Hi guys!

SeeingSpots

Toffee - Spotted Hotshot
Feb 27, 2015
885
248
93
North East, UK
www.instagram.com
I used to be a member a while ago, I don't know if anyone remembers me but I loved it on here. Sadly I then had a few family issues, was stuck in a rut with my pony, he wasn't going well for me, I couldn't get him to jump (and I love jumping so much and missed it) and felt we weren't getting anywhere. I was totally defeated. I couldn't afford lessons due to a messy split with my husband and as a result, lost a lot of confidence in myself, my pony and lost the will to ride. I put my pony up for sale as I thought he would be better off without me and my yard owner at the time agreed. She told me that he would never be a good jumper. I was at an all time low. I had no friends on the yard to help me, I felt lonely and isolated and just crap about everything so I stopped posting on New Rider, I literally just gave up.

Whilst trying to sell my pony, I turned him out full time for the summer and due to them not being allowed to live out 24/7 in winter and me still not managing to sell him, I was left with no option but to start doing stuff with him during the winter. The thought filled me with dread. I brought in a rather fat (but happy) pony and was at a complete loss as to where to even start bringing him back into work. Nevertheless, I did it and was pleasantly surprised at the change in him. The summer off did him good it would seem. I decided to take the sale ad down and see if we could get anywhere. Start afresh, just me and him. I felt he deserved me to have faith in him and try again.

Rather than do schooling and end up in a rut again, I did what I knew my pony excelled at: hacked. I hacked and hacked and hacked. Only roadwork as hacking in fields terrified me though. Made a friend of a new girl who was new on the yard and we hacked everywhere. She too was having a hard time with her horse (she'd gone from a pony to a 16.2 ex racer chestnut mare lol) and we kind of bonded because of that. We signed up to the Hack 1000 miles challenge with Your Horse magazine and hacked everywhere. We did a 17 mile round trip and me and this girl got closer and became good friends. She gave me the motivation to keep trying with him. I saved some pennies and got a jump instructor out who rode him and very quickly told me, yes this pony will jump, yes you can do it. DO NOT give up on yourself or him.

Fast forward 5 months and god things have changed. Me and my friend off the yard decided that there was too much bitchiness and negativity on the yard and so packed our horses up, gave our notice and left. We moved to a yard that was slightly more expensive but had fantastic facilities - 3 schools: 2 outdoor and an indoor, round pen, miles of offload hacking, XC course, miles of road hacking to different villages with pubs and all sorts. We were both terrified - new yard, new people etc but we made the jump and it's been the best leap of faith for both of us.

We have been on the yard nearly 2 months now and in that time I have managed to achieve the following with my pony:

Hacked in open fields
Cantered and galloped in said open fields
Jumped! Yes that's right, my pony is now jumping. I have no idea how but the move did him good and with my friends encouragement, I somehow managed to get him jumping and the best part? He LOVES it.

And now for the ultimate achievement for me and my little pony: We took part in a XC open day. I have never been so terrified in my entire life but he jumped EVERYTHING, even the 70cm log. He's never done XC in his life. It's clearly what he enjoys though.

I am so so proud of my pony and I'm so confident in myself and him now. I felt that now I'd like to come back to the forum and share things again. I have absolute complete trust and faith in him. He's labelled super pony by my friend, she says he's a machine haha He literally does everything now: Hacks (bombproof virtually), jumps, schools lovely, does XC. The only thing I'd like to try now is hunting and I'd like to try get him on a box and travel to some shows. I never had any interest in competing until now but I feel like me and him can conquer anything if we just believe in each other.

Why have I written such a long post? Partly because I'm proud and was desperate to share but also because I miss the forum and the main main reason for it, to say to anyone going through what I did: DO NOT EVER GIVE UP ON YOURSELF. Not ever. I lost myself somewhere and it was devastating. Something inside me switched on at some point and I thought to myself he deserves better, you can do this and I did it. Yes it took a yard move to get the best out of him but look at him now. He's flying. I'm finally loving riding again. I'm getting the very best out of my pony and he's loving life as am I.

Sorry for the long post, sorry if it bored anyone. Happy to be back and I'd love you to see some photos of him having fun recently so here we are:

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Thanks for reading and happy to be back. :) xx
 
Of course we remember you and the lovely Toffee. Nice to see you back :) Your old YO sounds like a bit of a plank tbh and you are clearly better off without her by the sounds of it! You need your circle to be supportive... if they aren't on your side, you don't need them in it! Glad to hear you and Toffee are having fun (and you look like it too). I bet you're glad you didn't sell him now :p
 
Welcome back. I echo everything @joosie says (which is lazy of me, but I've got to leave for work in a minute lol). Sorry you had to go through such a traumatic spell to get to where you are now, but so glad you and Toffee are having a great time now. I don't think you can beat hacking for building up a relationship with your horse, so pleased it's all worked out for you and you didn't manage to sell him! :)
 
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I remember you and wondered where you had gone! So nice to hear you are getting on well now and I hope you will stay on the forum.....
 
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Of course we remember you and the lovely Toffee. Nice to see you back :) Your old YO sounds like a bit of a plank tbh and you are clearly better off without her by the sounds of it! You need your circle to be supportive... if they aren't on your side, you don't need them in it! Glad to hear you and Toffee are having fun (and you look like it too). I bet you're glad you didn't sell him now :p

Thank you, he's so amazing at the minute! He's such a happy pony, loves life, loves his yard, he even has friends in his field. We're both so much happier. xx


Great post to read! Welcome back :)

Thank you! xx


Welcome back. I echo everything @joosie says (which is lazy of me, but I've got to leave for work in a minute lol). Sorry you had to go through such a traumatic spell to get to where you are now, but so glad you and Toffee are having a great time now. I don't think you can beat hacking for building up a relationship with your horse, so pleased it's all worked out for you and you didn't manage to sell him! :)

Hacking was the one thing I knew he could do well. He's always been fantastic on roads with busy traffic and I needed something to keep him fit and get the weight off that wouldn't go wrong so I just did that. It's not only helped with his fitness but it's made me a new best friend in the girl I met and I honestly believe its strengthened the bond with me and Toffee. I trust him so much now. I believe things happen for a reason and believe he didn't sell for the reason that we were meant to stay together as corny as that sounds.

I remember you and wondered where you had gone! So nice to hear you are getting on well now and I hope you will stay on the forum.....

Thank you! I've told Sami she has to join too!
 
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Hey, welcome back :) it's great to hear you and toffee are back on track, sometimes the people/situation around us can influence things more than we give them credit for, glad you got past it and found a new good friend in the process :)
 
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