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Discuss horse riding and ownership on our Horse forum.

Original poster

Riding log - anyone interested?

999 replies

SupersonicDave · 26/03/2011 11:25

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.

OP posts:
Original poster
SupersonicDave · 13/04/2011 21:32

Rubber mats are great but they make the stables smell so much worse! Horse piss that is sweating on rubber? Delightful!

My back is a combination of a dodgy lumbar puncture at 18 (nicked the sciatic nerve) too long riding bad horses (or falling off) and 2 kids (one giant 9lb 2oz baby) It is not that it hurts as such, but that i get sudden weakness in my back and legs, and really cant move. Think i may have a trapped nerve this time.

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Ponks · 13/04/2011 21:58

Went for hack with DH round a local farm ride. Had bit of a panic attack Sad and was too scared to canter as mare was being bit of an idiot, she is very clingy to DH's horse and got upset if DH moved too far away (as in more than about 5 metres). Feel really lousy and upset that I'm such an idiot, don't know what happened to me.
I'm really not enjoying myself at the mo. Perhaps I should give myself a break from riding for a while.

MitchiestInge · 14/04/2011 09:05

I know! Trailed round after various of the liveries trying to scrounge some Jeyes Fluid yesterday. Am sure that was an annual job and not a weekly one in the olden days! Hope your back improves, it's so limiting and so frustrating - have you got help with the children and horses in meantime?

Ponks :( can you ride something else now and then? Don't know what helps, it is supposed to be enjoyable isn't it. Would probably be a bad idea to take couple mg diazepam or something before you ride? Pixel and Owls got a cd that I think helped, a sort of hypnosis thing.

Have a very similar problem on the ground, am working on theory that the more I do it (get horses in and out of fields) without incident the less anxious I will be. But there is always an incident!

MitchiestInge · 14/04/2011 09:07

And you're not an idiot!

Original poster
SupersonicDave · 14/04/2011 10:03

Ponks Sad I do agree with Mitchy though, it is better to do it than to not. I am so wussy sensible since having the kids (and breaking my leg - another story!) but if i avoid something it becomes a much bigger issue. I would recommend getting an instructor who is good with nervous/beginners and having some lessons.

I am much better riding/handling horses when there are other people there as i don't feel the full responsibility of something going wrong iyswim? I feel able to go back to just doing the things i have always done rather than think about doing them and all that can go wrong. I hope that makes sense!

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Original poster
SupersonicDave · 14/04/2011 20:42

Well, no riding today, but i got some old pony books from the charity shop Grin We Hunted Hounds by C. Pullein-thompson, and National Velvet, maybe i will be inspired? Grin

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ManateeEquineOhara · 14/04/2011 20:54

I love old pony books!!!

:( Ponks - I agree with Mitchie - is there any extra sensible horse you could borrow??? How long have you had your horse?

I rode in the woods today. Then I went up the track that leads to the back way out of the yard through fields to see if the cows have gone in the field yet. Unfortunately they have. I hate cows, I hate the way they follow us, and how I never know what they will do. There are now cows in the fields on all my nearest rides. I may need to find a new yard!

Ponks · 14/04/2011 22:25

Ahh, thanks guys for your support. It is just so weird having seemingly lost my nerve so much.

I also have an aged gelding who is brilliant and when I feel bad he gives me a lovely confidence boosting ride. I trust him so much and am very relaxed with him, but at his age (mid 20s) I don't want to do too much with him - though every now and then he loves to pop a tiny fence!
And tonight I rode my mare in the school and she was lovely.
Hopefully get out for a hack again tomorrow & start building up again. The idea of taking something beforehand eg stiff drink rescue remedy is a good one.

Yay for pony books! love the horsey bits in the Antonia Forest books too.

