Joosie's pony diary 2013

The day after the ponies' show, the snow came and they all had the week off. Couldn't really ride them in this...

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The week after that I was ill on my day off and didn't have the energy to ride, so the girls got a second week off. I took Mouse for a short walk to get some fresh air and of course a few cuddles with my special boy made me feel a whole lot better!

Sunday 24th March

My day off the following week was cold but dry, good riding weather, so I gave the herd an early lunch so that I could work the New Forests in the after noon.

TWIRL

Twirl was close to the gate when I went out so I got her in first. I'd been planning to hack her, but my saddle and hat were up at the yard so I thought I may as well school her if I was going up there. I gave her a good groom first to warm myself up! We warmed up in walk and trot on a large figure-of-8 around some jumps, had a canter on each rein around the outside of the school, and then spent about 20 minutes working on her bending in walk and trot. She is stiffer on the right rein, so she tends to turn her head to the outside when we're going straight, and falls in on turns and circles. We did lots of small circles in walk and to start with I had to use a lot of inside leg to get her to bend, but gradually she loosened up and started to feel more supple. Then we moved up into trot and did more of the same but on a slightly bigger circle. I could really feel her loosening up as we went on, with frequent changes of rein and she changed the bend more smoothly each time. After this we did a small amount of canter work on large circles, but she was getting tired by then so I didn't ask for much, I mostly focused on getting nice clean transitions. She worked nicely and I was really pleased with her.

DESSIE

I turned Twirl out at the top gate and Dessie was right there so I got her in next. As usual she came through the gate with no trouble but then realised she was going to be taken away from her friends and got worried. The chain on the gate is really fiddly and as I fought with it I accidentally let go of the leadrope. When Dessie realised she was free she went off galloping and bucking around the orchard – which set the others off, and they galloped off down the hill, which in turn made Dessie even worse because she had been left on her own! It took me 10 minutes to catch her and when I did she was really wound up and stressed. I got her up to the yard and tied her up in the shower to groom her, but she was still really wound up and I decided she really wasn't in the right frame of mind to be ridden.

She had a play in the lunge pen instead. I got her going in trot first, then she had a good canter round and I did a little work on getting her to make the transitions off my voice rather than the whip. She responded to that really well and seemed to forget for a while that she wasn't with her friends. I put up a crosspole for her to jump and she leapt over it keenly, so I made it into an upright about 60cm and she flew over that too. We worked up to 80cm and then I put up a couple of spreads for her, finishing with one at about 85cm on the back pole. She was getting tired by then and jumped these from trot, but even then she cleared them effortlessly. It was the first time I'd loose-jumped her and although I'd noticed when riding that she had a good jump, I hadn't realised just how good it was! Bold takeoff, tidy front legs, good loose movement through the back, tidy back legs too – really nice to see. She seemed to enjoy it too, and was really relaxed by the time I took her back to her friends (well, relaxed and tired!).

RAGS

Rags and I went out for a hack to finish. When I was tacking up she decided she was scared of the hi viz exercise sheet (which she has worn twice before and not minded at all!), broke the string she was tied to and then had great fun trotting down the barn aisle saying hello to all the horses and winding everyone up :giggle: Once she'd been caught and I tried again with the exercise sheet, she didn't even look at it! She had a bit of a fidget when I mounted, and I spent a few minutes getting on and off to make sure she didn't go back to her old habit of spinning around. She got bored of this very quickly and decided standing still and being patient was actually much easier for her!

We hacked a route that she has done several times before, with several long trots and a short canter along a grass verge. It didn't need to be a short one as there was plenty of room, but she hadn't quite got the hang of cantering on hacks yet, didn't seem to think she was actually allowed to canter so would just trot faster instead. I added on a 10-minute loop that she hadn't done before, up a dead-end road and then along a muddy path through some trees and a grassy track between two fields of cattle – she had a good look around but was unphased by the new territory. She really relaxed all the way round and seemed quite content to be out and about.

When we got back towards the yard, I took Rags up into my boss's new field, which hasn't got horses in it yet because we haven't finished doing the new fencing. We trotted the length of the field a couple of times and once she was going forwards nicely I started asking for canter. She really was hesitant at first and it took a lot of leg to keep her going, but after a few goes she seemed to realise it was actually quite fun, loosened up and picked up a bit of speed. Hopefully a few more times in there and she will understand that she's allowed to let herself go a bit - but it is really nice to have a young pony who doesn't touch grass and go yeehaa!
 
