You can't do that, it's dangerous!

Yesterday we did something that is apparently very dangerous. We went for a hack and as soon as we got off the main road and started trotting, Sky started shaking her head up and down as usual. We have come to the conclusion that she doesn't like the feel of the bridle moving around on her head, even her specially made soft leather sidepull. So Ali took it off, and we did the rest of the ride with her just in the neck rope.

Sky is much happier like this it would seem. The head tossing stopped. We went up into the woods and decided to see what would happen if we went for a canter. It was very civilised and she didn't even feel the need to race with Damson. The neck rope was fine for stopping and no innocent passing hikers were run over.

Sky strode out, sniffed the path at times, looked around, nibbled the grass a time or two, but didn't brace her neck, didn't do her giraffe impression and generally seemed more relaxed then usual. I love this picture:

There is something very special about having the trust of a horse like this. I hope I can have the same with Tari when I start riding her. Ali also did her first Interdressage test bridleless this month and she got 77.5 % in spite of a few occasions when Sky made her opinion very clear that she didn't really want to be doing some of this stuff.....

......but then, when did she ever not do that? It's why we love her ;-)

Another busy weekend

On Saturday we did a bit more endurance training, managed about 7 kms at 10km/h, G didn't seem too distressed by that. He was sweating buckets as usual, mind you, and Sorcier, as usual, wasn't.....

Later on, we got the Gazebo of Doom set up properly and did a bit of work with that. Sorcier may be able to outpace G at endurance, but he was not at all keen to get near the white, horse eating monster, even when his mate was not bothered about standing right underneath it......but we got him near it at least......

Then yesterday, the last dry day forecast here for a week, we decided to do some Interdressage, so here is Gandalf's Handy Horse video:

And Fina's Working Hunter Pony one:

Even found a bit of time afterwards to get the Umbrella of Doom out to further scare the ginger one, Fina helped us this time:

He'll get there in the end; she used to be scared of brollies when she first came, look at her now!

Interdressage without a bit......

OK, so I have been playing around with the bosal on Gandalf for a while now. Absolutely fine on hacks, no problems with the brakes. So today I thought I'd try to do the ID test in it. As soon as he got into the "arena" (grassy bit of commune land over the road) he wanted to canter, every time I asked for trot he tried to shoot off, I thought perhaps I'd need to go back for his Myler.......but after a few minutes he started to relax and listen to me and we got a nice rhythm going. So I did a few run throughs of the test (which includes leg yield) this afternoon, then took him back home to have some thinking time (and wait for Ali to get back from school to film us).

Then we went back out there, same thing, can I eat? No, can I rush off then? But got him listening again, and went for a take. It's not great, but there were moments when he was softening nicely and not rushing so we'll enter it and see what feedback we get. As you can see, the leg yield isn't  nailed either, he finds it especially hard towards the left, work in progress.

Discovered that although these HD videos on my new camera take AGES to upload, you can get decent stills from them!

Interdressage without the dressage

More Interdressage videos done this week. Continuing the non dressage theme after the Christmas competiton which involved handy horse, practical horsemanship and a performing goat.......

This month there is a Happy Hacker class. Last time we did this, I was the only one not filming in a sand school, we actually went for a little tour round the village. We came 6th, the winner basically filmed a walk and trot dressage test wearing a hi viz vest! Not what I call hacking.......

Still, we have decided to give it one more go, so I filmed a test earlier in the week on Chester. Because most of my hacks involve ride and lead these days, I took Sky along too, and the dog, who always comes with us, wearing what's left of her hi viz coat which has unfortunately proved to be non bramble resistant.......

Quite impressed with Ches, one of the required movements is a small jump and he actually bothered to jump the ditch instead of his usual tromping through it.

Ali wanted to do the class with Fina, so they did something similar, without a saddle, she's got a bit of a thing about riding bareback at the moment.

So we'll see what happens with the judging. If another sand school perfectionist wins, might just have to give up and go and do some online horse agility instead.......

Interdressage again

Filmed a couple of classes yesterday, had to use Fina as the others are disgustingly filthy and there are marks for turnout. The Nordic Princess manages to stay very clean, she's obviously not a mud monster like Sky and Chester.

Here's Ali doing Manners, Ability and Performance:

And both of us doing the shared horse showing class, this was about take 4:

.......because as usual with Seraphina, there were a few outtakes!!

