Riding log - anyone interested?

[SupersonicDave]

Saw this on a horse forum and thought it would be a good idea.

Basically i need a bit of help with motivation (too much to do, not enough hours in the day etc) and can get a bit stuck in a rut wrt schooling/hacking/lunging.

So, today i am riding out my mare, a friend is riding my gelding, and we are going to ride through the village and back across some grassy tracks. Want to concentrate on keeping my mare calm, especially on the grass.

I know it won't actually be easy, that's why I'm calling a saddler to do it for me . Typically I've managed to buy a 'dodgy' one and the saddler I bought it from (master saddler) struggled for about half an hour to change it last time. He thought at one point I was going to have to leave it with him so he could drill it out so I'm not going to attempt it myself. He said he gets one like that every so often and it drives him mad if he is out on a fitting for a new one.

When I said it wouldn't be a problem I meant that at least I know I'm not going to be looking for a new saddle. Sorry about that.

Oh, maybe it is not my hands that are so bad then! Yes, definitely an improvement on getting a new saddle anyway!

Did a 3 hour ride today now my exam is done! I didn't mean for it to be 3 hours but we went exploring and this land just didn't end! :)

Elephantpoo- we ended up near-ish to your way, at the end of a lane to 'Nogsland'.

Mitchie - I heard a peacock and thought of you!

The mare was good but has started to do the daftest thing ever - if we pull in on a single track road to let a car past, and I have to halt her, as the car gets to about a foot away, she swerves her arse in front of the car! WTF! Twice cars gave up trying to get past my muppet mare and ended up having to reverse back to a bigger passing place.

Manatee-hooray for your exam being over and a bigger hooray for 3 hour ride
Your mare has the same habit as a friends pony..........she's just shelled out 500 pounds to repair a womans car door, because her Dpony sat on it
Do you thinks it's impatience?

I'm going to have to enter the realms of saddle buying soon......Dpony has a synthetic one, leant to us by a friend, but now he's been in work for a bit and hopefully has some kind of muscle to him I'd like a nice comfy leather one - I'd better get saving!!

Riding is going well. Can't wait to jump Dpony again. A friend mentioned today about a few jumps near the reservoirs that I'm going to search for tomorrow. Also going to try out my new "brakes" that arrived yesterday.......a sweet iron tom thumb gag with french link and copper rollers I hope it works!

It is definitely impatience! I am going to have to work on this - I do NOT want a £500 bill! She never did this at the old yard when she hacked out all the time, but now we have been riding mostly in the woods at the yard, and rarely on lanes because the yard is on a busy road, going to work on this!

Good luck finding the jumps, and with the new brakes!!!

If you are having to halt anyway could you turn her round so she is facing the vehicle? I do this sometimes with dhorse if something particularly big and rattley is coming as he is better facing it (ok I'm better facing it!). That way she might not think to swing her bum out. Just until you've nipped the habit in the bud?

I've organised a saddle fitter to come wednesday afternoon so hopefully we will solve our problems. I must say I find my Wintec to be really comfortable. I didn't really want one as my sister had one of the earlier ones and I hated it but I got it as a compromise while dhorse was growing. I actually don't think I want to go back to leather now. I recently tried my old one on dpony, it's too small for me now but I'm hoping it will do for ds, and I sat on to make sure it wasn't pressing down anywhere. It felt very slippery!

I thought that when I went back to a leather saddle, you can always get one of those nice Heather Moffat seat savers though, I had that on my old horse's saddle, was nice :)

Regarding the mare and her bottom - she does it when facing the vehicle too, the daft mare watched a van drive up to her an as it got to her, she swung out her bottom! It was on a steep hill too, and the poor driver was having a hard time of it trying to get past (gave up and reversed after several attempts). IDK what the hell she is playing at really.

Think I'd rather like one of these all-over jobbies, like the Queen has. Looks very comfy!

Well, if it is good enough for the Queen.....

Need to get something for Gelding's saddle, Gelding is narrow, DH has a bony bum and can hardly walk after riding

A friend is borrowing Mare today to take his friend riding. The friend is experienced, but even so i feel abit having never met her.

Mare is going to PC again tomorrow, hopefully can go with her (DH and DCs depending)

SupersonicDave - hope PC goes well for your mare (and you get to go along too!)

