Progress Journal

24th September

Just a quick update. The boys took my two younger siblings for a ride. They were led around on them. Even though I expect them to behave all the time, I was very happy with them today. Even though the littlies were running around and told to keep put of the horses way, the few times they did get a bit close the boys stayed as still as a rock and behaved excellently.

I then went for a short ride on them both walking and trotting and they were both very good. It was not a very long or hard ride but they were both sweating a bit afterwards. It was a pretty hot day.

Here is a photo someone else took of me on Sammy.

30th September

Ok I didn't write about my ride yesterday but I will say one thing. I think for a couple of strides of the trot Sammy was rounded up and using himself properly. It felt really different to usual and not in a bad way.

As for today I had a great ride on Sammy. After awhile I had him trotting around in good circles on both sides at a consistent pace. It was great and I was almost completely controlling his pace with my seat alone.

I used my dressage cones to set up some patterns to work on using my legs alone to control where he was going. We did good at that. I also set them up in a circleish shape, so I could use the cones as points to aim for with my transitions. He was just about perfect with his transitions from walk to trot. He got a bit silly with his transition coming out of the canter.

I did a bit of cantering on Sammy for the first time in a long time and I was fairly confident at doing it even if he was pretty hard to ride. Some of the cantering was really good especially if it was along a straight bit. Some of it though was awful, most of those bits he was really really heavy on the forehand often kept changing direction, ignoring me and throwing me a bit off balance.

I feel like other than the few bad bits we had a rather good ride and we ended on a good note.

7th October

Yay I had a riding lesson today. I haven't been able to ride all week because I haven't had the time and it felt great. I walked around a little bit to warm up then we trotted in circles a bit. I was working on keeping Sammy out of the circle because of cutting corners problem. He even barged into Apache a few times lucky Apache is pretty tolerant. I was really having a bit of trouble. We did figure of eights to change directions and worked on keeping him out of the circle. By the end he was doing it with just about no cutting at all.

We also had a problem with speeding up to the point of cantering one side and slowing right down to just about walking on the other side. It took a lot of effort but I eventually got him to keep a constant pace that suited me. My legs got a really good work out today my calves were burning by the end of that part of the ride.

We then worked on just going around the edge of the whole paddock instead of circles. We were constantly changing from walk to trot to canter and back down again. My instructor wanted to see me canter on him as it has taken me nearly a whole year to feel comfortable cantering on him since my fall.

We went out into the big paddock and went for a bit of walk and trot around. Then we did some cantering to let the boys stretch out and run well sammy anyway lol. He had a ball just with me just letting him run even though I was holding him back a bit. I plan to go for a ride tomorrow if it isn't raining.

1st November

Ok so I haven't written anything in quite awhile, because I have barely had any time to ride let alone write stuff on here. Now I am getting more time to myself though so yay.

I went for a short ride today. I got Apache first and I was trying a different saddle on the boys, one that has been loaned to me. I lunged Apache for awhile he went pretty good. I then went to hop on for a little walk around but he kept moving so I couldn't get on. I responded by making him move his feet fast and he did not like that idea so quickly decided sitting still was easier. I then got on and walked around a bit after just sitting there for awhile. After a few small laps though he decided he didn't like it and either tried to do a little rear or pigroot I'm not sure which though because I stoppped it before it actually happened. I continued riding him awhile longer then got off. I checked while I was on and I don't think the saddle gave him enough space around his wither (sp?), so he was probably uncomfortable. I only rode him a little longer at a walk so he didn't think playing up got him out of being ridden then I got off.

I then got on Sammy who the saddle fits better. I walked and trotted on him in circles. I felt we were both doing pretty well except for on one side when we were trotting. I just kept losing my balance which was annoying me. On that side Sammy also kept cutting in or slowing and speeding up. I forgot how much more you have to work to stay on and balanced when riding in an english saddle compared to my stock saddle which kind of holds you in more.

I have a few pictures I am going to share. I also have a lesson on Thursday and we are going to be working on balance some more then.

3rd November

I forgot to write something yesterday but I will today. I had a riding lesson which was great, I really feel like I am slowly getting my confidence back with Apache. I am feeling less nervous when Apache plays up and just calmly dealing with the situation. Though he didn't play up today he was actually very well behaved.

We lunged both of the boys and I rode Sammy first for a little while my instructor was lungning him. She kept him moving while I just concentrated on my position and I really felt like I felt some improvement.

We then moved onto Apache. Both my instructor and I had a go at lunging him because he appeared to be a bit full of himself and he really looked like he was going to through in a few bucks at any moment but he never did. I then got on him while my instructor lunged him and I walked him around just to calm him down a bit as he was actually trying to speed up most of the time though it was very easy to stop him from going faster. We kept up a great consistent forward trot for quite awhile in both directions which is very different for Apache. It felt great. I can't wait to ride them next. Hopefully I'll get some pictures next time.

Post for yesterday

5th November

I went for a ride on Sammy after work in the afternoon because I felt like going for a ride and because I wanted to take his mind off my other two horses not being here. He had been calling out to them all afternoon and he called a couple of times when I was riding when we were just standing around or walking.

First I was just doing a lot of circles of walk and trot with him. First in the house yard then out in the big paddock down near the dam. Then while in the big paddock I took him for a canter. I was kind of surprised but really happy because he didn't just jump into it like usual he smoothly went from a trot to a canter and he didn't just try to take off he actually really soft and came back to a trot really easy.

After that I went up to the top paddock and they have little sheds that they can go in for shelter and I rode him in one (when I first got him he would freak out if you tried to take him in there) he went in calmly and stood there for a minute then we rode back out. I then did some more cantering in circles up the paddock and his canter wasn't as good as before but it was still ok.

Then I went back and felt like just doing silly stuff to see if he would do it. I got him to go back in the shed. After that I took him down to our little pens that are about 2m by 2m and he walked straight in turned around tightly and walked out. Then I took him down to the dam just to walk around it.

When we got around it we got to a little stream that connects to the dam. I have tried to take him through a puddle on a trail before and he wouldn't do it so I thought we could practise here. I got him to walk over the narrowest bit. He stepped over it. Then we moved to a slightly wider bit (about half a meter) and I was laughing the whole time because of they way he reacted. He kept kind of dancing in front of the water then deciding he would go over it but he had to jump it. It would take him about 5 minutes to decide each time it was fun so I got him to do that a few times.

Then we went up to the house yard and I got him to go into a few little spaces etc and he was a little iffy about it but he did it eventually.

Now Pepper and Apache weren't home because they have gone to my instructor's house (pepper to stay awhile/apache overnight) so that I can go for a trail ride at her place tomorrow. This will be intersting and I will write in here as to how it goes.