The way to heaven is on horseback

Yesterday was a long day and I just completely forgot to get around to posting it so I'll post this now because even though it's 5.48am, I'm lying in bed wide awake but God knows why. Within about 30 minutes of waking up jack and I were up and about and ready to go out and do the jobs that we need doing. One of the main good points about Magics new yard is that he goes out with the rest of the herd.  And part of the deal that was made with loan was that she'll put him out and bring him back in so that he never really goes out on his own, seen as he normally goes out at about 9.30 am it means that i don't really see him in the morning and I get a bit of a lie in. But the first job that I do when we go out is go up to the yard and muck his stable out so that he has a nice warm bed for when he gets in. I'll also sort his feed out for the next two feeds but I will only add water to the one that he'll have that night. Kisses from the pony face. This morning ...

I got to see Gatsby today and my uncle got to meet Gatsby. Today was my weekly lesson. When we got there it looked like the sun was going to come out, it had been raining earlier but there were blue skies and even a bit of sunshine. I groomed Gatsby and tacked him up and even got to get on him early. When I got on him he initially seemed to be quite lazy which we were expecting as he is now turned out at night. We spent some time warming up getting both Gatsby and me to stretch and loosen up. After the week I have had it felt so good to be back in the saddle. We spent quite a long time walking doing transitions. We then tried doing turn on the forehand and it went so well. For those of you that have been reading my blog for a while you will know that I tried doing this before but Gatsby kept backing up and me so we never successfully managed it. Well we did today he was great. Going to the right he was a bit stiffer to start with her just kept backing up. However when over exaggeratin...

Today my Dad took me to ride Gatsby at West Hallam Riding Centre, he was fresh to start with, I groomed him inside because it was raining and cold outside. So I couldn't see whether I had got all of the mud out of his ears. I then tacked him up.  When I got on Gatsby he was really happy he wanted to move a lot more but I needed to sort my stirrups out as the last person that rode him had really long legs and I couldn't keep my feet in the stirrups at the length that they are. I had to do it while he was moving because it was raining so he decided that he didn't want to stand still so I did my stirrups with both feet out while he was walking around, I then made him stand still to do up his girth. He started off really stretching down getting a low and long frame, while having a 'swinging walk' it felt really good and my hips were less stiff and were willing to move with him. I then bough him up and while he was in the walk got him into an outline during this tim...

Thanks mum for giving me the title of this post it sure did make me laugh! Well as you know today was my day to ride Gatsby and in true typical English weather it decided to not only chuck it down but to get windy too! But we still plodded on and I got called a dedicated rider again, I am starting to love the compliment but not have as much as I love the sports that we all do! When I got to the yard the rain was just starting to settle down and because of this we decide that we would do a quick brush down as earlier in the day Fiona had done a proper groom and then tack up quickly while the rain was easing off as, so instead of getting on at 1, we got on at about quarter to 1 but then we stayed on til 2 so we got extra then the hour we normally get! YAY! During the lesson we decided that we were going to do some shoulder in and leg yielding, because it was something I really wanted to try because I have been working on my elbows and I just really wanted to try it. So to start with...

So Yesterday as you all know I got to ride Gatsby again but I didn't really have time because of how tired I was to tell you what I did during the lesson. I got there early like I always do so that I could spend some time just grooming him and tacking up and when I got there one of the ladies who has her own horse there said 'its only real riders that ride in this weather' which made me laugh. The weather at this point was a lot of rain but it was very fine rain making it look almost like it was a wet fog, was really weird and when I looked at the Arena it was like a lake at the bottom end of the school and then some big puddles at the top end of the school. Fiona said that if it had been a driving wind and really heavy rain that we would not have rode but because it was like it was she said we might as well because in the world of horses we don't get time off because its raining and its cold and we don't want to get wet. So we might as well get used to this now wh...