Four rides
Over the weekend I got do do quite a bit of riding. On Saturday I schooled the charming Xefira. We rode up to our yard from where she lives without stirrups ( because I forgot mine and her owners' ones are too small for my great clumpy feet ) and discovered that although she didn't mind cars going past and could deal with horses going the other way, but we couldn't go through a puddle because she is a lady and ladies don't get their feet wet.
We had a lovely schooling session focussing on getting her bending and balancing nicely. One of the nice things about her is that her trot is so incredibly smooth. Just a wonderful gait to be sat on. She is such a fast learner too, which makes it very rewarding working with her.
After that I spent some time schooling Zorro including some nice work on getting our hindquarter yield, which is good in halt, working nicely in walk. We started getting it working nicely and using that to develop some smoother changes between our forward and lateral movements, finally getting closer to some of that hindquarters-in type work. We also got some really nice shoulder in with me holding the reins bridged in one hand. That was pretty awesome.
On Sunday I got to ride Xefira out. Small Pony is able to do short rides now - he gets tired but the work is good for him. As Xefira is still very green riding out with him is pretty good for her as well. We made a nice little circuit around the common in the bright autumn sun. I had a view like this:
I find the way her ears are greying out in little stripes up the back. Just too adorable.
We went through puddles until her ladyship found it was easier to go through than around them. It turns out wet feet aren't actually the end of the world and a lot easier than circling around puddles indefinitely.
The only downer about the ride was the point where Small had decided to go up a path of his own choosing and as sleepsy_mouse backed him up, we got closer than we realised and Xefira kicked him, catching him just on his hock.
He had a nasty looking cut, but he was quite sound and didn't seem overly disturbed about matters. Cold hosing and some bute in his dinner seemed to do enough that he was sound today.
We were expecting a visit from shanks01 in the afternoon, so I didn't ride Zorro in case he was going to be around, but he had some kind of rabbit related dilemma or something and flaked, so I hopped on cob for a brief trail ride before we lost the light. The time limit meant that from the time we hit the common it was pretty much trot and canter the whole way around. It was brilliant. Zorro was steady going but fast and sometimes it's just so awesome to be able to ride your horse and move out along these fine tree-lined bridleways. We're nowhere near the speed that Zorro can go, but we're certainly exploring those higher gears.
We got back and he was pretty warm, so after some time with his cooler on, we let the ponies into the little passageway between paddocks that leads down to their field to give them some grazing and keep them in the sun for a little while. It's quite handy as well because when the grass is longer it makes your trousers pretty wet on dewy autumn mornings, so getting it grazed down a little is a help for us.
They didn't seem to mind.
We had a lovely schooling session focussing on getting her bending and balancing nicely. One of the nice things about her is that her trot is so incredibly smooth. Just a wonderful gait to be sat on. She is such a fast learner too, which makes it very rewarding working with her.
After that I spent some time schooling Zorro including some nice work on getting our hindquarter yield, which is good in halt, working nicely in walk. We started getting it working nicely and using that to develop some smoother changes between our forward and lateral movements, finally getting closer to some of that hindquarters-in type work. We also got some really nice shoulder in with me holding the reins bridged in one hand. That was pretty awesome.
On Sunday I got to ride Xefira out. Small Pony is able to do short rides now - he gets tired but the work is good for him. As Xefira is still very green riding out with him is pretty good for her as well. We made a nice little circuit around the common in the bright autumn sun. I had a view like this:
I find the way her ears are greying out in little stripes up the back. Just too adorable.
We went through puddles until her ladyship found it was easier to go through than around them. It turns out wet feet aren't actually the end of the world and a lot easier than circling around puddles indefinitely.
The only downer about the ride was the point where Small had decided to go up a path of his own choosing and as sleepsy_mouse backed him up, we got closer than we realised and Xefira kicked him, catching him just on his hock.
He had a nasty looking cut, but he was quite sound and didn't seem overly disturbed about matters. Cold hosing and some bute in his dinner seemed to do enough that he was sound today.
We were expecting a visit from shanks01 in the afternoon, so I didn't ride Zorro in case he was going to be around, but he had some kind of rabbit related dilemma or something and flaked, so I hopped on cob for a brief trail ride before we lost the light. The time limit meant that from the time we hit the common it was pretty much trot and canter the whole way around. It was brilliant. Zorro was steady going but fast and sometimes it's just so awesome to be able to ride your horse and move out along these fine tree-lined bridleways. We're nowhere near the speed that Zorro can go, but we're certainly exploring those higher gears.
We got back and he was pretty warm, so after some time with his cooler on, we let the ponies into the little passageway between paddocks that leads down to their field to give them some grazing and keep them in the sun for a little while. It's quite handy as well because when the grass is longer it makes your trousers pretty wet on dewy autumn mornings, so getting it grazed down a little is a help for us.
They didn't seem to mind.