Productive weekend!

Well I've been rather busy this weekend! Yesterday the weather was a bit damp and gross, but I was determined to get things done none the less. All four horses came in for a full works; head to toe groom, feet picked out, mane and tails sprayed and brushed out (If you had seen the state of their muddy tails, you would understand how impressive this is. Also feet. Their feathers were disgusting!) They were all very good boys, they all had their moments (apart from Sparkie who was just his adorable self as per) but nothing I couldn't deal with and they all redeemed themselves very quickly! I only managed to pick out on of Ron's hooves as he's a bit funny about that at the minute, but with a bit of perseverance and stern words he let me run my hands down all his legs; well done Ron!

This rug is 6ft3. Help.

Appaz we can take our self in nowadays.

 

Then today the weather was so so nice! I felt like it was summer all of a sudden! First was Sparkie's turn, I brought him in, groomed him, tacked him up and then it was time for a hack. Had a lovely little stroll out with him, only a short hack about half an hour long, we were just having a chill, mostly walking and the odd trot here and there. He was fab, on the buckle end the whole way, was so nice to just spend some time having a peaceful, sunny, laid back ride with my favourite little pony :) Then Jack's turn for a little schooling session. I was in a bit of a rush to get finished, so I just gave him a quick groom. I picked up his first foot and saw that his feet were really clean, so I was just going to leave them... well I went to get the dandy brush and turned around to see Jack standing there waving his back foot in the air and looking at me as if I'd gone mad. He was all like 'excuse me, you missed my other feet!?'. So I then had to pick up all his feet in the correct order, even though they were all fine, just to keep him happy (He legit picked them all up one by one of his own accord. Clearly he knows the score.) He was then the BEST he's ever been to be sprayed, he stood so still and didn't fidget one bit! He stood nicely to let me mount him from the ground so I could ride him down the lane to the other gate of the field rather than taking him through all the mud. On the way down, we did lots of practicing of walk, stop, walk, stop and he was so polite and responsive! Got him into the field and then realised I had a bit of an issue..without being on the concrete I wasn't tall enough to mount from the ground. Yep. Cool. Used one of the jumping blocks as a mounting block and he stood lovely again and didn't move off until I'd done my stirrups and girth and told him he could. He hasn't schooled since December last year, so he was a little bit rusty and wobbly in places. His canter transitions were a little bit out of practice the first few attempts, but by the second time asking he went straight off my leg onto the correct leg, and did some lovely canter work, including a few 20 metre circles and even 10 metre circles... so hopefully it won't take much work to get them back up to scratch! He was rushing a little bit here and there, but nothing stupid and when I sat up and held him together properly and tried a bit harder he went really nicely and was starting to use himself nicely. Not bad for his first schooling session of the year! Even if he'd schooled awfully, I was super impressed with how well mannered and sensible he was being on the ground :)

Jack. That is not how you wear rugs.