Paula’s Blog – Back to basics…again!

After my painful dismount at the show, I decided that we would have a couple of weeks away from competition and start having a few lessons in between. Annoyingly injuries, plans/events and money had meant we hadn’t been able to schedule a lesson in for over eight weeks. I didn’t even realise it had been that long! Well, I can tell you I was very rusty and quite self-conscious about my riding as soon as the lesson started. Bob started off lovely and calm whilst we warmed up talking about his recent experience at shows, his results (shockingly he’s joint 3^rd in one of the local venues championships at the moment!) and of course my fall. We trotted about a bit and he was fairly happy and then it came to cantering over some poles. He took off nicely, went over the poles and then had a huge hissy fit where he leapt about and threw his head back (hitting me in the face ouch).

He managed to overreach and pull his shoe off during this palaver (luckily farrier was due a few days later)! We checked he was ok then got him to do a bit of slow work as we were aware he would be unbalanced but didn’t want him to finish on a bad note.

I have come away with some exercises to practice as he was in no way wanting to settle or listen after that, and we have tried them a few times since the lesson where he has behaved well - including cantering over the poles with zero hissy fits. I’ve decided to do at least another lesson before our next outing just to get him refocused and to help me. Since injuring my back/hip before Christmas, I have been very tense both in and out of the saddle (Pilates instructor even noticed it in the class) so now I’m almost healed, I’m working at relaxing my back/hips more and being more aware of the tension as that can easily pass to Bob.

I have roped my partner into coming with me to another horse shopping event this weekend as we are going to the National Equine Show at the NEC which I can’t wait for - I promised to buy him a cake to keep him happy. I’m looking forward to seeing what it’s going to be like especially after attending YHL for years and loving that!

We have started to do a bit more of a tidy up at the yard now spring is on the way! We finally had the insurance pay out for the fencing at the front of the yard drive that a contractor knocked down in September, so that will be replaced and looks fab as well as providing more security for the trio. As the fence has been moved slightly back, we now have room in the front, so I’m going to plant a few rose bushes as that should make the entrance look quite pretty. We also had our local farmer come and cut the hedge by the road and I have to say it’s made the field a lot more open and spacious – we didn’t realise how much the bushes had encroached into the field, so it’s given us at least another six feet of grazing the whole way up the field. My other half has also been beavering away removing an old fence down by the yard, as we are having an open grass area for the neddies in the winter just off the bottom part of the yard. He’s also built me a small gate to prevent the horses getting behind Aria’s stable to where we soak the hay nets - it looks so much better than the previous line of bailing twine! Honestly looking at the yard now and remembering what it was like when we moved, it now looks completely different and so much better.

It looks like spring is slowly on the way as the daffodils down the drive have started to open as well as a lot of plants starting to come up in the planters – I’m looking forward to seeing all the colourful flowers and smelling the mint that I planted. Not long until the clocks change with the lighter evenings - and hopefully warmer temperature…and less mucking out yippee!