MitchiestInge · 14/04/2011 23:28

It is such a horrible feeling isn't it, that sudden and total loss of nerve. I don't have it when riding - although there is one jump I have a thing about, although everyone does, it's called 'the chicken' for a reason! But in the field I am getting worse and worse and worse, it is so madly unhelpful that the dartmoor goes out in a field with a four year old stallion and an eleven month old colt. The colt is - I don't want to say he is something horrible, but they are not the most calm and trustworthy creatures are they? If he isn't trying to mount me he is spinning round to double barrel me. Maybe it is like flooding, maybe it is an actual therapeutic type process. I can't even feel cross with him because he is so beautiful and coltish!

Anyway at least daughter overcame her hacking phobia, the whole 'this pony is too pretty not to show off' thing worked. We had one very minor road to cross and encountered three lorries, more than we see in a whole week, and now we know the dartmoor is not a fan of lorries - we had been warned. Don't think it has put her off although there were tears at lorry number one.

I want to read the Jill's Gymkhana etc books now.

Original poster
SupersonicDave · 15/04/2011 17:18

Ooh, Jill's Gymkhana. Have you ever read any of the Fly-by-Night books?

Well done your DD and dartmoor. That is great!

Ponks Rescue remedy is quite good, but i think you need to work on the reason you feel nervous iyswim?

Manatee cows are the only thing my mare is scared of.

DD rode my friend's beautiful shettie today. Friend has said we can go up anytime we like to ride - Yay! DD was doing lots of trotting and even went over a trotting pole "I want to jump. I want to jump BIG" Hmm Grin oh dear god

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Pixel · 15/04/2011 19:10

Think I prefer Fly-by-night stories, everything comes too easy to Jill. I loved her as a child but now I re-read them and think she is a prissy little know-it-all. Grin The Swallow Tales are good too, but then I love K M Peyton.

Pixel · 15/04/2011 19:38

Mitchy, I don't call that loss of nerve, I call that self-preservation! If the pony is kicking out at you etc then you are more than entitled to be wary.

Must admit, I'm not so good now at going in fields with lots of horses. I used to be fine but then there was one nasty one that really put me off, I had to fling myself under the fence once as his hooves whistled past me and he wouldn't let me get the shetland out at all. That's why we stay where we are really as we have our own paddocks and don't have to go through any others. If I moved to the yard up the road with fab facilities, (so tempted! Goodness, they even have electricity[shock) dhorse would be in with at least 20 others, which wouldn't be so bad in the summer but would be hellish in the winter when they are all hungry.

Ponks, I know what you mean by weird, people think you need to have a reason to lose your nerve like a bad fall or something, but sometimes it does just vanish! I'm in the process of trying to get my nerve back, it is a long hard road but the alternative is giving up altogether which I just can't do. I did try the confidence CD but I got fed up with being interrupted (phone/postman etc) every single time I tried to listen to it. If I were you I wouldn't have a break, it just makes it worse. I'm finding the best tactics are to try and calm the 'what-ifs' constantly going through my head because they are the main problem. I'm also hampered by a phobia I've developed about riding downhill, living between the foot of the Downs and the sea (horrid industrial/harbour and pebbly, not nice ride-on sandy beaches) means I'm severely limited with how far I can actually go. Hmm

Original poster
SupersonicDave · 15/04/2011 19:59

Pixel i loved The Team by KM Peyton, where they are a couple of years older, when i was about 13.

I hate handling other horses tbh. I used to work in a stud, breaking yard, racing yards etc and now i hate being near others. After DD was born i remember bringing a friend's cob in from the field. After i put him in his stable i found i was shaking! He hadn't done anything at all. I don't know if it was having DD or breaking my leg or combination of both that did it.

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ManateeEquineOhara · 15/04/2011 21:11

Oh...Fly by Night is good :) But I did like Jill too :D

I did some schooling today - it didn't go very well, she was pretty awful in canter, unbalanced, mini bucks, wrong leads etc ...so we went into the field in the woods for a quick gallop and jumping session instead.

