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.

Lots of riding here also! too much in fact, for various reasons I have to excerise all my horses today - already ridden 4 and lunged 2 - now feel like i'm about to die and still have another 3 to ride later!
Just thinking on the positive side - I can eat a hell of a lot of chocolate later to make up for all the lost calories

Had a ride out today with a couple of other people (I know! dhorse was very surprised and has fallen in love. I didn't realise he was gay but it would explain his deep terror of dshetland). Didn't get far because I spotted my saddler's van heading towards the farm. She was half an hour early but I thought I'd better make tracks back so we turned around. Was good though, I was a bit terrified nervous to start with but quite enjoying it by the time we got back as dhorse had settled down. Am actually looking forward to another go (don't faint).

Saddler has taken my saddle away but promised it will be ready to collect tomorrow afternoon so that's not too bad. We've decided against flocking after all and she's going to put some extra girth straps on instead so hopefully that will cure the problem of horse the size and shape of a large oil drum saddle slipping.

It was very embarrassing as she obviously wanted to see me riding on the saddle but the main school was in use so she suggested the lunging one for a quick trot round. I spent the whole time shouting, kicking and flailing my whip in a desperate attempt to keep dhorse going as he was desperate to roll. Elegant it was not! My mum was watching and she was torn between being horrified (she paid for half the saddle) and thinking it was hilarious.

I rode yesterday. Fed up with the hideous road you have to take if you go out the front, I went across the fields, including that with a bull in. It was fine, but I was just fed up waiting for it to be taken elsewhere, and the YO did say the bull is good. It was all fine, and nice to go out that way :)

I've got brakes! Woohoo! Lovely long ride today, controlled canters, wonder why I ever stopped using the gag?

Didn't ride AT ALL yesterday, day before rode to Topthorn and back to see how long it takes. Had to make him walk because he was still fizzed up from race track on Tues, so 45 mins each way. There are quite a few clubs to join there, should make use of some of them like SJ. Still waiting to find out when cross country course is open at Boundary Farm, bought new boots (for horse not me) especially!

Boundary farm looks amazing Mitchie, it'll be worth the wait when it opens, saw your link to their website, wish I lived nearby!
Manatee - any news about your college working livery yet?
Pixel - sounds like your making good progress with your horse, hope you're enjoying your new yard, saw your thread about body protectors - good luck, mine is in a cupboard somewhere so not much of an advocate but i know they can be a life saver so I hope it softens up soon.

Not much news here, a cyclone like wind is blowing and all my ponies have gone skitty! By some weird twist of fate my TBs are walking around as though nothing is wrong

Got my saddle back and now it is torrential rain and howling gales. Greeted today by a poor shivering horse covered in burrs from head to foot and looking very miserable. I didn't take any rugs with me to temporary yard because hey - it's July isn't it? . So I spent ages de-burring him (he is a very hairy cob) and giving him a huge feed and then left him with about 3 days worth of hay. Then chopped down all the burdocks I could find and carted them away, by which time I was soaked to the skin.

Just wondering if I should add 'gardening during a tornado' to the thread about ways to prepare for horse ownership.

Yay for torrential rain though, have booked boundary farm for Monday. Of course it might be too slippery if it rains like this again tomorrow - couldn't ride today, the thought of drying them off and making them do stuff was overwhelmingly tiring. Kept thinking of all those poor people at Latitude, has been hot and sunny in Suffolk for weeks until now!

Absolutely have to wear bp they said, will not be allowed without :( suppleness is all I have on my side really, although after stirrup-free gallops last week I suppose there is some balance

Would you mind if I joined in? Haven't (sadly) got my own horse, but am an experienced rider, and have just started again after a few months of being too poorly to ride. Am also a regular MNer but frequent namechanger since DailyMailgate. Current name is because Nick Skelton's Carlo is the most heartstoppingly beautiful gray I've seen in a long time. I should be riding next on Tuesday, at the local riding school.

Hi Nickskelton, of course you can join, you don't need your own horse!

Ahhhh Nick Skelton, of course you don't own any of those horses - do they all belong to Beverley Whatsherface? Very excited to see you here. Horn. Please give me a jumping lesson!

Will try to stop thinking about Nick and do some riding. Please please let it not rain too much today, will be very disappointed if course is too slippery tomorrow.

Hahaha, I am in love with Carlo, he is so lovely - never mind Nick.

I had my first lesson for ages last week and my muscles are only just back to normal. It's a fantastic workout, though - all my core muscles have come to life after a winter of hibernation.

Dh rode this morning and booked me in for Tuesday. We've got a family hack booked for August, so I've got to be reasonably fit for that. Our dc ride. I'm probably the worst rider of the family, technically, but I have years of experience, eg of clinging onto a bolting horse during a thunderstorm, etc. You know the kind of stuff.

That sounds exciting, thunderstorm, possibly too exciting!

Short hack this morning, during which horse got it into his head to jump a ditch. I hate ditches! We wrestled a bit then he won and we went over not very elegantly but together. Mildly worried about tomorrow but jumped nicely in school, except kept landing on wrong leg - don't suppose this will matter in bigger space?

