Halcyonia Welsh Ponies & Cobs

08/23/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/xuqkBuWfAWpLGkpj/?mibextid=xfxF2i

08/20/2024

Halcyonia Dancer & Halcyonia Sweet Pea
8 km trail ride last sunday

08/17/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/6AY11vf1WUPmUsyK/?mibextid=xfxF2i

Once the horse gets to responding, then you try to get the response you are asking for with less. You try to cut down what you are applying and get more response with less pressure, until it almost gets to be just a thought." - Tom Dorrance from the book, "True Unity"

08/15/2024

Halcyonia Topgun (Archie)

07/28/2024

Halcyonia Dancer and Lucy Davey at Grasswood Horse Park.

07/27/2024

Chestnut c**t Sec D 2024
Blaze and 4 socks
Should mature about
14.1 hh

07/27/2024

Archie

07/27/2024

Halcyonia Dancer at Grasswood Horsepark

07/05/2024

Great article

THE LONG TROT, OR, A REALLY LONG POST ON TROTTING

“Rise and fall with the shoulder by the wall…”

So goes the old riding school ditty taught to countless students learning to rise, or post, to the trot. I am always interested in the reasons and excuses some people will give at their disinterest in learning their trot diagonals. That is, in taking the correct one as an automatic habit, to rise with the outside shoulder on any arc, or bend.

Often, these same people are involved in starting c**ts and young horses, or in riding long hours on the ranch, or the trails.

Perhaps if the reasons why these trot diagonals matter are better known to us, we will renew our efforts to master this simple thing. A failure to do so speaks of an incomplete education, if not a telling reluctance in furthering one’s basic horsemanship.

The term ‘posting’ comes about from the carriage driving days, when postillion riders mounted upon fast-trotting harness horses learned that the long journey was made less arduous, when they moved in unison with the trotting horse. Hence, ‘posting’ the trot.

I prefer the terms ‘rising’ and ‘sitting’, myself, and will use these throughout the rest of this article.

So, the rising (or posting) trot allows the horse and rider to move with ease. To sit on a big-moving horse, or any horse for long miles, is to cause undue strain to the back. This is important while we are developing our own seats and also, while furthering our horses.

***

From the horse’s point of view, the trot is a gait that uses both sides of the body equally. As one foreleg progresses, the opposing hind leg does, as well. The diagonal pair not reaching forward are weight bearing. To ride on a left curve, then, we will want to rise with the right foreleg… also known as rising on the right diagonal.

Once we have learned to rise on either the right or left diagonal, we can refine ourselves by doing so with feeling, rather than sight. We learn to change diagonals smoothly by sitting for a count of one-two beats, rather than the up-down-up-down of staying on the same diagonal. We progress by requiring ourselves to change smoothly each time the horse changes rein, or to keep him from tiring over long, straight distances. This is up to us.

Knowing all the reasons why we rise with the outside shoulder is key in helping understand the importance of trot diagonals. Too often, our attention is given to the rising with the shoulder, as an aid to helping the horse turn.

While this is somewhat true, it is the lightening of the load of the rider by leaving the saddle while the inside hind leg is stepping forward under the horse’s body, that makes all the difference to the horse.

We also know that the diagonal on which we are rising covers more ground than the diagonal on which we sit! Therefore, the outside diagonal on a circle will actually help the horse remain on the bendy track, for it makes sense that the shoulder on the outside of the circle will need to cover more distance with each stride, than that on the inside track. It can help to visualize one’s horse on rails, as though he is on a set of train tracks.

Knowing this is magical in straightening the habitually crooked horse, the one who goes with a markedly hollow side in relation to the opposing one, which is stiff. The horse who is hollow to the left rein will drift outward through left hand turns, while ‘falling in’—cutting corners—when travelling to the right. His near side is in the habit of contracting. Rather than fight this horse, if I mindfully spend a lot of my rising trot on the left diagonal, even through gentle serpentine bends, he will gradually strengthen and straighten his body.

This tells me that I must decisively ride both left and right diagonals equally when I am riding for a distance along straight lines—and both unschooled horses and riders will almost always favour one diagonal over the other. A failure to do so, will soon make a fairly straight horse travel crookedly, like a trotting dog!

Unschooled horses and riders will often change unknowingly to their stronger diagonal, even when they have made a point of starting out in the weaker one. Horses will do a little skip-change to force us onto the diagonal pair that feels most able to carry our weight. When we’re beginning, we can benefit hugely from a pair of knowledgeable eyes from the ground.

