2015...here's to hoping its our year

MrA · Jan 24, 2015

Really enjoying reading about your adventures

Jessey · Jan 24, 2015

Heres the crazy fools

Jessey · Jan 25, 2015

Had a lovely day today, the sun was shining and it felt like spring [emoji4]
Took jess out and she was enjoying herself perhaps a little too much, im thinking its the haylage ive put her on, but it made for a fun ride, at one point she took a flying leap in the forest as someone had used chalk spray to mark out a route for some event or another [emoji57] but for the most part she was good. I could hear motorbikes in the forest (they arent generally allowed in there) so we went a bit off piest avoiding them and came across a stallion tethered, another detour, but we found some nice new trails so not all bad. I was going to go through the river to get home, but its pretty swollen and flowing fast so yet anotger detour to get to the bridge.

Jess was very sweaty by the time we got home, she is such a sweaty horse I do feel for her, anyway she enjoyed a massage before going out for a roll and hank was supervising

Then she headed out for another roll and some grass with hank fussipating behind her

Then hank popped back for a visit sporting a new earring

A great day x

Jessey · Feb 1, 2015

Feeling a bit boo hiss about this week, I managed to lunge Tuesday night and had Friday off so managed to get out for just over an hour then but the rest of the weekend has been spoiled by the weather

It's bloody cold, raining/sleeting/snowing on and off and the wind is very knarly, I was determined to go out today but I am not one to saddle up in the rain/sleet, I don't mind as long as I can get on when it's dry even if it comes down once we're out, I've turned into a fair weather rider

Maybe it will stop long enough for me to get out this afternoon, I wanted to practise highlining with jess and give her a session with her massage pad too but that's a no go when it's wet, it might just have to be another afternoon of route planning for our Wales trip, it just means I'll have a grouchy week until I can ride again.

A few pics from this week;
Hank got to wear a rug one night as the sleet and rain left him pretty chilly

Jess spooked at a carrier bag in the forest Friday so got to eat round one (which she didnt look twice at, naughty ponie was pulling my leg)

We had a tiny dusting of snoe before it turned to sleet and all went to mush

Jessey · Feb 3, 2015

No_Angel · Feb 3, 2015

Llangadfan and Vyrnwy are fab area, I very nearly bought a house in Llangadfan and the forest you are riding through would have been my riding, I've walked and ridden through there and it's really lovely

Jessey · Feb 8, 2015

Well this weeks been a merri-go-round, it was freezing and frozen solid Monday so we did walk schooling, turn on the forehand & haunches, leg yielding etc and she was awesome

Did similar on Thursday but with some trot too as it had thawed a bit.
Friday I got home early enough and the sun was out so we headed out but didn't even make it out of the driveway before she started spooking and being silly, so we trotted the first 2 miles, then had a mile walking, another mile of trot and walked the last 2 home as she had settled by then, all in all not a bad ride.

Saturday I wanted to head out a bit further, though she looked pretty tired when I arrived

we ambled along for the first 3 miles and she was great, I thought the stiff workout the night before had settled her, but another mile on she royally threw her toys out, we had a trot and popped her in canter and she decided I obviously meant gallop and every time I asked her to slow she flailed herself around like a demented idiot

The thing that stopped her was when we hit a very rocky/stoney track, I was seriously unimpressed so decided to do that section again in the hopes she would behave, wrong

I felt like getting off and leaving her out there (I never would) I was so irritated, instead we just walked home doing lots of transitions and lateral.
Today I nearly didn't ride but it was such a nice day I convinced myself I should. First I gave her a massage and good brush just enjoying the sunshine. Then we set off on a short ride, she walked out okay but in my little estate she had a major melt down at the scariest thing EVER there was a guy on the green with his dog who was laid flat out having a tummy tickle, this apparently warranted cantering on the spot before doing a 180 in the middle of the road in front of a car

