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.

All this talk of hunting is making me feel a bit faint. Someone is going to mention ditches in a minute, I just know it.

Oops! It was me, sorry!

Not been riding much lately as the days seem to fly by without me achieving much at all (she says while spending half and hour on MN ). Have used baby horse for a novice trail ride though, he had horses in front and behind him and me walking beside him and just plodded along trying to eat grass. I guess thats a good sign.
DS had his first 'ride' aged 4months with DH holding onto him - unfortunatley he was oblivious to the whole thing, i'm not even convinced he noticed the pony was there!

Love the photo's pixel and frosty - your horses look lovely!

Not been on here for soo long. Was so worried DHorse's goose was cooked that I coudn't bear to come into the tack room.

Went for our first proper nice long hack for ages on Saturday. We have had a nighmare year of lameness and box rest due to metabolic syndrome causing laminitis and also long standing navicular. Poor DHorse never sound for more than 2 weeks at a time. So many vets bills, stress about money and fears about beloved horse needing to be put down. She's 19

Finally sound enough long enough to get some sort of fittening program going, thanks to the girls on the yard who help me out loads.

On Saturday we went for a wondeful long(ish) hack, with two friends, up hill, down dale, woods, tracks lanes, beautiful weather, beautiful views, lots of trotting and cantering. DHorse finally stopped the bloody jogging and actually walked home when her nose/compass turned for home. ( Tired, bless her)

Had almost forgotten why I pay all this money out every month. I DO enjoy it after all!!! I was bloody stiff as a board on Monday though. Roll on Friday - next chance to ride.

thought I'd left a message between dappleton's and marge's

still need farrier desperately, nobody is returning my calls :( and had horrible experience at indoor eventer trial thing recently - nothing to do with horse or course, just the people. They got their comeuppance by being unspeakably slow and racking up as Jilly Cooper might say cricket score amount of faults while we of course went home with rosettes ranging from red to yellow

Ha ha,judgement on them Mitchie.Well done.

My friend and her dds hacked over today and DD1 went out over the fields with them.We met them half way and swapped jockeys and the dds had so much fun.DD1 in particular,really relished getting to belt over the fields with her friends.She normally has to tolerate me puffing alongside and shouting at her to slow down as she disappears off into the distance.Apparently dpony was out in front over the stubble and she even jumped a ditch.Friend says that the dds are very confident,especially as they've only had dpony for 6 weeks.Don't I know it!

Dpony was very good in company and when we got back to the yard,the girls were swapping ponies,racing around the menage and flying over the jumps.DD2,who wouldn't jump with me earlier,took a huge [for her] jump on her friend's pony,when she landed she didn't know whether to laugh or cry,but ended up laughing thank goodness.It is surprising what their friends can get them to do.

At dinner tonight,dd1 asked me if I could get a pony too,so that I can ride with them,like their friend's mum does.After explaining that I've not ridden for years,don't have time ect,I said 'Oh I suppose 3 ponies aren't much more work than one,though.' Dh rolled his eyes and said 'See this? It's grey hair.

Marge Glad to hear your happy ending.
Mitchy Congrats on all the rosettes.
Mirage you're on the slippery slope now, it never stops at just one pony!

Nothing much to add here. DHs racehorse came third at the weekend - we were expecting last - so quite happy with that!

Mirage. I was only talking about getting a horse to lead dpony off last week, then friend was saying on Saturday how fab it would be to get some grazing together and we could go out with the children together.
Considering I am in a full arm plaster again atm, I think we are getting ahead of things !

Have been looking for a new yard. Trouble is, where we are is lovely for ds, and location is great. Other yards v v posh, and not sure if mad 5 yr old would be ok

Dappleton 3rd is very impressive,I'd be chuffed to bits with that.Congratulations.I'm also seriously impressed that you get so much done horsewise with your baby ds in tow.

CMOT sorry to hear about your arm,but planning ahead is using your time well.

One of the problems of us getting another pony is,that we rent the stable field ect from my lovely neighbour.It is a two minute walk from our house and has an outdoor menage,cross country jumps ect.However,he said when we agreed the rent,that he could only have 3 horses/ponies there at a time,for reasons to complex to go into here.He wants to buy a show pony,but is holding off until his show jumper sells [currently on loan elsewhere and may come back].In the mean time,my friend has a lovely 12.2 that she wants to loan out to me in the future for dd2,but it would mean that there possibly wouldn't be room for them all at our yard.

