Oh, I forgot...

BTW, when I become Queen of all that is true, watching all episodes of Ouran High School Host Club will be made compulsory. On punishment of being pelted with fish.
So there, parents.

Seriously, anime is the best art form TV show commericalised media thing ever! It's like, 23rd century kinda stuff. Sign online petitions for Ouran season 2!! On penalty of being eaten by cats! Yaaaaaaaay!

New prospects?

Today was a good day. A GOOD day. With all the free time on my hands after none of the share horses came up trumps, being at home with the parentals isn't exactly thrilling. So any escape to Barnfield is much appreciated. Today I had a kind of assessment lesson from Charlie, which I every so slightly failed. But if I learn the ENTIRE book, maybe I stand a slight chance.
I rode Sienna today. I was meant to ride Tessie, but Sisi's shoes weren't ready in time. So I rode the tiny tiny tiny little spooky dippidy doo pony.
I swear she only spooks when I ride her.
As much as I loove her, I'm far too tall for Sisi. She is amazing, and such a cool little pony, and one of only a few ponies that I ride who need little kickish encouragement. But I feel... what's the word? Maybe a little bored, but at the same time frustrated, as if I can't do anything to progress when I'm on her compared to someone like Ada or Tess or Hols or Rosie. But maybe also I feel like I'm not bringing out the best in her - I can barely get leg yield on a dressage horse, and completely failed today. She's a beautiful, wonderful forward little Welsh, but I don't challenge her, or help her progress, or myself.
Maybe that's a good thing. I'm not sure anymore.
At the end of the lesson, I swapped onto Hollie for about 7 mins, because her rider had hurt her back. I hate to say it, but I have to love Hols a tiny tiny tiny bit more than Sisi, just because of her absolute cool stubborness. Whilst Sienna is somewhat finicky yet happy to please, Hols is stubborn and really makes you imaginative in the way you ride. (Also, her height and girth are far greater, so I don't feel like I'm squashing her. When I stood up so Sienna so she could wee, she kind of sunk into the arena. I am too BIG for her!)
Cantering Hollie around after I got off Sienna was very easy. Whenever these horses swap riders, they immediately think they're in trouble, so they're all nice and forward and compliant. As was Hollie, although I still had to constantly thumpthumpthumptaptaptapsmacksmacksmack to keep her from dropping out. I also ride her kind of gung ho - little or loose contact, huge, flappy leg aids, western seat.
Perfect for a BHS stage one examination, eh?

Keep your fingers crossed, Charlie knows a seemingly perfect horse that might still be up for share. Savannah....
So may the force be with me, so I can finally get my own (not really) horse. She sounds perfect. Here is her list of achievments:
Dressage
XC
SJ
Happy hacker (w/wo)
V. calm
Forward
Bombproof
Lovely temperament

Sounds good :)

PS: like the picture? Photoshop elements rocks my world!!! Wooooooooooo!!!

Crap!

I'm so shit at regular blogging sometimes. Let's get on with it then, so I don't... go and eat a turnip, or whatever.

Number one - training day. Basically, a day of absolute awesomeness. I rode three beautiful gorgeous horses; Kestrel, Saffy and Tosca. I cann't be bothered to write too much about the individual lessons, but all of them had beautiful canters and were gorgeous and I love them all and can I hjave them, please? Once Wiola's academy site is up, you can watch me on it. And laugh. Hysterically.
We did a lot of canter jumping position work, especially on Saffy, who is probably the coolest horse ever. Apart from Tess, of course.

Number Two - Tess Returns.
Woooooo. This is very very cool. However, she is ever so slightly sick from the food change, and has an eye infection. This is not very cool. But she is very good with having cold tea dribbled into her eye in a yellow plastic mug.

Number Three - Hollifying Lessons
Hollie is now my most frequently ridden horse.
Yaay..
But actually, I'm getting on ok with her more. She getting used to me, and me to her, and I'm beginning to see why she hates life so much. So, if I try and make it easier for her by not kicking or smacking her all the time, she is slightly more willing. She's an amazingly talented and intelligent horse, underneath her churlish outlook.
We tried something fun on Sunday. I stand in the middle of the arena while Wiola gets on her, and I shout and shout at her, so she thinks I am the instructor. When I got on her, she cantered off. So, either Wiola is incredibly good at making her go, or she really is psychologically challenged.

