winter riding ... or not

We've done some more of the "follow my leader" work with Rosie and it's gone reasonably. But none of them have had any work over the festive break as the weather, health and festive activities conspired against us :(

I have yet to try my new webbers (Christmas present) on the new saddle - but they look very smart sitting there in their new stirrup covers.. Webbers are difficult to "run up" so another present was a pair of stirrup covers which then support the stirrups either side (as the covers are connected to each other by a strap. Keeps your saddle clean and keeps the stirrups from clonking around :)

fingers crossed for some better weather...

All the horses are quite itchy at the moment and the boys appear to be losing some coat. Last weekend I went to groom Red and found some scrapes on either side just in front of his stifle. They looked quite fresh but would have been hard to spot in the dark of the evening when he came in. We still have no idea how he got them. He wears a coat out and there was no sign of scraping etc on the coat. They're healing well though.

We were also worried that he was not finishing feeds. It's easier to maintain his weight than get him to put on on. THis year he has been managing the hay much better - last year we had added fibre into all feeds to compensate for the fact he wasn't really eating much hay. We think it had just got to the point of there being too much bulk/fibre for him to cope with. We've cut out/down the various hay substitutes he was getting and added in some micronised barley. He's still eating his hay and is attacking his food with renewed vigour :)

to clip or not to clip ?

I may think about minimal clips - at least for Fi. She hasn't got terribly wolly so far this winter, but it has been quite mild. On Saturday I worked her for about 40 mins but I have been trying to do more faster work to increase fitness. She definately gets a bit warm on her chest and girth area.

It was a crispy morning and the school surface had a crispy top that quickly worked soft where we used it. But working on the less used areas needed a bit more care.

After working Fi, we rode Dudley and Rosie together. We tried a new approach akin to what happened if we ride out, where Rosie was allowed to follow Dudley. I worked on transitions between halt, walk and trot - and mum followed suit behind. After getting her going, we then tried a variation on this where instead of Rosie making the transition at the same time - wherever she was, instead she made the transition at the same place/marker, and hence after me. This worked less well initially as we built up bigger gaps between us and Rosie would decide that the obvious thing to do was cut straight across in Dudley's direction.

However the overall approach seemed to help and we can build up the distance between us and slowly add in small sections of independent work. This should help to build both Rosie's confidence and her understanding of the arena as somewhere to *move* in !

We didn't ride on Sunday as the weather was a bit dodgy, and both of us were suffering a bit from a cold virus.

company

I had company this weekend in the form of someone's daughter who is at a local boarding school. She came with us to the Scottish Horse Event in Saturday - it was raining on and off all day so we didn't miss any riding.

The forecast for Sunday was bad but it turned out clear and dry so we got on with things just in case. I rode Fi while D rode Dudley. This caused some amusement from Fi who is used to working by herself. Especially as I put some poles out for Duds and D and Duds proceeded to approach them with unaccustomned glee ! So much so that I bunged it up as a small cross pole sooner than I had expected and he cantered in to it with abandon most unDudley-like. He jumps quite big and it can be a bit unseating, so I persuaded D to get him to trot in for one last jump.

In the meantime I was working Fi - she seemed fine. When Duds leapt over 3 trotting poles towards her, she had a minor OMG moment but it was more because she was focused on me and just heard a thundering of hooves !

Then I swapped on to Duds and D onto Rosie, and we went for a walk (and a trot and the odd canter) around the unploughed edges of the fields. When we got back, we took them back into the school to pop Rosie over the cross pole. Rosie walked two steps in to the school and put her sullen face on. She needed persuading that she could follow Dudley and it would be *fun* but got the idea and D popped her over the cross-pole twice :D