2017 Hacking/ Riding Challenge.... Add your photos too

lovely vid seeingspots! your yard is sooo nice!

I had a lovely long hack this afternoon on skye, she was really forward and gave me some lovely work! There is a lovely farm I have permission to ride through the yard... it’s so beautifully manicured and kept and they said it was ok to go through but to stay off the grass. Today madam decided to stop and do the biggest poo ever, right near their front door!!! There was noone about and the only place to kick it to would have been onto the beautifully manicured grass eek!! So I just drove over there and filled a bin bag, looks like noone was home thank goodness.
 
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@CharliesAngel that happened to me a few weeks ago. I go hacking to the racecourse and they have a flow over car park which is grass with stone paths. I sneak on and ride around it and get some canters etc I have been doing it that last couple of years, the workers etc have seen me and seem to be ok with me popping on but Marley did a giant poo, so as soon as I got home I drove around with an old bucket and lifted the poo as I didn't want to give them any excuses to say I could no longer ride there lol
 
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@joellie they have great timing dont they? I dont usually pick it up - if they poo on the road and there is a verge i will get off and kick it over but this farm are being super nice letting me have access through their yard. It means there is a round route i can do with a lovely canter hill that otherwise wouldnt be accessible. The yard is basically their front driveway though and its beautiful.
 
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Still winter, ugh.
But fantastic weekend!!
Friday we had a lesson as I was able to finish work early, and Austin was super, jumped so well, and we even did some biiig ones!!
Saturday I had a dressage lesson with a new instructor that my jump coach suggested and it was great, it all clicked and we got some great work!! It's funny how someone can word something slightly different and you go oh! that makes sense! Then I rode Mads and we did some walking and trotting and walked and trotted over a pole on the ground, which was as terrifying for her as it sounds, and warrented leaping over the poles as if they were set at 1m then gallopping off afterwards. Naturally. She was a sweaty mess and it took a few attempts before she realised walking over it wouldn't eat her. Achievement!
Sunday I had a SJ show and there were some scary fill that got half the class eliminated! We had a stop at one (the least scariest) in the first round but after the jumps went higher and I rode a bit better haha, we got clear for 3rd, then the jumps went up again and I thought geez do I want to do this but I thought one jmp at a time, and he flew amazingly and jumped his heart out even when I rode like a muppet and he had to save me from a couple deep spots! and we got 2nd!

Running total:
Aus: 252.5hrs
Mads: 13hrs
 
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Went out on Sunday alone and poor Toffee was miserable with the flies. Constantly snatching, snorting and shaking his head all over. I felt awful because I had to shout at him a few times as it was getting quite dangerous as he wasn't concentrating on anything. I'm definitely buying him a fly mask. If it doesn't work then I'll stick it on Ebay. Anyway here's the video, I've massively cropped it right down as it we did 5 miles and the video was 2hrs long haha


And here's some video stills also which I saved as I thought they were quite pretty pictures! :-D

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Big hill to work his butt! :-D
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When your pony sees something scary and literally grows 10hh....... :D
Screen Shot 2017-04-24 at 07.45.46.png
 
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Harvey continues to be a good boy :)
I had Friday off to do housework things, but at 4:30 R messaged me to say she was going to jump in the paddock so I went and joined her. We didn't do very much, but Harvey went well for me.

You may remember I took L out for her first hack without mum last week. When we got back she asked mum if she could come out again with me, so she and R joined me on Saturday for another relaxing ride. We went to a different bridleway and had a nice steady canter. One track had a big bonfire next to it, I jumped off and lead Harvey past. I was delighted that he trusted me - the flames were 15' high and we could feel the heat so he was very brave. Once he was past the other 2 followed.

L's mum has now asked if I will take her on her first fun ride. Mum's horse is still out of action and probably will be for the Summer :( A huge responsibility, but we have pencilled in a ride on May 7th (mum will of course come on foot). L is a confident rider and competes up to 2'6" SJ and XC so there are no issues with her riding.

On Sunday R and I borrowed the lorry again and went to the fun ride at Lincomb Equestrian. The ride opened at 9:00 and when we got there at 9:30 we were in the third row of lorries - so busy! It started well. Rachel has a new bit and she was pleased with her new brakes. We had a long trot to warm up and then a short canter which went well. We then tried a longer canter which turned into a gallop by mutual consent. This was my first gallop with Harvey - he goes so low its like riding a broomstick - weeee!!! We pulled up ok, but then Harvey wanted to go again and he pulled and pulled and pulled, and then when that didn't work started throwing his head around and jogging and going sideways. I just let him get on with it, but after 4 miles it got a bit wearing :( We had a couple more canters and another gallop which went well. I wanted to try Harvey on the XC course, but he was so excited I decided it wasn't safe to try and put his boots on. We had a paddle in the water and I was delighted when after being lead in once he walked in for me. We then popped a couple of small jumps and tried the water again, and he walked in again for me. There was an optional 2 miles more course but R and I decided to quit while we were winning.