When we got in the forest we did w,t,c all good as gold

Took some videos of her making her happy noises and headed home, she's lucky she redeemed herself after being such a wench yesterday and to start today, so I let her go for a naked roll when we got back and gave them an early dinner.
I'm thinking the decision to put her purely on haylage rather than mixing it with hay might be to blame as this is not like her at all, luckily I'm due to get another load delivered this week so I will be changing my order.
Having a massage

Before our ride

During our ride

The mess after her roll, and this was the good side

Hank as ever is a dude, showing off his eyes which get less hazel and more grey every month

Jessey · Feb 8, 2015

The video of her happy noises didnt save, but heres a little bit of our ride

Jessey · Feb 16, 2015

I have had another of those weeks, feeling pretty down as I'm pretty sure my saddle isn't right again, how can she change shape so bloomin much?

I lunged Tuesday and Thursday night and rode just a mile and a bit on weds as jess has sore feet after last weekends 'moment'. On Saturday I borrowed a few saddles from friends to see if there was something more suitable for her, one has to fit right.....

And I lunged her and videoed so I can show poohsmate what's going on.

Yesterday we went for a nice ride (in her treeless saddle) we just took it easy as I was feeling a little fragile after over endulging on Saturday night. I just brought a heart rate monitor so we can start doing some proper interval training, it's really interesting seeing what spikes the heart rate, there were a few moments yesterday when she was spooking but her HR didn't spike so she was obviously just playing jokes on me the minx.
We went up through the gorse track, it's so spikes she walks like she's going over raised poles which is good for getting her back lifted.

And across the village green

The sun was shining over our little valley

I love this track in the woods, the light is always lovely and the trees are really big here, I hope they don't harvest these ones, they are too nice.

When we got back Jess went straight to her sandpit for a good roll.

Hopefully I will find my motivation soon and go for another ride, just can't get going this morning.

Trewsers · Feb 16, 2015

Those forest rides look lovely - I would be pretending to be a Musketeer on my way to do something....lol

KP nut · Feb 16, 2015

Gorgeous pics. I really envy you your local hacking!

Jessey · Feb 21, 2015

Another week of ups and downs, the downs being our ongoing saddle problem really getting me down

but I'm just keeping everything crossed poohsmate can get back to see us soon and with a little more adjustment get my saddle sorted, I wish she would stop changing shape! Until then we will keep using the treeless.

Jess was jumpy on Wednesday due to trying another half a dozen saddles on her so I lunged and she did some good pole work, Friday night I got a nice ride in, did some nice schooling inc poles and lateral work, it's great now it's light until about 6pm

today I had a rider Pilates instructor out and it's left me feeling very positive that the original saddle moving issue was indeed me and is fixable so I will be working hard on righting my imbalances over the coming months http://www.newrider.com/community/threads/rider-pilates-lesson-report.244682/

Another up this week is my front saddle bags arrived, I love them, and my tent so I'm getting a little excited and pending sorting my saddle (or if the treeless is better with the new pad that's winging its way to me from @mystiquemalaika ) I will be trying out my set up at Easter and doing the last 50 miles of last summers ride from the north norfolk coast to home in suffolk

my rig, inc me, saddle, 2x bags and back roll with my tent, sleeping bag, stove, empty water bottles, bucket, shovel and a few other bits weighs in at 203lbs, I plan to loose at least 15lbs over the coming months, so our 250lb max weight (based on 20% of jess's body weight) should be achievable

even more so if we go treeless.

No_Angel · Feb 22, 2015

Saddle bags are fab, I have those ones in purple

I think the Torsion pad your getting has felt inserts in, might be worth looking at adding some more substantial inserts in it if you are planning on doing the long ride with the dream saddle, as the stirrup hanger is across the back it might be worth bulking the inserts up over that distance.

