Jack learns grids!

As Sparkie is now having just over a week off, it's Jack's turn to crack down and get some work done. He's off to his first ridden show on Sunday so in preparation for that I had a little jump on him last it. He was so chilled out and well behaved considering it was pretty windy! Popped him down his first ever grid and he took it all in his stride, took a while for us to find the perfect strides for him but he was very patient and let us experiment moving jumps in and out as needed. He did have a pole and a run out one time, but that was because, as my dad so politely put it 'how can he jump nicely when his rider is riding like a sack of potatoes!'. Yep. His canter is absolutely beautiful, he has such a proper showjumping canter he comes so underneath himself and on his hocks he literally bounces on  the spot at some points haha! Ended up with the last fence at round about 3ft which he jumps effortlessly, if a little bit excessively at times.. I feel like he sometimes pictures himself jumping top of the wings! Little (kind of big) star :) 

Flying pony, birthday balloons, secret missions & first place

This is going to be a long one so be prepared! (bet you've heard that one before lul) I have three separate days to blog about so please bare with. Thursday I jumped Sparkie after his cheeky behaviour at Ashwood. Well I think he proved that he was definitely just taking the Michael because he was perfect, he felt so so good to jump, one of the best jumping sessions I've had on him!! Finished off jumping a small course of about 90cm/1m which he flew round with ease and also had a play bareback which was fun... Until he takes a stride out and I have to cling on! Emma had a play with him too and jumped him round a 80cm course really nicely! Was very very happy with him :) 

Saturday was a very exciting day apart from the fact that I was awake for 19 hours (!!!). We were up at half six and ready to leave the house at half 7 to go somewhere very secret which I can't reveal just yet to do something rather exciting. After that we went up to the yard with purple balloons in hand ready for Sunny's birthday! We decided to have a play at grid work so I set up a short grid of a bounce and then one stride to a straight. He's never done grid work before and he took it all his stride, he got a little bit confused with legs sometimes but it was nice to see from the ground how much he was benefiting from it; once he got the hang of it his technique over fences looked loads better, he was really snapping his feet up! Just needs to stretch out a bit more over fences now and jump though his shoulder properly but he improves every session and he always tries super hard. He was clearly having a great time as well; think grid work is his new favourite! (No, that would still be standing still.) 

Then yesterday it was show time! Sparkie was feeling rather cheeky and put me to the test a little bit, he was a bit nappy towards the gate but nothing horrendous; lucky he's fast enough to still get an amazing time anyway haha! He jumped fab, a little bit lazy because the jumps were a bit small for him, apparently 2ft6 is not up to his high standards nowadays, he gets a bit cocky sometimes and doesn't pay as much attention as I would like. He was really good though and we won the 2ft6 out of 11 people! He looked so funny, a full line up of 16.2hhs and then 13.3hh Sparkie on the end, awesome little pony! One of the best weekends I've had in a long time; I love my life :)

Bath time!

As always I have a few things to blog about! Had a good start to week, all ponies have been pessoaed (Minus Ron obviously, who, by the way, turned two on Monday!) which has been successful. Sparkie & Sunny both went lovely, Jack was a little tense and hollow but he'll get there, just going to spend more time working on him with the pessoa. On Monday I had a little jumping session with Jack working on courses and learning to do doubles and he was SO good, he literally just steps over everything up to 2ft9 with so much ease, I'm very excited to see what he's capable of this summer :)

 Then today it was a really lovely day so we bathed Sunny & Jack! They were both good boys and now both smell lovely and have lovely long flowing locks! 

Long hacks and scary fillers

First of all I'd like to apologise for the abnormally large pictures on my last post, I was not aware that had happened and I'm not sure how to fix that so apologies! 
 Anyhoo... on Monday we went for a really long hack with Sunny & Sparkie up to the Chase which was super fun. Sparkie hasn't hacked on roads for a good 6 months and he was so well behaved, I was really proud of how he behaved :) Had some fun jumping ditches on the common (Since when did he decide ditches were his thing?) and then a good blast down the bridle path on the way back; that pony certainly can fly!

they're all kinds of adorable the both of them

Sparkie modelling his bridle 

Then yesterday it was back off to Ashwood but this time to hire the jumping arena not the xc and with Sparkie & Sunny in tow this time. Not the best outing I've had with Sparkie this year, he was very spooky of some of the fillers and generally took the vernacular a little bit a few times, I think he forgot who was riding him, you don't get away with these things nowadays Sparkie! The problem we have is that we have very similar personalities and stress each other out very quickly so I just took him in his own little corner to chill and do some transitions for a bit more for my sake than he is and then he jumped lovely after that (apart from one filler he'd took a particular dislike to, odd pony). He definitely realised that he was martingale-less and took advantage of that so I shall be putting that back on him I think. Things could have gone a lot worse though I guess and it was definitely more me than him; whereas before it was his confidence that was the issue, nowadays he is just being a typical 13hher and testing me out! He warmed up beautifully though and jumped really nicely once he'd got his head screwed on so I was happy with him still; can't stay angry at that adorable little Moo for long. Sunny was a good boy and jumped the best I've seen him go away from home, however his back end was just a tad bit too active at times... horses have 4 legs not 2 Sunny dear. 

that's the face of a pony who loves his job!

Blackpool beach time

Hacking, Schooling, XC and Everything

So much has happened in just a week I don't really know where to start! Been on some fun hacks with all the boys and had a few schooling sessions as well. Had some fun playing with Ron who thought he'd spice our schooling session up by chasing everyone round whilst we cantered; cheeky monkey! Ron also had his first bath which was... interesting. I think it's fair enough to say he's not met a hose before so he wasn't too impressed but he looks so much better for it so it was worth our efforts! We also went to visit Molly with Lottie. Was lovely to see her again and to see her doing so well in her new home, she's obviously very happy and they love her to pieces. 

Then yesterday it was time for Jack's first outing of the year with Emma and Lottie riding Sparkie (only his second ridden outing in his life!) The day got off to a good start when he loaded first time and travelled perfectly which is a HUGE thing because both of these are things we've had a lot of problems with. He stood nicely to be tacked up and groomed and he was an absolute saint to warm up, his transitions were completely spot on and he was just so well mannered with perfect brakes, I could not have asked for better behaviour from him! He was a little bit nervy when we first started jumping as he's never seen xc fences before so it took a while to build his confidence up but that's fine, he's 4 and he wasn't doing anything to be naughty he was just unsure of what he was being asked so I just sat quietly and persisted with him until he knew he had to go over them. Once he had his confidence up he flew everything. We even finished doing a little hunter trial practice course and he was foot perfect at every single fence, he was a pleasure to ride, I had the biggest smile on my face the whole way round. So so proud of the amazing little horse he is becoming and it makes me so happy to say that everything he does has come from me. What a star. Sparkie was also fantastic as per and everyone had a lovely day! :)