2017 Hacking/ Riding Challenge.... Add your photos too

joellie said:
He is looking on good form. I love the action pics of him in the sandschool :)
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Thank you, his extra weight has stayed off and he is in more work. His canter isn't there yet (but massively improved) and he is the most horrendous jumper ever (think demolition derby) but until he is 150% balanced on the flat, I'm not even going to attempt to try jump him. He's doing ok though, he's just so sharp at the minute, he's like a coiled spring. I have no idea why, it's usually passed by now and he's back to his normal self but he's still really forward, touch him and he goes..... I can't complain though, I suppose it's better than a kick kick kick ride and he doesn't actually do anything too bad, he just fights you when you try and stop lol
 
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My updates to this thread:

Wednesday night: 20 minutes groundwork
Thursday night: 35 minute ridown schooling

Today Pete & I hacked - a shortish but steady ride today for 3.3km in 30 minutes for two reasons A: we've had some brilliant fun and speedy hacks of late & I needed to go a route we normally whizz round in canter in a more sedatw walk and a little bit of trot to just make sure he wasn't getting too confident about cantering every time out or in certain places. It was a good day to do it today as we had a lot of rain Friday night into Saturday morning so the ground was pretty slippery anyway.

No photo's today, as Pete actually finds walk with a little trot rides the hardest to mentally cope (he's got a busy mind which is best occupied by going forwards :D ) with so needed all my wits about me today!

That brings our 2017 totals to:

Hacking: 5.7 miles
Hacking time: 1hr 10 minutes

Schooling ridden time: 35 minutes

Groundwork/liberty work: 45 minutes
 
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Got out for a walk just as it was starting to snow. It got really heavy really quick Only did 1/2 hr but I got out!!;)

Here it was not too bad yet
the flash makes the snow look pretty
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Now its really fine and ugh really heavy snow.

Please send "less snow" vibes!!

We are in the 7-11 inch range at the moment but that could change.


Some places on the cape and islands and coast could get
24 inches:eek::eek::eek::eek:
Totals
Sonny unmounted 6.00 hrs
 
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@Native Lover its sometimes hard to find the time to ride but at least you still got to do something with Glennie, all horsey time is good in my books.;)

@horseandgoatmom the snow does look lovely in your pics but I can totally understand you not wanting anymore of it. So I am sending plenty of Less Snow Vibes your way ;)
 
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It might not have been particularly sunny or dry today, but we still managed to get out for a 4.2 mile hack in 45 minutes. Last one until next weekend ... I'll be pretty pleased to see the lighter evenings now!

Running total so far ...

Hacking: 9.9 miles
Hacking time: 1hr 55 minutes

Schooling ridden time: 35 minutes

Groundwork/liberty work: 45 minutes
 
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It was wet again today but the rain managed to stay away while I went out for a hack. My friend came along on the bike, it was nice having company for a change. We were out for 1 hr 20 mins but my friend rode him the last 20 mins home so I will only add on the 1 hr i rode. We encountered road works again. They just finish at one place and then pop up somewhere else, it seems never ending... Marley was very good.

Total ridden 3 hrs
 
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I love all the photos! Its so funny seeing snow when its the middle of summer here!
I've been off work and away from the computer! But to update since last post:

5th Jan
45min dressage lesson - he was pretty good, really started getting his hind underneath him. Started doing some pretty leg yields and carrying himself like a real horse then he decided hard work was hard and found a reason to be afriad of the sand in the arena. Dork.

6th Jan
Took my semi-retired mare for a hack. She was pleased to get out, and we did half the distance I wanted to as she was jogjogging the whole way so I figured double the work haha. One hour duration.

7th Jan
Arena work for orange to prepare for showjumping comp tomorrow! 45mins.

8th Jan
3hrs SJ comp. Did three rounds, the first two were clear but too slow (but we are working on not gallopping like a madman towards the jumps so I'm fine with that, he was listening and waiting yay) then we did an accumulator with a joker - you do certain jumps for points and the last jump you can either do a normal jump or for double points do a joker (in this case the joker was an upright 10cm higher than the rest of the course). If you fail the joker though you lose a lot of points! We had a rail on jump #2 totally my fault for some reason it looked big and threatening haha, then we went clear everything else and as i cantered towards the joker I thought nah we got this, and yep he flew it easy as :) we came 4th, but had fastest time so if we hadn't had that rail we would have won! Ah well!

Running total:
Orange: 6h 15
Mad mare: 60mins
 
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Not too much to report I'm afraid. We did an hour's worth of inhand work. Rusty is responding well and acting much less feral. I plan to be able to go for a short ride tomorrow. I'm aching to start using our new endurance saddle.

