Trisha Wren Connected Riding clinic at Dereel

We were lucky to have Trisha over for another clinic in November, this time at Yvonne's place. While the weather was somewhat unkind, being unseasonally cold and wet, we managed ok and all had a great time.

Unlike last time, we mainly had local participants this time. But same as for the last clinic, we loaned some of our horses out, and Samba and Carlotta were on duty. I took Flamenca this time, while Yvonne worked with her new mare Bjoska NS.

Following the clinic, I had the opportunity to have a private session with Trisha. I asked her for some help in how to adjust some of my seat and balance aids, so that the cues I use to ask for gait can be more subtle and more in line with the Connected Riding posture. Yvonne took some video clips.

Trisha making postural adjustments - Yvonne

spring is delightful

We went riding again today on Dacio and Carlotta. Neither seemed particularly impressed about the idea of going for a ride, but both went very well and we had a lot of lovely toelt and a relatively shy-free outing.

I got home in time for lunch and to feed the horses, before the rains came down. And down they came indeed! But that's spring for you :-)

Yesterday we had a long walk around because we had a visitor. The two pregnant mares are getting very broad indeed. As always, it looks like they couldn't possibly get any bigger. But they will :-) Having a big, fat, round baby belly make it hard to roll. And with all the winter fur falling out in lumps, the girls have itchy bits. And what face does a horse make when you scratch the itchy bits?

 

... a deligthed face of course  :-) 

That picture was taken by Yvonne and shows Samba (Paso Fino mare) getting a bit of TLC from yours truly. As you can see by the grey patch on her face, she had already indulged in a good face-rub, too.

poor neglected blog...

It has been a little while since I last wrote here. Sorry :-)

As of February, I've been studying full time. Computer Science is fun, but there is a lot of extra work in addition to going to lectures, labs, and tutorials. A bunch of assigments for starters... Anyway, the first semester is just about over so I thought I might catch up with some horse stuff.

I have started a facebook group called "Paso!". If you are interested in Pasos, go in and have a look, there are a few interesting posts in the discussion areas now.

Occasionally, I manage to update our stud website, but there aren't a lot of updates to do because it's been pretty quiet at home. But have a look at narrawin.com .

Well, due to study commitments and with winter setting in, there hasn't been much training of young horses going on. While the weather was still good, we spent a bit of time on two of our Paso Creole geldings, Ron and Raffles, but we didn't quite finish and they are turned back out for the time being. Instead, we've been spending some time with Yvonne's youngsters Carlotta, Dacio and Samba. They were all started last year and are getting a bit of regular riding, weather and time permitting.

In the beginning, we always took out one experienced horse, usually Flamenca, and a green one, but of late we have gone to taking out two of the younger ones together. As they gain experience, that works pretty well. Also, we are extending our rides not only in distance, but in challenge. Instead of just quiet forest trails, we go up the road, picking areas with more houses, letterboxes, barking dogs, mini ponies, spotted screaming stallions etc. We had a couple of fun rides towards the Dereel CBD, letting the horses check out the fire trucks which usually get taken out and washed on weekends, as well as the scary bus shelter at the hall.

So there is plenty to keep the youngsters amused!

We only have one outside horse here, Nele's Icelandic mare Funa arrived yesterday. Pity it's so wet and windy today. There is just no way I'm going to be out there playing with horses...

hay, hay, hay!

Oh, it's that time of the year. Silly season. Town clogged with cars driven by people on a mission. Mission being the buying of presents and the stocking up on food (because - shock horror - the supermarkets will be closed for a couple of days!!).

I've avoided most of it. Braved town yesterday for the last time for at least a week (hopefully until next year!), to get a bit of food for me and some feed for the horses. And this morning, I did my last trip for the year to the farm up the road where I buy hay. They are busy harvesting their crops and I doubt they'll take more than a day off over xmas.

I'm not taking any time off, either. Horses (strangely) want to be fed every day ;-)

This morning, I had a very brief ride on Samba, Yvonne's Paso Fino mare. We had started the mare over a year ago (more like two) and she's had a foal and been turned out since. Yesterday, we did a brief reminder in the yard. Saddled, brief lungeing session, me leaning over, then getting on, and finished off with five minutes of riding in the big yard. Today, two minutes of lunging in the big yard, I climbed aboard, rode her in the yard for a few minutes and then we headed out. I rely on my gut feeling a lot with green horses. There are some that I feel comfortable doing stuff with and others where I don't. Samba wasn't overly impressed, like most horses she prefers eating to being ridden ;-). But she is a good soul and aside from minuscule expressions of princess behaviour, she really was very good. And I certainly had that safe gut feeling.

Yvonne came along with Flamenca as usual, and we had a very brief ride up the road. First time for Samba from what I remember, and she took it really well. And what lovely gait on the way home.

We've also spent a bit of time with Yvonne's Dacio. He was also briefly started and turned out. Coming back in, he was a bit hesitant. Mostly unsure, really. So I got the job of taking him out riding. I always joke that my butt is on fire, as I tend to get horses moving forward quite easily. That's good for the slow ones, but has been known to become a bit exciting on the already "goey" ones :-))). In any case, the first ride started with fits and stops and sideways excursions. Looky here and looky there, all was highly scary. But forward we went, and the further we went, the better we went. By the time we came home, he was going just about straight, yielding to my legs (most of the time) and yielding in his jaw to lateral cues (most of the time).

Second ride out was much better, and by the third ride out, he was happy to go in front of Flamenca. We also went one way along a narrow trail through the scrub when Yvonne took Flamenca another way. He wasn't completely happy about it, but soldiered on, over branches, through a gully and up the other side. It really was fun. It always is on a young horse that is basically willing and just needs a little reassurance. I really don't mind if they have a good look at stuff, and I totally understand if we have a sudden stop or a little sidewise prop. They are young and green and it's a big wide world out there. My job is to support, encourage, guide, coax when necessary and laugh at their antics. If it's fun for both of us, that's the best.

So guess what we'll be doing xmas day??

Happy xmas to everyone who drops in and reads this blog. Wishing you have many happy hours with your horses next year!