13.09.2016- Good cop bad cop

Well this blog is very much over due! I've just started a new job so I'm stupidly busy at the minute and don't have a lot of time for myself so blogging is going to be a bit ropey this month I'm afraid. 
So, (two weekends ago now oops) we went and did our first dressage show! I'm not going to lie, I was very, very nervous but what a good boy he was. He was so well behaved, didn't have a tantrum at the dressage boards as I expected or freak out at the judges. We got 58% for Intro C and 63% for Intro A, getting mainly 5.5s and 6s and 7 for his free walk which I was really happy with. All the comments were just to say he needs to soften and come into an outline to do better which I already knew but his accuracy and rhythm etc is where it should be.

                         

                               

We also had a play at jumping; Emma did the 2ft class with him and came 2nd, she did SO well it was really nice to watch such a nice, confident round and she did her first jump off so I was super proud of them! :) Then I did the 2ft3 which honestly is the biggest I've jumped since about February time and he was wicked, hands down the smoothest round he's ever done, it's so obvious what a difference all the flatwork we've been doing has made a difference jumping wise. We came 3rd with a double clear. I honestly couldn't have faulted him at all that day, he loaded brilliantly, he behaved perfectly and was just a pleasure all day, even though he had to do a lot of standing around etc. To be honest, I couldn't quite believe it was my horse haha!

                                  

                                  

                                  

However he has slipped back into my bad books after being such a star that day after the clipping fiasco... It has come to that time of year when I need to get the clippers out and have a bald pony. I've done a lot of work desensitising him to them over the last month.... well, I can't say it made much of a difference, he is very certain still that he does not want to be clipped and is currently clipped one side and half clipped the other side, not ideal when we are off competing this weekend! Hopefully tomorrow I'll manage to get the rest of him done.. if not I shall just have to have a patchy pony! 
I'm finding it hard to find time to ride at the moment with working two jobs and being a bit all over the place but I managed to squeeze a short schooling session in after work yesterday. He was a bit tense and stiff but then he hasn't been ridden a lot recently and considering he's never been ridden in the dark with the floodlights on he was well behaved. I think he was just a bit stiff with not doing a lot the last week but I managed to get him to loosen up and some really nice, big, stretchy trot work.. and then the light meter went out, bugger!! So I think it would have been a bit more productive if I'd managed to do work with that trot had the lights not gone out! 

Beth & Jack x

Month Deux- 2/6

How have we ended up here so quickly!? I was expecting these monthly reviews to be humongous, marathon blogs but really, I can sum up how August went pretty quickly- he was super!! He's honestly been really well behaved and lovely this month bar the dentist situation, for once I don't really have a lot to say. 

Our goals for August were...

Crack the canter work

I'll be honest I actually ended up doing the unthinkable and focusing on our trot work instead, so canter work has taken a back seat. His canter is very balanced and wouldn't take a lot of tweaking whereas his trot work, I'll be honest was pretty dismal, to the point where he constantly felt like he'd bolt and was very, very tense in the trot. We have done sooo much work on improving the rhythm and quality of his trot and I honestly think it has come on SO much; so much so that we've actually entered in for our first ever dressage test tomorrow, eek! So this goal may not have have been achieved but we're still going in the right direction.                       

                                                                                                                                                      

More confidence and consistency hacking.

• Well I think this is definitely one goal we smashed! Getting off the drive is no longer an issue at all it's fair to say and we actually went on a good two hour hack the other day! He does still nap, however touch wood, it's to a much less extreme degree that what we had in the past. Plus, we even managed to get him to venture into the ford the other day. 

                                                        

What did we get up to? A fair bit of hacking, LOTS of schooling, starting jump work again, our first proper lesson together, lots of baths, introduction to clipper work 

How many times did he make me want to cry/scream/gouge my eyes out/write his advert/call up tescos/etc? Once... and ironically this was other the Vaseline incident not the Dentist incident; I think the different reaction on my part from these two events shows that I clearly need to (and have done!) paid attention to my goal of being more patient!

Best parts? The last schooling session we had... I really hope we can recreate that again one day! Oh and finally being able to cut his tufty ears. I'm easily pleased. 

Worst parts? The vaseline. It really wasn't that bad, I know. I'm dramatic. So is my horse. 

Now onto our goals for next month... this is a hard one this time and its taken me some thinking. Also, some of these are ongoing goals for the whole year but I thought I'd add them in just as a reminder for myself! With starting a new job, next months going to be ram packed so we may struggle to fit all these in but there's nothing wrong with being ambitious. 

• Improve our schooling 
• Hacking consistently
• Get him clipped- even if we just start with a bib clip, I want to try my hardest to get his irrational fear of the clippers sorted by exposing him to them as much as possible until he releases it's not as horrible as he thinks. 
• Attempt some dressage
• Ride bareback; I'm aware this is going to seem like a bit of an odd one but I cannot remember the last time I rode him bareback and I couldn't before because he was just so tense in his trot. 

Beth & Jack x