So, gorgeous Mouse has returned home (she really was the most fun pony) and in her place, the wonderful Sparrow has returned. His breeder had found him a new home, but there were some welfare issues involved, so she brought him home to recuperate and heal. Now he is back to rights, he has returned to CES for a refresher course before hopefully going to his new home with a little boy who hasn't quite mastered the 'Sp' of Sparrow, so calls him 'Darrow'. His mum has informed me that he has requested all equipment to be in red...creating a winning mindset!
First day, starting off with revisiting long reining. Thanks to John for volunteering to give Sparrow a bit of a confidence boost at the front end and for videoing.
Here is the very sweet Rolo (see what i did there) who is on his last few days of his stay with us. As you would expect with such a baby, he can be a little apprehensive at times, but throughout his stay he has been completely genuine without a nasty bone in his body.
Shown here is his first outing over pole patterns and his first canters. He really is a poppet; even if he doesn't understand, he tries to come up with the right answer.
Ideally, his owners would love to find someone to share the ride with their grand daughter who for the foreseeable future will be on the lead rein.
He is based by West Felton and would stay at home there. There would be no expectation of any financial contribution. So if you are calm and experienced with youngsters and fancy having some gentle fun on an approx 13.2/3 coblet let me know in the first instance and i'll pass your details on.
So, on Sunday afternoon, Mouse had two very special visitors...her first child riders! Many thanks to Alice Trevor-Jones for lending them to me😘.
Although a little uncertain at first, Mouse soon adapted to her little people and behaved beautifully. I was so proud of her as i was of the girls who followed my instructions so well (i probably scared them a bit with my pre ride lecture!)
Her owner is thrilled and will be offering Mouse for loan to a very special family for up to 2 years. Please get in touch if you are interested.
Baby Blaze
We love getting updates (hopefully positive!) about our equine students.
Featured here is recent graduate Blaze who came to be started.
The first pic was during his stay at CES on his first hack in company (i do mini hacks on their own first to build independence).
The vid and final pic are at home totally bossing the hacking out game. He needs mental stimulation and is outward looking, so i was confident he would handle it well.
Thrilled for his owners.
Feel free to message for a chat about starting/schooling/coaching🙂
Who recognises this little girl? It was lovely to have the gorgeous Pixie pony back at CES for a refresher course. I was thrilled how quickly she tuned in to what i was asking despite having mainly hacked for a while. What a little super⭐.
Feel free to message for your schooling/starting/coaching requirements 🙂
Gorgeous little Section A, Mouse has been with us for starting off, but her breeder/owner would love for her to find a loan home with a loving knowledgeable family for the winter.
She has been easy to do, hacks out alone or in company, but obviously she is a baby Welshie so whilst she is a good girl she isn't dope on a rope. Drop us a message if you think you would like a 'Mouse' on loan! Also please message if you need your horse/pony starting/schooling 🙂
Finty (Deniro x Fürst Heinrich) x Belissimo Vita (Bellissimo M x Sir Chamberlain) have got something cooking!
Miss LB went XC schooling Radfords Equestrian on Monday; her first XC outing for a year.
Once she gets used to the job I think she'll be epic! I will also put a snippet of video up.
She enjoys approaching at a faster tempo and is actually more settled like this. She needs to learn not to overjump and travel through her getaway.
Very proud of her and pretty impressed with myself sitting on LB Airways in a fairly straight cut WHP saddle😂.
Now to sort out an advert 😪. Someone will have enormous fun with her.....but we are going to be very picky about who she goes to.
Gorgeous little Miss LB strutting her stuff schooling between the white boards at Radfords Equestrian on Monday. She really is becoming a super pony.
We will just do a cross country school, then I will sort out an ad, then she will be officially 4 ⛵️🥲
New girl Bella settling in nicely and dreaming about being a superstar riding pony. After barely a week she is already tottering around the car park with me on board. Such a cool cute pony😍
Miss LB is becoming more and more rideable to a fence. I can now proactively place her. She has come on so much recently; I am thrilled with her.
Shown here in training yesterday over combinations clearing 1.05 over the final element of the treble. The gate parallel was 95cm at the end.
She enjoys it and tries hard. Someone will get an amazing girl....but we won't sell to anyone!
Little Miss B in her session with Andrew Murphy Shropshire & Welsh Borders Clinics working here on sequence changes.
I had shown Andrew what she was like across the diagonal, where success depends upon the seatedness of the first change. If she pushes forward off of her hocks in the first change rather than pushing up, in Andrew's words, we are 'screwed' 😆. She also has an aversion to the four time changes, much preferring the rhythm of the threes, which will be fine when we move up the levels, but for now, we have to deal with the Advanced 🙈.
Andrew asked me to do the changes around the arena as it is a continuous exercise allowing corrections to be made. He said that he wouldn't be concerned at this stage about changing on a specific stride, but rather wait until the control is in place. I also need to be able to do changes on the short side of the arena.
Doing the changes across the diagonal has been useful to build a pattern and expectation, but it is now time to change the rules for little Miss anticipation pants and make sure that she is properly on the aids.
Andrew also said to make sure that I was keeping her straight and not swinging her through the changes, as when it comes to doing the 1s I won't have time for that-another reason to do changes around the arena.
Andrew has warned me that we may never be able to just canter in a straight line ever again!
Bonnie is kept in good shape through the outstanding services of Strides Veterinary Physiotherapy and I am indebted to Meg Quinn for her support.
Thanks to John for videoing when he'd probably rather watch paint dry.
More video snippets with over long explanations to follow😂