Number Four (best thing EVER) - I'm getting a share horse over the summer! wooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Mother and father are finally convinced I won't fall off whilst walking around a school, and know that I do not bomb around the school making every horse I ride bonkers. (I hope, anyway) So, by the end of this week I'll find my dreamy pony, and be riding by next week. Eeeeeeeee! So, in...6 minutes, I'm going down to Barnfield to talk to the owner/instructor about that and my BHS Stage 1 training. Wish me luck on finding a super cool horse, and I'll post ots and lots more now! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Sweltering Gracefully

Or not, as it may be. 31 degrees today, and not a single cloud in the sky. Not even those little puffy white ones. Of course, this made riding Smarts and Hollie wonderful. Thankfully they were both pretty responsive to my leg, so I was not dying at the end of the lesson.
Since Charlie is assuming that we are fairly confident on horse control now, we are moving on to more technical stuff - diagonals and leading legs without looking, extension/collection and schooling traits of these delightful little ponies. Today, we were extending the canter stride as far as possible, and I was pretty happy when we swapped horses halfway through and I got Hols. Warming up Smartie is pretty easy, but warming up Hollie is a bit of an uphill struggle. However I try, she just seems dead to my leg and whip. But since she had already been warmed up, her trot was fairly easy to get going, and really awesome compared to her prior efforts. Her canter was also rather lovely, and instead of thundering towards Smartie's arse like I though she would, she actually had a lovely working canter. Charlie said that since the horses hadn't been schooled particularly brilliantly, they would probably not understand what we were asking them to do, but Hollie actually responded with about 3 strides of a floaty, elevated and prolonged canter stride, before nearly running into a hedge. Problem with me is, I forget what I'm doing when something good happens. Usual consequence - bolting, bucking, crashing, generic falling flat on my butt. Fun times though :)
After this, we did a couple of the old turns on the forehand, which Smarts is surprisingly good at. But before we could turn, Charlie made us get them square in front. I was just trying to nudge his front leg into action, but Charlie told me that I needed to lean slightly off his leg that I wanted to move in order to get a response. It really works! I never would have worked that out in a thousand years, and all this new stuff makes me want to become the best rider I can possibly be. I'm trying to get in some more riding over the summer by convincing my parents to let me share a horse about 3 times a week. £27 isn't a bad deal for three to four rides per week, hey?
I can't wait for tomorrow. New horses to ride! Yaaaaaay!
See y'all soon :)

The Wind and other Rubbish

It's a camel. Made on photoshop elements 6. I take no credit for original images.

Sunday was weird - Wiola was away and Nicola came to teach. I was on Ada with P on Sienna, and the wind was whooshing and swooshing and pretty much petrifying the ponies. The trouble with Ada is that she usually sets the other horse off too, since her spooks are so absolutely over dramatic. We saw a squirrel in the field which was just too much pressure for her, and a few massive twisty bucks carried us from A to about M, where a sudden halt catapulted me out of the saddle and painfully (for both of us) onto her neck. I kind of scrambled back into the saddle and carried on trotting gaily around the arena whilst Sienna bombarded towards Nicola like a mad thing. I'm glad I didn't come off though, as it would have made her much more nervous. I'm trying to perfect my, 'I'm totally in control here' face whenever my horse bolts or bucks or shys. It's coming along quite nicely.
But the best thing about the lesson was that quite unknowingly, I got Ada into a amazing little outline! Call me rough but I've never really considered how the horse is exercising up until now, I was always more obsessed with my riding and position. But now that I'm fairly confident that I'm not injuring the horse by belting it in the the sides, I can start thinking about outline and powerful hindquarters*. We did a spiralling 20 metre circle at A, legyielding in and out in trot, and I looked down to check my diagonal and there she was, all pro-dressagey! I love this pony so much now, I'll be heartbroken when I grow out of her.

Only 5 days until the training day. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

*See how unpro I am? XD

Wonderful Hollie

Or not so, as the case may be. My legs are ACHING like hell. Aparently, I clamp my knees into fat ponies when I ride them, making my body rise a little out of the saddle, which is weird. So, with the combined effort of trying desperately to manouvure Hols out of Smartie's face, forcing my heels waaay down and sticking my knees out into midair (oh, and coping with a giant hole in my left foot), it was just a wonderful lesson. We were talking about recognising canter leads, and asking for the named ones. So, to demonstrate, Charlie sent me off on Hollie to see if I could see/feel what lead she was on.
Hollie trotted around the school like a slug.
Then, she decided to do a 20metre circle and on X, did a perfect canter transition. I was only slightly surprised, and was busy trying to find what lead she was on when she suddenly thundered at a racehorse pace down to the other horses, me with my face set in a, 'I'm totally in control here' look. And, my Dad had just decided to get out of the car and watch. He already thinks that it's too dangerous, and this mini gallop didn't exactly help his state of resistance.

Good old Hols though, at least she's staying to her unpredictable traditions. I had to laugh, she's just amazing. And as for Kandee...
She looks incredible! Totally forward and almost eager to work. I want to ride her soon :)

First Time baby sitting tonight. Oooer. At least I know the boys quite well.
Stables tomorrow.
Tap Exam Tuesday.
Geog F.Trip Wednesday.
Training Day Saturday. WML xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx