Bill makes progress

I have been working on Bills canter. Her walk and trot is coming along really nicely but her canter is very average. It's not that it isn't a nice canter, because it is, it's just that once you add a riders weight, and with her natural tendency to fall on the forehand, and her long powerful stride, and you get a runny bulldozery type mess when we canter. Of course this is in the open down the farm tracks so it's all straight lines basically and I can't use corners to help balance her. The last ride I had on her the cantering started pretty well with some good rate, but once she got a bit tired we got some huge bucks and it fell apart a bit. I made a big effort to get my work done early and took her to a nearby indoor, where the surface would be good and I could practice some cantering.

She traveled really well on the truck and was remarkably settled on arrival. She is getting to be so grown up. A bit of walk and trot to get her used to the arena and then straight into the canter. Interestingly, being inside backed her up and she didn't run in the canter, in fact it was hard to get her into the canter. It took her a while to believe me that she could canter indoors, but she was actually pretty good, with a nice amount of speed control, though she tended to fall behind the leg. She even managed some 20 meter sort of circles. The right canter was a lot less balanced than the left, but this one sidedness it's normal for her. She falls in and out a lot at the canter but as her walk and trot gets stronger, and she gets more responsive to the leg I will have more control of her body. Her walk and trot work was fantastic, and overall I was very happy with how she went so now I will bombard you with Bill pictures. I did think it was interesting how in nearly all the photos I am in a quite light forward seat. It wasn't conscious. I wonder if she is better like this, or it just sort of happened. I'll have to play with this more consciously. I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up being a horse you sit on lightly, her dam was, and she was a similar short coupled horse.

In other news I have been back on Kate and Connie and it was bliss to be back on grown up trained jumping horses. Kates canter is so beautiful and easy to collect, it's effortless for her, and Connie is so phenomenally soft in the bridle and square to ride and responsive. I did a good job if I do say so myself, she is such an easy ride. My sister rode her at the indoor and raved about her which is hilarious, because she has never really been a fan. Connie and Kate are both so hairy though. It's unbelievable. Sent my clippers away yesterday so next week they will have to have makeovers to make them less goat like.

Yo yo

I promise a new post will be coming. I'm writing one on horse that stop. For the moment I apologise for my lack of posting activity.my parents are away and just my sister and I are running the whole farm. Which is fine only be have had a few disasters. We had a week of a bad weather system that involved thunder, lightning, torrential rain, hail and gale force winds. After a week of that it was starting to get a bit hard to get out of bed. Add in that I haven't had a day off since the 27th of June and I'm getting a bit weary and things like blogging (and riding le gasp!) go by the wayside. That being said I have ridden The Kate again and it was nice to be on a real horse even if she dos look like she is half bear. What a coat for a TB. I think I have ridden maybe 6 or 7 times in the last 3 weeks. Thats lame!

Anyway here is the picture of when I was driving the tractor and it was so wet that I slid off a hill into this culvert, even though I had the brakes on.



You cant see it but the far front wheel is way off of the ground. A digger came and pulled it out. I'm told a good driver could have driven it out, but I don't believe that this is so. I just found some men who got it out and left me to the milking. Being a girl has a few advantages on the farm.


This is a good picture to show how much rain we had. I was like over 200ml in 3 days or something equally insane. The first day of heavy rain we were milking super fast as the water in the pit-(where you stand to milk the cows) starting climbing and we finished just in time to get out before our gumboots got filled. Thought Kims did when she was all "it's fine" And I was like until you move and she moved and I was right. The picture was taken in the afternoon after milking and despite the pump going all day it was still overflowing. That pit is about 3 foot deep so it was a lot of water.



We were not happy farmers.

Winter Riding

A much much younger Connie at a winter clinic- her very first clinic as I recall.

I have actually managed to ride twice in the last fortnight or so. Ah winter. It's been a very warm mild winter so far, but it's starting to set in now. As my grandad used to say " As the days get longer, the cold gets stronger" and he has yet to have been proved wrong. I can expect to ride in the rain or the next three months or so. I really need to start travelling out to a local indoor. My parents are in Turkey at the moment so my sister and I are in charge of the farm and time is at a real premium what with all the cows I have to feed. So anyway, the horse I rode twice was dear old Bill sausage who appears to have grown considerably taller in the month since I last rode her. I wouldn't be surprised if she has added an inch of height in that time. Her neck hasn't gotten any longer unfortunately so it feels like I'm sitting on a giraffe. She is so different to ride to anything else here, on sheer power of hindquarters alone. Like Kate has a huge canter and plenty of power but not with the same effortlessness that Bill does. It's almost a bit intimidating, only she is so smooth it isn't.

