Sunny Day

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Ada is little less but fab. I love this pony! Thank god she's cobby so I can still ride her fairly comfortably. We attempted cantering over poles on the longside of the school today. I don't know why, but it seemed incredibly daunting, two poles 3 or so metres apart that we had to canter over. It seemed inevitable that the ponies would either step on them, or shy off and start plunging into the other horses. It was strangely easy to get Ada to canter over them confidently. I thought that the poles would be tricky to judge with distances and striding and stuff, but thank God, Ada found it easy enough. It's really just my problems with looking up, heels down and arms forward and leaning backwards, the list goes on and on. Sienna did tiny little jumps all over the poles, which was rather amusing.
Then, Ada goes and ruins her reputation by bucking off a client when she heard a Vuvuvzela. Sorry to England and all, but now there will be no more of that racket. It was another greatly warm day. I realised this evening that I was brown all over with red shoulders. I am only slightly odd looking. Aloe vera gel has been duly applied.
Training day approaching, plus WarHorse. Oh, and Tessie coming home.
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Happiness and Dread, an interesting mix.

That title is rather dramatic, don't you think? The truth is rather less amazing. I am, in fact, only blogging about the weather.
Ehh!
Today it was 26 degrees celcius. And it was very nice too.
Tomorrow, the day when we wil all be mucking out and grooming and leading and riding and making haynets and skipping out and sweeping and shovelling and generally exerting ourselves, it will be up to, quote, '32 degrees'.

I shouldn't be complaining. In winter, temps at the stables get so that we cannot possibly do anything with a vest, two t shirts, a jumper, a fleece and a massive overcoat. (plus gloves, scarf, socks etc.) So in reality it will probably be a really great, fun day. I'm riding at 11, and the horses have no rugs anymore, and it will be lovely and sunny, and everyone's going to be there. And riding in the sun, even though hot, is much more preferable than riding in the rain.

A couple of days ago, a friend of a friend and I were talking about where she rides.
'Oh, I ride at this little place. It has 34 horses and three eventers. I have two ponies there. I'm selling one though, he's rubbish, he only jumps 3 feet and runs out at anything else. Total waste of time. The stable owner says I should sell him as a riding school pony. Interested at all?'

I was just slightly disgusted. This girl is eleven years old and has been riding for just two years.

..

See y'all tomorrow! Here comes the sun!

Ada

Rode Ada again on Friday. Still (surprisingly) no spooks. Charlie had ridden her before me, and had been working on her dodgy right canter, so we had an amazing canter after a tiny crosspole on a 20 metre circle. It was Sienna who spooked at a little yappy dog and Nev who bombed off down the longside, so I was very pleasantly surprised. I love Ada now :)She's nice and forward going, and has lovely extended paces when she's pushed out. And, I've realised that I chicken wing when I jump, intead of pushing my arms and hands forward. This might be why I'm hunching my shoulders and looking just a little bit retarded :)

I have been cycling without my saddle and folding on the ground for ages now. My legs hurt.

I have no title to put here... :(

I haven't posted for a long time... tsk tsk. But this is kind of a milestone for me. From now on, I am going to be much more serious about my riding. Since I started learning more about the technicalities of the horse's movement being affected by the rider, I've been feeling much more self conscious of my position on the horse. I know that I lean back - both my riding instructors and my dance teachers tell me this. I naturally sit/stand about 3 inches back from the usual position, and this tips both me and the horse back whilst riding. Of course, this makes riding more lazy ponies harder as I'm constantly slowing them down, but thankfully I spend more time riding the quick/able to move forward ponies that I am becoming far too big for.

Here's my regime -
1. Run 800metres in under 3 mins 30 secs at least once a week. (preferably twice)
2. Stop eating biscuits!
3. My homework (see below)
4. Daily stretches to try and touch my toes (I fail. I've never been able to touch my toes, not even when I was a tiny kid)
5. Keep my heels DOWN!!!!!!

Wiola has given me homework. Riding my bike without sitting down, and doing folds (as in jumping folds) standing up. I'm really unfit, so I completely fail, but it's getting better. Hopefully, I'll learn to stop hunching my shoulders while folding, and how to ride more securely.


I rode Ada for the first time in months on Sunday. I was a bit apprehensive before I rode her, as she had a bit of a reputation, but she was brilliant. Not one spook, and only one refusal, but she walked over it. I was dubious as to whether she would jump at all, as I've hardly ever seen her jump, only when I jumped her last year. She feels heaps better than she did before - her walk is forward but relaxed, her trot isn't choppy anymore, and can become quite stretchy and forward too. Not saying that I have any professional reference whatsoever, but she really feels atstronomically better than she did about 2 months ago. Her jump, when she has got the tiny bit of confidence from watching others and walking over it herself, feels great - and if I have to say so, even a little bit better than Sienna's. Probably just because I'm more suited to her size, but who knows?
On the whole, it was a great lesson. To not only get Ada going so calmly around the track, even circling and overtaking without any napping, was a fab feeling, and the jumping an even better bonus.
I think I have a new almost favourite pony :)

Hot hot hot!

Yesterday, our instructor had to leave early, so we had a different one, and a change of horses halfway through the lesson. I started out on Tess, which was great, but ended up on Hols. Sure, she's great once she gets going, but when she just bombs into the middle of the school? Not so fun.
It was so hot. About 27 degrees. I was banging my legs down on her sides just to try and make her trot in a circle, so of course I was exhausted. We did counterbend on a circle, which feels very weird. You have to use a hell of a lot of leg in order to keep them on the circle, and a lot of indirect rein too.
Just a short post this time, the cousins are coming :)
TLCxx

:P

:P Kersplatt, whizz bang, floop.
That was a bit of a crappy dressage test.
I didn't place in either walk and trot or prelim. I sorely missed having my trusty Tess in the walk and Trot, and openly resented having her in the prelim, especially as she IGNORED my leg aid and stopped on the free walk!?
Nah, both horses were better than usual, I think I just rode a bit crap today. Hollie wasn't as bad as usual, there was only one point where I couldn't make her trot. Tessie was super fast and decided that instead of going down to C, she would instead go B to E, which was... interesting? But I got mostly 7s for the position, aids, suppleness etc scores at the end, so it was worth it.
Chance is fast becoming the Dressage Diva of the stables. He is brill because you don't need to constantly thump him to keep in canter, and he even topped Patsy and Phurtive!

I'm thinking of asking to ride harder horses from now on, as I'm nearly always on Tess, Ada or Sisi. It would be good to ride Rosie or even Nev from time to time, just so I don't get used to the under 15hh and proud category. Also, bigger horses are probably what I would ride when doing BHS Stage 1, which I want to do at the end of summer, hopefully. It's not very likely, being fairly tall, that they'll put me on a 14.2 stocky pony, is it? Then again, I do want to ride the ponies as much as I can before I grow out of them, so maybe I need to alternate. They are very good at jumping (well, most of them) and they are just too kawai!! <3