The way to heaven is on horseback

Today is Pancake day and that makes me really happy because I love Pancakes. So I don't know whether it will be my mum or I that make the pancakes it will still be amazing so my question for all my amazing followers is what do you like on your pancakes?? My favourite and my boyfriend thinks it is insane is sugar and orange juice I know that might sound really strange but it is something that I really enjoy, I do also like things like chocolate spread, golden syrup and things like that. I also have a really sweet tooth so you can imagine for me this is just one of the best days of the year. It's AMAZING. Now on to my actual blog post,  mum did magic this morning as even though I am on all my tablets, the stress of yesterday made it really hard to sleep but I did spend yesterday evening drawing you can see my drawing below.  But yeah mum did magic as I wasn't well.  My plan for magic this evening is to get him to do a bit of work, he still doesn't fully understand the j...

Well magic and I have been back to working harder than ever, after our lesson with Fiona I did some more work with him on Thursday and then he had Friday off as he just looked tired to me.  On Saturday I had an amazing lesson on gatsby, the amazing horse is still just as amazing as ever. We worked on lots of lateral work mainly leg yield but we started to do little bits of shoulder in all though this is something that I still struggle with. We also did bits of Canter work and he was being such a good boy, we worked mainly on my seat and making that more effective but we also worked on my hands as out of my whole body my hands are my biggest problem as they move quite a lot. We did some canter work, making sure to get a nice contained canter but with plenty of energy.  We then called the lesson to an end as gatsby was really starting to struggle with the wind and rain  that's was beginning to happen. I then went and spent some time with magic and got a very responsive ...

Yesterday was an amazing day I finally felt like the dark tunnel that I had been in i was finally coming out of. I had my riding teacher come out to give me a lesson with magic as I felt like I just needed a little bit of a help to point in the right direction. She came out and said that I was doing a lot better than she had expected me to he doing and that I need to remember that he's not even nine month old yet so he is still a baby. She had me take him in to the school and show her what I would normally do. So I let magic off like I normally would do so she could see what he reacted like, and as predicted  he exploded. He ran around the school bucking and jumping all over the place. She then showed me how to start to teach him join up which I'll be honest I'm not the world best at but I will get better at because I'm going to keep working with him on it. She showed me how to send him away and then when to bring him back again. I found that by doing this I got a lot m...

Well for those of you that have been reading my blog for a while you will know that I've always wanted to try riding bareback but that I have never had the opportunity to do it before. A couple of weeks ago I told Fiona that I really wanted to do it and explained that I thought that it would help me really be able to feel how to get Gatsby in to an outline. After explaining this Fiona said I could have a go and three weeks later thats exactly what I got to do. I started out by riding with the saddle, just to be able to warm up, making sure that I could swing in the saddle without feeling restricted, we did a bit of walk, trot and canter work and mainly focused on getting him in the outline. I wanted to make sure that Gatsby was forward but also that he was willing accepting contact and moving in to the outline. I wanted him to feel that he was doing the right thing by accepting small amounts of pressure on the rein and only having to occasionally reinforce the contact and make it ...

Today has been a good first day working at my stables, I'm getting paid £6 an hour, and working for two hours a morning, this morning I mucked out the boys stables, it's a row of five. I did everyone but Gatsbys because Gatsby's stable was completely and utterly ditched. So Fiona went out to get him some Aquamax bedding. Then I helped Fiona to bring the horses in. It was a really good morning and I felt loads better after being there and working. Just before I was about to leave fiona asked if it would be possible for me to work Thursday mornings as well, so tomorrow I am back at the stables again but this time it'll be from 8am until 10am. I'm getting paid weekly and all the money that I make is being saved up and going straight back in to my savings account. I'm loving spending so much time at the stables, I feel that it is helping to improve my health and help me lose weight.  Anyway I'm curled up in my bed with my nephew so I'm going to leave yo...

The title says it all, yesterday during my last saturday lesson of the year I spoke to Fiona and we have decided that we are going to go for it on the 8th March I am going to be doing two dressage tests at Broomfield. We think the tests are going to be British Dressage Intro A (walk and trot test) and British Dressage Prelim 7 (walk, trot, canter test).  Yesterday in our lesson we worked mainly on getting the outline constantly, I was getting Gatsby to work really well long and low in both the walk and the trot before asking him to pick himself up while in the trot. However this did not go quite as planned, as I think i mentioned in an early post this week I have been having problems with my left knee, when I moved on to asking him to pick up and go in to the outline I discovered that I was bracing my left leg and trying to stop getting any impact on it and by doing this while I thought I was protecting my leg, I was unbalancing myself and making my position slightly off. So F...