I really think I'm not that good at training though. I'm always going back and filling in holes but I guess thats part of the process. She was so lazy under saddle I spent heaps of time getting her to carry me and go forward and now I really need to work on her rating because we currently have two speeds, resisting going forward and then full speed ahead without breaking gait. To be fair after a 20 minute session the other day she was starting to feel quite good and a bit more consistent in pace. I really don't want to ruin her by missing something in her training, because if she turns out to be brave enough she could be a really good horse, she is certainly athletic enough. I have always had pretty rubbish horses, that were nice horses because I worked so hard- Bob (Bills mum) being the exception, and perhaps Connie, so to have a nice one is a bit scary really, knowing someone else would be doing a much better job. And Connie is a funny one because she was so awful and even my trainer guy was like I really wanted you to sell that horse because she was so average but you have done a good job.

It's so so easy to get disheartened this time of year. When the only time I see the horses really is when I brave the now torrential rain to throw them some hay. It's a bit like exercising, when you do it every day you get really keen but as soon as you have a few days off it gets a bit harder to get motivated again. You want to do it, and you know you need to do, but you look at the rain and its easy to just say nah. After this weekend I really need to start cracking on and get everything going. In about 4 weeks time when everything is a bit fit and making progress it will be so much easier. Man I want it so bad I can almost taste it. The feeling of cantering down to a big fence, being a bit scared, getting that great distance, and just that power off of the ground. Love it can't wait to live it.

A Whole Week Since I Posted

Poor poor form from me not to be posting more eh. There is honestly very little to say. I should probably do a couple of those posts where I pretend i know what I'm talking about and blather on for a while. I haven't been on a horse since the eye op. The eyes are doing amazingly I must say but I have my one week check up tomorrow and I'll know more then. I'll ride Thursday/Friday and maybe Saturday and be back hunting on Sunday. There are only three more hunts left on the calender and I want to get to them. Man I really need to start advertising Rascal but selling horses tends to be a long and painful process, especially in the winter.

I'm already so sick of the mud, but with only ten weeks until the season kicks off, I'm going to drag the old girls out of holiday mode and start getting them fit. Shoes on again tomorrow They have had over six weeks off. Connie needs time to get really really fit because she isn't a naturally forward horse. She needs to be fit so that she feels so good she just wants to go. I'm not feeling that positive about bringing Kately in. She looks sore in the paddock to me and while I think it's mostly baby TB feet with no shoes being sore, I'm concerned her knee may have worsened a lot. Still 3-4 weeks of easy fittening work- walking and trotting- and I'll know how sound she is and then take her back to the vet. I'd be rapt if we can get her sound again really really rapt because she is a hella fun horse when she is on form.

There is no training clinics organised this winter which is a bit average but hopefully something will come up soon because you just get sloppy without lessons. Then I'll need to start taking these guys to an arena once a week to really get them fit. I really really really want to get Bill going. How frustrating is a week without riding?? I think I'm just going stir crazy. I didn't even get to see them for a few days after the surgery to protect my eyes from dust and hay particles. It's madness, I missed them so much. I don't think they particularly missed me because their hay arrived on time and they seem to mostly care about that. Maybe they would love me more if I didn't make them compete haha. They do seem to quite enjoy it though. Connie who misses her flying changes pretty much constantly doesn't do that in the ring.

Do you think I could do it? Really do it. Jump a grand prix. Surely all you need is the right horse, that one horse you are bonded to that is a super talented animal. I wonder how long before I throw my leg over that animal if ever. It seems impossible almost like to big of a dream, but I'll keep working. I have to believe that the work is enough, that eventually it will fall into place and be worthwhile.

New Eyes

yesterday I had a very scary but painless surgery in which they lasered my very shortsighted eyes into good eyes. It hurt for about 6 hours afterwards quite a lot but it seems totally worth it. Now I just have to avoid infection and damaging the surface of the eye and I'm sitting pretty. My vision is already better than normal in the right eye and that's after only 24hrs.

