Sid's diary

Jane&Ziggy said:
Any hints and tips for us, @Jessey? Neither of us has done this before and doubtless we were unaware of what to look for.
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I would say you just have to be really on it with their behaviour, even an ear flick shouldn’t be ignored, they have to learn that in that situation they have to tolerate things they normally wouldn’t, without objection. They’re going to be rubbing alongside and bumping one another, they need to know that’s intentional and ok, trying to keep them at distance is more dangerous, when they have that much slack in the rope they can do things before you can react and any kick is more dangerous, only let them have more freedom once they know their job. The led horse must keep their nose at your knee, not just for control but to stop them trying to get ahead, which is often expressed as biting vaguely in the other horses direction to ask them to give way. There needs to be a clear leader and follower, and that isn’t always natural to them if you happen to be riding the more submissive one!
 
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Thanks @Jessey , very helpful. Sid is the ridden one and when they are loose he is definitely in charge, but Sonne is 4 rising 5 and is starting to try to assert herself a bit. Last year she went with her nose at Christine's knee without a murmur but she's definitely putting her big girl pants on now!
 
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I felt a bit weary this weekend and didn't ride. But I did give Sid a quick spin on the lunge, and once he stopped coming in to me every 30 seconds he was good.

Today to change it up we tried a little work in hand. I was hoping to get him to carry himself more nicely and he made it clear that he would get himself into a nice shape for me if I asked right, but that I absolutely was not competent both to get him into a nice shape AND to get him to move forward. He was sweet and obliging, but he only does what I ask him to do, which showed up that I am an in-hand beginner. So I settled for getting him to hold himself nicely for a minute or so, several times. Afterwards he gave great big sighs and stretched his nose down to his fetlocks as if it was the hardest thing a horse was ever asked to do. He has got awfully lazy just hacking out all the time, he goes sweetly on the buckle so that's what I let him do!
 
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KarinUS said:
I missed a few updates. How is your leg? It sounds like it's mostly back to normal?
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Well, I can walk, and drive, and ride, and work, but it is in fact still broken and I am walking on the implants. I can't run, it shouts at me. Also it is crooked. At some stage I will have an operation to remove the metalwork, adjust the alignment of the bone and reset it so that the bone is straight and can heal properly, but I have to wait to get to the top of a waiting list at a busy hospital which deals with all the road accident traumas on the southern M25 every day, so it probably won't get done any time soon. I'm functional but putting on weight with my new desk job and I would really like to be able to do the Couch to 5k again!
 
KarinUS said:
That sounds completely miserable. I am so sorry. :(
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Bless you, it is honestly not so bad. I could have lost the leg, the damage was so severe, so I feel grateful to have recovered as well as I have, and I wouldn't put on all this weight if I didn't eat for Britain :p. I am happy to be able to do most things, it just makes me feel old not to be able to run for a bus when I need to!
 
I was intending to go for a long hack today but suffered from a complete absence of mojo, so decided to do a little groundwork instead. I thought I would try long reining Sid, something I think he has done very little of. We were working in my little school area, so effectively I was lunging him with two lines.

It was very interesting and very useful. We worked almost entirely at walk, and not for very long, but I could watch him so carefully! He carried himself nicely for 5 or 6 strides, then stretched right down, walked a stride or two, and back to sell carriage. He never does this when lunging on a head collar, so two reins and a bit must have given him the right message. I wasn't attempting to keep a contact, just the weight of the lunge lines does it, I think. I was also able to see that on the right rein he tracks up well in walk, a complete hoof overtrack. But on the left rein he barely tracks up at all without a lot of encouragement. I want to do more of this because I think it will be really good for him.
 
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Jane&Ziggy said:
I was intending to go for a long hack today but suffered from a complete absence of mojo, so decided to do a little groundwork instead. I thought I would try long reining Sid, something I think he has done very little of. We were working in my little school area, so effectively I was lunging him with two lines.

It was very interesting and very useful. We worked almost entirely at walk, and not for very long, but I could watch him so carefully! He carried himself nicely for 5 or 6 strides, then stretched right down, walked a stride or two, and back to sell carriage. He never does this when lunging on a head collar, so two reins and a bit must have given him the right message. I wasn't attempting to keep a contact, just the weight of the lunge lines does it, I think. I was also able to see that on the right rein he tracks up well in walk, a complete hoof overtrack. But on the left rein he barely tracks up at all without a lot of encouragement. I want to do more of this because I think it will be really good for him.
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Well done Sid such a clever boy
 
That's interesting that you saw how different Sid is on each rein. I've never long reined AJ, I think I would probably make a mess of it. It must be a useful skill to have though. Is there anything Sid can't do? 🤠
 
Bodshi said:
That's interesting that you saw how different Sid is on each rein. I've never long reined AJ, I think I would probably make a mess of it. It must be a useful skill to have though. Is there anything Sid can't do? 🤠
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I used to long rein Ziggy a lot when he was in laminitis recovery. He had been driven and long reined beautifully, so although I was a total novice we got on fine. I used to go all over with him, walking just behind his tail like the Spanish Riding School riders do. I couldn't really manage long long reins.

Sid didn't show any signs of having been long reined when he arrived, though he is generally a very well educated chap. As a result we've never been out on the road and I haven't tried it much with him. He has a problem with going forward on long reins, which Ziggy never did (being a very forward going little sewing machine). He's not bad on the lunge, though, and yesterday something just seemed to click, perhaps that the principle of long reining in the round is the same as lungeing. He was bridled and wearing a roller, and I had the long reins in "beginner" position, through the lowest ring. You can do the same with a saddle, putting them through the stirrups. We were only working slowly, with a little bit of trot, but I found it easier to get him going forward with the rein around his hindquarters and he certainly worked nicely.

