leg & heel seem slightly better. Which is ironic as before when I rode Nancy in this saddle it used to put me in an awful chair seat, I can see it creep back a little with my outside leg when we make a small circle on the left rein but other than that I am much happier with my lower leg & heel on Nancy than in the earlier Kika video *shudder* what an awakening these videos have been.
I also need to sit my @$$ into the saddle when cantering both girls - Yikes! I'm bouncing about up there like I'm on a trampoline or bouncing castle!
The weather has taken a horrible dip, dropped from 18°C Wednesday to 5°C o er the weekend with a real feel of -3°C with rain and hail for most of yesterday.
*sigh*
The horses are supposed to be going on 24/7 turnout on the 1st of May. As it is they didn't get out yesterday or today - hopefully the fact it's supposed to warm *cough*ahem*cough* up to between 7-13° for the rest of the week. But sadly it's still looking like rain, snow and lightning ... I mean seriously WTF weather?
This time last year they were already out
I had weaned the girls off their rugs but now I've been tempted to put them back on and toss them out...but figured temps climbing back to teens means they should be ok without their rugs. Perhaps Kika has had the right idea all along with not completely shedding her winter coat yet...she's a bit ragged looking tbh
The girls had their teeth done today which meant a fun day off work for me, definite perk/bonus to having carried so many days over from last year!
Thankfully there was minimal work required, both girls just had some sharper outside edges both top & bottom. Just to be safe though they were both given a little juice to take the edge off. So of course I took pictures of them in their weakened state to share online...what they don't know won't hurt them. Or at least I hope not lolz.
TG for my vet, she thinks it wasn't as long ago as i thought it was since they had their teeth done and she actually reminded me of a visit I'd forgotten about. Bless her, she has so many clients and thankfully I don't see her very often (long may it continue...healthy horses = happy owner); so the fact she remembered gave me some warm fuzzies.
Juiced Kika - one way to stop her pawing
for attention I guess
Not quite David after Dentist - but they kept me entertained nonetheless.
Rookie selfie'er here so please forgive the head on me *blush*
I need longer arms to fit all of Nancy's awesome into a selfie!
We haven't been up to much recently, they had a couple days off last weekend after their annual vaccines Friday week. PL has been away on holidays and work kept me late'ish a couple of nights last week so I didn't manage to climb back aboard till yesterday. Nancy & I took a strong spin around an arena, where she had a lot of fun wanting to go go go - but always in her sweet Nancy way. She just makes me laugh with her "naughtyness" ☺
The three of us went for a lovely stroll in the woods today, photos of that to follow tomorrow - hopefully. So long as i don't fall off the blogosphere again *sigh*
#Isuck@updating
The countdown to 24/7 turnout is on in earnest now. T-22days officially, but if grass growth and weather are good here's hoping they can get out a little earlier again this year!
This obviously means starting on a progressively extending process of handgrazing in the evenings (mostly) and mornings & middays if i have time and/or its the weekend. They got about 15minutes this evening to start them off and I'll try to double it tomorrow, maybe even sneakily handgraze them twice once on the way out to the field and once on the way back in to spend some time bonding with them. There will be no saddle time this weekend as they got their annual vaccines today so will benefit from a couple easy days.
The photos accompanying this post made me giggle as they Lady & the Tramp'ed toward one another...closer & closer Lawlz
And finally for comparison a side by side of how Kika is hoarding her hair while Nancy has wonderfully shed almost all her winter wollies.
