Zoom Pony Jump!

 

Hello all, this post was supposed to come a lot sooner than it did but better late than never, so on to the post.

It's about jumping, I've been doing a lot of jumping of late, sadly I've only got photos of Murphy and I jumping, as you can see we did get some more tires to make bigger jumps. I think this photo shows Murphy has quite a nice jump although he can jump higher than this it's too tough on him for his experience at the moment.

And here's another of him looking quite beautiful over this jump and nicely tucked up too, plus you can see my own fine jumping ability, ok so maybe I won't be going over the bigger jumps with him.

 

I've also been doing plenty of jumping with Niko but I've got no photos of that so you'll just have to see that another day, but as you can just about see in this photo I have new boots! More on this in another post where I shall review said boots.

 

And finally a photo of our three beloved thoroughbreds that I have edited with some good advice. Well that's it for me for now anyway.

Not Bad for Six Tires and Three Logs

Here's just a quick post on some easy to make jumps, using just six tires (or tyres as we Englishmen spell it) and three logs. To start with here's a nice small jump, see above, with two of the tires at the sides of the jump to make a run out far less likely, and it's a cross, all in all a very inviting little jump, plus it's so small you can jump it at the walk.

 

This one is a little bigger but still inviting and easy to jump. The logs that we are using are all fairly heavy so if the horse does hit them he knows and won't want to do it again, but as you can clearly see the jumps are not solid so injury isn't so likely.

 

Now here is a more interesting and fun jump, a very nice little spread, everyone likes spread jumps right?

 

And finally we have some cavaletti which is quite nice and of course good for your horse.

So that's pretty much it they are all very small jumps but fun and hopefully we'll soon be dealing with the size issue by getting some more tires, and the best part is they are free because car workshops would normally have to pay to have them removed, so they are more than happy to give them to us, it's a win win

                                               Almost forgot horse photo, need one of those.

Niko’s Back in Business

After a very long holiday Niko has finally returned to work, he’s been back in work for a bit now and I’ve mostly just been doing flat work with him but the other day I did jump him a little but more on that in a moment.

  
Here are a few photos of Niko and I on day two of Niko’s return to work, I was really happy with how well he behaved.

  
Here you can see I am leaning back too much but I still rather liked the photo, Niko certainly has a lot of energy in his canter work at the moment, perhaps too much.

  
After a few days of work I took him into the big paddock to do some work and it went very well. But, he did do a very big buck, which I was not expecting in the slightest, so off I went over the front and under the hooves. I am quite bruised now but nothing is broken and I had a lovely ride and popped back on after the trampling and it all went very well.

  
Also I’ve done a little bit of jumping with him, it started very well and then went down the plug hole so to speak and was absolutely horrible, but we finished on an ok note so I shall be happy with that.

 In other news I’ve got a load of the rings fitted to the stables so I finally have somewhere to tie my horse :)

And everyone is feeling their feet now spring is here.
 
Anyway that’s all from me now I hope you are all enjoying the nice weather.

Home Made Jump

We have finally got around to making our first jump, here it is, and yes it is quite small, but it will do for now. It is a sturdy little jump, and I think it looks ok, it was quite easy to make, but obviously we did need a drill to put the holes in, and we used screws to fixes the wood together. The two supports for the pole are made out of an old pallet, and the stands for them are just made out of some unwanted wood that someone we know gave us, the pole itself is made out of a left over fence post with the end cut off. As for the cups to hold the pole we just bought them from a shop.

And then it was time to try the new jump out. Oh no it wasn’t it was time to get soaked, sadly I was unable to try the new jump that day, because there was such hard rain, and Niko got really wet so I couldn’t put his tack on, he had to be rugged up unlike this little chap who is quite all right with a bit of rain.

Anyway as you can see I got to try out the jump today, and I am very happy with it, it is just a shame that it is so small. Niko was very good about jumping it, he normally won’t pick his feet up with little jumps, but he did with this one, so that is good, but he did stamp on a trotting pole and break a bit off it, oh well the trotting pole did survive so that’s ok.

And here is a another one of Niko and I going over the jump, I just have to be careful not to over use the same jump, Niko can get bored of the same jump very easily, and then he just doesn’t try, and will knock poles off nearly every time.

Thanks for the comments on my last post.

Sherri, yep old leather is so lot nicer, the new stuff on my saddle is so stiff, it’s quite hard to use, still I would rather have stiff tack then no tack. I hope Blogger starts working for you soon.

Abby, sadly the saddle is not very comfy, but it fits Niko well so that is all that matters, it came with Niko for a extra price, so we knew it wound fit. Bold Hawk should be delivered on the 3rd of June it is very exciting.

Allhorsestuff, yes it sure is good to have stirrups back, but what I am probably happiest about is not having to sit on Niko’s bony back. Nope I just had new girth straps, looking forward to your next post.

Debi, yeah he really is a nice looking horse, thanks.

Jump For it

Now the weather is better I can finally start to do more work with the horses, today, Niko and I have been jumping here are some photographs, take a look.



I am currently trying to build up Niko's fitness which I know involves lot of walking and trotting but Niko loves to jump.