Thus, the goal with both schooled horses AND riders is to find comfort in both trot diagonals, equally. One must not be favoured over the other, at all.

When trotting along uneven ground or along hillsides, the rider should be choosing the diagonal that is opposite the incline of the hill, to allow the horse to keep his feet more easily. (This is opposite the canter lead we would choose, if we were loping along the same hill.)

***

The rising trot is of huge importance to the horse who struggles with relaxing his back, or with energetically going forward. It is less strain for both horse and rider to trot while rising, because it eases the driving force of the rider’s seat in the saddle. This should be of importance to us, whether or not we are schooling our horses under English or Western gear.

Understanding that our diagonal choice is what frees the hind limb reaching under us, has a key part to play in helping green horses pick up the inside leading leg at the canter.

So few riders can be seen switching to the ‘wrong’ diagonal in the last few strides before asking the young or unschooled horse for the canter depart. This is a shame, for it’s an excellent tool to encourage our horses to take the inside lead, without the force of using too much outside leg, or speeding up at the trot, or messing with the reins.

Why would this weird thing help the horse? Well, if we don’t sit into the transition, we are not hollowing out the back of the unschooled horse. If we rise to the ‘wrong’ diagonal in the last few trot strides, he can keep his back up and swinging when he needs it most. We are now freeing up the outside hind leg of the horse to strike into the correct canter lead… for it is this leg that begins the three-beat canter.

This last paragraph is solid gold for anyone involved in the schooling of young, or green, horses.

***

Lastly, a common fault of those rising to the trot is to rise with too much effort, leaving ‘hang time’ at the apex of their rise. This faux pas can be easily fixed by imagining that one’s head, or helmet, must not move at all during the rising trot.

If a horse and rider were trotting along the far side of a stone wall, this would appear as though the head was riding smoothly along the top of the wall. There would be no bobbling up and down and this one detail of a level, unmoving head is as much the mark of a well-taught equitation rider, as any other. To do this, the rider’s movement is not up-and-down, so much as an absorbing of the horse through a front-and-back motion with the hips. Yes, it takes much practice.

The above will give you some fun trot work to tweak over the summer, as you go about your riding, whether in the arena, or out on the open trails.

06/30/2024

Bring back memories

The good old days!

