grown up ponies, jumping and ginger hacks!

well don't I have a lot to write about!? Firstly I'll talk about Wednesday when me and Emma jumped Sparkie. He was such a fab little boy, as per, gahh he's the best! He hadn't jumped in a while but he was really good, not strong or silly :)

 I'm not sure if I mentioned this last time, but Jack is on a sort of bootcamp at the minute which we shall address as 'learning that we are 4 not 1 and sometimes you have to grow up and be a big boy and realise life is not all that hard' basically. This mainly consists of hacking and lunging in my 'home made' pessoa to try and make him all muscly and balanced and just generally not represent an overgrown hairy giraffe foal. He's such a quick learner, which I've always known, but he's really proved himself the last week- this is how we schooled after three lunging sessions:

I lunged him for 5 minutes on each rein before this and then I decided to just bite the bullet and get on him. This was quite a big deal because I have lost a ton of confidence with him recently and wasn't overly keen to ride him, I will happily admit we've had a few tears over the past few weeks! I'm so glad I did though, because he went really lovely for me, he tried SO hard! He obviously didn't school like the whole session, but as soon as I sorted my riding out and concentrated harder on my position, he responded so well and worked lovely- so proud of him! Just got to keep working at it now, but definitely feeling a lot more positive(until the next confidence crisis haha)

Then on Sunday, we were meant to be taking Sparkie out jumping but I got the dates wrong (I'm blonde ok) so instead I took him up to Emma's for a hack! It was all very fun, we had a lovely hack and all the ponies were well behaved, Sparkie was so calm and even lead past a tractor...clever moo moo!

 

 

 

Home made pessoa

As I am, as always, behind, I have two days to write about! So firstly, I was off all day Monday so after going car shopping for my Dad, I went up the yard and took Sparkie on a nice long hack (about two hours!) To get to any of the decent hacking near me, you have a few main roads to go down which sucks, but hey ho... Sparkie was a very good boy and wasn't bothered by the huge lorries that were zooming past on a 60mph road, I was very impressed with him :) We got to the first bridle path and had a little canter down there but then halfway along we found it was blocked off- very annoying! People have been going into the woods and fields instead of sticking to the path which is probably why it's been done. So that put an end to that idea, so we turned around and went back and went to a bridle path a bit further up. He was a little bit nappy, but the cars were flying around the bends and he was perfect with them so all is forgiven. We got to the other bridle path (after yet another main road!), and it looked like that had been blocked off too as loads of railings had been put up- I almost cried! Luckily I spotted there was a little gate right down the other end of the field, so I just had to go back on myself to get there. It was worth it in the end as there were loads of huge fields that I could just let him go in and he loved it so much- he's such a speed demon, made me feel a little bit sick at some points haha!
 He hacked all the way back great, until we were hacking along the main road and a huge, very loud truck came past us... he turned and bolted flat out down the main road. It was honestly one of the worst experiences of my life, not the best when you're scared of hacking in the first place! He came back to me though and he could easily have killed me so I just gave him a massive hug, had a little cry and then led him the rest of the way home. Scary!
 Later that day I went up to play long reining with Emma & Sunny. Sunny was a very good boy and tried so hard, he looked lovely!
 And now onto today! I ordered a roller on Monday (I think!?) and it arrived today, so today was lunging time for Jack in between the storms. He wasn't sure what to make of the roller to start with but after giving it a good sniff he really surprised me and just let me put it on, which was very grown up of him. I then put the bungee on him as well, just on the last hole and off we went. He lunged the best he has in ages. The last few times I've lunged him he's been a bit naughty, bucking and rearing and refusing to go out from me. Today I decided I wasn't having that, so I took a lunge whip in preparation... all it took was a look at the lunge whip and he was like "Oh, I see, I be good boy if whip is here, you no need whip me". He worked really well, I think his walk is pretty much there now, he tracks up really well and works in a nice shape, although his trot and canter still need some work. It was really interesting to see him working from the ground, it was obvious that on his bad rein he didn't want to bend to the inside, so I tried just shortening the bungee on that one side to really over exaggerate the inside contact and it seemed to help him, so we'll carry on working with that :) I was thinking of getting a pessoa type training aid even though he already works quite well from behind, but I wasn't sure how he'd react and then when I was un tacking him I suddenly had a thought... I got an old pair of reins and attached these to either side of his roller and put this behind his bum.. it made him a little bit upset, but it did the job, haha! Home made pessoa for the win!
Beth, Sparkie, Jack & Carling xxx

Escapee ponies

My mum's horse Carling, who I sometimes write about on here, came in with an abscess early last week and as he's been on box rest him and Barney have moved over to my field. Well yesterday he was looking a bit better and was feeling restless so I let him out into the smaller paddock for a bit of grass and Barney only went and escaped...that's shetlands for you! Jack thought this was the most exciting thing to happen to him ever and his brain pretty much fell out the side of his head, as demonstrated in the following pictures...

Then this morning me and my Dad took Jack for a hack. He was a good boy, a little spooky now and then, but he hasn't hacked for a while and it's still only about his 5th hack so I can't complain :) For some reason I've lost a lot of confidence with him lately, so it was nice to just chill out and have a quiet ride for a change. Really feel like he could be doing better of else where right now, so taking things back to basics and having a few lessons to sort myself out!
Beth, Sparkie, Jack & Carling xxx