I just had to post because I had such a nice day today. Recently these seem to have been few and far between so I want to share the happiness with everyone so as not to seem all doom & gloom all the time!
I got to the yard just before 7am to sort Rubic out for the day. She was meant to be in today then tomorrow was her first day out. I took her round to her little paddock and noticed that the field beside hers was empty when it shouldn't be...
Now this is the field Rubic was in with her friends when she escaped and injured her leg so I immediately started to panic that Honey had escaped and I would find a lame horse or worse etc. I wondered round the yard for 10min before I eventually spotted a chestnut dot in the field the farmer was doing drainage work in. Now this is a massive field and Honey isn't an easy pony to catch (apparently) so I went back to the barn and got a bucket of chaff and headed back to catch her. I shouted her and she came walking right up to me and let me catch her no bother. I checked her over and she seemed totally fine. I took her back round to her field and she just went to sleep (clearly knackered from eating all the good grass). By this point it was 7:20 and I need to leave the yard at 7:25 to get to work in time! There was no way I was going to have the time to muck out and sort hay & water in 5min so I took 2 haynets round (as there isn't much grass left in her tiny paddock and I didn't want her causing mischief) and tied them to the fence. I was panicking slightly but there was no way I could be late for work today for reasons to be explained later. I gave Rubic a swift talking to and told her not to be daft and to take care of herself then left feeling slightly anxious!
Work was busy, busy, busy! I had fire marshal training between 10am-12:30 and I'd taken a half day (which technically means I should have been leaving at 11:45/12 but nevermind). I only had 2 hours in the morning to do all my work so was rushing about. I actually enjoyed some of the training though as we got to play with fire extinguishers!
Once work was done with I went home for lunch then put on my riding gear and headed off to my lesson.:biggrin:
I had a lovely wee 15hh Welsh called Larry. He was palomino and just lovely looking! I told the instructor about Rubic and I said I just wanted lessons to work on me and give me a good distraction and focus while riding rather than thinking about Rubic etc. So she just watched me warm up and then she asked what I thought of Larry. I said he felt quite off the leg but he didn't bend with his neck and he felt a little unbalanced, especially coming back down from canter. She said I was right and we did some work on that and getting him to work correctly from behind and into a contact. He is a favourite of many teenagers (I'm not surprised because he looks lovely and is a speed demon) and he is just allowed to do what he wants by them and isn't worked correctly. He was going fairly well by the end of the lesson. I couldn't get over how complementary the instructor was tbh. She said I rode beautifully (although my leg was creeping forward at points but that may well have been to do with the saddle and I got tense through my shoulders and arms... bad habit when I'm nervous and also possibly because I was used to holding back a tank who lent on me:redface
. She also asked at one point if I changed my diagonal by standing and I said I did it like that most of the time because it helped Rubic and meant she didn't lose her rhythm and rush etc as she could be a bit sensitive sometimes and she was quite surprised (dare I say a little impressed) and said she didn't know why she hasn't thought of doing that with her youngster and also that it might help one of the liveries that she teaches. She said Larry is difficult to ride correctly as he is just so used to flying round with teens. It was only meant to be a 30min lesson but ended up being 45 as RI was just enjoying teaching I think. (Her exact words were "it's so nice teaching someone who can ride":giggle.
I know it sounds like I'm massaging my own ego and do you know what I am! I really needed the confidence boost after feeling so down about Rubic (maybe that was why she was so nice to me!). I've got things to work on and I know that but it was nice to be told I was good rather than constantly listening to my head telling me howoop: I am.
I've still got a definite buzz from the lesson and my day was made even better when I got up to the yard and Rubic was still in one piece (and pleased as punch to be covered in mud)! I love her to bits. I've booked a clicker training lesson to give us something to do rather than just hang around the field and stable the whole time. She follows me when I take her out her walks, I just flick the lead rope over her neck and she follows me (ignoring the grass and other horses that she passes). I feel like over all this rubbish we have bonded even more and I always used to say that she only likes me because I feed her but sometimes that makes me think that maybe she does just want to spend time with me!
