The way to heaven is on horseback

Today has been a hectic day but it's been a good day, I didn't sleep the worlds best light night going to sleep at 4 am this morning. However my mum and dad had agreed that as they were helping me with Magic today that they would pick me up at around 10.30am so that I could exercise Magic while they did his stable. I woke up let the dogs out, and had a bagel and honey before breakfast before heading off to meet mum and dad, I always walk towards which ever way that they are driving (in my head this helps them to save petrol). When we got up to Magic I could see that he was quite excitable, I had text Lynn asking Lynn to leave him in for me while the others went out so that I wouldn't have to go searching for him through muddy fields. This isn't something that Magic really likes but is something that I think that he needs to get used to as he can't always have his own way. I started off by popping Magic's cavesson on and his roller, I decided to leave his br...

Today has been a long day and it is safe to say that I am knackered now. I ended up at my walk-in doctors this morning for theme to basically tell me to go back on sleeping pills as the paramedic felt that I am getting the the point of becoming an insomniac and that I am suffering with depression and anxiety/panic attacks. This is something that I have not dealt with before so I'm not actually sure how I'll deal with it really.  This morning my mum put Magics food in. Mum, Jack and I then went back to let magic out about 9.30 this morning, he had all four feet picked up and then walked to his field. Now the past two times that I habe let magic out he's been a pain for some reason when I walk him out to the field he gets half way there and then starts spinning around, running and just being a general idiot. I'm not sure what is causing it or why he is doing it but I am sure that I will figure it out soon. This afternoon jack and I had to help his brother do a few jobs ...

…And I am going insane. It's weird the effects horses have on me but I feel like when I'm not around horses that often I'm just not very chilled out an calm the majority of the time. Yesterday and today have both been fairly quiet. I haven't really done a lot, I played on my playstation with Jack, completed a series of prison break, and did some more hula hooping to try and lose weight and tone myself up a little bit. Tonight I am off to work at the part time job that I share with Jack (The River Garden Chinese as a Delivery driver).  Saturday I am back to riding normally and I can not wait. I'm buzzing about it. This will hopefully be the week that I finally get to ride bare back but only time will tell. But anyway that's it and theres nothing interesting left for me to say. AmberRose.

Well guys I have been quite quiet on here for a few days because I have been waiting to tell you some exciting news but until it was official I didn't want to put it on here and jinx it. On Monday Night I got an amazing opportunity that I couldn't resist. Starting next month I will be part loaning Tubby. I will still be doing my competition with Gatsby in March but I will also be getting Tubby on part loan so I will be riding a LOT more, getting fitter and getting more experience. I've also been told that in time I'll be able to do competitions with him. I'm super excited. The full details have still got to be sorted out but I am so excited for such a wicked opportunity. I'll now have more horse things to blog about and lots more to tell you :D.  Meet Tubby :D.  I'm off to my stables tomorrow in between feeling ill and aching but on the plus side I have my car back! So that will make it easier. But now I've shared my exciting news with you I'm...

sorry for not posting in a few days guys it has been a pretty insane week and between being at the stables, going to see Jack, getting snowed in at Jack's house with Mandy, Darren and George, and trying to get my uni work done and ahead it is safe to say that things are a little hectic. I was poorly Tuesday and Wednesday think I had a 48 hour sickness bug thing but not 100% sure. Wednesday I worked at my stables. Thursday I saw Jack. Friday I spent the day with Mandy, after seeing Jack I had gone back to his house for Tea, however the snow got that bad I ended up staying there for three days. Saturday I was supposed to have a lesson but snow caused that to be cancelled, so I went to see Ella for her first birthday. Sunday (today) I haven't done a lot, of done some uni work and I've caught up on some sleep but that has been about it.  Tomorrow I've got a full day at University, followed by Pony Club. Then my CBT therapy thing that I have to go to for the car acciden...

So  Equestrian Journey has started this cool blog hop CLICK HERE  about what we will not do with our horses,  ' We all like to share on our blogs what we do with our horses and what we would like to do, but I want to know what you will NOT do.  For example I will not carry a bag of feed into the middle of a herd of horses, especially if I don't know some of them.  I will not teach my horse to rear on purpose.  I will not ride my horse into a field full of loose horses that could kick me in the leg and break it.  Things like that.  I look forward to hearing what you have to share!  I could probably think of more examples, but I need to go to sleep.  :)'  So here is what I will not do with a horse (any horse not just mine).  I would never teach a horse to rear on command, to me it's just really dangerous and something that I do not want to do.  Unless I absolutely had to I would not keep my horse in a stable ...

