Little Fairfield Archimedes aka Archi second time saddled, and first time playing in the baby long reins. Doing a fantastic job!
He's been out learning to be caught and settling in in the background, and we now have time to start his training journey properly. He came to us with the very bare bones basics, and we were thrilled to snap him up. How cute is he!?
Little Liza the 'breaker' going for her first ride outside of her usual space with Casey. Her paddock mates were running amok calling out to her, and Liza was able to work through to a lovely point of relaxation despite those big distractions.
Well done Liza! 👏
Casey & Illusion working on softness and body awareness with this neat exercise. This is her 2nd proper ride, and still only a handful of times sat on. So far Casey has been the only one working her 🦄
Illusion is a smart and confident young horse, so it is important to find relaxation in her work and ensure that she is consolidating what we are teaching her.
Often it is the smart and confident horses that are the easiest to rush in their training. However these gaps will then show up down the line and not set the horse up for the best success, which is always the goal.
Lovely ride out with Hugo this evening 🥰
Beautiful boy Hugo finding nice rhythm and relaxation 🥰
Progress looks different for every horse, and let's face it rarely looks like perfection!
For a horse like Hugo being able to come out of his shell and come back into work for a new rider is wonderful. He takes a while to learn that people will take good care of him so seeing him release tension, start to stretch and work through his body and become so much more willing is such a joy 😊
Hugo will be looking for his very own person to continue this journey under saddle. He is a kind and gentle soul, with an absolute heart of gold and is developing gorgeous movement. We can see him doing well with a patient and confident rider who will take the time to really get to know him. In return you will have a very loyal and loving horse who will try anything for you! He is has very comfortable paces, and would suit pleasure riding, low level ARC, and has experience with trail riding and clinics.
Student Casey having a spin on Nazari 🔥
Always good to see how far our students riding has come when they progress onto new types of horse.
Zari is only just coming back into work and was happy to adjust for a new rider.
First sits at Fairfield!
Depending on what corners of the internet you end up in, you may have seen a bit of a trend of showing what first sits can look like. So we thought we'd share ours.
Content warning: Boring. Uneventful.
Caesar has done his ground work preparation, and this was his first ever time with a passenger today. Just as we believe it should be 🥰
Setting your horse up for success is key in any part of training, especially in the beginning.
Update: we are thrilled to announce that Teddy has found his new 🏡
Fun, honest, and a heart of gold! 💛
Teddy has come along so nicely, and is ready to find his perfect human.
Gorgeous day for it 😍
Lovely road ride with Floyd & Aspen
Teddy's first trot back under saddle, vs a few days later after some balance work!
At first he wanted to brace on the reins, and then when he hit the pressure he would duck under the vertical and slow down. He wasn't really understanding guidance from the leg, and only wanted to travel in straight lines.
Today he was happily going along on a loose rein, moving more off the leg, finding a more correct, looser bend, and moving much more evenly all round.
Go Teddy!! He would be an amazing project to turn into a neat little all rounder.
Baby Willy's first introduction to the noodle obstacle from High-Rail Jumps was entirely uneventful, as are most things with his handsome young fellow!
A future kids pony in the making (or teens, or adult's!) Bred to do it all, and expected to mature a small chunky Galloway 😍
All the basics and more are well established, and he already has 3 shows under his belt! Ready to go on with in his forever home.
https://www.fairfieldequineservices.com.au/gp-lord-bridgerton-connemara
Never underestimate the benefits of hand walking!
Beautiful Teddy the standardbred came off the float spooky, anxious, and unsure of his new environment.
For the first week or so we kept things very basic as we could tell he wasn't yet even fully comfortable just hanging out in his paddock.
So we've been hand walking. Hand walking obstacles, hand walking paddocks, just letting his confidence grow and showing him things here happen at his own pace.
Today after two days of awful wind (and as you can hear in the video - not necessarily much better today) we went for a hand walk in a new paddock.
I took him up over this hill, and this was his reaction to seeing a pile of new barrels and feed bins - something that just a week ago would have had him spooking and snorting!
I was so proud of how he reacted! This entire walk (and jog) he was responsive, confident, and CURIOUS of his new environment. He took the length of the rope, walked at a distance from me, stopped to sniff and approach new things, and his one spook at ducks taking off from the dam was just one step and a fast recovery. He didn't even feel the need to come all the way back to me for comfort like he did at first.
We even managed an in hand canter today, AND his first ride here with us, which was his first ride in a long time. Thanks to taking the time and approach he needed, the ride was confident, comfortable, relaxed, and very fun!
Our beautiful Skylarke making her off lead debut into the lesson program with student Jess who had the jumping bug.
They both did beautifully for a first time pairing!
Gracefield Park Connemara Pony Stud
Forry having a go over some cross country jumps tonight as well as getting the hang of changing leads over jumps.
The Alabar HRV HERO Series Final workout from Mazza's Delight today at the Victorian Agricultural Shows Saddle Horse Championships.
Suzie brought home the series Champion today, in her first show season, having only been broken in by us in August 22.
We are so proud of this little mare, though she stands at just 14.3hh in stature she oozes presence, promise, and talent.
Developing her balance, carriage, movement, and work ethic has been so rewarding, and isn't that proven here today.
A huge thank you to the Judges, Sponsors, Stewards, Societies, Volunteers, and all others involved. We are feeling so happy, so proud, and so blown away!
And a huge thank you to Suzie's humans for choosing us, and entrusting us with the training and showing of this beautiful girl.
Just a quick video from the Victorian Agricultural Shows finals today 😉
Fairfield Aspen Princess has been working on her proprioception skills recently. Having been a "clumsy" horse, we knew this was an area in need of development.
As we begun to work on some more challenging exercises we also discovered that Aspen became quite anxious and flustered when she muddled up her striding, knocked a pole, or wasn't sure how to approach a new exercise.
For Aspen, lunging over new patterns allowed her to gain too much speed, leading to rushing through patterns, which meant she was more likely to muddle her striding, leading to her feeling more anxious, leading to rushing even more, and so it continued.
Instead - a more in hand approach. Aspen has been very confident in her in hand showing preparation and has lots of awareness of working with and around a handler.
Today we tackled her trickiest pattern yet - six poles raised at alternating ends to a good height too.
As you can see, she got a good handle on this by the end of our session today, especially for her first try.
These exercises are also brilliant for the body, look at how many areas are engaged during this exercise, and to what extent. This is also why I chose an even number of poles - so that both sides of the body work evenly through the pattern.
🌧 CLOSED 🌧
Unfortunately the water is winning at the moment - Illyasviel here is standing in some puddles to demonstrate 😅
All of our paddocks thankfully have areas the horses are able to be out of standing mud and water - and they are all safe and well (if unimpressed).
However even our driveway and access to sheds etc are under puddles!
We are very keen to get back to lessons, as they bring us, our horses, and our students so much joy.
Riding and teaching is not only our passion, but our livelihood, and these cancellations never come lightly or easily.
Thank you all for your patience and understanding. Hope you are all staying safe and dry!
Can anyone tell us how to turn the sky's taps off? 💔
We now have creek and lake views! Video from yesterday in between downpours.
Hope everyone stayed dry enough and safe - and that we don't get too much more water.
