wibble
19th Oct 2009, 11:18 AM
Friday
I had the Friday off work and off we headed to the stables for a lesson. I let OH tack up on his own (he did well but he couldn’t work out which bridle was Dime’s on his own) Apart from that he is very adept at picking out feet, grooming getting the bridle on and doing the girth up.
We both headed to the end of the road to the instructors yard and I tied Mischief up. OH got on whilst I made coffees and soon he was on the end of the lunge. He was practising his standing up in the stirrups. Dime was being particularly lazy and OH struggled to get him into trot. The instructor made a lot of use of the lunge whip, unfortunately she also caught OH on the bottom once but it did make him sit up straight! He got the rhythm of the rising trot and before long was happily doing up down up down like a pro.
Instructor then got on Dime with 2 whips to see how he reacted and after getting him past the gate napping badly she tried to get him going round the school and struggled he was being lazy even with an experienced rider. She suggested OH have some lessons on Mischief!
I then warmed up for the lesson with Mischief doing his best donkey impression ears flapping, nose in the air and horrible choppy trot, after a lot of circles and a lot of transitions he started to finally track up, settle down and work. We actually seem to be making progress, we just need to get to the working stage quicker so we can do some dressage tests without warming up for 45 minutes first.
Having clipped Mischief fully on Thursday and given Dime a dodgy trace clip (both done in the dark!) they didn’t need much tidying up ready for Saturday so I left them happily eating hay and gave Dime instructions not to break out the stable!
Saturday
The alarm went off at 5 and I dragged myself up to get dressed and ready for the newcomer’s day. I donned thermal socks and a thermal vest under my show shirt. I definitely need to buy some high waisted jodhpurs as mine are too hipster like and my thermal top would not stay tucked in.
We packed the truck up and went to pick Heucherella up. At the stables OH hitched the trailer on whilst we tacked up and put travel boots on. We loaded and set off at 6.55 (stupidly I thought this would be enough time for a 19 mile drive) Dime spent a lot of the trip kicking especially on any bends or corners. We were about a mile away and we couldn’t find the exact place so I rang a number I had only to discover I had woken up people from the house not the farm. We followed another trailer and made it with 4 minutes to go. We literally pulled the horses off chucked all the boots etc in the trailer. It was then we realised Dime had cut his leg, he had managed to get 2 boots off on the journey (suspect he has never worn them before!)
It wasn’t bleeding and he wasn’t lame so we jumped on (I later realised my noseband was twisted round the cheekpiece!). I quickly asked someone if there was someone who could show my OH where to go on foot (turns out no-one showed him!)
Off we set at a trot to catch up with the hunt staff. I counted 21 out during a stop. Before long we saw a fox and quite a few other animal fleeing the ditches and woods. It turned out there were 9 newcomers out and everyone was very friendly and chatty. We had several gallops and canters The Cheltenham gag worked a treat, we had brakes and I had also learned just to let Mischief run as long as he wasn’t a danger to everyone else. He also coped with hunt staff galloping past him to get to the front.
We were sent to stand along the side of a wood about 30 yards apart. The wind was terribly strong and freezing and Mischief kept turning his bum to the wind. We were both shaking after 20 minutes of staring at the wood (someone finally came along and explained why we were stood there)
It did get slightly confusing at one point, we were told not to go on the crop but then get back so the huntmaster could come through. We all gave him the same amount of room but his horse spooked and he shouted at the last 6 of us very loudly to get back which we could only do by going on the crop and we then got shouted at for going on the crop by another staff member
Dime was so over excited he had his head in the air the whole time (martingale next time then!) and refused to have any brakes and got very upset if a horse left the main field without him. He was very sweaty and I ended up trying to block him on some of the canters to stop him over taking any of the staff.
