We’ve had a lovely couple of weeks weather wise – the horses have adored being out in only fly rugs (and sometimes even naked too!), its so nice seeing the trees, plants and bushes come back to life with all the bright colours of flowers popping up. All the daffodils have opened the full length of the drive now and they look so pretty. Even the new bulbs in the boat and car planters have started to come up although the plant heads haven’t opened yet, there’s a couple we can’t remember what they are so will be a nice surprise when thy fully open. I bought a small pear tree the other day to take up and plant at the yard too – just need to find a suitable out of horse reach location so I can actually have at least one pear when it fruits lol unlike the two apple trees planted by the previous owners which are next to one of the fields and the horses can easily munch.
This warm spell we have had recently has got me thinking to start getting my bits together for the coming months – what are your main 3 summer essential products? Definite ones for me are Fly spray – and lots of it, hoof balm to keep the hooves from drying out and suncream for Autumns pink nose!
The lessons are still going well with the big lad, our last one started off with one side of the arena set up like a bending race (taking me back to my pony days) and the other a long line of trot poles. We worked on getting Bob to bed round the poles by leg aids which was difficult in this session as he was a bit bolshy and distracted for some reason. Persitence paid off and we had him rounding nicely, and two fences were set up in the middle of the arena on diagonals. My instructors only comment as she put them up ‘well we know he doesn’t respect small jumps’ which made my heart miss a beat eeek! Luckily they weren’t too high to start with – only about 80-90cm so that was fine. After a few jumps whilst I was practising some other movements one fence had been raised without me realising until we were told to come round to jump it – luckily Bob was rareing to go and sailed it, then on the next time it was made into an oxer – I was given no time to panic – we had finished a line of bending poles and just at the corner was told now bring him round and pop it. Despite initial fear, it quickly dispersed to excitement as we were a couple of strides out, what a jump he put in! He cleared it with ease and yay me – I managed to stay aboard lol! Looking forward to what the next lesson holds for us at the weekend!
Now the event season is underway ive seen a lot of fun rides pop up – already booked one at the end of May and just waiting on entries to open for the one at the start of May which we did last year and loved, both will be with Autumn for now as I want to do a couple of external training sessions and shows with Bob, and at least one on grass before I let him ‘loose’ with a group of horses. It will also be nice for Autumn to do more ‘fun’ things as although she still will go to shows, I want her to have a more relaxed time now and I too want to enjoy exploring new countryside areas and having a good blast through some fields! I was hoping to get Aria potentially ready for a couple of fun rides this year but as ive been concentrating so much on Bob shes had a few weeks off, hopefully I can get back to her soon and maybe have her ready for one at the end of Summer/early Autumn?
Once again I threw Arlo in at the deep end, affiliating him purely for the Arena UK second round show, and once again he pulled it out the bag. How lucky am I to have such a wonderful little horse? We haven’t really competed this year. I don’t really compete over the winter, and also my horsebox was away for repairs up until the beginning of June, so I had no transport even if I’d wanted to.
With the dry ground we don’t seem to be having much luck with shoes, as little madam managed to pull both her front shoes off within 12 hours the other day! We entered the arena with two shoes on for a schooling session and left it with one missing (took about an hour to find it). Then that afternoon, as I went to put some hoof ointment on, I looked down and had to double take, thinking I was looking at the wrong hoof. But, no, the other shoe was missing too.
After having a long wait and some lunch at the onsite café, it was time to get ready for the Joan Wolfe Overall Supreme Shetland Pony Championship. I got changed out of my usual showing outfit into black trousers and a maroon top with white spots, as you are expected to be a bit more “bling” in the evening.
We were all set to go for our next outing, and were super excited. That was until I heard the dreaded clunk of a loose shoe! I checked it over, praying it wasn’t too loose, but, nope, it was going to need a refit.