Anyway I'm really quite happy right now:biggrin::biggrin::angel: (thanks for reading:wink
I got to the yard just before 7am to sort Rubic out for the day. She was meant to be in today then tomorrow was her first day out. I took her round to her little paddock and noticed that the field beside hers was empty when it shouldn't be...
Now this is the field Rubic was in with her friends when she escaped and injured her leg so I immediately started to panic that Honey had escaped and I would find a lame horse or worse etc. I wondered round the yard for 10min before I eventually spotted a chestnut dot in the field the farmer was doing drainage work in. Now this is a massive field and Honey isn't an easy pony to catch (apparently) so I went back to the barn and got a bucket of chaff and headed back to catch her. I shouted her and she came walking right up to me and let me catch her no bother. I checked her over and she seemed totally fine. I took her back round to her field and she just went to sleep (clearly knackered from eating all the good grass). By this point it was 7:20 and I need to leave the yard at 7:25 to get to work in time! There was no way I was going to have the time to muck out and sort hay & water in 5min so I took 2 haynets round (as there isn't much grass left in her tiny paddock and I didn't want her causing mischief) and tied them to the fence. I was panicking slightly but there was no way I could be late for work today for reasons to be explained later. I gave Rubic a swift talking to and told her not to be daft and to take care of herself then left feeling slightly anxious!
Work was busy, busy, busy! I had fire marshal training between 10am-12:30 and I'd taken a half day (which technically means I should have been leaving at 11:45/12 but nevermind). I only had 2 hours in the morning to do all my work so was rushing about. I actually enjoyed some of the training though as we got to play with fire extinguishers!
Once work was done with I went home for lunch then put on my riding gear and headed off to my lesson.:biggrin:
I had a lovely wee 15hh Welsh called Larry. He was palomino and just lovely looking! I told the instructor about Rubic and I said I just wanted lessons to work on me and give me a good distraction and focus while riding rather than thinking about Rubic etc. So she just watched me warm up and then she asked what I thought of Larry. I said he felt quite off the leg but he didn't bend with his neck and he felt a little unbalanced, especially coming back down from canter. She said I was right and we did some work on that and getting him to work correctly from behind and into a contact. He is a favourite of many teenagers (I'm not surprised because he looks lovely and is a speed demon) and he is just allowed to do what he wants by them and isn't worked correctly. He was going fairly well by the end of the lesson. I couldn't get over how complementary the instructor was tbh. She said I rode beautifully (although my leg was creeping forward at points but that may well have been to do with the saddle and I got tense through my shoulders and arms... bad habit when I'm nervous and also possibly because I was used to holding back a tank who lent on me:redface
. She also asked at one point if I changed my diagonal by standing and I said I did it like that most of the time because it helped Rubic and meant she didn't lose her rhythm and rush etc as she could be a bit sensitive sometimes and she was quite surprised (dare I say a little impressed) and said she didn't know why she hasn't thought of doing that with her youngster and also that it might help one of the liveries that she teaches. She said Larry is difficult to ride correctly as he is just so used to flying round with teens. It was only meant to be a 30min lesson but ended up being 45 as RI was just enjoying teaching I think. (Her exact words were "it's so nice teaching someone who can ride":giggle.I know it sounds like I'm massaging my own ego and do you know what I am! I really needed the confidence boost after feeling so down about Rubic (maybe that was why she was so nice to me!). I've got things to work on and I know that but it was nice to be told I was good rather than constantly listening to my head telling me how
oop: I am.I've still got a definite buzz from the lesson and my day was made even better when I got up to the yard and Rubic was still in one piece (and pleased as punch to be covered in mud)! I love her to bits. I've booked a clicker training lesson to give us something to do rather than just hang around the field and stable the whole time. She follows me when I take her out her walks, I just flick the lead rope over her neck and she follows me (ignoring the grass and other horses that she passes). I feel like over all this rubbish we have bonded even more and I always used to say that she only likes me because I feed her but sometimes that makes me think that maybe she does just want to spend time with me!
Anyway I'm really quite happy right now:biggrin::biggrin::angel: (thanks for reading:wink
