Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from, Niko and I.

Murphy.

Madeline.

Pip.


And Tipper but he didn’t want to wear the devil horns.

Hope you enjoyed seeing these photos, have a fun Halloween.

These Boots Are Made for Walking, Riding, and Maybe Sometimes Running

Sometime ago I bought a pair of second-hand Tredstep gaiters, and today my jodhpur boots arrived, they are not Tredstep. Anyways here are my new foot/leg wear I know that to many of you it probably looks a bit tatty but it was cheap and I prefer this to my old riding boots.

The boots are just standard jodhpur boots, they are very comfy but they do have grippy treads, which I have been advised against because they can stick in the stirrup iron and you’ll be pulled along with your horse. Still the other pair were out of stock so I just went with these, and at the moment I am not really going to fall off doing what I am doing. I think if I was to go cross-country I might have to worry. Well I am happy with the boots anyway.

In other news Tipper’s still sound from the walk work I have been doing with him, he’s still not ready to go up a pace but it’s coming along nicely.

I’ve also been trying to get Murphy’s mane to stay on the right side, it really, really doesn’t want to, I tried plaiting it and leaving it for a few days but when I un-plaited it soon went back to the wrong side.

And I am going to have a lesson tomorrow so let’s hope that all goes well. Now I must be off to clean my tack, I'll try to catch up with your blogs over the next few days and reply to your comments.

My Riding

So here’s the post I said I was going to do about my riding. It all seems to be going very well, but I have concerns. I am concerned about the use of spurs, my instructor has me ride with impulsion spurs. I don’t mind the use of spurs as long as they are being used in the right way, they aren’t there for someone that can’t ride properly to bully the horse into doing as they wish, so I am left wondering should I be using spurs, but anyway enough about the spurs.

As you can see from the photos he is going rather nicely for me and I am delighted with him, remember to look at the horse not the ugly mug on top, I think he’s looking more round as well so that’s good. My instructor says his trot is great so I was pleased with that, I do love to trot but must remember to do lots of walk too. My instructor was trying to explain how to do a leg-yield today they decided to show me so hopped on Niko to do a leg-yeld but sadly he threw a paddy so they decided not to stress the matter and go on to different work. They said that someone else has probably tried leg-yeld with him before but not done it right, so it might take a bit to get him leg-yelding nicely.

All in all I am having a great time riding and I am really enjoying my lessons, but I do just worry a little about the spurs, the rest is going great and I couldn’t be happier. If any of you have an opinion on the spurs please feel free to comment it.

Bringing Tipper Back Into Work

I have just started to bring Tipper back into work. We still aren’t one hundered percent sure what’s wrong with him and why he has been lame on and off, but he has had a lot of time off and he seems to be pretty good so I’ve started to do some work with him. I am just walking him around and trying to get him to stretch with a nice active walk. I am trying to make sure he doesn’t get lazy with one leg, when I first started he seemed a bit lazy with his off fore but today he has been great for me and I was really happy with him.

He’s getting a lot better about picking his feet up too. He is still very unhappy about having it done but will at least pick his foot up for me now, he’s still resisting a little but I am hoping that in even more time he will be good about having his feet done.

At the moment I am just walking him around the paddock in straight lines and only turning at the corner and then back to a straight line. I’ve also been getting him to halt when I ask him as he is a bit rude when it comes to people and will do things like just walk straight through you, it’s quite annoying but he is getting better and is learning, well I think he is anyway.

As for why we’ve been having soundness problems I don’t really know for sure, he has poor conformation which could have led to injury in the past maybe even more than one. Still he is on the mend now (touch wood) and all I can really do is try what I am trying and see how he gets on, if he shows signs of lameness again then he’ll just have to go straight back to rest, but let’s hope that won’t be necessary.

I’ve Joined Twitter

On a rather un-horsey topic I have just joined Twitter, here is a link to me you can follow should you so choose: @myequines

I found it quite exciting seeing all those famous riders with Twitter accounts too, sad I know, anyway I followed a total of eight tweeters and then my brother informed me not to get to carried away or Twitter might think I am a spam bot. I haven’t tweeted yet and I don’t suppose I’ll do a lot but it can’t hurt to have an account.


Anyway that is quite enough about Twitter, I’ll hopefully be doing a post about Tipper and how he is getting on soon, also I’ve got lots to yak on about with regards to my riding, all of this to come later.

Also if you are taking part in the N.L.B.P and I have missed the post please do contact me and I will stop by.

Photos That Were Nearly Left Behind - Invitation

A while back I did a post showing some of the photographs that I had taken but nearly didn’t use on my Blog. I received a comment from my follower allhorsestuff suggesting I start a meme N.L.B.P (Nearly left behind photographs) so here are some more of my photos that nearly didn’t go on the blog.

If you like the idea of sharing some of your photos that were nearly left behind then why not join in. Simply do a post with a selection of your photographs, three as the minimum, stop by to let me know you have done so and I’ll post links to all the blogs that are taking part. Feel free to ask your readers if they would like to join in as well and I’ll link to them too.

Hope you enjoyed my photos and I hope to see some of your nearly left behind photos soon.

My Newish Dressage Saddle

Hello everyone I am back for now, I have been reading your posts so sorry to hear about the bad news some of you have had and happy to hear the good.


Now on with the post, I have just recently agreed to the purchase of this Thorowgood dressage saddle from my riding instructor. They are selling it with a saddle cover, girth, stirrup leathers, stirrup irons, and a pair of roller spurs.

I like this dressage saddle because it is a lot comfier than my old saddle and it puts me in a better position, I also find it a lot easier to get my legs around the horse, my old saddle makes it very hard to get close to the horse.

The saddle is regrettably synthetic but at least that means it is easier to clean, I guess I’ll just have to wait for a Bates Innova Dressage Saddle, but for now I am happy with this saddle.

And finally before I go, hello to my new followers and thanks for following hope you enjoy my blog.

You Can’t Catch Me

It’s not often that Niko doesn’t want to work. I had decided to work Niko today in the morning while it was still cool, but today he didn’t want to and so he led me a merry chase, here are some of the photos.

Luckily I had time to put his bandages on before he decided to do a runner.

And finally I got him, well to be honest he stopped for me, he seemed to have quite enjoyed his little rebellious moment, when I did put the bridle on I found that I didn’t really have the heart to make him work, and it was starting to get hot, so he had the day off.

I know this is a very short post and that I have been quite poor with regards to Blogger of late, I must try to do more posts. Just so that you all know I am trying to read all of your posts but do not normally have time to comment, thank you all for sticking with my blog.