Wednesday 27th March

RAGS

Took Rags in the school for 20 minutes or so. We did mostly walk and trot – plently of large circles, figures of 8, weaving around jumps, focusing on forwardness and transitions and accurate steering. She went well off the leg through the upward transitions, and moving downwards I found that she really responded to my voice, so I used that a lot to get them nice and smooth. I'm finding that this is the difficult thing about producing a child's pony - as a youngster she needs to learn to move off the leg and to go forwards without being nagged, but she also needs to have good brakes, and she is still so green that it is hard to get the right balance between go and stop! If she is going to be so responsive to the voice then I think that will be a useful training tool.

Rags has a really short attention span in the school so after 20 minutes she started getting nappy and I decided that was enough for one day. We just did one canter on each rein to finish off, and trotted over the water tray a few times before I got off.

TWIRL

Twirl and I went for a good trotty cantery hack for about an hour and a half. She was more or less her usual happy, relaxed self and we enjoyed a couple of lovely canters on grass tracks alongside the roads and edges of fields. I say more or less because she did do something un-Twirl-like a couple of times - she SPOOKED! She actually spooked. Twirl. I was a bit shocked :giggle:

DESSIE

Dessie hadn't hacked out for a while so I took her out. Solo hacking for a pony who gets stressed about leaving her friends is quite a challenge for both her and me, so to minimise stress I took her on the main route that she has always done and is familiar with. She was quite calm while I was grooming and tacking up, stood quietly while I mounted up, and didn't fidget at all while I was doing my girth and stirrups. But as soon as we headed out of the gate she went into "OMG I'm on my own" :eek: mode and started calling for her friends. We crossed the road and turned left, and she did a massive nap back to the gate that almost unseated me. She did a couple of spins while I was trying to sort her out, and wasn't listening to my leg so had to give her a couple of smacks on the shoulder, to which she agreed to go forwards and head in the direction I asked. I popped her straight into trot to get her going and although she was very tense she did go forwards quite energetically.

We had another nap at the first junction when I asked her to turn right, rather than going left up the road to the yard (where she knows she's safe) and we were busy having a disagreement in the middle of the road when a tractor with a big load on the back appeared coming down the hill :frown: I rarely, rarely get off out hacking as I feel I have more control from the saddle, but due to the tractor I decided this was one of those situations where I really just needed to get out the way ASAP! I led Dessie to the side of the road while the tractor rumbled past - and much to her credit she stood calmly as it passed us and barely even looked at it. I got back on, had another go at turning right and this time she did what she was told. I gave her an excessive amount of praise for that, knowing how worried she was about going off away from the yard.

That first road was long and straight so I put her back into trot and really pushed her on. 4 or 5 times she stopped dead, span left and tried to shoot for home, but I just had to ride her firmly and give her plenty of praise when she carried on, and she responded better each time. Then we got to the end of the road, turned the corner and something bizarre happened - Dessie's attitude changed so suddenly it was like I was on a different pony. It was like she had just suddenly pulled herself together. I suppose she had reached a point where she had gone far enough to start "thinking forwards" and not trying to get back home.

We went around the rest of the route with NO more napping and not a single spook or shy at any of the potentially scary stuff she had to deal with. This is the odd thing about Dessie - she is so anxious about leaving her friends / home / the yard, but she is actually quite a bold pony once she gets over that, she isn't actually "scared" of anything! We trotted most of the way, she was really forward but without pulling and I could feel her body relaxing more as we went on. I talked to her constantly, gave her lots of praise and she seemed genuinely reassured by it, she was starting to put her trust in me a bit more.
 
Thursday 11th April

TWIRL

I had some non-horsey things to do today and only had time to ride one pony. I wasn't really feeling up for a challenge so opted for nice straightforward Twirl. It was stormy on the horizon and instead of risking a very wet hack I took her up to the yard for a session in the school - we could be cowardly and run for shelter if the heavens opened!

Twirl was on super form - really relaxed and focused, I had her complete attention and concentration. We did lots of walk work and more suppling exercises and she went beautifully, feeling much looser on the right rein (the stiff side) and bending nicely around my inside leg. She worked consistently on the bit and was really striding out, lovely stuff. Then we moved up to trot and did some more circles and bending/stretching, she was tracking up nicely and really working with her back end, positively gliding along! After that a couple of canters - one on each rein - and then a bit of walk on a long rein to let her have a stretch.

Then we did a bit of polework. I had laid everything out ready before I tacked up, with a different exercises in different parts of the school - a row of 3 trotting poles, a row of 3 canter poles, a small (60cm) upright with a placing pole to approach in trot, another upright with a placing pole to approach in canter, and finally a grid of 5 trotting poles followed by one canter stride leading to a crosspole.

