The way to heaven is on horseback

So Magic is doing really well. About two weeks ago we had stumbled across an issue while lunging him, he seemed to lunge perfectly going clockwise (right lead) but seemed to struggle going anti-clockwise (left lead). I came up with the idea that maybe it would be easier to try and lunge him on his bad rein first so that he would see going on his good rein as a kind of reward as he seems to generally enjoy going that way, and so far it is safe to say that it has worked a treat! We are definitely two good lunge sessions at walk and trot in both directions. It might even be 3 or 4 sessions that we have had but I am not sure. I've also been doing bits of riding for Lynn at the moment, I rode Sonny once. I've rode Derry a few times who I do love, but she is a bit more wooden and stiff. She is still a lovely ride though and at the end of each of our rides we tend to go for a wonder down the road and back again. For the first time on Tuesday I got to ride Faze and I love her! She...

Things are going well with Magic, in fact with all the horses at the yard, as you all know I managed to Lunge Magic and Ride Derry on Wednesday, Thursday Magic got to do a little bit of work, then I lunged Sparky, and then hopped on Sonny for a little bit, before Friday Magic got lunged in the field to do something different. Over the weekend the horses had the time off, this is the time when Jack's off work so we tend to do things and then I focus on Magic while Jack is at work, we also didn't have a car this weekend. Today kick started the week off on the right foot. I had a lie in this morning when I got back from collecting a parcel and taking Jack to work, then mum came over and we tidied my Garden up before heading over to the yard. When I got there I lunged Magic for a while, we focused on staying in walk and trot and lunging for 7 minutes in each direction with no side reins. We started off going the direction that he isn't the worlds biggest fan of, becaus...

Well I am finally in the new house and settled in but at the moment I am too tired and aching to right a proper post, so I'm curled up with a hot chocolate the soaps on and of course the two pooches. So I thought that I would share these two videos of magic with you. Enjoy the videos and i'll be back to regularly blogging recently! Even enjoy Magic's naughtiness it's safe to say that while it was fun to see him having some character he was a complete pain in the ass! Amber, Casper, Diesel and Magic

Well I'd like to start off by saying sorry for the lack in posting recently. A combination of being super busy, as well as run down, tired and ill. Has meant that there hasn't been much time for anything else. This week is going to be super busy but will hopefully be the end of our super busy week. On Friday we move in to our new home. I know that I wasn't originally to in to this house but as time has gone on I have got more and more excited about this house and moving. Plus I'm hoping that it will be the end of moving for a while! Magic is doing really well, he had a week off last week because I was just drained. Moving always takes it out of me and leaves me feeling exhausted but the stress coming up to this move has really taken it's toll on me. But on sunday we got back to work and got on with doing some lunging. He was SOOOO good, we managed walk, trot and canter in both directions. He still tried to push his luck a bit on both reins to stop working but b...

Today has been a long day and I originally wasn't going to post anything because I just didn't feel like writing I was in to much of a bad mood even though there has been some good parts of today, but in the end I got over it and just thought get on with it. This morning I had a lie in as I actually managed to get some sleep, when we woke up Jack and I chilled and watch some t.v. in bed before it was time to go and see Magic. I picked mum up on the way so that she could get some video footage. I'd also got to pick up some bits (but I'll get on to that later). I tacked Magic up and got him ready and he was being a really good boy, he lunged in both directions happily and contently in walk and trot while Sonny was in the school. He doesn't seem bothered at all that there is another horse in the school with him he just seems to get on with his job. I asked him for canter on his good rein and was able to pick up a stride or two but at the minute he is still unable ...

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...