Thursdays ride wasn't what I'd planned. I ran out of time, so just whizzed around the woods closer to home (don't like to too often, as it's stoney and Dpony is barefoot). Still managed to make a jump to hop over a few times

Today we went to the reservoirs to search for the jumps I was told about. I rode yard owners lovely horse and my sister rode Dpony!! That's the first time anybody else has ridden him. My sis hasn't ridden for 11 years and Dpony was an angel for her. We found the jumps and she just pointed him in the right direction and he did it-no questions asked Was lovely to see him jump........he jumps big, bold and clean. Lovely
My sister was very impressed and has gone home to order jodphurs and a hat........she got the bug again

Really pleased, because over the summer hols I'll struggle to ride more than 1 / 2 times a week, but now I have a trustworthy sharer

Awwww... your pony is doing so well EP!

Pixel, that looks rather luxurious :)

SSD - Hope your mare did well with your friend-of-a-friend, and goes well at PC :)

No riding today :( One of the other liveries phoned this evening to question the field the mare was in (in that she was asking why she was in there as she 'should' be in another field!) was a bit . Bloody livery yards!!! I need my ninja recluse who owns a field fantasy to come true really.

In fact - I am actually really brooding over aforementioned phone call...ARGH!!!

No riding today here either, not until the saddle fitter comes weds. My friend lunged dhorse and he was very excited, bucking a lot, but he looked so gorgeous. He did the most beautiful floaty trot, really springing off his hocks and pointing his toes, and his neck all arched. I was very proud .
We put up a jump, only small as the ground is hard and he has only jumped a couple of times before. He did an enormous leap, I think he thought the jump was 3 foot at least. He must take after he grandad, who I'm told was an eventer.

Manatee, when I win the lottery and buy the field we're in behind the other liveries' backs , I'm going to chuck off all the psychos which will leave about one, maybe two people. I will replace them all with hopefully sane people I've 'met' on Mumsnet. Do you want to book your space now?

Yes please Pixel, I'll take that. And a good 'kicking out the psychos' party too I hope :) Golly, that would be fun :)

We could run them off the land with pitchforks in the time-honoured fashion.

Actually there are a couple of people I could cheerfully throttle today so you aren't alone in your brooding. Poor dshetland is crippled lame and I've heard that one of the idiots had a friend up with an alsatian that was chasing the horses. It was probably nearly as big as her!

She is 27 and it's quite likely that she won't recover.

OMG, your poor DShetland. What the hell kind of moron lets a dog chase horses Pitchforks it is.

What a wanker, why would someone do that?

Mare didn't get ridden by friend of friend the other day, but did go to PC yesterday. Her flatwork was fab, she was doing lots of lateral work and just got it straight away they then did cross country. Mare was quite tired really after working so hard on the flat, and struggled with the xc which is not like her (she loves jumping) jacked it in on a double and caught her back legs on it so all scraped and now she is lame Think it is just a bit of bruising so hopefully a couple of days of spending the days in the paddock and some bute will sort it. Hoping to take her for some xc schooling once she is sound just for a jolly to get her confidence back.

Gelding is looking beautiful but a bit wild atm

SupersonicDave - great news about your mares flatwork. Hope she recovers soon.
Pixel - your poor Dshetland

There are some idiots about. Was this c / o another livery? Can't believe somebody would be so thoughtless............ggrrrrrrrr
How's Dshetland today?

Don't know if I'll ride out with DD today or not.........feeling shite
Will pop some pills and see how I feel when they kick in. Don't like to miss our weekend ride-it's often DD's only ride of the week.
Really want DD to start jumping, but not sure if she's there yet
I've been considering some lessons for her, to gauge where she is / where she should go, but now I've found out that a local (ish) stables are offering a progressive pathway for kids to follow
A friend seems to think it'll be a clinic type session with coaches on hand for advice. I'm hopefully going to find out more today. They also do an adult version, so may consider it for Dpony

What stables is that EP? DD has lessons at local riding school, she does really well, and their ponies are really good, despite me having some reservations about the place. I am aware this forum is searchable - it is the one that begins with H! But I was discussing local schools with my farrier the other day, he was recommending a few if we do move riding schools (DD does not want to!)

I am not riding this weekend, just so busy. Went to the county show yesterday and feel all inspired to starve so that I can afford a working hunter type for myself, and a nice little PC pony for DD!!!

How is shetland pixel? Don't understand how such a thing can be allowed to just happen, especially someone who is a guest of another livery - not just a random. Thinking of you.

