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.

Not Much To Say

I haven't got a lot to say just a small report on whats going on.

It's starting to dry up, oh so slowly, so if the rain can hold off I'll finally get some riding in.

Also I realized that I didn't actually tell you guys how our equines are getting on so I will now, for the most part they are doing well. Madeline has perhaps a bit too much energy because they are staying in over night at the moment, Pip is well and still hasn't been gelded and now I am starting to wonder if he's ever going to get gelded but on the plus side he is so well behaved that he is really no problem, Murphy is good as ever and was working on bowing for me but now it's so muddy that's on standby, Tipper is really good and he has filled out so much since I got him, and of course Niko is his normal well behaved, calm self, I did get him to bow as well as Murphy which was nice because he is a full sized horse rather than a very little pony.

Oh and I have joined Facebook and have a fan page for my blog so if you happen to be a fan of my blog and have Facebook please go ahead and like the page, also feel free to add me as a friend If you want.

And finally just before I go I'd like to say thanks to you all for sticking around despite my long absence from blogger, and hello to my new follower thanks for following hope you enjoy the blog.

   
             

Oil and Horses

  
We all know how good oil can be for our horse’s coats and overall condition, hence the reason a wide range of horse feeds contain high oil and why some horse owners choose to add oil straight into their horses feed. But feeding oils is not the only use for them, I recently noticed that some of the horses mouths were looking a little dry, having read some of Xenophon’s writings I was interested to see that he suggested the use of oil on the horses mouth, I felt that our horses and ponies wound benefit from it.

  
So as you can see here I’ve applied olive oil to Niko’s mouth, this can be beneficial in many ways it helps keep the skin moisturized and soft, nobody likes dry skin and horses are no different. The oils can also help one with improving their horse for riding by softening the mouth making it more comfortable for the horse and more responsive to the rider, a win win I would say. I now apply oil to all of the horses and ponies mouths, and I feel they’ve benefited greatly from it.   

Not only is applying oil to your horses mouth great for them and good for your riding, some horses or ponies will enjoy having it put on, Niko, Pip, and Murphy seem to really rather like it, the others not so much.

But all in all I am happy we tried this, it really has benefited our equines.

Time to Ride

Recently we cleared an area of the orchard that had plenty for the horses and ponies to graze so I haven’t had to spend time moving the equines and fence around, which means I get time to ride. Here’s a shot of Niko and I, he has his grumpy face on but he loves it really ;)

  
Here we are doing some trot I find it very hard to tell if I’ve got Niko in the correct head carriage, as you can see in this photo he is not in correct carriage. If you look you can see his head is ever so slightly below the vertical and his poll is not the highest point. For those of you that are unsure of the correct carriage his head should be on the vertical not below or above and his poll should be the highest point, that said you don’t what to be riding your horse like that all the time, because he should be flexible and also you're likely to cause damage to him if he works in such a high level of head carriage all the time.

Anyways here we are having some fun in the canter Niko really does love to canter and fast too. But check out how nice he looks with his bling, you might also notice he’s grown an ok tail but he does look a mess sadly because he is really starting to moult now. On the bright side he’ll be able to do more work with out getting too hot when he looses his winter coat.

In other news I’ve got a post on War Horse and Pippin that I want to do but that’s all for another day.

Swede on a Rope and Other News

I love feeding the horses and ponies be it hay, haylage or just giving them treats, so recently I made the ponies and Niko a Swede on a rope. Murphy loves a Swede so I knew it would be a success with him. I put two Swedes up for the ponies, one each, and one for Niko. Madeline and Tipper have not yet got rings to hang anything on in their boxes so they must wait for their Swede on a rope.

  
As you can see from this photo Niko wasn’t overly keen on his one, but the ponies ate both of their’s in one night, Niko still has the Swede in his box to nibble on if he wishes to.

In other news we’ve had some really nice weather here and the equines have all been out with no rugs. So everything has dried out a lot and Niko has had a good long holiday to give him time to heal any little strains or unseen injuries and to just generally relax and have some fun. But now that he has been rested and the ground is dry it may be time to start work again but that depends on how the ground is tomorrow as it did start to rain a little before we left today.

 Also now the weather is getting better I have started thinking about all the others and their work, I need to start some real work with Madeline and Tipper to let me see what discipline suits them best.

Anyway that is all for a later date, and for now I will content myself with fitting tie rings, and other trivial tasks. I hope everything is going well for you lot and that you too are enjoying better weather.

In The Orchard

Now that we have portable electric fencing we can move the horses just about anywhere and as they have now grazed all the land where the trees were removed we decided do some pruning to make room for the horses to graze between the trees. Here’s little Murphy enjoying the new grazing.

