27/01/2012 by shaun.

..how warm it was today. The ponies didn’t want to come in at their usual time and I had to actually go out to the horse fields to get them in. It really felt like it was summer already…

But as soon as the sun went down (at around ten past five this evening) the temperature plummeted and it got really cold. And then Lyn told me she had heard that we were due to get some Siberian weather for a few weeks. Argh! Sorry to go on about it, but lets hope that isn’t the case.

So today was a day I didn’t get to ride because we went to see Freya’s school show instead which was great. It was all about respect. It means though that Hannah, Pam and I are drawing in our riding competition. I’ll need to ride tomorrow and twice on Sunday to beat them.

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26/01/2012 by shaun.

..this morning with just me and Katie on the yard because Mollie woke up feeling not very well. Poor thing stayed in bed until about 12 and then went out to get fresh air. I had had loads of fresh air. But, of course, once the yard was done I needed to get on Remy. But he was out in the Seamab field and so off I marched. I eventually got his headcollar on and was about to bring him up to the top gate when Kit galloped past with her tail in the air and Willow, Tara and Snoop following all waving their bottoms at Remy and saying “nah, nah, nah, we are off to play galloping games”. Well it was all too much for Remy who would much rather play galloping games with those girls than any kind of schooling with me. And so he whipped the lead rope out of my hands and galloped off after them.

Of course I smiled, happy at the horses joi de vivre and walked after them singing a little song to myself. I shall, of course, not repeat the song…

So when I had eventually caught him, I led him in and we had a nice schooling session. We are getting better at our downward transitions and we are staying balanced, and at times we really seemed to have alot of impulsion from behind. So we finished off by kicking a load of showjumps all around the arena. I tried little jumps for confidence and big jumps to see if it made him focus. All it did really was give him a varying height from which to kick the poles around. Back to the showjumping planning board me thinks.

I was then meant to school Jasmine, especially as she had new shoes but didnt. No reason really other than lazyness. M’bad.

Tomorrow, I will ride Remy and Jasmine. Promise.

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25/01/2012 by shaun.

..today as Gary came around again. We also had Jen and then Pete down from Loch Leven Equine to dope Jasmin as she is a bit silly with the farrier. Once woozy she was happy to get her feet trimmed and shoes on. I think she was pleased with her new look and the extra height it gave her. Kimmie also got a shoe put onto her sore foot. She’s still feeling it a bit so we are keeping her in her stable fro another few days.

The boys from Primary School Support in Clackmannanshire came today and we practices showjumping over a course of three jumps. The jumps were actually quite big and the boys coped really well. Even wanting to make the showjumps even bigger.

And we continued the showjumping theme in the evening lessons. Ru joined the first lesson on Heidi. She was going great and very calm until I dropped the mounting block and scared her she tanked off bucking. Ru of course stayed on. With then got her to do another little canter and popped her over a couple of small jumps before he took her out of the lesson and put her to bed. The older girls finished off with a Chase-Me-Charlie and managed to clear a huge height. It was soooo impressive I actually took a photo of it with the ponies that jumped it…

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24/01/2012 by shaun.

..individual showjumping tonight and we had plenty of rounds. But I must have got my course just about right as we had very few eliminations but also very few clear rounds. The first class was the most popular with lots of pony clubbers going for the safer and less challenging round. All in all a good night.

And after PC, I got on Remy and schooled him for half an hour. He has his good moments and his bad, but so far this week, Pam, Hannah and I are drawing in the riding competition. I still think its unfair that I can only count the riding of one horse and and not the total riding I’m doing. I’m going to ride Jasmine tomorrow and start working her properly and hard so that she can start being used in the riding school sooner rather than later.

Princess Kimberley is looking great, with full weight bearing on her bad foot now and Gary coming tomorrow to refit her shoe.

And tonight when bringing the ponies in Teddy, Guiness and Heidi though it would be a great jape to cover me in mud by going absolutley everywhere they weren’t meant to and destroying a couple of fences by breaking the fence posts at the base. SO guess what I am going to have to do tomorrow. Yes fix the broken fence lines on the way to the run-in.

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23/01/2012 by shaun.

..and very early this year. I checked my blog and last year we recorded our first flowering snowdrops on 18 Feb and the year before it was the 11 Feb. So we are still in January and we have bunches of snowdrops. And just to prove it..

It has been a really mild winter and so hopefully this also means that the grass is going to get started early. The horses and ponies will love that.

Princess Kimberley’s foot s looking a lot better, she’s weight bearing on it and Katie dry poulticed it today instead of a wet poultice. She is also dead keen to get out in the field. She will have to wait until Wednesday when Gary comes to fit her shoe again. Once she is back in the field then Holli will get her stable back again. I’m not sure if Holli will be glad or not, I think she is really loving being in the back pen with Corrie, Jess and Buzz.