Hope mare is sound again soon Dave, hope you feel better EP, hope Manatee is less busy soon and doesn't resort to starving herself. Can't work much further back than those last posts.

Have not ridden for a WEEK which is very strange. Field is so hard and dry the pony's feet are suddenly wearing as if he spends all day trotting on roads - why can't it actually properly rain? He will have to be shod all round in next day or two, bit demoralising.

In more liberating and exciting news I have found somewhere to move them to, it will be difficult breaking the news, cutting ties and won't take dartmoor but grass livery £50 a month in beautiful place. Can hack to Topthorn, Boundary Farm and generally hack for miles without touching a road. Quite nerve wracking decision but the three are costing £110 a week at current place and facilities are better at new yard. Just hope the people are ok, you can never tell but good mix of happy hackers, eventers and everything in between. Not moving until next month so will have to try not to mention it until I give notice, a week or so.

It's only what I've heard. Apparently someone saw the dog off the lead and said that she hoped it hadn't been in the field with the horses. The girl whose friend had the dog quickly said it hadn't but her five year old immediately piped up "oh yes he did mummy he went up there" the way kids do, so she was obviously trying to cover something up. The vet actually asked me if dshetland had been chased around at all so I've put two and two together.

Anyway, she seems slightly better today so fingers crossed, thanks for your kind words.

At last I can join in.....having had my old dhorse pts a fortnight ago after a sarcoid haemorrhaged (sp) and had new horse on box rest for unexplained lameness for 4 weeks, we are now back on the road. We've done 2 weeks walking and just started trotting although only on grass as it's so hard still and he's going well. I did a 2 1/2 hour ride on Saturday which involved going through the village and discovered that new horse is terrified of drains/drain covers which he obviously thinks are hiding horse eating monsters, and cyclists - he can't get to grips with those at all!

He's also not that good with cars that don't slow down - ones that do are fine, but with the faster ones he starts shaking and sort of scuttles sideways. It amazes me how unthinking some people can be - believe it or not the worst offender was a car and horse trailer who just kept on coming at 35+mph even though I was within a 30mph limit and waving my arm trying to slow him down, whilst steering horse round especially scary drain cover. We both came back a bit stressed!

New horse was fine when I hacked him out on trial, I think he just lacks confidence so I will keep going. I rode out yesterday as well, but it was so windy we gave up after an hour - it was horrible and there were too many things for him to shy at. He has two days off now as I'm working, but will be back in the saddle on Wednesday. I'm aiming for a 15 mile fun ride in a couple of weeks so need to get the fitness levels up.

Manatee - no, the stables doesn't start with a "H" (I think I know where you're thinking of though!) What are your reservations about where DD is?
We also went to the show. I was really looking forward to seeing the horse whisperer guy, but missed it Watching the show jumping has really confirmed that jumping (showjumping / hunter trials) is where I want to go with Dpony
Pixel - glad that Dshetland has improved slightly I love the honesty of some kids
Hi frostyfingers
Sounds like you're doing well with you Dhorse. The wind is horrible-changes even the simplest of rides. My Dpony gets worked up about pigs. We went on a ride last week that started out past "the pigs" and Dpony was on edge the whole ride.
What is it with horses and pigs??!!
Not sure when I'm riding this week-I'm very aware that the half term is looming and I need to get on top of some housework and book-keeping!

EP - Nothing in particular really, just a few little things, like trotting on the correct diagonal has never been mentioned and I find that odd! But it is fine really, and DD has just been moved up a group as she is now cantering well, she has made lots of progress there so I think it is mostly just a few little niggles, but for a small RS, they are very good. And yes, the jumping was great at county show, esp. working hunter class, that is just my kind of thing :)

Pixel, I am glad to hear your shetland seems a bit better. Funny about what her 5 year old said! Reminds me of the yard I was at in Cornwall, which was owned by a vile women, her granddaughter said to me 'Nanny uses your horse feed'!!!

Frosty - it is good to hear that you are riding again :)

Mitchie - are you still going to have the dartmoor if it is not coming with you to your new yard? That hacking sounds well worth the move :)

Well I had a long schooling session today, with lots of leg yield practice to hopefully help with the mare's bizarre 'arse in front of oncoming cars' habit she seems to have developed. She actually schooled really nicely for her, I was quite proud :)