The way to heaven is on horseback

Well this post is basically what the title says, going around the blogosphere I've seen these really cool infographics and thought why not try them out for my blog, I quite like the idea of maybe doing a monthly review next year but I am interested in what you guys think. So here's my stats I wasn't sure how to get yearly stats using blogger, so as I'd never done this before I decided to look at my stats since I started my blog in May 2010.  I have also got around to uploading my jumping Videos on to youtube from my jumping lesson not last saturday but the saturday before that it may have taken a while but I have got there in the end, so feel free to let me know what you guys think. They are all quite short clips but they show what we have been working on recently this also accomplishes one of my goals that I set on my blog post called 'The List Part Two'  Above you can see Gatsby and I doing some outline work, this is the first time that we have e...

well it's been a few days since i've updated so i thought i'd let you  know about my lesson with Gatsby on Saturday (i have videos but they won't be in this post because I need to upload them and put them on youtube and that could take quite a while).  I started off working with flat length stirrups, Gatsby was forward responsive and nice off my leg, he felt amazing and we were getting the outline again, i then moved on to doing some trot work. In the trot i made sure that he was nice and stretched before asking him to collect and come in to the outline. We started warming up over three trot poles, in trot. I then asked if we could do the exercise where we trot over the poles, ask for the canter and do a 20m circle and then trot just before the canter poles. Fiona said that we could do it and it felt good, all though Gatsby got a bit excited and ended up turning the trot poles in to canter poles. He really collected his stride and we didn't even touch the poles...

Well I've not got around to posting in a while as I've been quite busy but wanted to write about a couple of good rides I've had recently and tomorrow I will post Videos of one of my rides. On Saturday I got to ride Gatsby for the first time in a while, I was looking forward to it as it meant that I could work on some different things. We did some trot work and canter work. We did an exercise that we haven't done in a while where you trot over three trotting poles then ask for the canter as soon as you're over the poles and do a 20m circle. This is an exercise that I've always loved doing. We then moved on to doing some related distance canter work. We had two trot poles with three or four canter strides in between them the idea was we would go over it still being a dressage rider and alternate the type of stride meaning we would either extend it or collect it, altering the amount of strides. I really enjoyed doing this but found that I was getting quite tired ...

I love these photo's I don't know why but I love it, I found it so easy to go in to this position and my legs weren't burning as much. I think slowly but surely I'm getting there.  I also really like this picture :)  This was the worst jump out of all of them! After this photo was taken we knocked the jump down it was awful. Just before this photo was taken I froze up the photo's below this one you can see the difference and how we started to improve.  I love how happy and active Gatsby looks in this picture he really loves jumping and it is nice to see how much he enjoys it. You can tell how much he loves it compared to doing the flat work.  This was the first jump and it was also the first time going over the jump in trot. We became much more relaxed and chilled out while jumping. I need to trust myself more and realise that I can do it, I just need to believe in myself.  Until Next Time A Girl With A Dream

Today I rode on my own again. We decided that with Gatsby and  I enjoying jumping so much that we would carry on doing jump work. We decided that we would do two jumps going down the long side of the school. We warmed up and I could fall how responsive Gatsby was it was almost like he knew what we were going to do before we had even said anything. I made sure that even as we were warming up he was listening to me and forward off my leg. Fiona first put out some trot poles that we went over first in rising trot and then in a jump seat. When I was ready Steph and Fiona put two poles down the long side set up with two non jump strides in the middle (I think that was right) the aim was to go over these in canter and get used to the strides in between, we then put the furthest away up to a cross and went over the poles then over the jump, this week we were working on starting to approach in canter, to start with it wasn't very pretty I kept freezing and not being able to get the right s...

Today was another good ride on Gatsby. I got there for 12:30 so that I could groom Gatsby and tack her up, I really enjoyed spending time grooming him, and he was really good. The only thing that I found difficult was picking out his back feet, as the ground has clay in it in the fields that the horses go out in, it's either really soft and easy to get out of the hooves or it is rock hard. Today it had dried so it was more difficult to get out.  When I got on him Fiona asked me what I would like to do with Gatsby today, I immediately said jumping as I loved doing it yesterday. I warmed him up making sure he stretched and had a forward strong rhythm in his walk, at one point it looked like he was 'power walking' and it felt so funny but it felt great at the same time if that makes sense! It was odd but good. Just after I had started warming Gatsby up, we heard the gate go and all I could hear Fiona say was 'that's Jenny'. Jenny is Gatsby's owner and she ...

So much fun recently yesterday I had a great ride on Gatsby and see generally fun day at the stables when I first got there fiona asked if I was going to the workshop on leg yielding and shoulder in that afternoon. I said that I would like to and fiona and Elaine said that if I wanted to i could stay and help for the afternoon. My ride on Gatsby was amazing I love it. I spent half an hour grooming Gatsby. When I got on he seemed quite lazy to start with so I decided to carry a crop in the walk he was dropping nicely in to the outline he was really stepping under the with his hind leg. We moved on to the trot and did some trot poles he was really stepping under himself ans he was really floaty he felt amazing. We quickly moved on to the canter to start with I wasn't using enough leg so I wasn't getting anything other than a fancy faster trot. I then decided that I was going to ask for the canter and mean it and boy was the change in him amazing. We git quicker smoother transit...