The way to heaven is on horseback

 Wow it feels like a life time ago since I updated my blog let alone since I actually started first writing this blog. So many things have changed and I’ve kept thinking about restarting this but every time I think about doing it life gets in the way and before you know it I just haven’t done it.  So where do I start, how about with the big fella himself. My midnight magic is now 8! He has a heart of gold and after a particularly rough year is definitely coming out of the other side. Magic is a jumping lover and if you let him pick I think that’s all he’d ever do. He’s spent a lot of time working on his flat work which in the long run has really helped to develop his jumping. Last year magic suffered a horrible injury, he damaged his suspensory ligament on his front left leg and on the same leg damaged the collateral ligament that goes to his coffin joint, unfortunately for him he had a pretty bleak prognosis, with only a 30% of being even field sound. With a little bit of luc...

Sorry guys for being MIA for a while I've only just managed to get proper wifi sorted in the flat up until Wednesday I had been using a dongle that my mum paid for and then on Wednesday I finally got a telephone line fitted and broadband. I started off by using talk talk, but they were telling me that it was 'normal for it to take 45 minutes for it to load one page'. So then I went in to town and connected to Virgin and as soon as it was fitted it was working straight away on some of the fastest broadband speeds that I've ever seen which was amazing.  Magic is doing really well, he's turning into a lovely sweet horse. He loves being brushed and the other day he had his first proper bath, only for it to rain the next day and magic to end up rolling in the worlds biggest puddle ever. He came in looking like the worlds biggest mud monster ever. He's also getting loads better at picking his feet up, we still have lots more work to do on the back ones but he...

Just a quick post from me today, sorry I haven't posted in a while, it's not even that I have been that busy I just haven't been on my laptop much recently and updating from my phone is a pain!  So what's new?  Magic is doing really well it's been a few weeks since I've seen him but he's good! Last time I saw him he was letting me touch him willingly and he was following me (or more I was following) and playing with him around the field! He's being delivered on the 10th Of October (which would have been my Nan's birthday), his stables sorted, I know what bedding I'm using. Now all I need to do is sort out feeding, worming, dentist and the farrier! Yeah not much at all, next joke lol. I've sorted out some rugs as my amazing riding teacher has kindly offered to give me some rugs for him. So that's all good.  Now on to the riding, I've been back riding either two or three weeks, since I broke my hand. It's going really well,...

WARNING THE VIDEO'S DO ALL OPEN IN A NEW TAB AS I HAVE TAKEN THEM OFF ONE DRIVE AND EMBEDDED THEM. BUT YOU CAN ALL STILL WATCH THEM THEY JUST TAKE A FEW SECONDS TO LOAD. Jumping Gatsby, A vertical Jump, the idea behind doing this was that I needed to work with the other rider and we had to do the jumps as if we were in a warm up ring. E.G. taking the opportunity to jump when there was a gap. Vertical Jump. First time jumping the vertical jump. Small cross rail. First time jumping. Until Next Time Amber Rose.

So Magic is doing really well, I haven't been up to see him much as unfortunately I am not very well at the moment. This is due to me crashing my car a few weeks ago. So it's fair to say I haven't had a good few weeks. My car was a complete write off. I've seen Magic twice since the accident but he was a little bit more apprehensive of me at the moment due to the fact that I had a splint on my wrist. But I still get videos and photographs of him even when I don't go to see him so that's always nice. I'm just wondering if anyone has any opinions of how to get a head collar on him and when I should do it?  But now on to the riding part of this blog, there will be videos and some photographs to follow later on in the week. yesterday I rode Gatsby. We rode in the school this week instead of the field, but we decided to work on some show jumping and it went really well! We did a baby cross jump and a baby vertical jump. My mum has recently bought me one of t...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Yesterday I rode Gatsby again, it's getting to the time of year where my monday rides mean it's already going dark when I get on Gatsby so unfortunately I have no video's from my lesson. My dad also came to watch my lesson with Gatsby which was really nice, as he hasn't been in a while although after he told me that he was quite apprehensive watching me jumping Gatsby as compared to last time we have got a lot faster jumping and the whole process is going a lot smoother.  Above you can see a diagram of the jumping that Gatsby and I did, while it was only two jumps and neither of them were that big it was important for me to do as it made me focus more on my striding, turning, getting the correct lead after the jump or if i didn't being able to change the lead and set myself up for the next jumping. We started off by picking the canter up by K (doing walk to canter transitions), I then cantered around past A, turning to jump the jump that is on 'X',...

