Well this week was full of capers from the troublesome trio! Starting off with Madam Autumn being an absolute pain to bring in from the field. She is still having her ‘phases’ where she is explosive and as naughty as possible, and this just happened to occur one evening leading her and her accomplice in! Bob had lead in fine, then one of the other liveries headed up to the field to bring their pony in. I followed them up to try and ensure I got the mares out at the same time to minimise them stressing being the last out. But my efforts were in vain, they still played up, and Autumn was definitely fiery – kicking out, rearing, bucking every other stride, dragging me round and bashing Aria and this was before we even got the 10feet into the walk way – Not fun!
Once in the walk way I turned to shut the gate and was shoved full pelt by both horses into the metal gate – Ouch. As I turned to calm them both down, Autumn pulled back with all her might into a rear and ripped the lead rope through my hand – I couldn’t let go though as the other livery had not shut the main gate!! A fair few more rears and bucks ensued as I battled to get her to walk down to the yard. So much for my well behaved old girl ay!! By the time I got them down there my hand was throbbing – on inspecting in the light of the tack room I had a huge deep rope burn across my middle finger and a lighter one across my palm! Stupidly I hadn’t had time to grab a pair of gloves when I ran up to get the girls in so it was my own fault – but now going forward my gloves are Always at hand – lesson learnt the painful way! Autumn gradually calmed down over the week (think the naughty girl realised she had hurt me) and hopefully now we will have fairly calm evenings when going down to the yard.
Despite the tantrum behaviour, Autumn was exceptional at the weekend when we went out for a hack. As our arena was flooded I thought a short hack was in order, it was a bit blowy but luckily the village is fairly protected. Our friend wasn’t up so we both put our brave pants on and off we went – hi-vized up so you could almost see us in space. Considering she’s not been out on her own for a while and it was windy, she was very calm and brilliantly behaved. We encountered building bags full of gravel, and on turning a corner a full driveway of building materials and a skip with bits sticking out and blowing in the wind – no reaction at all! We had a lovely ride and all drivers we encountered were great – plenty of space and passed us slowly! It has given me more confidence on the road!
Bob has been a bit mischievous too this week – behaving when being worked in the evenings (probably as he can’t see anything outside the arena), but a rocket when worked during the weekend mornings. We had one speed in one session and that was Fast. There was me planning on some dressage move practice – nope he decided every leg aid or movement meant canter, and this lasted for most of the session – he forgot what walk and trot were! Argh! More work required during the xmas holidays for definite. His pole work also started off so well even cantering correctly over them, then the excitement took over and he decided that he could clear a minimum of 2 in one leap! His ‘racing stripe’ (as my friend put it) must be making him a bit more hyper and energetic! Hmmm….how many months ‘til Spring and his coat grows back? Haha.
Aria’s been well…. Aria – there must be something in the air. She too has taken to being extremely excitable in the arena at the minute- she takes a good 10 minutes to calm down the last few sessions. Once she does she works nicely although and has been stretching out well, and consistently, but she has been throwing in a mad 5 minutes here and there leaping round like a wild kangaroo. I have to say though since having front shoes she seems a lot happier and moves a lot better both in the arena and on the drive, will be taking her for a wander round the village again this week too.
Could they all be getting excited about Christmas already? I know I am! I cannot wait for the days off to ride in daylight and go out on longer hacks! If the weathers not too bad I’m hoping to try and box out somewhere to get off road too!
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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.