A very sweaty Harvey preparing to jump (this was the only piccie I got :( )
i-r3q5LNR-XL.jpg


Hacking
14 miles
4 hours

Schooling
45 mins


Totals
Hacking
134.4 miles
41 hours 20

Schooling
7 hours 39
 
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GaryB said:
Harvey continues to be a good boy :)
I had Friday off to do housework things, but at 4:30 R messaged me to say she was going to jump in the paddock so I went and joined her. We didn't do very much, but Harvey went well for me.

You may remember I took L out for her first hack without mum last week. When we got back she asked mum if she could come out again with me, so she and R joined me on Saturday for another relaxing ride. We went to a different bridleway and had a nice steady canter. One track had a big bonfire next to it, I jumped off and lead Harvey past. I was delighted that he trusted me - the flames were 15' high and we could feel the heat so he was very brave. Once he was past the other 2 followed.

L's mum has now asked if I will take her on her first fun ride. Mum's horse is still out of action and probably will be for the Summer :( A huge responsibility, but we have pencilled in a ride on May 7th (mum will of course come on foot). L is a confident rider and competes up to 2'6" SJ and XC so there are no issues with her riding.

On Sunday R and I borrowed the lorry again and went to the fun ride at Lincomb Equestrian. The ride opened at 9:00 and when we got there at 9:30 we were in the third row of lorries - so busy! It started well. Rachel has a new bit and she was pleased with her new brakes. We had a long trot to warm up and then a short canter which went well. We then tried a longer canter which turned into a gallop by mutual consent. This was my first gallop with Harvey - he goes so low its like riding a broomstick - weeee!!! We pulled up ok, but then Harvey wanted to go again and he pulled and pulled and pulled, and then when that didn't work started throwing his head around and jogging and going sideways. I just let him get on with it, but after 4 miles it got a bit wearing :( We had a couple more canters and another gallop which went well. I wanted to try Harvey on the XC course, but he was so excited I decided it wasn't safe to try and put his boots on. We had a paddle in the water and I was delighted when after being lead in once he walked in for me. We then popped a couple of small jumps and tried the water again, and he walked in again for me. There was an optional 2 miles more course but R and I decided to quit while we were winning.

A very sweaty Harvey preparing to jump (this was the only piccie I got :( )
i-r3q5LNR-XL.jpg


Hacking
14 miles
4 hours

Schooling
45 mins


Totals
Hacking
134.4 miles
41 hours 20

Schooling
7 hours 39
Click to expand...

He's such a lovely looking chap, it sounds like you have great fun with him!
 
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Sunday I managed another solo hack :) this one was MUCH better than the first, although the day didn't start out like that... I originally planned to do some very basic schooling to increase my confidence on him followed by a little hack out. There are two schools at the yard where my share horse lives, the one I wanted to use was busy, so I went to the other one, but he was unsettled from the off. He wouldn't stand still to let me even get my foot in the stirrup let alone adjust it when I realised it was too short. He was moving backwards and generally was behaving really unusually. He hasn't been in this school for some time so not sure if he was just feeling unsure or if he was just testing me. So in the end I just walked him round the school a few times to calm him down and make sure he was listening to me and thought sod it, let's go out hacking. I'm arranging some lessons with him so I figure I'll wait until then to school.

The hack was amaaaaaaazing. We got in some good trots and canters - the most I've managed on him, so I was really pleased, and he really built my confidence on this hack, he did everything I asked first time and was super responsive, so fingers crossed we are building a decent relationship. We did have a MASSIVE spook on the way home at some very scary sheep :rolleyes: but we got through it.

Unfortunately my tracker app turned itself off after 7 minutes so I've no idea of distance covered... I was out for about the same time as last week, so I'll hazard a guess and say I covered 7k again. Hopefully the tracker app will work this weekend.

7k today in an hour and 15 mins.

Totals - 33.8km, 6hrs 5mins
 
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No riding the last few days due to weather etc.
We did get back over for some more poles and things- wow I have accumulated a lot
in 38 years there and still more to get:rolleyes:

Have been doing a lot of planting too so I am really not unhappy on rain
Its great for things I have been planting and last spring was VERY VERY DRY
and there was an explosion of some sort of moths that defoliated so many trees.
They get some sort of fungus when its a wet spring that keeps the populations down.

I'm making some cavaletti set ups curving around trees:D;):)

I like them since they are great for varying gaits since they get wider as they fan out a bit
for walk /trot widths

The ones we brought a few days ago I set up on the house side in my new little play area and a
walk thru tire
The next group we bring over I'm going to utilize the trees on the grassy hill to make some curved cavaletti set ups
(OK yes I do have thing for cavaletti:rolleyes:) one can never have too many :confused::oops::rolleyes:

They are not measured/spaced evenly yet I got them out quickly in between planting things in drizzle.
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I am hoping to get out and ride them this weekend :);):D
 
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Lol saw the mailman when he delivered today.

He thought all the poles and things were something to do with horses lol.

Down the street has a huge dog agility set up .

Lol wonder what non horsey. Non dog agility people think is going on in
Our 2 properties lol.
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

They have a lovely elaborate professional
Agility set up.:D:);)
He is supposed to be a world famous
Dog trainer.
 
Skye & I were out for 2 hours tonight, hehe it wasn’t meant to be so long but I got a little lost. It was a very interesting hack, we met lots of interesting things and she was fab. We were passed by a single decker bus quite close and all she did was a little shudder. Bless her.

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