thread on which to report positive things

[MiffyWhinge]

firstly the sun came out, hooray

secondly and even more welcome Joey didn't put a foot wrong today (once he started concentrating and stopped having a good look at everything around him). He managed to shoulder in, leg yield and, with a placer pole, put in a single stride of canter before a jump and do a double with a placer pole in between - he was a star, am ashamed of all the grumpy thoughts I've been having about him until recently. Clever, beautiful boy

please share yours!

Lovely pony took grand daughter round a little course of jumps on Thursday and then went out for a really nice calm hack today. He is the love of my life!

I am less terrified when I'm riding (shire cross I was riding has been poorly so I've been riding 13.2hh Highland pony, it's no distance at all if I fall off!)

And I stayed on, didn't panic or beg to get off when pony spooked and took off across the school with me. My first canter since returning to riding!

Now if I can just keep my legs in the right place in rising trot I might be getting somewhere

I took my helper-outer girl and big horse down to my friend's outdoor school and did some jumping for the first time in ages (not me on board though! Don't tempt me...I know if I sell him while I am pregnant I will never get to jump him again ) Big horse was just fabulous, the sun was out, and when we got home it was gone 5pm and it was still light. The clocks go forward in a month!

And everyone I speak to seems to have a small brown horse that will jump big hedges and yet still be calm enough to lead a pony. I'm almost looking forward to the next game of fantasy horse!

I took noddy to ponyclub yesterday on my own !!!!!!!! and ked him abd dd2 for nearly the whole lesson and even though he was a little skittish and wanted to trot way too fast and slightly sideways away from me i did not panic and DD2 had her first canter on him . earlier in the week i had taken them out on a hack on my own and he was fine but in the school he had a few hairy moments but agina i didn't panic.

Spirit's mirror seems so far to be stopping her being quite so stressy in her box.

Oh dear - not many positive things about today!

Ok New to the tack room. I have ridden since very small but haven't since I sold my last horse 7 years ago.

Poistive thing today. DD (4) had her second riding lesson and is taking to it like a duck to water.

I got a left to right flying change on Saturday (right to left is almost established but the other way was No Go according to madam). Fair enough it was a little, er, "expressive" (i.e. with a buck) but it happened!

Riding instructor told me that my body and leg position is now 'really lovely', and I can get v lazy horse (next horse up is now not lame, but a bit skittish as has been out of work, so have to wait a bit longer) to transition to trot nicely, do a good rising trot, keep him in trot, then transition back when I want to.

This may not sound a lot to others, but for me, it marks a point of real progress that it's all come together.

DS (3) can put himself round a figure of 8 (on a lead rein, but he's steering), and name all the parts of the tack.

Oh, and I have a target for myself now. By the autumn, I want to be doing a nice enough canter to be able to go on a trail ride for the weekend. Will be working hard towards this.

trust me cmot, from someone who mostly hears exasperated shouts of 'control your horse' in group lessons that sounds a LOT

cannot find anything positive about my last lesson, except I didn't cry when I badly wanted to

sun is shining again today though

The sun is out again! Big horse STILL has not rolled in his new rug (which could be because he would need a snorkel to roll in his field atm, but hey - look on the bright side!)

I went to the draghounds teamchase yesterday. I wanted big horse to go, but noone wanted to ride him in THAT weather! When I got there I was thankfull I didn't take him as they were towing lorries onto the parking field! But I still had a lovely horsey day. I had friends competing, and there were also such exciting competitors taking part as Lucinda Green and the ex-racehorse Earthmover. And the burger bbq was delish!

CMOT - impressed with your son!

1. My horse is settling in on new yard happily (day 9) and I have found another owner to share mornings/evenings with so that he's not in the field on his own while he settles in (ploughed through electric fence & tried to jump hedge to express his 'disappointment' at being left on his own last week!).

2. Rest of the horses on the yard will be shifting to 24hr turnout soon so things can get back to normal - happy days!

3. Picking up new puppy on Saturday - yippee!

IT IS MARCH AT LAST

At last I can join this thread! Beautiful sunshine today, found two snowdrops in my garden that miraculously haven't been taken by squirrels. Rode dhorse and he was an angel and I managed to not be a quivering bag of nerves (only walked but still pleased). And our field owner has promised that when he has finished with lambing he will come over and level off our paddock and put some bark down to make us a school! I'm so excited (and if he doesn't do it I will nag him to within an inch of his life).

that's fantastic news pixel, am so glad you won't have to school in a bumpy field anymore!

the field I wanted to buy but thought had been sold had not, and is coming on the market again (owner pulled out last time)

is for work initially but at around 3 acres am thinking would be good to always have somewhere to plonk Barney and Joey

Ha! bumpy field is more like a lake atm .