Some photographs taken with my new lens now all I need to do is water mark them and put them on my business facebook page and my website. Until Next Time A Girl With A Dream

Yesterday I had a ride on Vettie. It went so much better than last week. I was still having major difficulties with my legs but I was able to move more with my seat and move up in to trot which felt amazing. He's got such a big trot that I find it really hard to stay still in my position but I know that slowly but surely I will get there and I'll be able to ride how I want to. We carried on working on keeping my seat swinging and keeping Vettie forwards. The whole time I was also trying to get/keep Vettie in an outline, I struggled with this because my core muscles weren't really working and also because I struggle to keep my hands still (something I need to work on more). I also need to remember that the key to getting Vettie working well is lots of circles and serpentines basically things that keep his mind working.  At the end of the lesson I came on to a circle and got some really nice work which proved to me that I Can ride him. I think what I need to remember...

Today I rode Vettie again it started off well in the fact that I was able to get him to stretch down but I knew from the start that it wasn't going to be the best ride and it wasn't. Yesterday my hip started hurting and today it proved to be a problem but a problem that could be fixed. For edges Vettie looked like a giraffe I just couldn't get him in to an outline and because of how my hip was I didn't do any trot work. Yep that's right I did an hour's lesson in walk.  It got to the point where I was getting mad at myself and then because I was getting frustrated I started crying for no reason. So Fiona suggested that I rode as if I had no legs, meaning that I had to use my seat 100%. The minute I Started doing this an outline started appearing, I was amazed by how well I was able to get him moving by just using my seat. My hip hurt a lot after but it was worth it. I could do serpentines, circles and all those types of things without using my legs. I even m...

This is just a quick post guys as today's been a long day.  I had own a pony day today and we all had a really good time. I got to ride Vettie and I was getting much quicker at being able to adapt to him and also to move with him. We had some lovely trot work and I really enjoyed all the work that I did with him. I was able to trot for longer periods of time than I had been able to before and was really happy with what I got done.  But before that we all picked a stable to muck out and if needed put new bedding in. I picked Gatsby he'd absolutely trashed his stable last night! So I had quite a bit of work todo at this point all the ponies/horses were out. Then little Rocky managed to escape from where he was supposed to be, so Fussy and him got bought in. During this time Hazel was winding up Gatsby and Rascal so they were chasing around the field. So after Elaine had bought Hazel in, I bought Gatsby in and Elaine got Rascal. The next group to bring in were Sam, Pumpk...

Today has been a busy day. when I woke up this morning I didn't think that I was going to stay at my stables for the afternoon because my stomach wasn't great but as soon as I got there I decided I would do. I am glad I did!  We started off when I got there with me and JaimieLeigh giving Rascal and Sam a good groom as both of them were absolutely ditched! It was horrible. Then we switched horses to tack them up. I was riding Gatsby who was already being used in a lesson so I didn't have him to tack up and get ready but thats cool. Steph was here this week so that meant that she would be taking the lesson. She asked what we wanted to work on and I said I'd like to get him going in an outline again and also that I'd like to do some more work without stirrups. From the minute I got on I could tell he was going to be responsive. He was ready to go and I was ready to go with him. From the get go I didn't have to worry about forwardness I focused on my straightne...

Today was great! I started off not feeling 100% but I knew that I had horse time today and that kept me motivated to keep moving and not just stay in bed because I feel ill and you know what? I had the best ride on Gatsby ever. I decided that I would like to work on riding without stirrups so I got him going but then fairly quickly got going without stirrups. I remember the time when I couldn't even think about riding without stirrups now I'm asking to do it more and more!  I worked on making my muscles work, yes I do try to do that every week but this week it was going to happen! I sat still in my position and decided that I could do it if I really wanted to and I did. I spent the majority of my lesson in trot work without stirrups and in an outline. I had some really really good moments and can see how much I'm improving in such a short space of time and it feels great! We had some extremely responsive leg yields. He was listening to my leg so much that when I asked ...

Today was my weekly lesson and afternoon at the stables. When I got there I found out that I would be riding Gatsby, in our lesson we were working on being straight and sitting trot work. For me this meant a fair bit of riding without stirrups, something that I used to hate but am slowly growing to love, it makes me ache but is so worth it! Towards the end of the lesson I got some really nice outline work. I think that riding Vettie the past two weeks has made me think more about my position and what I need to do to get Gatsby in to an outline. It was by no means the best riding that I have ever done but I enjoyed it and I know that it's making me in to a better rider.  Then for the rest of the afternoon I helped out doing jobs around the yard. I've always loved helping out and it makes me feel so much better. I was tired this morning but the more that I worked the better I was  feeling. The weather was horrible but it was still enjoyable. I got Gatsby untacked and gave h...

I really like this photograph. I don't know what it is about it that makes me like it but I do.    I love my position (other than my hands) in this photograph. I really struggle to keep my leg in place and I love how in this photograph they're where they are supposed to be just need more weight down the back of my leg. I love the angle of Vettie's legs in this photograph. I also love how floaty he looks. Excuse my awful Right Leg! I can never manage to keep this leg where it is supposed to be! So annoying  LOVE THIS PHOTOGRAPH!  He really makes me sit up in my position, just about to go rising trot here so tilting slightly forwards. Also not the best leg position! Look how big his stride looks would love to see this in a video.  I really like this photograph I think the look on my face kind of says it all!  I'm slowly getting there, towards the end of my lesson I was starting to ask for an ou...