Trips having his first go at some baby leg yields under saddle the other day 🦄What a good boy giving it his best !
Now over the years I have done a fair bit of in hand schooling with Triple so he does understand moving sideways and he understands the aids from the ground although it's been a while since I've even done that with him but he tried really hard to understand what I was asking him onboard and give it a go.
Is it perfect? Does it look pretty?
Absolutely not, he's wobbly, unbalanced, hollow, resistant at times and of course learning !
But for a first attempt I'm pretty pleased, especially for a horse who doesn't particularly like schooling and has only been ridden a handful of times this year, none of which have been in the arena. It'll only get better !
I like to teach lateral work super early on so you have some extra tools in your tool kit to help with bend, straightness and balance ! It's extremely difficult to straighten up a crooked horse without them being laterally supple, so it's super important for me !
#horseriding #horsesofinstagram #equestriansofinstagram #horselove #horselife #colouredhorse #equestrianlife #horsepower #horselove #horseofinstagram
After worrying for the last week that we would be too slow as Dusty's been flagging a bit at rides on her own, we had a fabulous ride today at Tresham doing the 26km GER and finished on our starting heart rate of 44 and managed a grade 2 😁😁
Thanks Nicola L Davies and Donna for the company, it definitely helped get Dusty motoring!
Thanks to the organisers and volunteers as always Wessex Endurance GB, we had a blast !
Feeling more positive for Barbury in a fortnight now 🦄
Dusty enjoying her post ride Banana 🍌
Do we like the hat cam videos?! I often post these elsewhere but I do wonder whether you want them here too?? As we hack a lot, I’ve pretty much always got my GoPro on me and each ride is always different!
Everything is pretty overgrown at the moment so I had my fair share of getting spiked by the brambles on this ride… but to make up for it we had a couple of little trees down to jump and a good bit of off-roading which is always fun on Dusty who is basically a mountain goat 🐐
Do you want to see more of these? I have plenty 😂🫣
#welshpony #ponyrider #endurancehorse #equestrian #pony #welshponies #poniesofinsta #gopro #behindtheears #equestrainlife #ponylove #ponylife
Dusty and I enjoyed a lovely training ride last week. We went exploring to check out some new tracks, which was a success until the final track only about 500m from the lorry 🙈 queue a 4km detour… oh well we know for next time now…
I have just entered Tresham 26km GER in two weeks time😬😬 it looks like a good mix of grassy tracks and forestry but with a reasonable bit of road work so I’m hoping we can keep the pace up 🤞🤞
Friday we set off to Cirencester for a 22km pleasure ride. I had been debating whether to do the graded Novice Foundation but had decided I hadn’t done enough with Dusty and if it was a hot day like two years ago we’d definitely have struggled. So we went round the pleasure ride at a steady pace, not having to worry about our average speed. Despite Dusty trying to wipe me out under the branches when picking her way through some muddy sections we had a lovely time 😂 The ground was lovely and soft although a bit too soft in places 🙈😂 The weather was perfect, dry and warm but with a lovely breeze, Dusty hardly sweated up even though she could desperately do with another clip (how are the winter coats starting already 😭) Cirencester is usually infamous for the horseflies but we hardly saw any which was a welcome relief. We enjoyed lots of lovely canter stretches and took in the scenery, such beautiful forestry at Cirencester It’s made me pull my finger out a bit with Dustys work, I really do want to do the novice foundation GER at Barbury so need to up our work a little bit and get a bit more fitness under our belts. Full video to come soon 🦄 Thanks to everyone involved in another great year at Cirencester!
Swapping sides is as easy as that!
Don't forget that no two sides are equal! In every sense. They may well be stiffer, tighter and less supple one way (a bit like us!) but they may also need more time to get used to the reins one side. You often need to "redo" everything on the other rein when you change side, just because something was okay one side don't take it for granted that the other side will be the same!
#equestrian #horsetraining #horses #pony #horseriding #equestrianlife
No one wants to go horse skiing ! Trust me it's not fun 🫣
#equestrianlife #horses #horsetraining #welshpony #equestrian
More longreining! I don't like to change too much at once so adding the second line whilst still lunging "as normal" often (not always!) means things go a lot smoother
#equestrianlife #horsetraining #horses #pony #welshpony
Getting a horse used to long reins?
It's definitely not a chuck them on and hope for the best situation! Snippets from an old video but the information is still good! In-fact this is exactly how I introduced a young horse I had in for training last year to the long reins successfully. It's always better to go too slow than too fast !
#horsetraining #horses #pony #welshpony #equestrianlife
Old but gold! A snippet from an old video going through my long reining training and how I would work up to long reining a horse for the first time. This video is over 4 years old now! I think I'll share some more snippets from this little series over the next few days.
Maybe I should remake it too??
#horsetraining #horseriding #horses #equestrianlife #welshpony
We certainly didn't expect to see this on our ride
#horses #enduranceriding #ponypower #ponyrider #welshpony #welshponies #whatasurprise
This Place Has Endless Canters !
Soooo as per I totally forgot to post this video here (another reason to be subscribed to the YT channel, this went live there two weeks ago!)
A few weeks ago Dusty and I visited The Avon Centre Hacking Track. I remembered seeing it advertised previously and as I had decided we weren't going to go to one of the pleasure rides that weekend I thought we could try this instead!
Lots of fantastic opportunities for cantering. It's great for fitness training or just having somewhere safe to have a nice relaxed off road hack with your friends (and everything in between)! This video is a bit of a "bonus" episode for the happy hacking series. I talk through my first impressions here, and what you can expect if you decided to visit. Honestly had a fantastic time though and I will certainly be back which is always a good sign!
Have you been here before? Are you planning on going? Let me know! I'd love to know your thoughts !
#horses #enduranceriding #horseriding #behindtheears
Charlie says hello !
The hacking video with him is going round again so welcome if you have followed from that 😁
I'll be doing a little update video soon so keep an eye out 👀
They all had some banana this morning, which is by far their favourite 🍌
I put a bit of salt water out yesterday with the heat. Georgia was definitely enjoying it, thought it was interesting to see how she was drinking it differently to the fresh water 😂 almost like she was licking an invisible salt lick 😂