I'm lucky that my parents have a farm in the next village and have said that if we end up with 2 ponies they can go there,but I'm spoilt now,having dpony so close and don't want to have to get the car out all the time to go riding ect.
However,lovely neighbour has just spotted me and said that I need to get dd2 a smaller pony of her own,and that he'll do a special deal on the rent for me if I find one for her.I told him about my friend's pony and he seemed very keen on the idea.

Poor dh,I don't know what he'll say,but it was inevitable really.I forsee a lot of eye rolling in the Mirage household.

Wow Mirage , your set up sounds great. Very jeallous. Been for a couple more great rides this weekend. Only hacking - we have no school, but could do with one. Beastie has lost lots of muscle the last year and so finds it much harder to work in an outline, so I then find it harder to keep her together and she is getting a bit race horse-ish out hacking recently. Trotting just gets faster and faster, and cantering is turning into galloping. We are both out of shape so I can't use my legs/seat like I used to to hold it together and she has lost her brakes. Still wonderful to be out though. Not even close to competing at any thing any more. But I do enjoy hearing everyones tales.

Has anyone thought about clipping yet??. My girl is getting very woolly and sweaty already.

Mirage, the best way to get DH to stop eye rolling is to get him riding, then get him a horse, then you'll have to have one to keep him company! That's how we've ended up with four

marge2thankyou-we are very very lucky.It must be lovely to finally get out again.We have an oldie too and she is getting her winter coat.We won't be clipping her as she lives out and won't be working hard enough to warrant it-she only ever gets sweaty around the girth.

olderyetwider-you are right,but he is resisting having anything to do with the pony at all.I've shown him how to tack up,pick her feet out ect,but he always leaves it to me.I think he's worried about getting it wrong in front of me.I mentioned getting dd2 a pony tonight and he said nothing.He'll be fine-as long as I don't expect him to do anything or take any responsibility for looking after them,he'll probably let me do what I like.Anything for a quiet life.

We had a very short ride this afternoon,as it was too windy to go out and dd1 was doing cross country at school til 4.15pm.We stayed in the menage and it was very hard work ,dpony was very stubborn.We did some lungeing,hands on head,no stirrups,all that stuff.DD1 finished by riding dpony up the yard sitting backwards.

argh really severe horn for new farrier

need to find out if he is married, although not sure which way I want it to be - in some ways might be better if he is?

Just got back from short break and caught up with all your news. You all sound very busy and well done to all of you with rosettes!
Have been to Exmoor, was bliss. Just me, my mum and my sister and two dogs in two little tents. No kids, no husbands, just wine, chocolate and cream teas (ok, we had the occasional meal and lots and lots of walking. Think it might have to become an annual event! Took my riding gear but didn't bother to book up in advance as I thought it would be quiet season but I didn't realise that they would have already scaled down the amount of horses (they go out on loan in the winter) so I missed out. My fault and I'll know next time.Still had a good old nose round the stables though.

Actually they did have a horse available but he was a youngster who needs a 'positive rider' (so NOT me!) so I didn't bother as I've got one of those at home and fancied something that would plod along while I admired the scenery. I was glad this morning when I saw the ride go out as they all looked like 'tally ho' types, not the usual mix of riders and beginners that you get in the school holidays. Think I'd have had trouble keeping up with them!

Sounds like a lovely break pixel.

Hack this pm, thought he was footsore at first or about to fall over and die but he was fine. Need to find way of riding without collecting half the spaniel population of Suffolk along the way though, one decided to lie down right in front of me, less than a stride away, when we were cantering up the hill and horse sort of cat leapt it! Could have been awful. Plus I nearly fell off.

Sounds a bit scary. Some kind of spaniel repellent perhaps? Perhaps you can get hold of some of the antiseptic stuff they use at the vets and spray yourself with that to put them off .

Went to a Trec training session today. Started off completely pathetic and led dhorse for the first couple of bits because it was raining hard and windy and he was being an a**e. He did go over the tarp and through the trailer though which a lot of them wouldn't. Finally managed to get on with him dancing about and he put his tongue over the bit so I had to get off again. .
Anyway I was eventually legged up by a fed up with waiting kindly lady and we had a go at some obstacles. Was good fun and a lot harder than it looks!

I'm new here, but thought I'd put in my ride as well! went on my neighbor's fat horse for a hack along the river, and nothing more horrible than another horse galloping up behind me! Why do so many riders have no understanding of horses? When do you gallop up behind another rider? He did finally slow when my horse (tried) to go up. (the horse is so lard-tastic all he could do was a very laughable squat). He guy passed, got three strides away, then galloped off! I mean, WTF? Lard boy then squatted a few more times in excitement/angst/confusion, and we finally got going again.