It really was quite scary lots of lasers and lights and you can smell your eye evaporating and feel them tugging at the eye surface even though there is no pain, but I feel like it's a small price to pay after so many years as a glasses wearer. Contacts are expensive so I just ride in my glasses which means in the rain I don't see well. Hunting last time I had a run in a shower and couldn't see any of the fences I was jumping properly but obviously Rascal had in under control because we lived. The other issue is that during hot shows I warm up and sweat a little and when I stand and wait at the in-gate my glasses fog up because the air isn't moving over them. And sometimes my glasses slide down my nose. But not anymore. Boom town. So very excited. (Also very very poor- no winter holiday for me this winter)

I have had glasses since I was a little tacker and I was truly that smart totes nerdy kid and then I had braces and really I lived the stereotype. I always felt pretty subconscious about my glasses. I didn't later in life but I still felt like people saw the glasses before me. Now I just need to dye the hair a new colour and get dating and I'll be sitting pretty haha. LOL!

Producing a hunter

Fatty Rascal three hunts into the season

So I have only been hunting for two seasons but I feel like I could probably share enough to teach you guys how to produce a nice mannerly field hunter. I guess firstly you need to have your horse with a good covering of fat because they are going to burn it off. I'm a slacker because I nearly always leave the field early, but I honestly think that three and a half hours is long enough for any horse. so yea your horse needs to have plenty of condition going into the season, especially if it's a fussy eater. They need to be fit too but not galloping fit just long distance walking and trotting fit. You can't ever have a horse fit enough for hunting because you would just wear them out. You let the hunting fitten them as you go. You do need to be aware in those first few hunts though that they aren't fit and be careful to pull up and let your horse have a break and catch it's breathe. It's easy here because we hunt hare which tend to run in big circles, so if you lose the hunt you just have to climb to the top of a hill and see where the hunt is. I 8understand in England if you are on a stag you might have a run of 20 miles which is insane. I would definitely get left behind. Though Kim said in Ireland you tended to hunt from patch of bush to patch of bush because the fox would hide out and then get flushed again.

The first key point when you first take your hunter is to put a green ribbon in it's tail to indicate that the horse is new to the huntfield so that people will give you more space. The second thing you need to do is have a really really boring day. The worst hunters to ride are the ones that just ran with the field from day one. They hear the hounds giving tongue and just follow the field ignoring the flailing of their rider because this is what they know. You wont to go out and cruise around the back. Jump a few select easy fences if you feel up to it and spend most the day just talking to people and watching the hunt with the occasional gallop with the field.

It's nice if you have a friend on a greenie so they two of you can hang out for the hunt and teach your horses that their world doesn't end if the hunt gallops off and leaves you behind. You also need to be aware that if your horse is starting to have a melt down and this is true of hunts 1- forever, you need to let them get their equilibrium back and just chill for or a while, or they become hot and nervous hunters. What happens is that when a horse gets really really tired and runs out of energy, they start to run on pure adrenaline and they are really unpleasant at this stage because they tend to lose their heads. I normally go in once this happens.

It always works that around the third hunt is when your green hunter is going to be it's very worst. That seems to be enough hunts that they figure out just how fun hunting is and they just want to get going! This season Rascal and my friends horse were both on hunt three the same day and there was a little bucking on Rascals part and a lot on my friends horses part and we ended up having a very quiet day just chilling at the back with the very occasional gallop and no jumping. This was good for them because on hunt four they were both quite mannerly. Even doing this your horse will probably still be a bit naughty hunting. Horses love hunting and they soon learn that the hounds giving tongue mean it's galloping time and so there are very few horses on the hunt field that don't get a bit excited and act up now and then. Especially as by about 5 or 6 hunts they are starting to get really really fit.



Rascal- fit and hard after hunt 10 despite no work apart from hunting twice a week.

It's important to stay selective about what you jump until you are really confident of what your horse is capable off. When you are on a run you will just jump what comes up and really surprise yourself, but when you are just jumping paddock to paddock while the hounds are still sniffing something out, I find this particularly hard because i'm such a chicken and it's in cold blood. Mostly it's fine I just need to ride a but more confidently to the fences. Now at about hunt 10 Rascal is jumping pretty much everything, even tricky spars but not the bigger fullwires. She can still run as a bit deep to the fences when she is excited, though I think this is also related to me not getting a strong enough canter to start off with. She really enjoys her hunting even though it still tires her out. You tend to see more falls and mistakes at the start of the day and at the end of the day. The start when everything is in cold blood and not really going yet and the end when people and horses making tired mistakes.

You may have to vary your equipment while hunting. Rascal went from a french link snaffle to a waterford snaffle, did two hunts on the second ring of a three ring happymouth gag and now I'm back in a single joint loose ring snaffle. Not the bit I use for flat work because the action is a bit sharp but she was happy in it last time. No hunting for a week or so though, at least 10 days. I'll tell you why tomorrow or the day after.

Happy Birthday to me!

I am 26! I don't know how I got so old considering I haven't grown up at all!