Today I went off for my first hack of 2012. Remy and I went and did the canter hill by ourselves and had a great gallop up the hill. He got a bit spooked by the building sight and was scared witless by a labrador in a garden. Given he is meant to be a big bold eventer, I need to hope no one puts model dogs by any jumps. And we will all have to hope Princess Tigerlilly doesn’t decide to savage Remy and chase him around the field. This could be really terrifying..

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22/01/2012 by shaun.

..as the warmer weather returned. In fact it was soooo warm that Remy decided to take his rug off himself and leave it in the field. By the time I was free to go and fetch it for him it was pitch black and I couldn’t find it. So I’m hoping its a warm day tomorrow as well because he is going to have to go out without a rug on. That or I don’t turn him out tomorrow. At least that way I will be able to easily ride him. I’m planning to take him out hacking tomorrow for a change instead of only working him in the indoor school.

Today was a great day for Catherine (one of my adult riders) who managed a canter for the first time today. Willow was an angel and did as she was asked, letting Catherine canter the long side of the arena before she asked her to trot. Hurrah. I then had a lesson with a little girl from Kinross who had been given a Christmas riding present from Santa Claus. We had a great time practicing riding and then finished off playing some Pony Club games. She seemed to really love it and went off with plenty of photos of her and Louise.

During the day Hamish played rugby for Kinross and they beat Strathmore Sharks. Well done Cougars. And we went to Abernethy to celebrate Grandad’s birthday.

When we got back I had another couple of lessons and while I did that Katie, Hamish, Ru and Mollie (and Robyn) brought in the horses and ponies. They were all waiting at the gates ready to come in for the night.

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21/01/2012 by shaun.

..off today as the stables was busy with lessons all day. Lots of starcharts came back today although we have still got a lot more to come in. And Mhairi brought a photo from last week when Ruffles came riding..

Ruffles is the bear from Fossoway Primary School and he came down and rode McLennon.

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20/01/2012 by shaun.

..the informal riding competition as she has ridden every day this week, Pam missed today and I missed Sunday. I tried to argue that riding two horses yesterday and Wednesday would put me in the lead but Hannah was having none of it.

I did manage to ride today during the day and then I fetched Freya from school which meant I didn’t need to ride tonight so I got to come in for Fahita Friday. Yum yum.

Gary came this morning to try to put a shoe on Princess Kimberley but unfortunately she had an abcess. Gary cut it out so she is now on wet poulticing and Gary comes back out on Wednesday. We also got front shoes on Remy as he has been missing them for a week. This means I can go and hack hhim out for a change. Looking forward to that. We also had a go at shoeing Jasmine. She managed with the trimming but seemed to get bored and got a bit bolshy when the shoes started to go on. We are going to have to try some chemical aids to keep her calm.

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19/01/2012 by shaun.

..wrong, it has snowed today. Several times. At the moment we have a light covering of snow on the ground. The snowflakes varied from slushy sleet to great big white flakes, with hailstones thrown in. I don’t know if I dare to say it, but I don’t think it will last for very long. Fingers crossed.

And today I had no lessons during the day, so after feeding, turning out and mucking out in the morning, I got to ride Remy and Jasmine in the afternoon. I made Remy work really hard and tried to get him to stayed balanced in his downward transitions. It seemed to work, better wait until tomorrow and see if He has got the idea or weather it was really just luck. I tried to achieve two things with Jasmine, getting her not to hollow and resist and poke her nose in the air when we went to halt and also to put some energy into her walk and trot. I got the latter but really wasn’t very successful with the former. She also has almost no bend on either rein. I sense lots of serpentines and 5m loops coming tomorrow if I get the time to ride her then.

This evening I got one more starchart back for my 4.30 lesson and handed out four more starcharts to adults. I’m still working on mine.

And as I was looking through my photos today for something I came across this picture we took last summer of Fudge (our very old veteran who has since died). She was living in the front garden to get as much grass as possible and we left the front door open only to find her popping into the house to have a nosey around. Fortunately, it turns out she was housetrained!

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18/01/2012 by shaun.

..for tomorrow, and it was so cold this evening that I quite believe it could. Fingers crossed it won’t though as that will mean that tomorrow night will be very cold. It makes me so pleased that we have the indoor school though as I get to ride Remy under cover.

I have taken to riding him in the late evening after all the lessons have finished. So yesterday it was after Pony Club and tonight it was after the last lesson which finished at 7.30. Tomorrow night I don’t stop teaching until 8.30 so that will test my resolve.

Talking about Pony Club, we played Games yesterday and had three lanes racing at once so everyone had less standing around time and more riding time and I think it means that there will be less draws in the league. Everyones riding is coming on in leaps and bounds and their ability to ride in an enclosed space with lots of other riders around them is very impressive.

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