We put her in Ches's Myler bit this time, she argues less than with her usual one, but tends to overbend more.

Once we'd finished the Interdressage, we went back to the garden and Ali did a bit of practise with the bitless bridle. We reckon she's happier in that than the Myler for sure......

Interdressage out and about

Just had time to film this month's Interdressage entry today before the closing date tomorrow. We are entering the Happy Hacker class so I thought it would be appropriate to do the class out and about rather than in the school.......not that we've got a school anyway!

It is judged on "turnout- no need to plait (may use ‘high vis’ or traditional showing clothes), condition, manners, ability and performance, continuity of show and on the horse the judge would most like to ride on a long hack or pleasure ride"

Well we won't get much for turnout, they'll probably say he's too fat (good job they don't judge the rider's condition too!), his manners & performance are generally good (apart from reluctance to leave the horrible pony and trying to take off in canter at one point) and he's certainly the horse I'd most like to take out for a long hack.......

Shame I forgot to tighten his girth and the saddle slipped back when we went up the bank! Also shame none of the noisy vehicles going past (including a quad with a rattly trailer) ended up in shot......

Éowyn's first dressage test

Last month there was a lead rein class in the Interdressage schedule and as Éowyn has been going on about getting rosettes like her sister for ages now, we decided to go for it. I was going to plonk her on Gandalf, but Tess offered us the use of Coquinette, so she went for it......

And she didn't even come last, scoring 60.24% put her 5th out of 7. Which luckily for me meant she got a rosette.....

....although she was a bit disappointed that it wasn't pink!

More Interdressage

Actual dressage tests this time, with set movements and letters round the "school" and everything......

As there is a restricted walk and trot class this month for people who have never got above 68% (us!) we thought we'd give it a go. So here's Fina:

and here, complete with "Blairwitch" style filming and Seraphina and Violette having a very mareish discussion on the soundtrack, is Gandalf......

Handy Horse, not so Handy Pony....

Well we filmed our Handy Horse tests today. Gandalf, first take fine, as usual. But the NNP sure made a reappearance today!! She jumped a practise jump superbly:

and was not bothered about the flag either:

But when it came to filming........mademoiselle was not ready for her public!!!

Here's the outtakes video, she didn't want to jump, be near the flag, go into the maze, stop to let Ali pick up the sword or go past the hoop......

But we got there in the end, here's the finished videowithout the jump though, we decided it'd be easier to just take that out......

And here's Gandalf's video, complete with Ali's Blairwitch style videoing and extraneous dogs.......

Seraphina goes solo

Seraphina was a star today, Ali wanted to ride but Gandalf has a nasty bite on his back so I don't want to ride him til it's gone. This meant that as Fina was with Mav over the weekend, we had to go and get her and bring her back to the others on her own.

Ali got on and headed down the hill......and off she went, without even a backwards glance at Mav! She seemed quite happy to follow the car, every now and then she'd come up alongside the door and poke her nose in the window to check I was still there!

She had a bit of a hesitant moment going past some cows, but didn't spook, just moved away from the fence a bit! The only spook we had was when a horse down the road unexpectedly stuck its head over a hedge, obviously took her by surprise. Very pleased with her, that's the first time she's been out alone since she arrived here.

Then we got to Marianne's and went into the carriere to do a bit of practise for the Interdressage Handy Horse class, she was a bit distracted by Marianne's horse, Gimy, who was racing round the paddock next to her, but soon settled down.

Then we turned her out with Gimy, who's currently on his own til Marianne can find a new horse, they had a fine old hooley round!

"Handy Pony" class

That's what class 8 on this month's Interdressage schedule is called, so we did a bit of practise for that today, just like our Label Loisir stuff......

Seraphina had no problems with most of it, bit reluctant to do the jump, fair enough really, I mean why jump over it when it's less effort to go round it? Got there in the end though....

Gandalf couldn't work this one out at first, til I showed him he could lower his head to go under it!

The NNP, being that much shorter had no such issues......

Flags, check. Tarp, check. Brolly, check. Slalom, check.  Reversing, needs a bit of work......
Hopefully we can get it sorted this weekend as entries have to be by 31st.

Doggy Dressage.....

Today Chocolate made her Interdressage début......there was a class for dogs on the December schedule so of course Ali wanted to do it!