I miss my ID so much, he is so perfect :(

Ponks · 15/04/2011 21:13

Today the mare and I have been for a hack and had a tiny canter for a few strides before I chickened out; even managed to open and close gates calmly (am also a wimp about gates having nearly broken my leg with last horse rushing through a gate as I was opening it, still have the scars a couple of years on!).
Planning to do this by self a few times before trying another farm ride with DH. Anyway it felt like a step forward.

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. Pixel - sorry to hear you are having confidence issues too. I also have the "what if"s going through my head. Had to stop jumping xc last year as whenever I approached a fence lots of mental images appeared of me falling off & breaking my back etc. Could picture it perfectly. Not exactly the right frame of mind to jump with!

MitchiestInge · 15/04/2011 21:14

Had such a nice hack with friends this pm, slightly mental canters (head butting shaking despite new nose net, which actually made it worse grrrr) came home with very long shadows as sun was setting. I love my horse too much, he is irreplaceable. What will I do when he is really really old? Why did they only make one of him? :(

But trying not to think about that, looking forward to Sunday when friends are riding each of the ponies and we can all go out together on the really long best route - meadows, 'hills', gallops. :)

Pixel · 15/04/2011 22:23

Mitchy, there's no doubt it's hard when they get old, but it's worth it for what you have now surely? And you will have a new friend one day, it won't be better or worse, just different but it will be good. My old boy has been gone 5 years, I still miss him, sometimes I dream about him and when I go along the field I can picture him there clear as day if I want to. Doesn't mean I don't love dhorse though. We don't have the same bond yet, (we can't have, I had my old boy for 23 years), but he is special in his own way.

Funny you saying about only making one. There is a little horse sanctuary quite near where I live and I always have to look over the wall to see what they've got (as you do). The other week I was taking ds for a walk to the park and looked over the wall and my heart nearly stopped. They have a pony there the absolute spitting image of my old pony when I first got him (right down to the sticking out ribs sadly Sad). I must admit I spent a few days plotting how I could afford to take him on and trying to convince myself he would be a suitable mount for ds. Blush

Pixel · 15/04/2011 22:41

Oh dear just thought about that and it sounds really callous, like you can get another one and it won't matter. You know I didn't mean it like that right? It's just that as hard as losing him was, it was still better than never having him, and I know that one day I'll feel the same way about dhorse.

ManateeEquineOhara · 15/04/2011 22:48

Aww....Mitchie...I totally feel the same about the mare. She is so special to me, even though actually she has many faults! I have had her since she was 2 and she is now 13 and the farrier called her an 'old girl' a little while ago - I actually could have burst into tears right there! I don't want her to ever get old! I still call her 'baby horse' sometimes!!!

Pixel - that does not sound callous to me!

Pixel · 15/04/2011 23:05

Ha ha, old pony was always 'the youngster' until well into his twenties, just because we had two older ones!

Damn you Mitchy, you've depressed me now. It's only just occurred to me that there's a good chance that the bloody horse will outlive me!

MitchiestInge · 15/04/2011 23:26

Noooooooo, doesn't sound callous. It sounds hopeful - life goes on, other goof stuff happens etc. I'm being an idiot. He's 18, not 30something! Although I'm not convinced he isn't a bit older, there was no passport until I got him one and we just guessed his age, pitched at an insurance friendly sort of level.

Our pony will pretty much definitely outlive me if I ride him more often, I will die from the shame of falling off Grin - although haven't fallen off since the day of the Most Eventful Hack Ever some months back.

MitchiestInge · 15/04/2011 23:27

Yes goof stuff will definitely happen but I meant good

Pixel · 15/04/2011 23:35

I'm looking forward to the goof stuff. Smile

MitchiestInge · 15/04/2011 23:37

Haha yes me too. Started oats today, there must be at least an outside chance of goof stuff soon?

MitchiestInge · 17/04/2011 07:32

Excited about extremely long ride. Just need to find sensible pants.

Horse has squared off his back feet and will have to be shod all round soon, all this road work I suppose.