  
And Niko too but he is more interested in treats at the moment. It’s still too wet here to be riding so he’s just having a long break from work, but I am sure it’ll do him good to have time off, he normally gets a long break every winter.

  
Pip looking very sweet and innocent, but don’t be fooled he is a little monster at the moment. He is still a colt so is starting to get a bit full of himself, so I’ve started to try and get him to behave himself a bit better. He has the annoying habit of lashing out with his front leg if he is made to wait and he ended up smacking me in the knee today, but afterwards I made him walk and trot about with me and stand to wait a bit as well and he was really good, so I was quite happy with him.

 

Here’s Tipper looking quite the fool with a weed hanging from his forelock, he’s muddy but happy. He to isn’t doing anything because of the wet, but I have taken to putting a bridle on him to take him out and in as he hasn’t been very good about having one on the few times I have put one on him. By putting the bridle on to take him in and out it shows him it is not just for work and can be a nice experience for him, he happens to get a bucket of feed when he comes in ;)

And finally last but by no means least Madeline who is loving the trees as they make for very good bum scratcher, quite a disapproving look on her face in this photo, but it’s the only one that is any good out of the photos I took. Lots of thought going into Madeline right now with regards to her future work.

It always amazes me how I can write so much about so little, anyway that’s about all from me now.

Mud and Mishaps

Ah just look at all that mud. Obviously I haven’t been able to ride when it’s this bad, it has dried up a lot since this photo was taken thankfully, but sadly I did have to cancel a lesson. So I’ve got awhile until my next lesson, I guess it’ll give me time to practice what I have learnt.

I’ve also started to try and do more work with Madeline now that I have more of an idea of riding in general as when I re-backed Madeline I was hesitant to start her training because I didn’t want to teach her incorrectly. I am now a lot more confidant and would like to get her going nicely.

I was riding Madeline the other day when she saw the other equines were having some food. She immediately decided that she would go and have some as well. But of course I wouldn’t let her so she tried to canter off with me sending mud and dirt flying. I asked her to walk for me which she did, but I noticed she had her left ear back in a rather odd way and I found myself wondering if maybe she had hurt herself. So I stopped her, lent forward onto her neck, reached over and took hold of her ear checking to see if she had hurt it somehow and next I knew Madeline saw a bit of haylage and lent down to get it, sending me slipping off over her neck with the grace of a drunken baboon. I swung my right leg over as if I were dismounting but my left leg was stuck in the stirrup, Madeline looked up from her haylage with a bemused look as I wiggled free. I was so very relieved that she hadn’t ran off, so with everything but my pride intact I got back on and finished the ride.

Now steering away from my little bit of foolishness here is a photo of Niko after rolling. Niko and I had just finished working and I’d un-tacked him, given him a quick brush down and off he went to get muddy. I hadn’t the heart to stop him because he hasn’t had a really good roll like this in some time. I have to say I think it probably wasn’t a good idea, I am still trying to get the chap clean. He loves to rub the mud on his face.

Anyway that’s about all from me, oh and if you were wondering why I thought Madeline might have hurt her ear I am ashamed to admit it, but seriously, I thought she might have flicked mud up into it, turns out she was just a bit put out because I wouldn’t let her go eat.

I know, I know, how have I survived this long?

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.

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.

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.

Saddle Is KIA

I have been riding bare back nearly two weeks now, and I have to wait until the 26th before my saddle can be fixed. I don’t think I have ever done quite so much walk and trot, I haven’t been cantering much because Niko is so uncomfortable to ride bare back. I have been doing more lunging then I would normally as well.

Anyway I can’t wait till my saddle is fixed, so in the meantime I will be doing a lot of lunging. I never liked my saddle before but now I really do miss it, I have great respect to my follower (all horse stuff) for going as long as they have without a saddle, anyway I will stop boring you all with my wows now.

Thank you all for your comments on my last post.

Abby, please feel free to ramble on as much as you like, I really didn’t think that you did. I some how missed your comment on messy moulting, so I will reply now, I think that bays are the easiest to keep clean and not make a mess of yourself at the same time, so it’s a good job Niko is bay. If a drawer is left open in this house any clothes in it get covered in white hairs, because we have a very hairy black and white cat that loves to sleep on clothes. Let’s hope your friends horse behaves himself, I am sure he had a good reason for what he did.

Sherri, yep it sure is a lot better then using shears, no more aching backs from leaning down to cut weeds.

Hannah, yes it’s a pain the way the weeds just keep growing, we too have the same problem with the weeds growing up and touching the fence, I wish the grass would grow as much as the weeds. Murphy is a real pig as well so I guess it’s a good job we don’t have to much grass.

C and C Antiques and Animals, it is nice to have a clean paddock, and it makes it a lot better for riding in as well.