A Much Needed Update

It's been a long time since my last post so a fair bit has been going on. To start with a lovely lady, whose name will not be mentioned, has allowed me to ride in her field, so Niko has some room to blow off steam and have fun. The ponies have been down too and they enjoyed themselves so that's been nice.

Oh and the circus came and set up in her field so that was nice because we got to meet the two horses that worked in it, they were both beautifully kept and they are Andalusians too which brings me on to my next piece of news.  
  

And here he is. I have had the pleasure of working with this fine chap, he is a 8 year old Andalusian gelding. I've been working with his buddy too, but I haven't got a photo of him, he is a Andalusian stallion. They are both great fun to work with and be around. The person that owns them is teaching me to ride and work on the ground with the horses in a classical way so it's very interesting and hard too, really hard. It's helping me with our horses too as I can apply all the things that I learn with the Andalusians to them.
  

But for now I am not getting to do anything with our horses as it is too wet, cold and muddy to ride so I am rather bummed out about that, but at least I got to put a funny hat on Murphy. Also our laptop died due to my dear brother spilling his breakfast cereal and milk all over it :( so I've lost my huge stash of horsey photos. I don't really want to go uploading all the new ones I take to the laptop I am using now as it kinda looks like it might break if you breath on it too heavily.
      

Still all in all things are pretty good with me, I hope you are all doing well and having lots of fun with your horses or whatever it may be that you have been focusing on.

Murphy Show Pony to be?

I’ve been planning on taking Murphy to a show for sometime, he’s such a pretty little Pony and does move quite nicely, but when he moved in with Pip he became good friends and they would groom one another very often which sadly led to the tragic demise of Murphy's beautiful mane as Pip may have um… well… he ate it :(

On the bright side he ate it in the friendliest way, with simple incessant grooming. But it has still somewhat lessened Murphy’s appearance, so the plan is that hopefully I can get his mane on the correct side during winter and his mane to grow back so he’ll be looking good next year and will be ready for a show.

I’ve got to do lots of inhand work with him over the winter months too as I’d rather Murphy did not go crazy and start cantering and bucking around the show ground. He can be very spirited and full of energy at times, which I love about his character but it does also mean that he’s likely to do something silly with all the excitement of a show.

Murphy is coming along really well and I am very happy with him. I have lunged him a little bit and he has been great at it and really listening. All this said I haven’t really much idea about shows so I had better learn a thing or two as well.

Now that’s all from me, my next post will hopefully be about my riding and how Niko's getting on.

Details on Pippin

It’s taken me longer than I would have liked to do this post but as usual lots of things have been getting in the way, but now some details on Pip.


Pip’s full name is, Bayfields Pippin Lord Darby. He was born sometime in May 2010, and he is still entire, his sire’s name is Bobby and dam’s name is Daisy. Pip is a Gypsy Vanner, also referred to by some as Classic Cobs, Gypsy Cobs, or Irish Cobs. Gypsy Vanners were originally bred as wagon/cart horses and children’s riding horses.

My father purchased Pip to be used for pulling (pushing) a trap, but obviously Pip has a long way to go till he is ready to pull (push) a trap, having said that some people say equines can drive at a younger age than they can be ridden, what is your opinion? All that said if everything goes the way I would like Pip will be broken to ride at the age of four and than broken to drive. As you can see from this photo I am having difficulty keeping the little chap clean with all the rain and mud around here.

In this photo Pip is on a tether, many Gypsy horses are kept in this manner. I have seen what harm it can do to an equine and I truly hate tethers, needless to say Pip is no longer kept on a tether and now shares a paddock with the other equines and his play mate Murphy Junior. Pip has become a very happy and sensible pony since he was joined by the rest of the herd.

The breed Gypsy Vanner should have a build similar to a heavy horse/ draft horse, with a compact body a short back and neck with good bone. Gypsy Vanners should also have long manes and tails with lots of feathering on the legs, a Gypsy Vanners hair should be long straight and silky. It maybe hard to tell from the photos but Pip has all these characteristics, he is a great little chap, and I was so pleased with him today as I did a little bit of in hand work with him and he was so good for me, he is getting on very well.

That’s all on Pippin for now, next up I hope to be doing the post I metioned about Murphy. Oh and I just remembered another name used to refer to a Gypsy Vanner is Tinker horse, and now I am off.

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.

Riding Is Harder Than It Looks

I was going to do a post just about my training but quite a bit has been going on so I’ll be talking about some of that too, I haven’t got any photos that are really relevant so the photos are all old because it’s always raining and the camera isn’t fully water proof.

My riding instructor is coming to ride Niko again and will be teaching me a bit afterwards. In between my lessons I have obviously been doing lots of riding and I hate to say it but I am just getting frustrated, I have read it, I have been told it, I have watched it, and yet I cannot do it! I am completely useless with my reins I am not sure what the contact should feel like and I can’t get my hands to stay still even when I try to use my elbows as shock absorbers I can’t seem to get it right, I’ll have to talk to my instructor about the contact and see if they can help. In the mean time if any of you have advice or things you found worked for you please do tell.

We’ve been doing some work with Pip, now he can be quite stubborn but he was really good today, we’ve just been working on basic stuff for now but I was still happy with him. Also I have been riding Madeline again that didn’t go so well as it had been raining but was drying out, I asked for a trot and a few seconds afterwards we went thought some shade from the trees and it hadn’t dried up there, next thing we are both on the ground covered in mud luckily Madeline was fine, and we got back to it and finished the ride with no more mishaps.