Well magic is doing super well, yesterday we did some more ground work with him, starting to really build up the work that he's doing so that when it comes to the time to ride him there is a solid foundation for it in place. So we gave magic a fuss and a cuddle. Then went to work. We slowly placed his roller and his saddle pad over his back and then got to work on slowly doing it up, the idea was to gradually do it all up while giving him fuss so that he saw it as a rewarding thing and not a punishment or something that he does not do. We then walked out to the school and got to work on lunging, we started off on his bad rein (left rein) we did walk work and really built up the idea of getting him to lunge and stay out not fall in. We then added in a little bit of trot, not a lot but enough that he was experiencing something different. We lunged to the left for 3 mins 30 seconds. After this we stopped changed the rein and lunged to the right, this way he was much happier to pi...

We did it and today Magic and I had a great breakthrough.  I did magic this morning, and gave him some fuss while making sure that he had got a really big bed as the weather is still very unpredictable at the moment. While I did this my mum gave him a brush and made him look all pretty,  I hate it when he looks scruffy lol my ocd comes in to play and I just have to make him look the best that I know that I can do. I can't wait to be able to give him a proper bath and see him all gleaming and sparkling. I know he won't stay like that but it will look good at the time. Then I did a few jobs out and about before coming home. I'd got some post when I had got in and it was my assessment for fitness to work at the moment, I found it so hard to fill in because my illness varies from day to day so I couldn't give them a simple yes or no answer. It took my all afternoon to fill it in and by the time that it was done i was so glad. I then spoke to the person that was supposed t...

Mum did magic this morning which gave me the opportunity to catch up on some of the sleep that I've been missing out on at night time at the moment. We all then went up to Magic at lunch time, and he was lying in his stable fast asleep, he really didn't want to move but eventually he decided that he would get his lazy bum up off the stable floor and get some work done. Before he went out in the field I took him for a walk around the school, since I've got this new fitbit tracker I've been trying to keep on moving more so that I can lose more weight this is the 2nd proper dry of using it and I am loving it. I have also learnt that you actually burn weight when you aren't really doing anything, but back to the point we walked around the school doing little bits of trot work in hand,but mainly walking in hand and going through puddles. I then walked him down to his field and put him out for the reSt of the afternoon. Later on I will go back and bring him in and then I ...

Today's post is only going to be a quick one as I am feeling quite tired and to be honest do not have the motivation levels to right something long and really detailed. Magic is doing really well he was out in the field all day today and then bought in tonight. When I bought him in I walked him around the school for a bit just to get him used to being lead, we did a little bit of trotting but mainly walk work. We also did a little bit of work on getting magic to go through puddles and we will be doing more tomorrow.   As for me I got my new toy today so tomorrow I might write a review on it. Or I might wait until I have had it for a while and got a better feel for it. So far though I really like it, I love how all the information is on the fitbit app and that I am able to check it as I go along. I also like that it really does monitor your sleep and it appears to be very accurate. Until next time Amber AND MAGIC

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 for those of you that have been reading my blog for a while you will know that I've always wanted to try riding bareback but that I have never had the opportunity to do it before. A couple of weeks ago I told Fiona that I really wanted to do it and explained that I thought that it would help me really be able to feel how to get Gatsby in to an outline. After explaining this Fiona said I could have a go and three weeks later thats exactly what I got to do. I started out by riding with the saddle, just to be able to warm up, making sure that I could swing in the saddle without feeling restricted, we did a bit of walk, trot and canter work and mainly focused on getting him in the outline. I wanted to make sure that Gatsby was forward but also that he was willing accepting contact and moving in to the outline. I wanted him to feel that he was doing the right thing by accepting small amounts of pressure on the rein and only having to occasionally reinforce the contact and make it ...

Well guys, I don't think that this post is going to be very long from me as I am still not quite 100%  back to normal. I've been on antibiotics all week for my throat but that is not getting any better and my ear is now starting to get painful as to. So I think on a day off I need to get back to the doctors.  Saturday I had my weekly lesson on Gatsby and to say it was eventful was an understatement. It started off really well, Gatsby was warming up nicely, he was providing me with a good stretch before I even asked him to pick up the contact in both walk and trot. He was a little bit lazy off the leg but other than that he was being very well behaved.  When I started asking him to pick up the contact he was willing to do it, we needed to get more hind end engagement but it was still really really good. He was soft and forward, we did a small amount of canter because it was important for Gatsby and I not to over do it with the canter work before we tried riding th...

