The way to heaven is on horseback

Today has been a good day but a long day at the stables, I got there for 9.30 this morning to help Fiona out and Suzanne came up to help out too. We had all the horses to muck out and the weather was horrible, it was chucking it down. I mucked out Little Rocky, Percy, Gatsby, Soly and Sam's stable. I then put in their stables Gatsby (the trouble maker), Sam, Vettie, Chloe, Fussy, Rosie and then Fiona did the others. We then started debating bedding, for the past few months the stables have had straw pellet bedding in, but it looks dirty all the time. Yes it's easier to muck out but it doesn't look good. Thursday Fiona decided to put in Bliss bedding, this looks amazing, and smells clean and fresh BUT is a nightmare to muck out, it takes forever, it clumps together and you end up taking to much of the bedding out. So we're going back to using Aqua max bedding at the minute. That looks clean and fresh and is easy to muck out but it's expensive!  After I'd f...

I'm feeling tired today it has been a long day and I haven't slept much last night so it is safe to say that I am pretty tired right about now so this blog post might not be very long. This morning I was at my stables, I got there for 9.30. I then mucked out Sam's, solys and Gatsby stable and little rocky's stable, I almost forgot that little man. I then helped fiona to fill all the hay nets so there is now two days worth of hay nets filled and bring the horses in and turn the two remaining horses out.  I then took my mum and dad to cosmo for lunch, and got my nails done :D. Before going back to my stables. Pony Club is now back on. So tonight we covered an important topic, the little kids wanted to go outside and run around so they did that and then the older ones stayed inside so two of us and Fiona and we discussed the steps you'd go through to buying your own horse. It was really interesting and I learnt a lot, I know that i am definitely going to be asking...

I had another good morning at the stables this week it's been a busy week for my this week. So here's what I've been upto.  Monday - Day at my stables, I went up to my stables in the morning and helped out I spent about 3 hours there, then I went home and chilled out for a bit before going back for my jumping lesson. It was so good we did this really cool dog leg exercise that I have never done before and thought that I was going to really struggle with, to start with I wasn't being decisive enough. However once I decided that I wanted to do it, it went really well. We jumped small jumps all in canter though and landing on the right lead for the canter after the jump. It felt really nice and I was so happy with the work we did. Unfortunately it was dark so there is no videos' of this. It was then time for pony club, where we were riding again and I got to ride Vettie for 30 minutes. As you guys will know I've rode Vettie lots last winter and the beginning o...

Sorry I've not posted in a few days guys, things have just been really hectic with my university deadline (tomorrow) and things getting changed at the last minute! I will be back to posting regularly tomorrow :D. I had a really good morning at my stables yesterday I was there for nearly four hours and I just had a proper laugh and giggle with Elaine, while doing the yard jobs. I always love my time at the stables, but here's my plans for the weekend.  Friday (tomorrow) - meeting with Jacks mum then we are going out for the evening. We're spending the day getting ready and doing some jobs. Then going out to her works christmas do which is motown themed.  Saturday - Stables!!! Now my uni deadline is out of the way I'm going up for my lesson and we are jumping then I am staying up and helping out. Then in the evening I am meeting up with Charmaine for the last time before she goes home for christmas.  Sunday - I get to see Jack, because I went on my own last t...

Sorry guys it's safe to say that I have been slacking for the past few days. Things have just been really busy so I will start with Last monday and go through til today (Tuesday). Last Monday was pony club evening. It was also a badge evening. Which was really exciting as we haven't done a badge in a while. This time it was the perfect paddock badge that we had to do.We had to be able to set a 'paddock' up in the school using poles to show where the fences would be. Jumping blocks represented the shelter, hay net obviously was hey and the water bucket was water. We also had to answer questions saying what shouldn't be in the field, what should be, if there's three horses in the field how many piles of hay should there be. Then we had to do the more obvious question which was list a load of poisonous plants.  Tuesday I spent the day with George. We didn't do much. I had tried to go with my mum to visit Dean and Sue in hospital but when we tried to go the...

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...

In todays lesson Gatsby and I worked on Flat work. After doing a few weeks of jumping work it's safe to say it's time for me to start getting back in to my outline work. When I got there I gave Gatsby some loving and a good groom then I got on him. We decided that we would work more on getting him in to an outline and also on getting him to be more forward and responsive. When I first got on he was responsive and moving off my leg, but when circling we were getting way to much leg bend. So we worked on staying really still in my position.  I then started moving on to doing rein back, this is where things started to get really interesting Gatsby became a hundred times more responsive. We would do two or three steps of rein back then I would ask him to move forwards but going straight in to the trot. This was amazing we were managing to get in to the outline a lot easier and I was really enjoying it. However as soon as I started to feel tired I lost the outline. Fiona got on...