By the end of the day Mischief was completely fed up of him running up his backside so bucked in protest. Dime also would not stand still and not only slobbered over both my knees making them cold, wet and dirty but twice he turned around and squished my leg. The second time I hit him twice with my crop as it felt like he was about to break my leg as there was so much weight in his bum! He was in a Waterford, but we need to find a different bit if he goes again. He also seems to concertina his neck which made it harder to get any leverage for Heucherella to pull against.
Towards the end a lovely lady I had been chatting to fell off when the field had to stop suddenly. I managed to grab the reins of her horse and now have a longer right arm as he was pulling backwards behind my horse and I was trying to stay on! She was fine and got on after someone lending her a stirrup extender.
We trotted through the farm to go across the road for one further cover (a lot stopped at this point). After 3 hours and 15 minutes we finished.
I slid off Mischief, we untacked and rugged up (mischief has already broken a travel boot after 1 trip and lost a shoe!) we then went to grab a drink and a sausage roll (got a double port but the sausage rolls had all gone)
All in all I had a great day but I have learned the following,
1, I need to dress warmer being cold makes me very grumpy.
2, Allow more time, I hate being late, this also makes me grumpy.
3, Sort out a better bit for Dime, I spent my whole time worrying about him not stopping can you guess I was grumpy!, poor Heucherella had to put up with me (he’s my horse so my responsibility and under my insurance!)
4, take a horse first aid kit with me
5, I love galloping on Mischief and rather enjoy hunting<<<<<<<<this made me less grumpy!
I would love to go again and maybe do some jumping (there was none this time) the only restriction will be the cost at £50 a pop plus petrol it’s quite an expensive day out.
After getting back and putting the boys back in the field I headed home for beans on toast and tea before getting my instructors horses in (she was at Newmarket) and heading off home to Sussex for a lovely time with family and friends.
Not many photos due to the rush, this was us at the end
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e369/karenbigfoot/newcomers%20day/PA170606.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e369/karenbigfoot/newcomers%20day/PA170607.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e369/karenbigfoot/newcomers%20day/PA170608.jpg
here are the official photos, lovely one of hecherella and dime, sadly I was not captured!
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/woolf.geoff/EastEssex5#
I had the Friday off work and off we headed to the stables for a lesson. I let OH tack up on his own (he did well but he couldn’t work out which bridle was Dime’s on his own) Apart from that he is very adept at picking out feet, grooming getting the bridle on and doing the girth up.
We both headed to the end of the road to the instructors yard and I tied Mischief up. OH got on whilst I made coffees and soon he was on the end of the lunge. He was practising his standing up in the stirrups. Dime was being particularly lazy and OH struggled to get him into trot. The instructor made a lot of use of the lunge whip, unfortunately she also caught OH on the bottom once but it did make him sit up straight! He got the rhythm of the rising trot and before long was happily doing up down up down like a pro.
Instructor then got on Dime with 2 whips to see how he reacted and after getting him past the gate napping badly she tried to get him going round the school and struggled he was being lazy even with an experienced rider. She suggested OH have some lessons on Mischief!
I then warmed up for the lesson with Mischief doing his best donkey impression ears flapping, nose in the air and horrible choppy trot, after a lot of circles and a lot of transitions he started to finally track up, settle down and work. We actually seem to be making progress, we just need to get to the working stage quicker so we can do some dressage tests without warming up for 45 minutes first.
Having clipped Mischief fully on Thursday and given Dime a dodgy trace clip (both done in the dark!) they didn’t need much tidying up ready for Saturday so I left them happily eating hay and gave Dime instructions not to break out the stable!
Saturday
The alarm went off at 5 and I dragged myself up to get dressed and ready for the newcomer’s day. I donned thermal socks and a thermal vest under my show shirt. I definitely need to buy some high waisted jodhpurs as mine are too hipster like and my thermal top would not stay tucked in.