Today I rode Gatsby, it was amazing! I have now managed to remember my dressage test well the 2nd one (the hardest one) and started my walk warm up by practicing it. I walked through the whole test before moving on to doing sections of the test in trot. I warmed up for about five minutes on each rein in walk and then roughly four minutes in trot, before picking up. At this point I did not want to ask for the canter because I know that canter work it what wares me out and this made a whole difference to the test. I managed to ride it through a lot more positively. The only bit of canter work that I did in the warm up was half a 20m circle twist. I then moved on to riding through the test. For me I needed to not stress out and just focusing on my riding at the end of the day. I KNOW what I am doing, I CAN ride all of these movements separately now all I need to do is string them together. So when I went on to riding through the test this is what I needed to remember. When I ...

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...

Today was the first ride of the year and it was an eventful ride, it wasn't the best riding that we have ever done but it was good enough for me to know what I need to work on before my competition in march.  We started up warming up, Fiona said that I needed to figure out what the optimal warm up time for both Gatsby and I is, for us this is no more than 20 minutes, probably 10 minutes in walk/trot stretching,  followed by 5 minutes to completely stretch out at a walk and relax, then another 5 minutes starting to collect him and add a couple of little bits of canter in! I've got to remember that this is mine and Gatsby's first trip out together so we might not win but we can only do the best that we can do. Also that I am not to put myself under extra pressure just because this competition is at Broomfield, yes there are going to be people there that want to see what Gatsby is like now but I am not to let that bother me.  stretching and Gatsby doing his giraffe...

The title says it all, yesterday during my last saturday lesson of the year I spoke to Fiona and we have decided that we are going to go for it on the 8th March I am going to be doing two dressage tests at Broomfield. We think the tests are going to be British Dressage Intro A (walk and trot test) and British Dressage Prelim 7 (walk, trot, canter test).  Yesterday in our lesson we worked mainly on getting the outline constantly, I was getting Gatsby to work really well long and low in both the walk and the trot before asking him to pick himself up while in the trot. However this did not go quite as planned, as I think i mentioned in an early post this week I have been having problems with my left knee, when I moved on to asking him to pick up and go in to the outline I discovered that I was bracing my left leg and trying to stop getting any impact on it and by doing this while I thought I was protecting my leg, I was unbalancing myself and making my position slightly off. So F...

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...

The title of this post says it all for me, for those of you that have been following my blog for a while you will know that when I first started riding Gatsby at West Hallam Riding Centre (29th September 2012) I was introduced in to the idea of riding in an outline, ever since then I have been trying to get the feel and some weeks I get it then I could go 2/3 weeks and not get it at all and feel really frustrated. Well the past four lessons that I have had I have been riding Gatsby in an outline the whole time, some of our transitions we loose it a little bit, but the majority of it we are in an outline in walk, trot and we are even starting to get it really well in canter. We have even started to get it in our jump lessons which before we never really bothered to do, we were more focused on getting over the jumps, now not only are we jumping but we are trying to get an outline in-between the jumps.  We started warming up long and low, normally I just stretch him out in the ...

I rode Gatsby yesterday (Saturday) and we had a really really good lesson! It would appear that last weeks riding wasn't just a fluke and that I can actually ride in an outline for an hour twice in a row! Can I make it three times though? It has taken me 3 years (roughly) riding at this stables that I am at now to get the feel of the outline and now that I have got the feeling it just makes so much more sense!  We started up warming up in the walk, making sure to move long and low, making sure that I rode off the track and making sure that I was riding straight. I had to make sure that Gatsby's neck was not overly bent to the inside because he was trying to pull on my right rein to block my contact with it. I have to give him credit that once I got him listening he was very good and very responsive. We moved up in to the walk work quite early as Gatsby felt really nice supple and loose through his back, he was responsive, forward and listening to what I wanted! Straight a...