Nicki’s Equine Services

30/01/2025

George was top photographer today and finally locked onto a fence 🥳
Thank you Roland as always for your patience and support 🤩

24/01/2025

Boys being boys !
I missed the big rears 🙈

21/01/2025

Lynette.... Why are you placing my saddle so far back? I may as well be on their butt!

But seriously, where should your saddle be positioned? How do you know it's right?

We come from a nation of saddles on top of shoulders. Taught to set the saddle above the wither and the panel legs over the shoulder. We warm up and saddle has "slipped back", jump off put it back on top of their ears, sorry shoulders., and still we don't realise the saddle doesn't actually belong there.

The SMS teach a saddle should be 5cm behind the scapula. The IASF teach you to place the point of the saddle behind the shoulder rotation. You will see me lift a leg and check how far the scapula rotates. Most often 2.5" (so SMS guidance) but sometimes it's just an inch, or 3inches. This determines where I place your saddle. Then the final panel contact must not be past T18. This is how I determine what length of saddle (which alters by brand and model) will sit nicely on your horses weight bearing area.

The scapula is lined with soft cartilage, your horse should be able to move the scapula freely without contacting the tree points.

Once placed correctly your girth straps should hang naturally inline with your horses girth grove, hence why we have shaped girths. But that's a whole other post!

This post was a client request... Keep letting me know what interests you and I'll do my best to deliver 😍☺️
❤️

Excellent illustration borrowed from Natural Horseman Saddles.com Natural Horseman Saddles

12/01/2025

Starting the year the way we mean to go on !
Last weekend we had a great flat session with Roland and then today we tried something new, working equitation 😱
George and I absolutely loved it, can’t wait for the next one with Sharlotte Hughes - Saddle-up Coaching

19/12/2024

It’s been a busy week but we had fun today doing grids with Roland !

I think George is ready for the puissance wall 🤪

Rose and Julia were on 🔥

12/12/2024

Another great pole session today thank you Roland, working to get George to push through from behind, I feel I definitely worked harder than him, I think he had decided I’d eaten to much away and need a workout 😂

28/11/2024

Something needs to be done !

NEW FOREST: Riders in the forest are no doubt aware that 'no horse riding' signs have been put up on many bridges in the forest in recent months. There are over 300 bridges crossing waterways in the New Forest, of which around 100 are designed for pedestrian use only. There have been a couple of incidents recently where horses and riders have had nasty accidents using footbridges, and as a result Forestry England (FE) is surveying all footbridges on the forest and has been putting up the 'no riding' signs on bridges initially deemed unsuitable for horse riders.

The BHS has been discussing this with Forestry England, and would like your feedback as to which bridges cause problems if they can't be ridden over:
* which ones don't have safe alternatives (a ford or another bridge nearby, for example)?
* which provide vital links and would cut off access to a particular area if you can't use them?
* which create circular routes that wouldn't be possible to ride otherwise?

The information you provide will be fed back to FE and taken into consideration in future discussions around further inspections and potential upgrades. Please note this is by no means a guarantee of upgrade work being undertaken - budget constraints will undoubtedly limit what can be done, but this review will at least enable us to find out what riders would like and to see which bridges should ideally be prioritised.

Please head to https://wkf.ms/3VbIxXL to record details of bridges you currently use/used before a sign went up/would like to use in future... please note, you'll need to complete a separate form for each bridge you'd like to mention.

22/11/2024

Great pole session with Roland and Julia today, first lesson back from having my steroid injection and we did sitting trot 🥳
I can’t even say how happy I am, just waiting for my next treatment appointment 🤞but George is feeling great 😍

20/11/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/1YChipiZCn/?mibextid=WC7FNe

"Advanced training is just the basics done really well." - Ken Ramirez
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"Training often fails because people expect way too much of the animal and way too little of themselves." - Bob Bailey
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"Please just do your homework." - Fred

01/09/2024

Well done to everyone out competing today, it was hot and sticky out there 🥵

Crofton didn’t quite go to plan, George escaped last night into the garden, it was like riding a hippopotamus 🦛
It was exhausting, we won but only because we were the only ones in our section we actually came 5th (last) 🙈

I think his face pretty much sums up our test 😂

26/08/2024

A show of two sides, bank holiday weekend can only mean the new forest breed show !

Saturday was very wet and slippery, however George seemed to like it.
We entered the Forest bred ridden and novice 34 which to my delight he won both 🤩

Today was Inkys turn, as it was his first party we took George with us to babysit, Inky took it all in his stride until we went in the ring, he got a little bit nervous when he realised he’d left George and was quite keen when we had to trot 😂💪
Overall I’m really pleased with him he loaded both ends and travelled like a trooper.

Big thank you to Roland, Julia, Luke and Horzehoods Ltd loved my vanilla jods on Saturday ☔️

23/08/2024

After a morning at Brockenhurst doing college stuff with Logan it was nice to have some fun with George in our pole session with Julia and Rose, thank you Roland we definitely need to do that a little more often !

Didn’t get a chance to take any pictures so here’s one of George and Inky 😍

08/08/2024

You know your pony is living his best life when he looks like that !
😍🙄😭😂

03/08/2024

July turned into a crazy busy month after our lovely holiday, between holiday horses, teaching and yoga we had some great sessions with Roland prepping for the NFS !

I think I’ve recovered now from 3 long hot days at the show 🥵
Stewarding Tuesday, Thursday and competing on Wednesday, George really tried for me and we came 10th 🤩

Big thank you to Julia for always supporting me and to Pamper Yourself Now Ltd for my lovely dress !

07/07/2024

Last week was a busy one, from holiday horses, teaching, going for a ride in the Julia’s new lorry and load practice for the ponies to having a lesson 🥵
George was much responsive than expected, working on staying soft while being quicker to respond, thank you Roland !
New forest show will be our next outing 🤞
But now it’s time for cocktails, office is closed 😘

22/05/2024

We’ve been very busy bees, great lesson with Roland last week, working on George pushing from behind without running, then a very informative session with Centaur Biomechanics, I tried really hard to put everything Roland and Russell said in to action today for our first BD event 😬

Some bits felt great, keeping the counter canter after a give and retake across the diagonal 🥳 unfortunately only on one rein 🙈 but he tried his little heart out for me today and he only went and won 🤩💖

Julia had a great outing with Rose and was 2nd in Elementary❣️

06/05/2024

Fun afternoon yesterday at the New Forest Pony Enthusiasts Club summer show, very happy with George who took it all in his stride, we haven’t been to a show for over a year, so I wasn’t sure what I was going to get !
He wasn’t the judge’s cup of tea but he ticked all of my boxes 🥰