We packed the truck up and went to pick Heucherella up. At the stables OH hitched the trailer on whilst we tacked up and put travel boots on. We loaded and set off at 6.55 (stupidly I thought this would be enough time for a 19 mile drive) Dime spent a lot of the trip kicking especially on any bends or corners. We were about a mile away and we couldn’t find the exact place so I rang a number I had only to discover I had woken up people from the house not the farm. We followed another trailer and made it with 4 minutes to go. We literally pulled the horses off chucked all the boots etc in the trailer. It was then we realised Dime had cut his leg, he had managed to get 2 boots off on the journey (suspect he has never worn them before!)
It wasn’t bleeding and he wasn’t lame so we jumped on (I later realised my noseband was twisted round the cheekpiece!). I quickly asked someone if there was someone who could show my OH where to go on foot (turns out no-one showed him!)
Off we set at a trot to catch up with the hunt staff. I counted 21 out during a stop. Before long we saw a fox and quite a few other animal fleeing the ditches and woods. It turned out there were 9 newcomers out and everyone was very friendly and chatty. We had several gallops and canters The Cheltenham gag worked a treat, we had brakes and I had also learned just to let Mischief run as long as he wasn’t a danger to everyone else. He also coped with hunt staff galloping past him to get to the front.
We were sent to stand along the side of a wood about 30 yards apart. The wind was terribly strong and freezing and Mischief kept turning his bum to the wind. We were both shaking after 20 minutes of staring at the wood (someone finally came along and explained why we were stood there)
It did get slightly confusing at one point, we were told not to go on the crop but then get back so the huntmaster could come through. We all gave him the same amount of room but his horse spooked and he shouted at the last 6 of us very loudly to get back which we could only do by going on the crop and we then got shouted at for going on the crop by another staff member
Dime was so over excited he had his head in the air the whole time (martingale next time then!) and refused to have any brakes and got very upset if a horse left the main field without him. He was very sweaty and I ended up trying to block him on some of the canters to stop him over taking any of the staff.
By the end of the day Mischief was completely fed up of him running up his backside so bucked in protest. Dime also would not stand still and not only slobbered over both my knees making them cold, wet and dirty but twice he turned around and squished my leg. The second time I hit him twice with my crop as it felt like he was about to break my leg as there was so much weight in his bum! He was in a Waterford, but we need to find a different bit if he goes again. He also seems to concertina his neck which made it harder to get any leverage for Heucherella to pull against.
Towards the end a lovely lady I had been chatting to fell off when the field had to stop suddenly. I managed to grab the reins of her horse and now have a longer right arm as he was pulling backwards behind my horse and I was trying to stay on! She was fine and got on after someone lending her a stirrup extender.
We trotted through the farm to go across the road for one further cover (a lot stopped at this point). After 3 hours and 15 minutes we finished.
I slid off Mischief, we untacked and rugged up (mischief has already broken a travel boot after 1 trip and lost a shoe!) we then went to grab a drink and a sausage roll (got a double port but the sausage rolls had all gone)
All in all I had a great day but I have learned the following,
1, I need to dress warmer being cold makes me very grumpy.
2, Allow more time, I hate being late, this also makes me grumpy.
3, Sort out a better bit for Dime, I spent my whole time worrying about him not stopping can you guess I was grumpy!, poor Heucherella had to put up with me (he’s my horse so my responsibility and under my insurance!)
4, take a horse first aid kit with me
5, I love galloping on Mischief and rather enjoy hunting<<<<<<<<this made me less grumpy!
I would love to go again and maybe do some jumping (there was none this time) the only restriction will be the cost at £50 a pop plus petrol it’s quite an expensive day out.
After getting back and putting the boys back in the field I headed home for beans on toast and tea before getting my instructors horses in (she was at Newmarket) and heading off home to Sussex for a lovely time with family and friends.
Not many photos due to the rush, this was us at the end
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e369/karenbigfoot/newcomers%20day/PA170606.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e369/karenbigfoot/newcomers%20day/PA170607.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e369/karenbigfoot/newcomers%20day/PA170608.jpg
here are the official photos, lovely one of hecherella and dime, sadly I was not captured!
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/woolf.geoff/EastEssex5#