Riding. Starting over

Good Start…
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Good Start…

Good weather helps get us started – Bud came in mid afternoon and had a groom. I then took him out on one of the old Libbies 16ft driving reins and used that to do some ground work. Those reins are lighter and have better grip than either lunge reins or the Parrelli stuff I have and when wet from the grass are not heavy and stretchy like the other two.

He looks sound to me and found little difficulty in offering walk-trot- canter transitions and down again. All very level headed. The calves lined up along the fence to watch.

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Rufus

After I popped him back out for half an hour while I got

Flax

Flax

him some tea and then later after he had a snooze he went back out with Rufe and Flax.

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And The Crowd Went Wild…

Repeat today and aim to try him on a hard surface tomorrow.

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Let Them Eat Cake…

Once you are in the mixture you are someone else’s cake…

I have decided to withdraw from one of my blogging outposts as my BB is failing to cope with it’s many moving parts and the site is undergoing so much development my membership has become meaningless to me – other than as a moan fest  – as it has moved away from hard copy for it’s members to all digital . My up dates are not thrilling or interesting reading for anyone as I point out that those of us without BB and top end data packages are unable to keep up. So I want to shift my riding blog over to here – which I always planned to do anyway I just never got around to it!

At the moment then the scene is thus set –

MC and Buddy came apart in a field and got back together again – he has been taking anti inflammatory meds  and MC has being wearing sack cloth and ashes and beating herself up for putting us in a situation were failure was likely.

Q. ‘When is the first time you get off your horse?’

A. When the thought pops into your head the first time.

Q. ‘Does this horse look ridable?’

A. Not if you have thought that.

Today is Wed. ( I think ) Sun is out after blustery few days and I am heading out to get Buds rug off – I don’t want him forgetting he is a horse. I will also put him through into the other field. Aim is to get him out on a rope this afternoon on grass to see how he is moving – given new bin day tomorrow I will pencil Fri in for a walk out around the village on tarmac if it isn’t windy etc – not rushing with this or being GungHo – that is what dropped us in this situation in the first place. 🙁

Rufus and Flax look like Hippos after a wallow. Good for them. Not planning on riding either so they can adorn themselves however they choose!

Happy Days.

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‘Mommie’s Ho – ome…’

I have no doubt that this will be so!

I suspect my Writing Week will consist of little more than endless rewrites of To Do lists and To Do To lists which obviously may involve wax and pins if we haven’t managed to get The House out of Recovery and it isn’t breathing on it’s own – or She Who Is Returning doesn’t have floor boards in her room still.

I am taking the cowards way out and writing this a head of time  – despite my dislike of all things automated – because then I will be looking forward to the next week and getting back to work.

I am always optimistic – and I have seen a bean bag chair that will ‘just go’ in my new writing cell and may by the time this posts I will have recovered from the white paint ‘snow blindness’ I suspect I am about to be inflicted with.

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Back in the saddle ( Again ) at last…

The horses and I have been stealing time from the on going ‘open house surgery’ and from the writing to get the now sheep-less barn  horse friendly – new rubber mats and shavings, winter stores – and it is all able to stay in place without the prospect of hoiking it all elsewhere  at lambing times.

Buddy has been on his new regime of going into the top pasture  – Lisle’s Hill – alone now for over a month and he comes in for a good groom each evening on his way back to Kites Close to join the ponies for the night. He is starting to enjoy his grooming sessions and is significantly more relaxed in the barn alone now than he was last year.

I have now introduced another part to our routine in that he stands in the big pen while I skip out and then has his groom and tack up there and I ride back to the other field – this involves three gates to open and close and a set of barrels to play with and then in the mornings after field feed I saddle him and we do  the same on the way back through to Lisle’s Hill.

I am not fit after a summer writing in 27 and being ‘on hand’ for the house stuff – he on the other hand looks blooming so this very slow intro is helping me get more bendy and encouraging us both to be relaxed and confident.

Roger is booked next Wed for a teeth check on all three – if there is any issue with Buds ‘implant’ I would rather know now before I really start to enjoy actually going for whole rides…

Rufus and Flax are also well and going through their ground work and games – Rufe is still too itchy with sweet itch to ride  may be when it gets cooler and after we have moved back into the house…

It feels so good to be doing things with them again. HUGE grin on face.