The rest of the ride was fine, but really, how is it that horse people have no idea how to ride among other horses? this is not Rocket Science!

Toxic,you made me snort with laughter about your Lardboy horse squatting with excitement. I bet it wasn't funny at the time though.

I am shattered.We spent all yesterdfay walking around the Midland Game Fair and today the dds went over to meet up with the friends that they rode with last weekend.The only problem was that we had to hack there on the road [about 3 miles] with one pony,2 dds and no bikes [punctures all round thanks to hedge cutting].In the end,dd2 rode,I walked,and dh drove dd1 over to meet us.Then we reversed it on the way back,but lucky me got to walk both ways.They had a lot of fun,jumping,swapping ponies,belting around the fields.Then we went on a 2 mile hack,coming back through the woods.DD1 was on dpony and jumped a fallen tree so was chuffed to bits.DD2 managed her first canter on dpony,then they all swapped again and DD2 rode my friend's 14.2 cob.

We are struggling with 1 pony and 2 riders,so I'm going to see a little 11.3 to have on loan for DD2.He sounds lovely so fingers crossed he fits the bill.We are going to see him on Wednesday,I'm very excited.DH is looking resigned about the whole pony thing.

I ache all over,so am heading for a hot bath.

Ouf Mirage, you must be knackered. And I'd have been livid Toxic - thats just so rude !

DS tried to force me to run round giant field again today, but I mostly refused. Dpony went over tiny railway bridge for the first time and was fab about it.

Have been looking at more yards, and found nice, not too posh one that is only mildly inconvenient to get to. And works out far cheaper than where we are at the moment.

Could he actually not stop? I'd only do that to another horse and rider if my brakes had completely failed but then we'd have bombed past sideways with me trying to turn and him just galloping regardless. You did well to not take off in pursuit! (My favourite chicken was called Moxie :()

Riding log now doubles as equestrian dating log, waiting to see if the man who asked me out today (dog show but hunt club organised so it does belong here!) gets in touch. He has a Percheron! And an ID and others. I did get loads of red rosettes today and reserve champion overall but with the killer spaniel - was worried because he hast started to join in the show jumping club and thought he might have Species Dys-something-ia and forget how to do blind retrieves etc but he was amazing. Phew.

Good day yesterday as DD took Sec B to his first show since June (when he was getting overfit) and he was very good boy. Unfortunately we were only pony in class (where are all the other FRs!!) but the judge made her trot round for ages, stood her up for a good look and then did her show. Just pleased that he was very well behaved, DD enjoyed her day and we got an Equifest qualification which may come in handy.

Well done - but that total absence of competition is a bit weird isn't it? Is it too late in the season or something? Things seem to go on all year now so not sure.

Perfect day today, 2 hour hack along route I'd forgotten about. It had everything - controlled canters, quiet roads, scary things (pampas grass, so scary it was safer to back into the oncoming traffic) and so much sun I was sort of drunk with it by the time we turned for home hence forgot to prepare for the gallop up the hill. We went up so fast and so suddenly my sunglasses flew away!

Agree sounds odd but at least they didn't cancel the class so that you did all the travelling etc for nothing. Sounds like a nice day out anyway.

Had long hack today, beautiful sunshine here too, lovely! Dhorse saw COWS but was more bothered on this occasion by scary round bales on the other side of the path so we got away with it ha ha. Also saw his first donkeys and went through a very long and noisy tunnel under a motorway. He was very 'up' the whole way but tried hard to be good which was quite sweet.

When we got back a lady offered me a ride on her horse. He's gorgeous, a total gent and at 16.3hh the biggest horse I've ever sat on (shortarse that I am). The lady put her stirrups up as far as they would go but they were still miles too long and she had to twist them for me . I felt like I was about 6 and being given a pony ride!

Mitchy/Pixel - it was up at Easton College (nr Norwich). Lovely venue (big indoor rings on surface), well run, respected judges and proper classes with Equifest tickets. Alastair Hood and Julie Barton took a few for a pre-Hoys outing but no atmosphere so didn't really give comparison to NEC. There was only one in the LR as well - although a HOYs contender. Maybe people give up after the school holidays but we are keen now as getting ready for BSPS Heritage show in October and weather was lovely.