The Makings of a Dressage Horse

Today was my own a pony day with Gatsby at West Hallam Riding Centre, I had such a good day and a real laugh with all the people that were there. There was four of us on the own a pony day and Fiona was there but Elaine wasn't there. We started off by mucking the horses out I did Gatsby and Soly's Stable and took all the mess out and then in both of them we were putting them in a new bail of Sawdust (can't think what it is actually called), We did this quite quickly and again I put 10ibs of Haylage in his stable and did a 14ibs haynet of Haylage that was ready for him for tonight and will go in his stable later, Fiona, Jamie-Leigh and I then swept the yard as the other two girls that were there were a lot younger and quite small. We had a break and had something to drink and then went onto fetching the horses in Jaimie-Leigh and Fiona bought in Fussy and Hazel, then I bought in Rosie and Fiona bought in Corrie (I think), while we were doing this Jaimie-Leigh and the girls bought in Rocky and Dixie (two Shetland Ponies). During this time Gatsby had come down to the gate to be bought in, Fiona went and grabbed Rascal and Gatsby and then handed Gatsby over to me and Rascal over to Anne, we put them in their stables and then decided that we would have lunch and start back again at 12:00pm. 

After Lunch originally I was going to be doing Gatsby on my own and then Anne was going to be doing Rascal with Fiona but Rascal decided to be a typical man and get all grumpy and mardy which made Anne quite nervous, so Fiona said to come and talk to me and I'd help her with the things she didn't know about and she could do Gatsby. With Gatsby being bigger than Rocky (a pony) at 17hh she said she'd like to pick his hooves out but they were to heavy, so I picked his foot up and held it for her and then she picked his hooves out and I explained to her about getting all the mud/stones out and making sure to miss the Frog and she did really well! Fiona then trimmed Gatsby's tale as it was starting to get really long, and then we put some conditioning spray on his tail and then I brushed it all through she then showed us how to plait his tail for if we were doing a show on him. 

Then I tacked him up and was the first one to ride so got on him. He was really good, I rode for about 40 minutes and moved Gatsby making sure that he was stretching and really warming up and then I bought him up into an outline and got him really moving and collected. We then moved up into trot and got him moving and in an outline again we started doing rising and then moved on to doing sitting. Once he did some really good work, I put him on a long rein and walked him round for about 10 minutes. Anne had decided that she wanted to ride Gatsby but was really nervous, so Fiona asked me if I would put him on a lead rein and walk around next to him so that Anne didn't get to nervous and got to know Gatsby as she is quite small and Gatsby is 17hh so he is a lot bigger than anything that she is used to riding. He was really good but kept looking at me as if to say 'why are you down there and not riding me? What's going on Amber??!'. Anne had injured her leg so didn't want to do any trot work she just wanted to walk so I bought Gatsby in to the middle and Freya kept working Rocky in the trot. However at one point we all got nervous because Rocky got a bit excited and by accident Freya cued for the canter so he moved up in to canter and Freya lost both of her stirrups BUT she did NOT fall off she stayed with him and the minute that Fiona shouted stop to Rocky he did because he is used to Voice Commands. Then we did another couple of laps around the school at walk to cool Gatsby down and the girls got off. Anne then asked me to explain about how to undo Gatsby's tack and put his rugs on so I showed her and explained it to her. We then put him back in his stable and it was time to come home :). 

 Now I am back at home my mum and brother have gone to see the new die hard film, but it wasn't my cup of tea and nan was going to be at home on her own (if my dad was late back) which he is! On Monday my nan had a bad fall in the evening her arm became swollen and quickly discoloured but she didn't think that she had broken it so didn't want to go to the hospital. On Wednesday Mum told her enough was enough and rang the doctors, the doctors said she had broken it and was to go straight to Derby A&E she wasn't happy and really didn't want to as her dad went in for what was a routine procedure and never came back, but my uncle took her, and she got a backslab cast put on her arm because she had broken her wrist in several different places, her blood pressure dropped low and she had to go on an IV drip, it then came back up so she was discharged, yesterday she had to go back to the hospital to make sure it was in the right place they said all was fine and she got a blue cast put on it and has to go back in a week to make sure it's healing right. But now she doesn't want to be in the house on her own so someone has to be in at all times. 

Until Next Time 

A Girl With A Dream