Ooh, 3 acres all of your own, I would definitely be tempted. I don't think you can go far wrong buying land, it will always be worth something surely? Unless of course it is on an old mine and vanishes over night. Or a plague pit...

I'm considering (subject to finances as per usual) taking dhorse to our field owner's 'posh' yard for a few weeks in the summer, before school hols start. They have direct access to beautiful downland rides, floodlit school, jumping paddock, cross-country course etc. I would need to be able to pay the extra rent and also to have plenty of lessons to make it all worthwhile( instructor would be teaching dhorse to jump). I enquired yesterday whether it would be doable (ie would there be anywhere to put him, I'm not going to bung him in with all the others and have him lamed the first day!) and the owner started going on about quarantine before we can use the facilities. Fair enough of course but we have been at our field for 8 years this year and he knows we don't go to shows or anything. Managed to haggle him down to 1 week . So we will see. It would be nice to do the old rides again and maybe it would make me a bit braver.

am not sure if it's equestrian or agricultural or amenity or what - agricultural land goes up and down in value a lot doesn't it, but there will never ever be even a remote chance of planning permission so that should keep it fairly cheap?

(haha, have not actually got any actual money yet but mortgage is nearly paid off so I suppose I could start again with another one?)

your plans sound exciting! quarantine sounds a bit harsh, even if you did go to shows you'd hardly let him share drinking things with a load of randoms (like my friend did and then brought some horrible liver problem back to her yard ) but probably sensible

ooh, almost feel like ordering a pizza to celebrate all these potential developments

Well, for land that can't be enclosed, and no possibility of planning permission, our community group have just paid 5k for 4.5 acres. DH says I can't tether a horse on the green though, which I think is a spoilsport attitude.

DS wants to know why his riding instructor can have a miniature shetland in her garden (he can't go anywhere else as he just walks under fences, and even the yearling ponies beat him up), but he can't. Unable to find a rational explanation for this.

My positive thing of the day. As part of 5 year plan moving towards house with land and a horse, I have started a course to take my BHS horse owners certificate.

this all sounds very exciting too THEN can your little boy have his shetland?

am going to ask about renting that field first as have been warned (and also remembered) about severe drainage problems, it will cost about a million £££ to enclose it in a dog proof way though

CMOT, we kept our first pony in our garden . It was fine. We converted the garage into a little stable and feedstore, and rented a small paddock about 1/4 of a mile away. He didn't need much turnout as he was prone to laminitis, but we rode him every day. 5 years later and we had 3 ponies and a horse living in our garden, in an extended garage-type arrangment. We rented 3 tiny paddocks, and used to ride them every evening - in the winter when it was dark we used to ride on Orchard Park (the council estate in Hull on that Channel 4 program) as the grass verges were wide and the had good street lights - floodlit hacking!

Ponies ina garden!

PS, honestly - those were converted pre-fab garages my dad got for free from the free ads paper. He had to dismantle them and reassmeble them himself, which he did with his builder mate. The one on the far end is a tin shed (couldn't find another prefab garage, but had some wood and tin sheeting lying around!) By this time we turned them out on a stretch of river bank we rented from the water board for £4 a month - bargain! We were only allowed to turn out there though from April to October, because there was risk of flooding in the winter. In the winter they went on the 1/2 acre behind the village petrol station. Not a great turnout paddock, but £50 for the whole winter, and they got to stretch their legs. We got our bedding for free from local sawmills - not dust extracted, but free! Even 2 of the ponies were free. But we had to work hard for everything. It instilled a 'work hard and you can get there' ethic in our family that we still have today.

You are an enabler Pandora .

Yes, DS will def get his pony when we move. I sort of plan to do a part loan for at least me from the summer (the riding school do a bargain with no other commitment and unlimited riding time) if I am safe to be let out on my own from then.

Would love to have a miniature in the garden, and could take it for lots of walks, plus have large field in front of the house (aforementioned community land) to ride on. But don't tempt me !

Pandora - your dad sounds like mine. Except my dad turned his eye to dairy goats at the end of the garden.

Sad news yesterday - Paddy the horse who has lived out near my parents for the last 20 years has died. He was 29, and a real local figure

Pandora, love the picture . Am guessing your garden is a bit bigger than ours though, and our landlord won't even let us have a dog so not much point in asking to keep ponies!

What a shame about Paddy. By coincidence we lost a pony from our field yesterday too, she was 28. Her owner bred her and still has her daughter and grand-daughter so it was a very sad day. The others look worried today as they have never been away from her. They are well-bred apparently (this is the one that died) and the lady is thinking of putting the other two in foal, which would be lovely for us having dear little foals about the place!

Had to put the last bit in to disguise the fact that we are putting sad stuff in the happy thread .

Oops sorry, last bit was to Dibbler really. Getting mixed up in my old age!