There are lots of books on long reining but the one I have found most helpful is this one by Richard Maxwell. I wouldn't hesitate to try it with AJ, I don't think it's the sort of thing that is harmful if you mess it up. If you're worried about his mouth, you can work from a halter.
 
Sid had a sore eye this morning, a bit weepy and swollen. My sharer called me while I was still in bed to ask me to come and look. He was as cheerful as a cricket and clearly keen to go out, and although his eye was swollen and a bit weepy it wasn't hot or sore and he didn't mind me wiping it and peering into it, so R took him out for a spin while I got together a lot of freshly boiled saline, cotton wool, eye ointment and arnica tabs for the swelling.

By the time they came back Christine had arrived and we all looked at the eye. It looked a bit better than it had before they went out, still swollen but not sore. He let me open it for another look and everything looked clear and shiny and the membranes around the cornea were a good colour, not red or pale. So we washed it out with the saline, gave him a few arnica tabs to help the swelling, and turned him out.

I suspect that either his eye came into slight contact with something hard like a hoof, or he dinged it on a stalk of something like dock - he and Sonne got a section of long grass last night. Or maybe he got a seed in it. In any case it is definitely not bothering him, so I will go back at 2 pm when Christine comes back and see how it's looking before deciding whether to call the vet.
 
Jane&Ziggy said:
Sid had a sore eye this morning, a bit weepy and swollen. My sharer called me while I was still in bed to ask me to come and look. He was as cheerful as a cricket and clearly keen to go out, and although his eye was swollen and a bit weepy it wasn't hot or sore and he didn't mind me wiping it and peering into it, so R took him out for a spin while I got together a lot of freshly boiled saline, cotton wool, eye ointment and arnica tabs for the swelling.

By the time they came back Christine had arrived and we all looked at the eye. It looked a bit better than it had before they went out, still swollen but not sore. He let me open it for another look and everything looked clear and shiny and the membranes around the cornea were a good colour, not red or pale. So we washed it out with the saline, gave him a few arnica tabs to help the swelling, and turned him out.

I suspect that either his eye came into slight contact with something hard like a hoof, or he dinged it on a stalk of something like dock - he and Sonne got a section of long grass last night. Or maybe he got a seed in it. In any case it is definitely not bothering him, so I will go back at 2 pm when Christine comes back and see how it's looking before deciding whether to call the vet.
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Aw sending healing for Sid's eye.
 
I still have no riding mojo whatsoever but we had a nice long reining session today. I want to be able to take him out on the road so we tried going around the outer track. I wasn’t feeling quite myself and Sid was very slow and cautious, but good once we established that long reins can also be employed to prevent a cob from snatching grass.

I enjoyed it that I could walk practically beside him and watch how he was working as we went along. He was better on the right rein, as usual, with me on his right. We walked the long U shape of the outer track and in each corner I asked him for a clover leaf turn. Again, fine on the right rein, but on the left rein he lost impulsion and stopped each time. It’s just harder for him.

Here he is back to 2 rein lunging in the school area:
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He is walking nicely but his nose has come forward a little. It’s really easy to correct that on the long reins, though I struggle under saddle. Please ignore my position, I was all over the shop trying to manage reins and take a picture at the same time!

Here he is just stepping forward into halt. He likes to halt tidily.
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He would much rather halt than walk!

I’m not going to try him out on the road until I have better control of the accelerator . He’s hard to get going! But I feel safe being close behind him now and he’s quite happy about the rein behind his hocks and quarters.

I spent longer brushing him than working him but it did me good, even the brushing 🙃
 
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Jane&Ziggy said:
I still have no riding mojo whatsoever but we had a nice long reining session today. I want to be able to take him out on the road so we tried going around the outer track. I wasn’t feeling quite myself and Sid was very slow and cautious, but good once we established that long reins can also be employed to prevent a cob from snatching grass.

I enjoyed it that I could walk practically beside him and watch how he was working as we went along. He was better on the right rein, as usual, with me on his right. We walked the long U shape of the outer track and in each corner I asked him for a clover leaf turn. Again, fine on the right rein, but on the left rein he lost impulsion and stopped each time. It’s just harder for him.

Here he is back to 2 rein lunging in the school area:
View attachment 133300

He is walking nicely but his nose has come forward a little. It’s really easy to correct that on the long reins, though I struggle under saddle. Please ignore my position, I was all over the shop trying to manage reins and take a picture at the same time!

Here he is just stepping forward into halt. He likes to halt tidily.
View attachment 133301
He would much rather halt than walk!

I’m not going to try him out on the road until I have better control of the accelerator . He’s hard to get going! But I feel safe being close behind him now and he’s quite happy about the rein behind his hocks and quarters.

I spent longer brushing him than working him but it did me good, even the brushing 🙃
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I really enjoy grooming...even if I feel I can't do it at all effectively at the moment, especially not with the greys! They just seem to be all mud and are definitely trying to identify as bay! I feel like I'm probably just spreading wet mud around sometimes...

It's so interesting for me to read about and watch videos of people long reining. I've never even had the chance to lunge a horse/pony, not having my own, but hope I'll get the chance to learn more about that side of training equines one day. There's a Youtube I really like watching as well who is very keen on long reining. Endurance With Darcy, have you heard of her?
 
Jane&Ziggy said:
Just looking at those pics and man, you can hardly see that he was blanket clipped only 6 weeks ago! Woolly mammoth :rolleyes:
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We love a hairy cob! At least, I do. I have such a soft spot for them! Does he grow a magnificent moustache too? Some of my favourite cobs do. It's the cutest thing!
 
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