A bit more of a subdued week after the exciting competing the weekend before, mainly filled with flatwork practice with a few poles thrown in to make it more interesting for both Bob and Autumn. Bob also had the chance to do some in hand ‘toughening up’ work for a couple of days as the road outside our yard had been completely closed to be dug up so I used this to my advantage.
Knowing Bob would be spooky of all the barriers, pipes and machinery, I let him have a look from a distance and then let him lean over the yard fence to touch one of the plastic barriers and sniff it. When he seemed more relaxed by it, I took full advantage of the road closure and led him out to the road, immediately he tensed and the head went up when he seen the plastic pipes and lots of barriers, argh all scary and lethal! A few words of encouragement and pats and he walked right up to the line of barriers, still a bit twitchy but brave enough to approach. He watched as I touched and tapped them and then he followed by reaching out with his nose and investigating them. He did really well and we did his a couple of evenings in a row to get his confidence up so should he meet anything like this when out on a hack he won’t be so scared and will listen to me rather than spooking! It also helped strengthen our bond as I seen how much he trusted me to not put him in any danger.
A fun time was had at your horse live this weekend, I can only describe it as horsey shopping paradise (well for me any way – my partner strongly disagreed ha!) A solid five hours of shopping before he protested for a break and some food (I hadn’t even noticed) before recommencing the hunt for a saddle pad! A few more hours later, with our arms a good few inches longer from the weight of the bags, we trudged back to the car park with lots of pressies for the neddies; two for bob being a correctional saddle pad with shims (that I had searched every hall and 99% of the stalls to find) and a lovely memory foam girth as he’s a sensitive soul!
Somehow though yet again I ended up getting myself nothing – how does that work each time?? lol horses are spoilt and I don’t even get a sweetie :-S oh well at least they will be happy! We stopped in at the Equesure stand too, to say hello and it was lovely to put a face to the name as we met Alexandra from Equesure’s Marketing team :)
I finally got round to clipping Autumn at the start of the week, and managed a small Irish clip - she is now sporting a new ‘racing stripe’ as one of my non horsey friends described it! I can see flaws in it but my yard pals assure me she looks good, so now hopefully she won’t get so hot when whizzing round her courses. Next on the to do list is to try and clip Bob, so I’m currently trying to source a day off work so I can spend a good few hours with him as he has to be fully sedated to even turn clippers on near him and I like to make sure he’s 100% again before I leave him. He’s so much bigger than Autumn and I’ve never clipped him myself so this will be a challenge!! Hopefully I will be able to reach the top of his neck!
Aria has been on some more groundwork practice, and loved to do a bit of showing off one evening when my friend and her farrier were up, doing some beautiful leaps and having a few mad moments before settling down by her own accord into full outline and dressage practice! She did look lovely and was well behaved in the reducing light as the darkness started to creep in. I have about another week of using the stables side light for lunging, but need to get my lights sorted so I can keep the ridden work and jumping continuing into the winter as there’s a few RC events coming up as well as a few qualifiers! I am looking forward to the RC AGM this week as will be good to get to know a few more members of the club and have a good horsey chit chat!
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After having a long wait and some lunch at the onsite café, it was time to get ready for the Joan Wolfe Overall Supreme Shetland Pony Championship. I got changed out of my usual showing outfit into black trousers and a maroon top with white spots, as you are expected to be a bit more “bling” in the evening.
We were all set to go for our next outing, and were super excited. That was until I heard the dreaded clunk of a loose shoe! I checked it over, praying it wasn’t too loose, but, nope, it was going to need a refit.
This show almost passed me by as I was unaware of the show organisation. Luckily, the schedule was posted on one of the Shetland pony Facebook groups that I am a member of. The show was being held at Onley Grounds Equestrian Complex, which is where I should have gone to a show a month or so earlier, but was ill and unable to take Diva (Melland Queen of Scots).
Since the show, Bob’s been enjoying a bit of a rest with a few lunge sessions and being lightly ridden, but I’m gearing him up hopefully for a show either this weekend or next. Wish us luck, and the poor arena pole pickers too, as he does like to send some sailing!