@horseandgoatmom, Your commitment to work with your horse everyday is inspiring to me. I'm going to try very hard to do that too. Do you always ride your horses bitless? Rusty would like to go bitless and he would be able to drink better during rides. Once he is going well again I'm going to attach a second pair of reins to his rope halter with the first set attached to the bit on his bridle. That way I'll have a back up if things go south at the beginning of the bitless project. Of course I will start him in an enclosed area first.
Totals:
inhand: 1 1/2 hours
ridden: 10 mins
 
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USpony said:
Do you always ride your horses bitless
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Thanks I am on a bit of a roll and want to try to keep it going.:D
I do ride bitless all the time but when I want to get into a bit more finesse this spring since Virginia has a gigantic ring
and I have a smaller open ring area here. I will go to a bit.
But for trails I will continue to go bitless I like them to be able to eat grass etc along the way. That wont happen so much with the trails here but at places like Borderland Park we would ride thru big grassy fields.
I am really thrilled that I will be able to open any of my 101 exercises books and play with any exercise;):):D
having ring access now. It was the pitts at the old place to open one -- nope cant do that one -- flip flip ugh nope not that one either and so on.
As footing and temps get better I want to transition to riding but right now its much better to bundle up and
just go for a walk.

Today will be a challenge its 2f out right now and is not going to get a heck of a lot warmer.
 
Harvey and I are still pushing our boundaries, so on Saturday we set off to find a new bridleway. On the way we were trotting along the road and there were 3 puddles that nearly joined across the road. Harvey *hates* puddles. He didn't see them until the last minute, tried to skid to a halt and failed so then he took off on all 4 legs at once. Good job I have reasonable balance!

The first bit of the bridleway was a track with fields each side and we had to pass 10 Shetlands on the left and 10 on the right. We managed this ok and then came to 3 gates in a row. I jumped off and he was good in hand at all 3. The next challenge was getting back on, but fortunately the last gate was a 5 bar and he stood nicely for me. Next challenge was a "normal" bridleway gate, but it was positioned so "heels to hinges" wouldn't work. After a couple of attempts we got through - our first successful mounted gate passage. We were now in a grass field so I let him have a trot so I could size up what he was going to do. He was a bit impatient, but he has good brakes so I wasn't worried. The next obstacle was a small brook, but surrounded by deep mud and with a gate just the other side. He walked up to the brook nicely, but then felt like he was going to leap over it and there just wasn't the room or footing for that so I turned him away and jumped off. He then lead over it nicely - I was so pleased that I broke my normal habit and gave him a treat. The gate was easy in hand but getting back on proved rather more difficult. The gate was no good to climb so I asked Harvey to stand by the fence, but he kept swinging round to stand at 90 degrees to it. My tack with him is called (I think) positive reinforcement, so I just kept leading him round until he did what I wanted and then he got lots of praise (it took 5 goes). I then found out that the fence was very, very slippy so it took me some time to carefully climb high enough to jump back on. Next on the agenda was a canter up the hill. He set off as soon as I asked him, and surprised me by taking it very steady - in fact I had to ask him for a bit more. One final gate and we were back on the road and he again stood nicely next to the 5 bar gate for me. Not a long hack, but a lot of successes so I was pleased and I'll now feel confident to try some of the more distant bridleways

On Sunday I decided to give both of us an easy time so we just hacked out at walk with another livery, although he still managed a huge spook at a pink bra hanging in the hedge (I have *no* idea what it was doing there).

Back on to the lanes
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Hacking
2 hours 30
7.6 miles

Totals
Hacking
11.35 miles
3 hours 45
 
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GaryB said:
The next challenge was getting back on, but fortunately the last gate was a 5 bar and he stood nicely for me.
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I used to worry at getting off since I'm so short - but found I liked the "challenge" there is always something around.;):D


GaryB said:
On Sunday I decided to give both of us an easy time so we just hacked out at walk with another livery, although he still managed a huge spook at a pink bra hanging in the hedge (I have *no* idea what it was doing there).
Click to expand...

LOL you had me in stitches laughing on that one!!!:p
 
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Well here I am!! Late to the party but !! - whooohoo! Brook is back in work!! After 2 months off she came into today as sweet as anything and off we went for a hack. We were out for about 30mins and I do have to remind myself she is a rising 5 year old, green youngster that hasn’t been ridden in ages and here she was out on her own and being a wee star. We had a couple of moments but nothing awful and she seemed pleased to be doing something. The most notable moment was when we cut back along the edge of the woods, almost home and i had a loose rein. A pidgeon flapped up behind us in the trees and she did that 0-50mph, bum tucked under and tank thing. I was caught off guard and my weight got thrown back a bit and I actually counted the gallop strides while I had her full weight into the bridle and I was pulling to stop.. 1... 2.... 3.... 4... at the moment I did think oh gee here we go, she’s getting away from me so here comes the bronc , the handbrake turn or whatever else she might do that will ditch me, however I shouted at her Brook Whooooah and she stopped!! Love my little lass :) Now here is hoping I can actually keep in her work & nothing happens child wise/weather wise/anything else wise to scupper my plans!!

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