Twirl hasn't done poles before so I started by walking her over the 3 trotting poles to show her what was there. Popped into trot, came in on the left rein and she glided over them perfectly without even seeming to notice they were there! We did them a few times on each rein and she didn't touch them once, though she perked up once poles were involved and got a bit strong - she loves her jumping and she clearly associated the poles with that! Next I moved on to the canter poles, she was very keen and rushed through them the first time so I hopped off, shortened up the distances just a little bit, tried again and she did it easily.

Then we did each of the two uprights, coming in steadily off a 20m circle. Twirl often takes off for jumps on a very short stride so I wanted to use the placing poles to show her how to jump from slightly further back. Coming off a circle instead of a straight-line approach also made it easier for me to keep her in a good rhythm rather than getting too strung-out. With both trot and canter, Twirl rushed into them the first time but steadied herself up the second time - it is amazing how they work things out for themselves!

Finally we tried the grid of poles with the crosspole at the end - and, surprise surprise, Twirl just went "trit trot trit trot boing" as if she had done it all before! The second time she rushed a little to the end, so I got off and turned the crosspole into a 70cm upright to give her a bit more to jump. We did it a few times off each rein and each time was more balanced and rhythmic than the first.

We finished off by stringing the exercises together with a change of rein between each - trot poles, then canter upright, then canter poles, then trot upright, then over the grid with the crosspole turned into a 60cm upright. Twirl it really nicely and was clearly having a lot of fun! She was getting tired so we ended it there.

Another gold star for SuperTwirl!

MOUSE

The rain was still holding off so I got Mouse in for a walk. We came through the field gate, and as I turned around to close it and fight with the annoyingly fiddly chain, Mouse did what he always does and put his head down for a mouthful of grass while he was waiting. Unfortunately for him, the dogs were loose in the garden - which meant that the 2 low strands of electric fencing that we use to keep the dogs in were TURNED ON. Mouse unwittingly pressed his face up against them to get the nice grass underneath - cue big cracking noise and Mouse shooting off across the lawn looking absolutely terrified! He was snorting madly when I caught him, and examined me suspiciously in case I had been responsible for whatever had just bitten his face. Poor little Mouseman, I have never seen him truly spooked before... literally got the shock of his life :tongue:

Mouse was very soft and cuddly while I was grooming him - poor thing badly needed his mum at such a distressing time :tongue: I tacked him up in his bridle and saddle with his hi-viz sheet underneath, clipped a leadrope onto his noseband and took him for a walk. We went up the steep hill, which took 10 minutes, and then around a loop of about 20 minutes, practising halts and walk-trot-walk transitions on a loose rope - Mouse was Mr Obedient as per usual. As we came back out at the top of the first hill I took him over to a spot of long grass to let him have a munch - not long after that the heavens opened and we got absolutely drenched. Mouse wasn't bothered of course and was very reluctant to head for home, but when I started to feel the rain soaking through my jodhpurs I decided I'd had enough and dragged the poor chap home!
 
Wednesday 17th April

DESSIE, RAGS & TWIRL

Took all three ponies up to the yard. It was really windy, so the plastic banners in the school were flapping madly and there was a lot of noise in the trees. Dessie and Rags were slightly on edge and very distracted - no point trying to get them to focus too much! My boss had some horses to school so I used this as an opportunity to get them used to being in an arena with other horses (like how to pass them without napping towards them, babies like to do that!). We didn't do any canter because I didn't want them to get wound up, just stuck to walk and trot and focused on steering and transitions.

By the time I had Twirl ready to go the wind had died down a bit, which turned out to be a good thing because she was in a VERY hyper mood. I had to take her through the gaits in reverse order - she needed a good blast in canter first before she would settle enough to get anything decent out of her, then she was very joggy in walk so we did some trot work next, then we dropped to walk and did our bending and stretching exercises to finish off. Hardly a productive schooling session and I was only in the saddle for 20 minutes, but I'm a firm believer that you can't "make" any horse (especially a youngster) focus on schooling if they aren't in the right frame of mind, and sometimes it is best to quit while you're ahead! I took her into one of our empty fields and had a gallop instead :wink:

MOUSE

I rounded off the morning by giving Mouse a bit of of hosepipe training, as he is not a fan of squirty water! I took him up to the yard so that I could put him in the shower on crossties and make my job a bit easier... hosepipe training is very tricky when they can swing around all over the place! Our yard hose is curly like an old-fashioned telephone cable and wiggles around while you're using it, new horses are wary of it the first time so I did a bit of wiggling and pinging and stretching it around his back end etc to make sure he'd be ok with it. As usual with our "desensitisation" work Mouse sighed a lot and stood there with a "seriously mum is that meant to be scary?" look on his face. If ponies could roll their eyes he would have done :giggle: Turned it on and let him have a good snort at the water swirling around his feet and the noises as it went down the drain - took him all of 10 seconds to decide it wasn't scary :cool: Started on his front hooves, moved it up to do his lower leg, moved it up again to the top of his leg, he moved around a bit but was actually better than I'd expected from previous hosing attempts. Same again with his back legs - more moving around, he tried to walk forwards then backwards and shift his bum from side to side, and finding that he could only shift a small amount in any direction he gave up on the fidgeting pretty quickly and stood there looking calm enough but massively unimpressed :giggle: Crossties can be very handy things.

