Tuesday 4 August 2009
Not much to report- weather seems to have got the nest of us the mo!
Here are some pics of me and Andy at our first show- he was a little star (no laughing at my crazy hair!!!)
And here's a photo of me and blaze at the start line of our first Endurance GB ride for a long while- we did 20 km- and i did it all bareback :D!!!
10:44
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Monday 13 July 2009
Today me and Andy had a session with Arran and we were focusing on trailor loading. I havnt put Andy anywhere near a trailor since out tradgic car accident two years ago this Auguest so i had no idea how Andy would react, he might walk straight in or he might try to kill us all, i really didnt know.Lucy had come up too, to observe the days event :)
Whils we were waiting for Arran to arrive i took Andy over to the trailor to see his reaction thinking it give me some idea of what i had instore. Snorting and all starry eyed, Andy wouldnt go near it. Hmmm this will be interesting i thought!
We started by playing the circling game, something Arran, there and then helped us fix in a matter of minuet- he's good! lol. When A dy showed us a sign ofrelaation ie a snort i took him over to the trailor, if his thoughts wondered over to me, which they did, and secretly i quite liked, he was actually tunning in to me lol!!!!!! if his thoughts woundered away from the trailor i redirected his nose to it and let him investigate, this wen really well, he had his head in the jocky door having a good niff around.
When he'd finished exploring we repeated this excersise but by starting off circling on the other rein.
Next we tried to get Andy up the ramp, so again we played the circle came till he was chilled then walked over to the trailor to see if he'd walk up the ramp, Arran was insistant then i keep a feel on the halter to direct Andys nose in, so his body would follow. Happy with all four feet on the ramp Andy needed a little encouragement to continue on into the trailo, but a repeat of this excersise soon fixed this and his threshold deisappeared.
Now able to get Andy in the trailor quite happily, we focused on making sure he was confident staying in. Arran said to keep a feel on the halter whist waving the carrot stick around, once his head lowerd, give with the halter and quite with the stick, andy caught on quick and was soon happy with me and Arran waving and banging our CS.
Everything followed nicely, putting up the ramp and partition Andy was a little worries with at first but soon relaxed and he was backing out the trailor nicley.
Andy was a very brave boy today an im so very proud of him. We even left him in the trailor whilst me and Arran sorted out our bext session and so on and i nerly forgot he was in there he was so quiet- oops :D Another couple of play times with this new toy and im sure Andy will be even more confident with the trailor. Arran gave me a whole range of different things to help with trailoring so i won be stuck for savvy arrows when we come to do this again next time.
Once Arran had left, Lucy was united with her 3rd favorite pony SHINOBI :D they had a wounderful play together and i was very glad i was there to watch, i learned alot, even in this short spcae of time, of how i could improve my session with him, and she gave me loads of pointers on working with the Introverted type. Thanks Lucy for upping my Savvy :)
All in all its been a great day, and my savvy levels have had a good boost :D
12:50
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Thursday 2 July 2009
No much to report!!! I think the weather has got te best of us so me and the horses have spent the majority of our time sunbathing :DWith Andy' show coming up at the end of the month my plan of action between now and then is to help boost his self confidence. He is super in his feld with his pasture mates, but when you take him away he's alittle more alert (still a total Left Brainer tho) and when something scary happens his confidence hits the floor and it can be quite some time to get him calm again.
So we've been playing ultimate friendly :D Iv taken him around the winter fields, playing friendly on the move and the falling leaf pattern, this, he is doing really well with. Its only when we get futher down the field, surrounded by the scary wood, that he feels a threshold, but its coming.
Becuase the winter fields have been sprayed, Andy mus'nt eat the grass so we're limited to what we can do. The majority of Ultimate friendly, we're doing in his pasture. We're doing stuff like dragging tyres and logs, me jumping on big platic mesh type bags and waving them around, and wrapping him in tarps :D
We've had lots of licking and chewing over the past few days and he's relaxing more when he's away from the others so hopefully, come July 26th, he'll be super calm and parading around the winners circle :D
11:53
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Sunday 28 June 2009
The weather was beautiful today so i was determined to have a great play session with Andy, seeing as its been a very long while since our last!I tried to be creative as i think Andys been getting bored sensless, so when playing the catching game when he started walking over i sat on the floor with my back to him, he came over and couldnt believe what his crzy human was doing, gave me push and a sniff then stood staring at me!
