Paula's Blog - What a lesson!

We do hope everyone has been okay during the barrage of storms the other week! We were extremely lucky as we are in quite a sheltered spot (even though the wind was strong) as we are protected by the hills round us, sadly a friend just half a mile up the road wasn’t as lucky and had a lot of damage. It made for a scary time, and I even booked the day off work to spend it at the yard to keep an eye on the trio and the buildings. It was such a hard decision whether to leave them in or out (a quandary a lot of owners face) but I decided for the trio that In was the best option as the field was so wet and they could get injured galloping about. Luckily all were happy in their stables munching hay and playing with their field balls whilst I froze doing some yard jobs before retreating to the car to warm up a bit.

The dodgy weather had annoyingly halted the riding as we had a lot of rain and wind across the week meaning they had to be kept in more and the conditions weren’t very safe for trying schooling sessions although we managed a couple of lunge ones. However, the minute the weather improved I was back aboard – and shockingly I think we may have fully cracked it as to Bob’s diet – the new feed combined with straight magnesium oxide has turned him into a completely different horse. Don’t get me wrong he’s still very enthusiastic but there’s barely any spooking or tense behaviour even when he has had a week off – which is unheard of! We had a lesson at the weekend and I explained to my instructor that due to the weather the riding had been limited and I had only been able to practice a small bit of the previous lesson over ground poles/on the flat so we may not get too far.

We started off with flat work and making him walk down a zig zag of poles and stay straight before progressing to walking over each pole, pausing then pivoting him at the shoulder to get him over the next one. Initially it was a bit difficult and I was using rein more than leg but we grasped it. He is not a horse that likes the leg on as from his past he immediately thinks that means gallop, so it’s a tough thing to get him to understand but gradually we are improving. We then progressed to trot poles and circling some uprights and onto a line of poles with a jump. Each time we jumped it I didn’t notice it went up 2 holes, we finished just 3 holes off the top of the wing – never would I have thought we would jump that height by the end of the lesson. He approached calmly each time – breaking into canter only 2 strides out and jumping beautifully. I was that confident, if asked I would have happily jumped the top of the wings in that session! I felt fully in control, could see every stride and felt so happy at the end of it. It looks like we are now ready to try a course – my instructor wants us to do it indoors to start with in a joint training session….only issue – the arena is a bit of a drive and Bob hasn’t loaded for over 2 years plus the horsebox needs some new brake pads eek! Will see what we can do as I’m desperate to get him out now! Definitely exciting times ahead!

Autumn’s had a bit of time off with the weather and I’ve also restarted her on Boswellia as she seemed to be becoming a bit stiffer in the mornings – safe to say it has certainly sorted her out as first schooling session back and she was moving lovely and freely. I think I’ve now found the right combination of supplements for her with her joints which is a huge relief, and she is definitely much happier and agile (as she also showed when flat out racing Bob across the field)!

Aria is in a bit of trouble with me – I came up the other evening to find her wearing her rug as a cape, all straps bar one still done up but rug completely shredded. The other two didn’t looked phased in the slightest and Aria proudly walked around with it flowing behind her now I need to shop for a new medium weight as her other one was ripped too! D’oh! I did ask a few friends if they thought it was repairable and got the response of try baling twine, duct tape and if that fails some turmeric haha! Sadly, I think none of those will sort it.

Anyone else have a rug shredding equine?