Hiya guys sorry it's been a while again,  well I had the most amazing lesson on Gatsby that I have had in a while on Saturday. I'd got the cutest card ever off my boyfriend that morning which just put me in a good mood and I knew I wanted to do some jumping with Gatsby on the Saturday. I told Fiona I was feeling really positive to which she replied where do you want to jump in the school or in the field. We decided to do some jumping in the open field and omg it was amazing! It felt so different but soo good as well. It was something that I had never done before and something that I can't wait to do again. To start with I just had to get used to how much more excitable and powerful Gatsby felt. He used so many different muscles to ones that I've ever used before. We started off walking around the field (which is on a slight hill) and then we moved on to doing some trot work. I had to adjust to keeping him balanced going uphill and down hill because eventually I wou...

I rode Gatsby today for my weekly lesson and it was amazing. With everything that was going on last week I'd needed a week just me and Gatsby to chill out and do what we do best, being us. This week I was straight back to working him an outline and trying to work him in an outline at the canter as well. We are slowly progressing to be able to do it but that is the operative word, slowly. We will get there in the end. We warmed up in walk making sure that he was nice and warm, that his muscles were working and also to give me a feel of him working in his new bit (can't remember what he's got now, but when I can remember I'll let you guys know). He was really responsive and listening in this bit even if he did try to hang off my right side at times but plenty of half halts and flexion to the right soon managed to sort this out. We then moved up to the trot work this was quite simple he was forward and listening and actually doing what I wanted him to do. I soon learnt th...

Hiya guys,  Saturday I got back on Gatsby. It was the first time that I had rode him since I fell off so even though it was Gatsby I was feeling nervous. Oh and to make matters worse Gatsby's owner Jenny was there and was watching, while I never mind her being there I was starting to feel really nervous that I had to ride Gatsby well to impress her. I know mad logic right?  We decided that we were going to do some work without Stirrups as Fiona said that we wouldn't be doing any jumping and while I was kind of gutted I was also relieved to have some time away form that and focus on what I know I CAN do well. For ages you've all heard me say I wouldn't do canter without stirrups, well I've got over that mind block and now really enjoy cantering without stirrups all though the transitions down are bouncy as hell. It does really help me to improve my position and balance and work on me keeping myself where I need to be. I got some really nice outline work in t...

Apologies for it being a while guys but I am now back and fully updating again! I've missed writing a blog and getting to know about all your lives to. So I am back and will be posting everyday no matter how short the post is. As quite a lot is going on I'm going to use bullet points to highlight the main things that are going on in both my personal life and my riding life so here goes guys enjoy :). Lots of pictures too!  Well the most recent update in my riding Career is that I fell off Gatsby. Yep you read that right after 3-4 years of riding the wonderful Gatsby I finally came off him. We got a bit over excited coming up to a jump and he over jumped it and took off way to early. Because of this I lost my balance (so it wasn't his fault) and ended up landing on the floor but hey at least it was dry!  I've started doing a lot more work with out stirrups, it took me a big leap of faith and of course riding Gatsby to be able to get the courage to be able to cant...

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 ...

not got much to report guys! I've got two weeks off riding now as the school has shut for christmas but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to be at my stables at some point over the holidays. On saturday I got to ride Vettie, he was the last ride of my year and we had a fairly good ride.  I managed to get some really nice outline work out of him and we've become really consistent in the work that we do in the walk. I also attempted doing some leg yields, while they were no where near perfect I did get some leg crossing so I was really happy with that and the more I did it the easier it was to get Vettie to drop in to an outline. I also got a few nice bits in the trot with him. While my trot work still isn't very consistent it is slowly improving but I do need to work more on keeping my position still and holding my core muscles in place.  Sunday we had my uncle over for the family meal, it was nice but at the same time weird because it was the first chris...

Today has been a good day for my riding. I was riding Vettie today and after the two good lessons I had had last weekend I was feeling a lot more confident about my riding. I knew that I wanted to work on my position mainly my legs as my right legs heel comes up.    I spent a while warming up making sure that Vettie was nice and loose. I also wanted to make sure that I had got an energetic walk so that when I wanted to pick up the contact it would be easier to do. When I started picking up the contact I was surprised that Vettie was listening incredibly well to me and I was able to drop him in to an outline. Two weeks ago I had been struggling with getting Vettie in to an outline but this week I could do it. Once I'd got the outline more consistent in the walk I moved up to the trot.  In the trot I had to find the right balance between being firm and half halting him and keeping the energy flowing. It was important that I kept my position very tight and didn'...