Jessey · Feb 23, 2015

I was going to message you today NA to pick your brains on treeless saddles as looks like I will be using it for the forseeable, appreciate the tip

mystiquemalaika · Feb 23, 2015

Agree with what NA has said regarding inserts

the felt inserts in the torsion pad will need something else either a complete change of insert or a layer of something else imo for that amount if miles in a saddle designed like the dream team one. Poron is very good for weight distribution and some camping mat material, Eva I find good and firmer than the standard foam. If you can find some skito inserts they would be my choice as I'm sure NA will agree they are imo the bees knees of inserts but come in a variety of thicknesses and densities

Jessey · Feb 23, 2015

Well I like the DT, but have noted one little patch about 8" down from her spine, roughly where the stirrup runs down where the hair looks like someone snipped it with scissors about an inch long, I am assuming this is a hint of pressure (though could easily have rolled on a flint) so I will definitely be looking into other shim material for the minute, but given the issues with her treed saddle, unless we can perform a miracle and fix it this weekend (unlikely), I am seriously considering selling the DT and going for one of the more structured treeless saddles if I am going to ride distance in treeless I want something more structured just because the stirrup mount on the DT always makes me nervous of doing loads of rising and half seat work, which on our training rides is probably 75% of every ride. At the moment I just use the DT for shorter, slower rides.

No_Angel · Feb 23, 2015

I agree with you about doing distance and lots of rising trot and half seat in a saddle with the stirrups over the back makes me nervous, IMO a saddle with a low stirrup point is better for distance work.

I do really like Skito shims, but they are expensive which is the only downside. Some firm inserts over your wool felt ones would add a bit of extra support, only problem then when you start adding thickness of shims is that it can make the saddle laterally unstable. I have made some shims out of EVA padding, they were linkable mats for using for kids I think and think I got them for Lidl or Aldi, they make a pretty good firm shim about an inch thick and can be cut with a pair of scissors.

Jessey · Mar 1, 2015

It's been yet another uppy downy week, I'm getting a bit bored of this now and just want to move into training for real. So I have decided to quit trying to get my dressage saddle fitted well enough for distance riding and have brought a thorowgood endurance adjustable and am just crossing everything that when it arrives my saddler friend Neil can tell me it fits well enough for what I want to do, until then we are riding in the DT and I will start saving for one of the treeless saddles better suited to longer riding too.

So the ups, jess is back to her normal chilled out self since she's been off the ad lib haylage

what a silly thing to do that was, she is also looking bloomin fab and with increased lunge work with poles and massages her back looks great. My new pad arrived for the DT and it works great and is lurvely

sleepy time and looking good

I put a track in my fields last weekend and apparently that means jess has to race round it a lot (she's really churned it up) she's enjoying stretching her legs so I definitely think it will help battle the bulge and keep her fit.

The bottom hay station

A leg stretch...

We've had pretty mornings and nice evenings, I've enjoyed just hanging out with the ponios while the munch

But Hank prefers the giant stable all to himself

Today we went out for a ride, I couldnt face another weekend of not getting out, it makes me grumpy, so even in the 45mph winds (jess is fine in them but I worry about trees and branches in the forest coming down) we headed out for a short ride, i planned to walk for maybe 4-5 miles (an hour) but it didn't end up that way, she was slobbing along so to get her more engaged we worked on transitions from my seat, and before I knew it we'd knocked out 7 miles, I think we both needed it though, it was a great ride. Jess wasn't quite cooled out by the time I needed to leave so I left her fleece under her no fill, good job my horse doesn't care about much, this is how I found her a couple of hours later, the elastic sircingle was up round her flanks

Jane&Ziggy · Mar 1, 2015

Jess looks absolutely fantastic, so glossy and beautiful, It's lovely to see her thundering around her track - the only time I saw Ziggy do that he jumped a 1m 10 fence at the end, apparently just for the hell of it! That will certainly keep her fit

Bodshi · Mar 1, 2015

Loving the rug pic!

Just wanted to sympathise re the saddle issues. I really hope you get sorted soon!

2015...here's to hoping its our year

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I'd rather be riding.

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Jane&Sid these days!

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