time of the year

well its that time of year - when the clocks change.

It is normally the weekend we start bringing the horses in at night. I'd talked to mum a few weeks back about whether having the additional shelter in the field would mean they could stay out a little longer, but she was sceptical.

However it seems October has caught up with her and she had "forgotten" it was THIS weekend ;) It is soooo mild right now (despite the wind and rain) and her Fell tends to get warm in the stable. He doesn't get rugged but grows a winter coat that is inches thick. Since our stables have had rubber mats down, he has got sweaty when he is in but the weather is mild. So she is going to try leaving them out for a few days more, adjusting the schedule to sort out the hour change, and see how it goes.

In the meantime today has been Clipping Day !! I haven't clipped for a few years and Fi doesn't do enough work anymore to warrant it, though she isn't very waterproof and needs rugging or she gets chilled. Duds is a typical native and also does less work these days. He gets rugged in deference to his age. But we have wanted to avoid rugging Rosie and her tendency to avoid anything resembling hard work meant that getting sweaty wasn't an issue.

But miracle of miracles, these days she is working up a sweat. So I clipped the underside of her neck and the front of her chest. As this was the first time she had been clipped, she looked a bit concerned but let me get on with it.

On a roll I then helped out another friend with a pony who needed the same thing doing (her normal clipping person has lost her clippers :o ).

After clipping Rosie we went out to try out the effect by scampering around some of the stubble fields we still have. She did get sweaty but I didn't feel it was so bad. It was only really a 30 minutes jaunt - way too little given we may be doing a proper ride next week - but we were lucky to manage anything at all as it proceeded to rain for the rest of the day :(

one step forward...

...one less shoe :(

As the evenings draw in, a weekend with decent weather is precious time. I was running a 5k on Saturday so I went down to help breakfast the horses. As I watched Fi walk out of the shelter, she took a slightly long step with a hind leg.... stepped on the front foot... and ripped the shoe off !!

Luckily she tends to rip them cleanly off so there is no twisted shoe, nails are out etc.

Off I went to my run (34m 32s :D) and came back to ride in the afternoon. Normally Fi isn't affected by taking a shoe off and the difference in height between shoe and non-shoe doesn't matter in the sand school. But as I went to catch her, she looked slightly "wrong".

The horses have been given access to a paddock with more grass on it - so by the afternoon they are somewhat full of grass. Fi was reluctant to move and it was hard to tell if it was a tummy full of grass or some discomfort. SHe didn't look obviously lame, just "not right". I hopped on to have a feel at walk. Again nothing obvious but it just felt wrong.

So out she went. We exercised Dudley and then took Rosie for a wander on some of the remaining stubble fields. (They have already started ploughing for winter sowing). As we came back to the field, I walked Rosie in to the arena and once around. I was expecting objections but just got a nice free loose rein walk :) So we stopped on a good note.

By evening Fi was looking more obvious lame. It is the same foot she took the shoe off but there is no obvious heat in leg or hoof. We'll just have to keep an eye on it. (I have texted the farrier - but my sister has been trying to get hold of him as well and had no reply).

(On the upside Fi's scab on her hind leg is starting to lift and we trimmed the loose bits off. Photos have been taken and will be posted when available).

Today I was expecting a bit of an objection from Rosie when she got asked to work in the arena rather than going for another walk. (That has been the pattern so far). But she didn't .... though she wasn't offering her normal energy, she did offer only a few minor objections and was generally good. Sadly she then reverted back with mum and needed a fair amount of persuasion. Generally her behaviour with mum is always about 2-3 weeks behind what I get - so fingers crossed things will improve there as well.

We did a small amount of jumping. Her left lead canter is definitely not so good - jumping seems to help a bit with that. (Left rein generally is worse for her). To finish up I took her out for a circuit around the closest stubble field. It was a "left handed" circuit so gave me the chance to ask for left lead canter... she offered right but I circled around and got left lead then let her head on up the slope.

So some good news some bad this weekend.

Two speeds - stop or go

Well the weekend was.... interesting at least.

The forecast was not good - gale force winds and rain - and it was a pretty close call as to whether to venture out in the trailer or not. But we did - the competition venue was not far away and down relatively sheltered roads.

My aim for the Intro B (walk and trot) was to work on the judge's comments from a few weeks previously and try to aim for something that was not hurried. This time the test was back in a sand arena and with fences on 3 sides. I warmed up initially out on the grass field as there were half a dozen people in the 40x20 warm up. Then roughly 10mins before the test time, I went into the proper warm up, and then just before the test, into the area between the two test arenas.

Rosie had warmed up relatively well, with the odd objection but nothing major. But as I went into the test I felt energy was lacking. She started quite well though (and her test sheet showed some decent scores for these movements) and then.....

she ground to a halt.

Well and truely. Got her going again briefly before she did it again and simply refused to move. I got a begruding walk (when we should have been trotting) and couldn't get any sign of acceptance from her at all, so I turned to face the judge and saluted to show I would retire.

The judge was great and "suggested" I should get her going before I left the arena. I was still struggling to get any kind of obedience so the judge actually came out and suggested I should be as strong as I needed to be (the words she used were a bit more colloquial) and get her trotting.

Before the next test we were standing having a cup of tea and she actually came over and gave me some great advice. She said most judges are riders themselves and will understand. if you deal with the resistance in the first movement it comes up - you have already dropped marks for that movement so you may as well sort it good and proper, and then get the rest of the movements better.

Well needless to say I was determined that the next test (prelim 1) was going to be the chance to prove to Rosie she MUST move when asked. The warm up left no room for doubt (and involved Rosie's hind feet being in the air a few times). The test was in the second of the two test arenas. But Rosie did NOT stop.

The irony was that I got a collective comment not to hurry her (if only the judge knew !).

So it seems we have two speeds at present - STOP and HURRY

At home we certainly have more variation in the trot than this, and are working on the canter.