So now it is time to look at other things that I haven't done but would love to do from the list :), as you saw in part one there is quite a bit that I have done but there's so much more to do and loads more horsey memories to be made. Pink things to do while riding.   3. See how small of a circle you can trot without walking.  4. Ride a dressage test, but replace all trot sections with canter, all canter sections with walk, and all walk sections with canter. This is something I think would be interesting to do, Gatsby and I do a lot of canter work, and I would love to be better at dressages tests so maybe switching it up a little bit would mean I'd ride a test easier.  5. Attend a fundraiser or poker ride in your area. I wanted to do this with Gatsby last year, it was an endurance ride but I was unable to, hoping to when I have my own horse though! 7. Give a child who might otherwise not have access to horses a pony ride. More likely to do this when...

Well I was reading a really interesting post that can be found  here on Equestrian Journey's Blog  and thought that I might have to copy the idea of the list, as with only being at my stables two days a week while I'm at Uni there isn't an awful lot horse related going on. There is 214 things on this list and first i'm going to put the things that I have already done!  2. Canter straight between two poles set parallel on the ground, make them as narrow as you can. This is something that I have done with Gatsby and other horses, I did this recently with Gatsby to work on my straightness when jumping and making sure we would get the right stride in canter before putting the jumps up.  8. Ride in the rain, intentionally. Living in the UK it rains a lot so if I stopped riding just cause it rained I probably would not do that much riding! 10. Try riding in a new saddle. On Gatsby alone I have rode in three different saddles on him, when Riding ...

Hiya guys,  Well tomorrow I get to go and see Jack again and I can't wait. you'll all know that he was originally in Portland young offenders well he has now moved a little bit closer to home and is in one in wolverhampton! I get to see him Saturday and Sunday again but the advantage is that I don't have to sit in a car five hours there and five hours back, and I get to come home and sleep in my own bed after seeing him! The disadvantage is that I don't get to go to Enzo's Italian which is a really nice restaurant in Weymouth!  Now on to the riding front. Gatsby and I are doing great, we now have a jumping lesson on a monday every other week and flat lesson or pole work every saturday :D. It's building my stamina up loads more and we're getting a lot further with our jumping so it's really nice. Gatsby has finally got his own made to fit saddle to! I rode him in it on Saturday and it felt great, he was much happier over his back and a lot more w...

Well it's been a long and tiring few days but I have had a good couple of rides too. I rode Gatsby on Sunday and we worked on the Canter. We did this really cool exercise that was really tiring but it was so much fun to do. We warmed up briefly (as Gatsby had already been rode and I was feeling fairly well stretched and warmed up). I got Gatsby working nicely but very very forward in the walk and trot then we moved on to canter the idea was that we did two 20m circles with three poles at three points of the circle. At the fourth point and over 'x' there was a box. The idea was that we would canter over the poles on the 20m circle at 'a' when we got to the box we would come back to trot or walk, and then change the bend picking up the opposite canter lead (because you're going around the circle the opposite way) to go around the circle at 'c'. We were basically doing a canter figure of 8 with a simple change over 'x' building up to doing a flying...

Really love this photograph this is when we were doing 7 trot poles   Quite like this photograph og me and Gatsby, this was just before a jump (we were doing trot poles in to a jump) and you can see he was getting quite excited. Don't know but I love this photo of Gatsby and I think that we both look pretty good.  Until Next Time A Girl With A Dream