Farseers Equestrian

Hatcam vid from our second spin round! Love how obnoxious she was beforehand - ‘I’ve done it once so am now clearly an expert’ 🙄 She was super, especially as I was feeling rather worse for wear by then and put her on some shocker strides 🙈

Return of the hat-cam!! It’s been six years since I’ve worn one, so we have a couple teething problems, most obviously the angle isn’t correct, but for the most part you can see Doodle’s happy little ears ☺️ It’s funny listening back to some of the rubbish you say going XC. I’ve always had canter-banter with my horses when going round. Needless to say, there was a lot of ‘good girl’ and ‘steady’ yesterday! I’m so pleased with Dilys, she’s really starting to develop some clever footwork and even at the first couple where she wasn’t sure- and we had a shocker of a stride over the fence one on this round (which was our first)- not once did she ever think about saying no.

We had a great morning having a show jump lesson at Aston le Walls with Dilys and Secret today…AND we even managed to dodge the downpours 🙌☔️ We begun with various gymnastic lines which we linked together as a course of sorts. Secret was absolutely in her element and I’m dead pleased with how bold Dilys was considering her previous experiences of grid work have been a lot less busy and intense! After we moved on to jump the course proper. Both ponies were a bit feral 🙈 Seek has the experience and know how to sort herself out of trouble, and only rolled a pole as a result. Dilys on the other hand had a bit of a f**k around and find out moment when she ran on her head down the final line, two uprights to an oxer, met the last element on a flat, duff stride, and nose dived through the back rail. It’s the first time she’s screwed up quite so dramatically- had it been a solid fence we would have both been on the floor- so I was interested to see what her reaction would be when represented to it. Would she go super suspicious and backwards or even completely jack it in? I’ve been really careful up to this point in not over facing her and keeping jumps small enough that she can easily get herself out of trouble, because she’s quite a sensitive person and I don’t think it would have taken much in the early days for her to tell me to🖕off! But I feel we’re now at point where she’s got to pull her big girl pants on and learn that playing stupid games does indeed win stupid prizes. Better now over knock down show jumps than learning the really hard way going cross country! After a short break -where we watched a much more under control Seek jump round nicely- we started the course again and Dilys decided to actually apply herself. She jumped out of her sock(s) down the first related distance, politely came back when I asked her to quietly pop the upright, and when we eventually came to that final line she remembered her mistake and again bold

Great morning having a jumping lesson at Aston Le Walls with 🖤 and 💛 It was a bit of a crash course for Dilys as she’s done very little work over skinny fences previously, and I was so pleased how quickly she understood the question and jumped down the line of three on a curve 😇 The distances could be ridden on two or three strides, depending how boldly you rode it. Secret was of course fabulous, and showed off her super adjustability by doing half and half 💪

Dilys decided to give us a bit of a scare over Xmas and go lame on her left-fore. She came sound a few days later but the heat remained in her leg a little longer than I liked, and so erring on the side of caution I called the vet and got both her forelegs scanned. The good news is she’s perfectly fine, and is now just sporting a very silly haircut on her legs 🙈 Today she had her first jump since being off and she was feeling in fine form 👌

These two 🖤💛 Another box ticked for Dilys, SJ lesson at Aston le Walls ✅ Weather was a bit blustery so we hid indoors. I’m so impressed by her positive/attacking approach today. First time she’s seen either a water tray or a wall filler and she took them both on like a pro. Seek was of course fabulous too, and both ponies got lots of nice comments. Thank you Buckingham Riding Club for organising 🙏

Yesterday we had a yard outing to Knights of Middle England to have a go at Stunt Riding 💪 I cannot express how much fun we all had! This video is just a tiny snapshot of what we got up to, and everyone attempted each exercise in walk, trot and canter. There was so much laughter, some swearing 🙊 and a real appreciation gained for the display riders who make it all look so easy (and elegant 🤣) A huge thank you to our awesome instructor James, and especially our noble steed for the afternoon Toby. He was the kindest, most patient pony in the world whilst we hung off him every which way 🥰🦄

It seems I have created a bit of a monster 😈🚀🤣🙈 She’ll spook at the banners, and she’ll spook at the various jumps dotted around the arena, but put her in front of one and she absolutely wants to jump the **** out of it 💪 Truthfully though, Dilys was really rather fabulous (if a bit keen at times!) today. She’s erratic, and still clearly has a long way to go in her training, but she’s certainly on the right track. I love her boldness, and particularly how she thinks about the question in front of her. She doesn’t always get it right (for example she thought she had to jump the puddle on the step up, as well as the step itself, which had me absolutely cackling whilst her legs went every which way 🤣). She sometimes puts herself in to trouble by running through the bridle, but she’s clever at getting her legs out of the way regardless. It’s SO tempting to put her over bigger stuff now because she feels so game -and I confess I gave in to this once when I pointed her at the arrowhead triple brush out of the water which is where we had our one and only issue/runout. Entirely my fault, I’ve not done nearly enough skinny training with her and she didn’t have the tools to deal with the question, even if she did eventually figure it out. However, right now she needs to continue chipping away over smaller jumps in order to continue to build her confidence whilst also learning how to deal with the less than ideal stride/approach/angle, and to get us both out of trouble without the risk of frightening her or having an accident. Though I do so love that she absolutely thinks she’s the dog’s 🍒 right now. Long may it continue 💪😈🖤

Dilys CT @ Cherwell

Guess who’s at her first competition 🖤🥰 Mane Focus Photography

I’m sure you’re all sick of hearing about her, but I was SO proud of the little black pony last night 🖤🥰 Yesterday we had another yard outing, this time to Moreton Morrell for their Clear Round evening. It was an awful lot for Dilys to take in, and she got rather worried by the little ponies wizzing around in the warm up. However we snagged a lead from livery Liv and her lovely horse Tigger which got her going and she soon settled. Eventually it was time for Dilys to go in to the ring, and whilst she was suspicious and unsure, she kept going and jumped round clear albeit in an interesting fashion 🙈 Quick break and then she was back in again for round two. I think the video speaks for itself, look how much more confident and stylish she was 💪🤩 We also had fabulous clear rounds from Liv and Tigger, Julie and Star, and later that evening Emma and Secret 😎

Dilys SJ schooling @ Cherwell

Another outing for Dilys ( and friends) yesterday when we went show jump schooling at Cherwell 🥰 SO impressed by the little demon pony’s behaviour, we had one little wobble at the first fence she encountered with fillers, and then she was away! We’re still keeping everything tiny for now, particularly as her technique goes a little out the window when she’s unsure, but I just loved how much more willing she was to attempt jumps/fillers she hadn’t seen before, and how hugely confident (and quite frankly cocky💪😏) she felt at the end!