Mitchy, how did you get on?

Oops just saw your other post, sorry.
Bloomin' weather. Dhorse has got a rug on, the first time I've ever put a rug on a horse in July but I want him dry enough to have a lesson tomorrow so I gave in.

made up for no cross country by nice hack with friends, got to show off my brakes by NOT galloping everywhere

irritatingly he ran out at everything I wanted to jump on way home - not sure we are a gifted jumping partnership after all

Hello!

Good news here is I have finally found someone to be a casual sharer. No financial involvement, I am still fully in charge, but this person is going to come up and help me ride and muck out during term time - hurray!

Well I'm back from a lovely hot (42+) holiday and now freezing to death. Dhorse has managed to lose a shoe while I was away so farrier now booked for tomorrow. I expect he'll be a bit sore too which is a bore as I need to get him back on track for a fun ride on 31st....

My stinking cold turned into a throat infection so most of my holiday was spent feeling sorry for myself - it sort of went by Friday, but I'm still feeling a bit grotty.

On a good note we went to see a dressage display of/by Andulacian stallions and god they were wonderful - beautiful, beautiful creatures and so fabulous to watch. We were allowed to look round the stables as well so it was heaven for me and made up for feeling grim. They are stunning to look at and obviously know it by the way they behave - yet quite happy to be patted and stroked in the stables, in fact I think they thought it was only right that they be worshipped by all and sundry! Have a look at this and drool! www.elcartujano.com/Web_Ingles/Menu_Ingles.html

Ooooh film people here earlier, some bits of Private Peaceful might take place here (think they are doing the battle scenes up the road) wonder if all the horse parts have already been cast?

Hi all.

The college thing didn't work out for Dmare. I wasn't surprised when the email asked me if she could jump a 2'6 course (no, but she can clear a single jump of 2'6!), and enter a prelim dressage comp (no, but her canter is improving, she can do it on corners as well as straight lines now!!!). Plus other info such as the saddle issue and the hideous scar, and the fact that she is only 13hh. :)

Anyway, I wasn't really feeling like riding so I lunged her and she was so good, including cantering on the lunge (). So actually I went for a little ride bareback in the woods. It was nice actually, feeling slightly less dispirited.

what a shame, what's the scar though? Why should that matter? It's a college not HOYS?

are you still looking for somewhere or feeling more settled where you are (it does sound lovely on the whole)?

I don't feel settled there though. Sometimes I do, today was nice, I didn't ride, but it felt okay today. Maybe I just need a sharer, I know a lot of my yard ambivalence is just that I so miss having my best friend living at the stables lke it used to be :(

The scar is pretty extreme, it covers most of the outside top part of her back leg, from just above her stifle, up about 8 - 10 inches, and the same width at the widest part, and about 4 inches at the narrowest part, plus there are parts going around the sides. She got it when she was kicked, and developed an immense abscess that nearly killed her, luckily she pulled through (obviously), but all the flesh just died, the vet cut it off with a pair of scissors, no painkillers, it was just dead flesh. For ages she looked like something from a 'see inside your body' type book, there was just this huge chunk removed and you could just see muscle. It took over a year to heal. It now needs sun block on every day or it gets burned and although she has done so, so well, with an old injury on that scale there is always the chance that harder work will show up weaknesses.

Manatee - hang in there, it'll get better! I'm still not 100% sure that new horse is the right one yet after 4 months, but then things go well and I think he's fine. It's probably same with the new yard - once you can settle in and feel less like a newbie you'll be able to enjoy it more - hope so anyway.

Took dhorse out for the first time in a fortnight just now (dodging the showers) and he was fine except we came across the most terrifying monster a horse could possibly hope for! Our local farmer was abstracting water from the river via a nice fat water pipe which ran through a culvert under the road we had to cross. It was hissing, spitting and jiggling about and understandably dhorse was very wary of it. To make it more exciting 3 cars arrived (single track road) so lots of squeezing past and poor horse was torn between which was more worth snorting at - twas very funny really, but I hope it's gone soon otherwise we'll never get past there again.

hope you do settle in manatee, am inclined to think you would have by now?

that sounds truly terrifying ff, what a brave horse!

had good ride yesterday morning, my dog joined us for first time in years and nearly killed himself trying to keep up as we bombed up the hill - in afternoon/evening though my sharer had less fun, horse took off and broke set of reins number 2. She might need to use second ring of gag, I just keep it as snaffle unless extraordinary circumstances (eg xc). Hope she is ok, will ride out with her this afternoon on pony. She had a fall last week too

Where is everyone? Day off, will be busy there with all the sponsored ride people today. Followed the route yesterday in case it went somewhere had never been before, it didn't but it was nice anyway. Weird how 12 miles doesn't feel like a long ride anymore.

Sharer is unhappy with the gag, we had a really long and pointless discussion about it. She wants the Pelham back but might as well put cotton wool in his mouth.

Hey mitchy, have you tried a waterford? I know they are known to be harsh, but in the right hands, very useful.

No riding here today, dh working so full childcare my responsibility.