That was enough for one go and I didn't want to do his body anyway because he needed a good groom! I spent ages picking the winter's mud clumps out of his undercarriage, as his winter coat was ready to come out and I could pull tufts of hair out quite easily. But even though it came out easily, he got very grumpy and pulled some seriously hideous faces at me. Sorry Mouse, but they need to come out, you'll just have to man up and deal with it! Then I attacked him with the shedding blade and a rubber currycomb - he loves a good scratchy groom on his non-sensitive areas so this was much more to his liking. It was a much-needed groom, even after half an hour there was still loads of hair coming out, you don't realise how thick their winter coat has got until it's coming out in your hands!

PIF AND PAF

In the afternoon my boss's mum asked if I would come out on the carriage with her. Pif and Paf had already been back in work for a couple of weeks, my boss's dad was home and had been there to help her, so it was my first time out this year. We had perfect weather for it, sunny and fairly mild but with a decent breeze to keep the boys refreshed - they were still in winter woolies and carrying their winter bellies, so they wouldn't have appreciated going out on a warm day!



Vegas came along for a run, as he often does, but he is also very unfit after the ponies' winter off so he hitched a ride on the carriage for a while



Vids

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC4Kg7ghYSk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccKDMsEEYCg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFPPJUkZ744
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifkPUjO6ksY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_Moatgw7Xc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyhTX0-8QlA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2zY_SKmtS8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTs8eE81QvM
 
Friday 26th April

Mouse and the girls had their feet trimmed. I got all four of them in and crammed them into the stable at the house. Not much to say really, they were all impeccably behaved! Our farrier thinks they are super but is particularly keen on the Mouselet, partly cos he doesn't move a muscle (doesn't even need a headcollar on) and partly cos he's the only one who doesn't try to nibble his backside while he's working :angel:

Ponies in bushes, I'm guessing there was a tasty line of grass down there!



Oh noes I've been spotted



Oh my goodness, grumpy Mouse!



That's better



Rags



Twirl



Dessie





There's that grumpy Mouse again!



 
Jane&Ziggy said:
Cor, do Pif and Paf trot all the way round? Seriously fit little guys!
Click to expand...

Yes, mostly trot, they walk down steep hills and for the last 5 minutes or so but that's about it. TBH they are not keen on walking and would rather do a steady jog downhill. They love their work, even when they're unfit they put their heart and soul into it!
 
Thursday 2nd May

DESSIE

We had a training show coming up the following week, so the girls needed a spot of jumping practise. I went up to the yard first to set up a course of tiny jumps (which is much harder than it should be!) and then popped down to get Dessie - may as well get the most tiring one done first!

She was her usual stressy self when I took her away from her friends but had settled a bit by the time we got up to the yard. Put her in the shower and had a session with the shedding blade - she was fine and quite relaxed for her, but then my boss put a horse up on the treadmill, which is right opposite the shower, and Dessie was really unsettled by the noise and started stressing and pawing. I tacked her up quickly and led her up to the school so she could relax again before I got on. She stood nice and still while I sorted out my stirrups - she's always been good at that bit! - and we set off around the school in trot.

After 10 minutes of walk and trot and a short canter on each rein, Dessie had settled right down and was more relaxed under saddle than she had been for a while. So I got on with the jumping - popped a crosspole twice off each rein and then a small upright, no more than 40cms off the ground, which she popped over sensibly from trot and cantered off nicely on the other side. She was being super and unfortunately this led me into a false sense of security - I forgot for a moment that I was on Miss Stress Head, and headed in a forward trot towards an upright with a white plastic banner underneath, without taking her up to see it first and walking over calmly.

Big mistake! She did a beautiful big jump over it - felt lovely - but as she jumped she kicked some sand up against the plastic and it made a noise she hadn't heard before, just as she landed on the other side. It spooked her, she did a massive kick out with her hindlegs which threw me forwards a bit and then when she threw in a proper buck whilst twisting sideways I literally went flying through the air and landed with a hardcore thud about 4 feet away. Falls always seem to happen so quickly but this time I was in the air for long enough to know exactly which way up I was!