"Now that i have your attention" i thought, we'll see what we can do with the tarp, so i crawled on all fours over to the tarp, Andy followed-bemused! then i started to rub and wrap it round his legs- no problem.Then i sat on it and hide some treats on my shoes for him to find- Andy seemed impressed lol then hide them under the corners which kept him amused for aaagggess! Sniffing and pawing till he'd troffed the lot :)
Then i sat there, on the tarp, flapping it around, whilst he munched the grass, thinking.
Started rubing the tarp over his back and on his sides, *Lick and Chew* then the other.We've been playing with plastic bags and tarps for the past 2 or 3 session so they're no longer scary but actually quite fun! I waved it round in the air then pulled it over his head- every time he looked as if to say "Oh there you are!!" he didnt mind this, he got handfuls of grass after each time :) LBI!!!!!
Then i open it out and folded it over his back and pulled up and over his head- no problem :) He looked a little like a Super Andy wearing a cape :D Duh Duh Duh, Duuhhh, Duh Duh Duh, Duhhh!
Then the heat got the better of us and we fell asleep :) almost. I was stretched over his back and we both were just dosing off i think then it got too hot and so we ended our session there :)
Rode Blaze, went for a nice long one in the wood, through a stream and then galloped across the field- bareback :D
Shinobi is being sweet as ever and we've been having ago at playing with bags and the tarp also- He loved it :D as well as playing the driving game
10:32
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Sunday 14 June 2009
Not much to report this week, the ponies have been a bit neglected this week due to family matters. So iv been treasuring what little time i have been able to spend with them- lots of friendly and undemanding time.Iv also managed (finaly!) to move all of our toys from the winter fields to the summer. How boring is pony time with no toys :D!!!!
11:10
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Thursday 4 June 2009
Oh my lordy i almost forgot!!!!!!
Me and my friend went to a local show, i entered the "thelwel look-a-like" class with her 28inch miniture, Wilba :D WE WON, or Wilba did rather lol
My friend also won her class too, with her 18 month old colt, he was good as gold :D
13:30
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This past week iv been riding blaze as usual but have been ponying Andy along, and things have been going really well :) Iv only nearly rolled off over blazes bum a few times because Andy has stopped abruptly to eat some grass! Mmm those LBI!!!!!!! We've had ago at cantering around the field together- sooooo much fun and we ve even popped over a jump as a trio- even more fun :D
Blaze has been such a little star, she never sieses to make me proud, when riding her earlier this week i put on the polar heart monitor to see how fit she actually was. Now before i say anything else id like to share with you all that for the first 3 months or so of this year i didnt even sit on Blaze, it was all in hand pole work and gentle walks up the road, then slowly building it up to where we are now, longer walks, hill work and barley any trott and canter. (sorry im blabbing!)
Well it turns out that blazes heart rate was not far off, and at some places the same as what it was when she was at the top of her game when we were last competeing in Endurance in 2005 :D
Here recovery rate was super quick, it continued to go down even when we were going up hill!!! She was trotting on flat ground at a rate of 90-95 bpm (which was the same as when she was competing!) when trotting up hill her heart rate was in the 140's- again super and when we d finshed with the hill her heart rate dropped over 10 bpm when we continued trotting on the flat (extended trott!). When we got back i put her in her stall and checked what her heart rate was after a half hour (when competeing in Endurance you have a half hour from when you finish to present the horse to the vet for there heart rate to be recorded and be rewarded your grade :)) and by Joe it was 41, before we started the ride it was 40 so she was so very close to her resting pulse!!!!!!!!!!!!! i was so proud of her, parlty because we've had such an awful 3 years with injury after injury, now, she's fit and healthy and our dreams of progressing to intimidiate (sp?) standard in endurance are getting even closer :D
12:41
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