Also Tipper was quite odd today, he was mooching about lying down in different places trying to get comfy, this is odd because normally when he tries to go down, be it for a roll or for rest, his legs tremble and sometimes he has to stop before he can lay down, but today he was seemingly fine and in the end went to sleep in the straw after a while snoozing he got up still fine and went back to eating straw, so I think he must be feeling pretty good or at least I hope he is.

Anyway I’ll try to get some new photos soon, and maybe I’ll manage to get this whole contact and still hands thing sorted.

Poor Pip

Today has been another good day, I lunged Niko and he went well again, also one of my brothers sat on him while I lunged him. My brother is just starting so he just sat on him in walk and did a little in trot, but it all went well. I also did some more jumps with Murphy here is a photo of Murphy and I going over the jump, it’s a small jump I know but I am very happy with him.

Little Murphy got a treat for every jump that he performed successfully, here he is having a fuss and treat. Tipper is standing behind Murphy looking quite hateful, he too did some work just the same stuff as yesterday but I was happy with him, oh and there was one more thing about Tipper.

Yes Tipper did do this, poor Pip has had his bum brutally assaulted, Tipper sure does have some jaws on him, as you can see it’s nothing serous, but it is a good job horses don’t sit down like we do, still I am sure that the haylage will help Pip feel better about it all

What’s Been Going On

Today has been a lot of fun, all the equines have been doing a bit of work except Pip who has just been having a groom, but he did roll afterwards so he is very dusty now. As for Murphy he has been doing some real work, he’s been jumping in hand with me and he went very nicely and didn’t knock a single jump down he didn’t even clip it. But the jump can’t go too big as I have to jump it as well, as you can see there are more uses for a jump then just jumping it, like a bum scratcher, and a very good one it makes too.

As for Madeline she has been doing a bit of work too, she’s been doing some bending exercises and she’s been practising her turn on the forehand, which she did very nicely, her mane is also looking good even if I am still having trouble keeping it on one side. Tipper also did some work in hand, and I lunged him just in the walk but he was quite good about it so I was very happy with him, and he was pretty good about having his foot picked up, I think lots of treats are helping as he now knows he gets a reward when he lets me pick his hoof out.

Niko has been great today and I am really happy with him. I started his work by doing some exercises with him in hand, and then went on to lunge him I was happy to see him really working from behind, I hope I can keep him this way inclined, he will look so much better for it. I do have some not so nice news, just as we were giving the horses and ponies their last feed of the day Niko got choke, so that wasn’t so nice but with a bit of neck rubbing and some walking around he was soon fine and back to stuffing his face.

Anyway that is about it I am very happy with them all and they’ve all done a super job to day.

GroundWork

There is a lot more to groundwork than just putting your horse on a lunge line and getting he or she to run round in circles, so I thought I would do a post with some interesting things you can do in hand with your horse.

First of all you will need an assortment of equipment for groundwork, but for the basics you will just need a cavesson, lunge line, whip, and a hat, you should wear gloves as well, you may also need brushing boots or bandages if your horse brush’s or over reaches.

To start with your horse must be happy with the whip and have no reason to fear it, if for some reason your horse does fear the whip you can try getting them used to it by placing the whip on the horse’s hindquarters and slowly bring the whip backwards and down the horse’s legs till you reach his or her fetlock, then bring the whip away and reward your horse, give them a moment and then repeat. If your horse should try to move when you are performing this let them, but keep the whip where it was when they started to move, when they stop continue to move the whip down to the fetlock, and then reward them. When your horse is happy to let you do this you can start to move the whip to his or her front and other areas till they are completely happy with the whip and have no fear of it. As you can see Madeline is more then happy around the whip and is playing with it as if it were a bit.

When working in hand you should use a piaffe whip, but if you do not have one a normal lunge whip will do, the whip shown in the photos is an ordinary lungeing whip. Groundwork is a great way to build up friendship with your horse and at the same time build up your horse’s fitness. To start your session of schooling you should perform a quick and easy exercise that anyone can do, halt your horse, pat them then take your horse’s head gently by either his or her rein’s should they be wearing a bridle, or if not use the lunge line, holding the left rein bend their head around gently to the left. Then when holding the right rein bend their head gently around to the right, if correctly performed this will help to soften the poll, mouth, and neck, if your horse has a bit check to see if he or her is chomping the bit and lowering their head, if not you can use a sugar cube to help encourage them to chomp the bit.

A horse can be taught to perform all lateral movements in hand, but of course it takes a lot of practice to do the more advanced ones so start simple with probably the easiest to perform, turn-on-the-forehand. During turn-on-the-forehand the horse should move their hindquarters in a big half-circle around his or her forehand, the forehand should pivot on a smaller circle. Now to perform this in hand ask your horse to halt, pat them, then point your whip at his or her hindquarters, keeping the whip pointed low to start, as you do this remember to hold the lunge line close to your horse’s nose, so as to allow you to control the horse’s forehand. Well that’s all for now good luck and have fun.

If you have found this post interesting why not consider buying the August edition of Horse & Rider it has a very interesting article on the Spanish Riding School and some of their in hand work, click the link to visit the Horse & Rider web site.