There's a prize for the best fancy dress, out came this month's ensemble again......

....and here's the video
So far she's the only one in the junior class......she could win by default!

Bareback dressage......

....is hard work!! There was a bareback challenge class in this month's Interdressage competition and as the entry fees go to charity, I decided to give it a bash......here's the video

Poor Gandalf wasn't too sure what was going on, I was far too heavy on his mouth, he's not used to that.....


Ali did her class in fancy dress too. Possibly the desert Bedouin outfit wasn't the best choice for this weather, we had to add a fleece and gloves!

Here's her video

Dressage and donkeys

Bit of a disappointing day today. Ali wanted to do this month's Interdressage class, which is basically the same as last month but with the addition of two small jumps. Gandalf however had other ideas......
The practise run went well....

but after we went to all the trouble of plaiting him and Ali got all her togs on, he did one decent jump, then decided he couldn't be bothered any more and demolished it at every attempt.

Looks like he was going to clear it in that pic - but no, he caught it with his hind leg. So we called it a day, he's never going to be a jumping horse. There's always next month......

We saw Rossy and Buffalo as well today, Buffy has dropped a bit of weight recently and is looking old (well, he is 36!) but he can still put the upstart donkey in his place!!

More Interdressage

Today it was Ali's turn to do her thing. She decided to enter a showing class, so it will be judged on turnout of both rider and horse. That meant a lot of preparation! I showed her how to plait his mane, which is a fiddly and time consuming job, and I don't think it looks as cool as the running plait we did for Sky the other week, but the people judging these things are obviously old school British judges, so proper plaits it is!

Good job Gandalf is a very patient boy......

Then we did his tail.

 Ali got her posh stuff on, white jodhpurs, how impractical is that? I wonder who thought that'd be a good idea for showing........probably a man.

Anyway, here's the video. Had to have a musical soundtrack because the original soundtrack featured a lot of Éowyn screaming after being told she couldn't be in the video, have the camera, ride the horsie or play in the road........

Cantering circles

 Aliénor wanted to ride Gandalf today so I asked her to warm him up, then see if she could get him to canter circles as he's great in a straight line but doesn't have a great turning circle.......

The other problem is that all he wants to do is get back to the gate to be near Maverick so she had to work on anticipation his slowing down. It didn't always work, as you can see here

Still, all good for his weight loss programme!

Then I got on and had a go at this month's Interdressage test, here's the video

Plaits

Today we decided to have a crack at this month's Interdressage in hand class. Sadly we hadn't managed to ditch the Small Naughty One, but she was sent to stand in the corner when we did the video and I will take the soundtrack off so you can't hear the crying.......

Skyfaxa hadn't quite managed to get all the dirt back on that we washed off the other day but still needed water strategically applying, I really shouldn't have so many white horses.........She was very good about it, and then was also extremely good whilst I attempted to wrestle her copious amounts of mane and tail into some semblance of a plait.

Not sure if you're supposrd to do running plaits, but I can't be bothered to mess about with those little individual plait thingies and she's got far too much mane for those really. She didn't care, all she wanted to do was eat!

And no, she isn't as white as this any more.......

Dressage test.....

Never tried to do one of these before, but I have agreed to do Walk and Trot Dressage Test F as part of a team Interdressage competition with some of the girls fromthe forum. It looks horrendously complicated on paper so I decided to get on Gandalf and go through it. He was very patient with me stopping to read my piece of paper.......

Once I'd been through it a few times though it made much more sense and I could follow the patterns the test makes. Just got to practise a few more times than get someone to film us......

Interdressage

We sometimes do Interdressage competitions, where you do your dressage test at home, get someone to video it then upload it and the judges mark your test from the video. I't great for those of us who can't get our horses to an actual show.......

Anyway, this month there was an in hand competition which I had given up hope on being able to do with Sky because it hasn't stopped raining long enough. Still, the sun came out this morning and so I brushed the worst of the mud off her (don't think we'll get too many marks for turnout), and hampered by my two offspring, went out to do the test. First we had to overcome her fear of the horse eating sign next to the car park......


She actually did really well, in spite of Ali yelling at Éowyn, and Éowyn insisting on being in the video with us.......right at the end she saw a dog and got a bit distracted, but apart from that it was fine.

Here's the video: Interdressage March 2010 Class 8