All kids rode in a snaffle because usually that is what your parent [mother] had in their day and they had survived so you had to - D ring, eggbutt, or loose ring. If your pony was a s**t and you had a kind parent or one with money, you might be allowed a kimblewick or pelham. Double bits were for adults out hunting or show ponies only.
Rubber reins were coveted - hunting a pony with shaving foam sweat on his neck meant plain reins were as useful as cooked noodles. Plaited leather reins were just as bad and ripped between your fingers.
Leather girths were coveted just as much - choices were string or the white candlewick girths which would split at inappropriate moments.
Coloured browbands were naff - the plastic ones for riding schools and the velvet ones for show ponies. Brass was for heavy horses.
There were four types of rug - canvas NZ, jute, wool with a coloured edging and initials for best and a sweat rug that looked like something Rab C Nesbitt wore that you used when thatching. Then there were blankets, usually nasty and itchy unless you were rich and could afford a Witney blanket
Every NZ rug hung to one side within five minutes of your pony being turned out.
There were four types of clip - trace, blanket, hunter or full. No one asked what type of clip suited their pony, ponies were clipped to suit the level of work they were doing.
No one wanted a coloured hairy, it usually meant your parents knew nothing and had bought your pony from the local riding school and no one wanted a riding school pony.
Everyone plaited to go hunting.
The amount of fences you jumped out hunting and stayed in the saddle was far more important than if you saw a fox.
Ponies lived out in just a NZ rug, even if clipped, nothing up their necks.
Feed was natural - oats, barley, wheat, sugar beet and bran then came in pony nuts which were great for rattling in the bottom of a bucket and a countrymix with yummy locust beans.
You made your own chop and warmed the molasses on the Rayburn.
You thought you were a nutritionist if you added garlic to your pony's feed.
Tesco own brand vegetable cooking oil was added to feeds to give a shine to the coat.
If you went hunting, chances are your pony had a warm mash with a bottle of Guinness and a raw egg mixed into it for a pick me up. Chances are that you had the dried up remains of whatever your family had at lunchtime.
Linseed was boiled and fed to everything to make the coat shine.
Grooming by torchlight was a skill.
Baling twine was a Godsend
Your pony probably knew all the top 20 hits.
Everyone entered the yearly WH Smith Win A Pony competition.
If your pony went lame, the farrier was called before the vet and usually cured pony.
No one's pony had ulcers.
We all knew someone who knew someone whose pony had had colic but none of us actually had that pony.
Fat ponies lived on thin air and no one said how cruel because there was no grass in their paddock.
Boiled spud peelings and other veggie peelings were added to feeds as a treat.
Wormers came in powder form - most ponies knew when it was added to their feed and left the feed uneaten and themselves unwormed. It was considered the norm to mix the wormer into a paste, spread in a jam sandwich and feed it to your pony.
Bread was not considered bad for your pony or even odd to feed your pony.
Winning at your local show in front of your school friends gave you rock star status until the next show.
Hacking to a show was considered normal. Sometimes your parents would leave a trailer at a show with your grooming kit, picnic and a picnic for your pony because your pony would not load so you hacked anyway. 😉
You turned out your pony to the best of your abilities - always plaited with clean tack. Tack was always correct, if you used a curb chain on a pelham/double then you also had a lip strap.
Coloured nylon tack was laughed at and considered townie.
Plain leather with just a stable rubber under your saddle or a plain numnah meant you knew your stuff - coloured numnahs, reins, etc meant you were a townie or came from a riding school.
Stockholm tar was brushed into the bottom of the hoof and across the frog every night.
Everyone had gone to school with purple spray stains on their fingers.
When the white wound powder finally came in black, we got excited.
All buckets were black and ridged until the rubber allegedly indestructible feed bowls came out - also in black.
A bright yellow builder's bucket meant my pony snorted and stood as far away from it as possible and meant I had to walk to the end of the field in the hissing rain to catch him.
Long leather boots were added to every Christmas list - rubber ones never shone as much.
Christmas lists always consisted of things for the pony - bridle, bit, rug, etc.
We didnt wear hats and back protectors hadnt been invented.
We went out riding without a phone and couldnt tell anyone where we were going as chances are we didnt know ourselves, we were just going out riding.
As long as we were back for meal times and before it was dark, our parents didnt worry.
Ponies knew their way home if you parted company.
Everyone had cleaned their tack while listening to Bohemian Rhapsody at number one in the charts.

Picture of 4 year old Angelena Moore Churcher
Credit unknown

06/22/2024

Halcyonia Nikita C Black filly 2022
Sire Menai Don Carlos C
Dam Halcyonia Pride N' Joy C
Sold

06/22/2024

Halcyonia Lexie C filly Liver Chestnut 2022
Sire Menai Don Carlos C (Parc Carlo)
Dam Boogie Misty C (Synod Lord Percival)
SALE PENDING

06/22/2024

Halcyonia Meadow Lark D
Sire Boogie Max C (Synod Lord Percival C)
Dam Halcyonia Idyllic Image D (Halcyonia Feature Presentation D)
SOLD

06/22/2024

Halcyonia Gwynfor D
Sire Halcyonia Top Gun D
Dam Halcyonia Kiss Me Kate D

06/22/2024

Halcyonia Willow D 2021 bay filly.
Sire Halcyonia Merlyn D (Welsh Dreams Of Springsong)
Dam Halcyonia Hawaiin Fascination D (Penrhyn Facination)
Willow is 13.3 hh right now and should mature 14 hh +
Very athletic filly super sweet.
Great Dressage prospect.

06/22/2024

Halcyonia Tegan C filly
Sire Halcyonia Hercules D
Dam Halcyonia Golden Moment C

06/21/2024

Moms and foals

06/20/2024

06/20/2024

Halcyonia Gwynfor D Palamino filly
Sire Halcyonia Top Gun D (Halcyonia Trigger D)
Dam Halcyonia Kiss Me Kate D (Welsh Dreams Of Springsong D)

06/20/2024

Halcyonia Tegan C Palamino filly

06/20/2024

Halcyonia Gwen

06/20/2024

Halcyonia Charlotte

06/20/2024

Halcyonia Tegan C
Sire Halcyonia Hercules D
Dam Halcyonia Golden Moment C

06/20/2024

Halcyonia Ari Sec C c**t

06/20/2024

Halcyonia Rhys D C**t

06/20/2024

Halcyonia Seren D just standing for first time.

06/20/2024

Halcyonia Jet Stream D
Sire Halcyonia Hercules D 15 hh
Dam Halcyonia Idyllic Image D 14.2 hh

06/20/2024