I was a bit winded from the impact and had to sit in the sand for a moment making sure everything was in working order. Dessie trotted off out of the school and into one of the empty paddocks with her reins trailing on the ground. My boss, who had heard the Thud from down in the barn, came up to catch her while I took a minute to compose myself. Dessie managed to put her foot through the reins and get it hooked under one of her brushing boots, so every time she took a step it pulled her head down and when she tried to put her head up it lifted her foot off the ground. We caught her and sorted her out but the poor girl was as shaken as I was.

I have to admit the fall had dented my confidence and I really didn't feel like getting on again, but needless to say it was what I had to do! My boss gave me a pep talk, legged me up and came into the school to babysit. I got Dessie going again in trot and did lots of big figure-of-8s around the school until we had both settled down again. Then we went back to work on the jump that had caused the problem. Starting with the pole laid on the ground, walking and trotting over it repeatedly until she was doing it quietly without launching herself or shooting off. Then my boss put it up as a tiny upright with the banner still on the ground and we did the same again. Eventually it was back up to 50cm as it had been when I'd fallen off - this slow-and-steady approach successfully got both Dessie and I back in a more relaxed frame of mind, and she popped over it from trot nice and quietly. To finish we did a couple of the other jumps from trot and then the crosspole in canter, and ended on a really good note.

RAGS

I took a little break to compose myself before taking Dessie back to the field - it had been a while since a fall shook me like that, so I had to give myself a talking to before I was in the right frame of mind to ride - then I brought Rags up for her turn. While I was scraping away with the shedding blade she stood there snoozing in the sunshine with her bottom lip drooping, she was so relaxed! She did a bit of fidgeting when I mounted up, so I spent a few minutes getting on and off until she was happy to stand still and then went up to the school. She was quite sleepy in walk to begin with, so I trotted a fair bit to wake her up, then went back to walk to do some bending and circle work.

After a canter on each rein we got on with the jumping. My boss was riding at the same time so was able to give me some guidance. Rags can jump really nicely from both trot and canter, but we need to work on forwardness - she approaches with plenty of impulsion but backs off in the last few strides and then doesn't make an effort to clear the pole, and she also stalls on the other side. My boss watched me take her over a few crosspoles and small uprights and told me I was taking my leg off a few strides out and leaving too much to her, and Rags was waiting for me to tell her what to do - so I had to make sure I kept my leg on until the last stride, and she suggested that on takeoff I give her a kick or tap her shoulder with the crop to ask for a bit more effort. I followed her advice and managed to get some proper energetic jumps. Then we jumped round a little course, focusing on forwardness both before and after each fence. Rags was super and we finished up before she got tired and dropped behind my leg again.

TWIRL

Twirl and I did a short warmup and then I put the jumps up to 60cm/2ft and got going on those. We did each jump individually, including the barrels and water tray which she attacked like cross-country jumps, and then put a course together. My focus with Twirl at the moment is holding her a little more coming into the jumps and trying to place her a bit closer to them to take off - at the moment her preference is to jump from slightly further back, which is fine at her current height (up to 80cm) but we will need to crack it before she goes higher. She is such a confident pony and the last thing I want is for her to crash through a jump and lose her nerve! She jumped beautifully and the whole session took about 25 minutes, she started getting tired quite quickly because she puts so much effort into it!
 
I still had about 2hrs daylight left so plenty of time to play with the rest of the ponies. I caught Pif and Paf first - they can be a bit "reluctant" to come in from the field at this time of year because there is nice grass in there now! - and then took them down to the top gate of the big field to collect Mouse. My boy had been watching the girls going in and out of the field all afternoon, and looking rather upset about not being involved in whatever it was they were going off to do, so he was hanging right by the gate and brought himself through without a headcollar on.

I tied them all up to the fence of the round pen and got attacking the Shetlands with the shedding blade. Oh my goodness, if I thought Mouse and the girls were hairy then Pif and Paf are something else! I did each of them for 20 minutes and the hair was coming out in sheets! When I took Paf's boett blanket off he had thick wads of hair inside the belly cover, I left them out in case the birds needed some for their nests :giggle: My boss's mum had had knee surgery the previous week and wasn't carriage driving for a fortnight so I thought the boys could do with a good lunge. Once they were worn out I turned my attention on Mouse and did more hair-shedding. A light breeze had picked up and there was pony fluff floating around all over the place.










Floof!



Mouselet being beautiful and looking grown up!




Impatient pony

 
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