Painting on Horses

Today has been a long but fun day, filled with lots of horse time. At 2pm I got to my stables, armed with face paint as we were going to be painting all the bone structors on the horses, this is something that has always fascinated me and I loved learning more about. When we first got there we went out to the fields to bring in Gatsby and Rascal, as well as Big Rocky and Soloman. Fiona gave us some sheets showing where the bones where on the horse and also more information about the muscles. I haven't fully read the sheets yet but found them really interesting (diagrams were really helpful). Before she unleashed us on to the horses on our own, she bought Solie out of his stable and showed us how to draw the parts on to the horse. For the next hour I spent time drawing all the bones on and then because I finished early on Gatsby's other side I drew on his muscles, this was a little bit more confusing but at the same time fascinating. I really enjoyed doing it and found it so helpful. I never realised how much muscle and ligaments there is, I thought there was more bone then there actually is. 

At pony club we were not sure how many of us there were going to be, there ended up being 7 us. When we were sure that everyone was there we then went to work bringing in the rest of the horses. We then decided that that we would work on lunging the horses to see them moving and the bones moving. We bought the new jumps out of the trailer and put them just outside of the school. Fiona first demonstrated using Parelli with Tom who is 17.3hh and 13 years old. He was really nice and it was amazing to see how easily and happily he did it. Fiona then lunged him for a bit and also showed us her lunge jumping him, this was something that truly fascinates me. Tom looked really fluid and made it look really easy. At this point Rocky, Rascal and Gatsby had still got there paint on them so we put Rocky and Gatsby's Bridles on and Jaimie-Leigh and I lunged the two of them. We couldn't do this with Rascal because unfortunately he is lame at the minute. It was fascinating lunging Gatsby and being able to see all the movements of how the muscles and the bones move. We stuck to doing work, trot and canter on both reins and I loved it. I really enjoy lunging and it's something that I've never really done a lot of in the future so it's great to have the opportunity to do it. 

When we had finished Lunging them, then four of us set to work on getting the paint off Gatsby it was a lot easier to do than I thought that it was going to be. He didn't look very impressed by the end but I had a great time doing it and I would love to do it again. I've learnt so much and can't wait to keep learning more about horses. 

Tomorrow I will post the pictures from today. 

Until Next Time 

 A Girl With A Dream