New Ambitions!

Haven't posted for a while because we haven't done much recently, apart from slog up the hill through the mud in the rain to see the horses every day, thanks to the Great British Winter this year being not very cold but very, very wet. Not that it has bothered the horses at all.......

The only place we've been able to escape the weather is in an indoor school. Sadly not one anywhere near here, but in Berkshire, at the Ambitions Equestrian Centre, where a friend is a regular and where they decided they'd like a little go at horseback archery.

So in the Christmas holidays we wandered over with our kit and got some of the kids on the pony club camp to have a go. Some of them were a bit reluctant, largely because they were scared the bow would break so we had a session on foot first to get them used to the bow and how to shoot it.

A further complication was that none of the horses had so much as seen a bow before, so we spent a fair bit of time introducing them to new sights and sounds too.....

Then there was the biggest hurdle, getting the kids to let go of the reins........distraction is the best way to do this, I find.....

Most of the ponies were great about the whole thing, any of them that were a bit unsure I got Ali to ride as some of the anxiety was coming from the riders....but as the session progressed, they got more confident :-)

A week later, we were back and by the end of this day's work, we had some of the kids shooting from a canter....

And a couple of weeks later, we did a Friday night session for the adults.

Apparently they want us to do more at half term. Better get on with doing my BHAA Coaching qualification then!

Mini pony club

At Tumpy Green, they do something called Mini Pony Club, for 4 - 6 year olds, and the SNO has been very excited about going. She gets to spend time with other similarly pink small girls and cuddle fat hairy ponies but also half of the session is in the classroom learning about things to earn badges.

It's amazing the motivational properties of a small piece of embroidered cloth.....

So the first week, they did this

and this

and this

and she got one of these

Today's classroom session was about poisonous plants and what ponies can and can't eat.

 In case you were wondering, here's the list she made:

So now you know :-)

No badge yet, they have to finish the session next time and find pictures of bad plants to bring in. Maybe we should tell them about Kinna and the St John's Wort......?

Bolshy youngsters, small ponies and goats.......

As you've probably gathered from the last post, we went to get Kinna back a couple of weeks ago. She's clearly decided that her summer off means that she's retired, at least when it comes to having to do stuff in a sand school (hacking out is apparently still an acceptable occupation, even if she's not always allowed to get her head down to the green stuff whenever she wants). So this week is week two of lessons for Kinny Whinny. Mademoiselle has decided that walking and trotting in the school is OK after all (unlike last week, she tried stopping dead when asked to move at first) although being asked to trot still requires an angry swish of the tail just to register a protest at having to do this kind of thing.

But when asked to canter, we are still trying the old "bounce to a halt and see if that gets rid of my rider/changes her mind about continuing with this dangerous rodeo ride" technique that you may remember from earlier in the year when first expected to run across grass rather than stop and eat it. When the answer is no, pull a face, swish tail and proceed with bad grace.......

Some work needed there, then.

In other news, Ali decided she wanted to ride the smallest pony up there for the second lesson. Brynbella Lady May, as she is known to the Haras, is a little Welshie who has a terrible reputation for rushing fences and bogging off with kids and dumping them to get back to her herd. I reckon she does this because they pull on her mouth too much. So Ali rode her with little or no contact on the reins and slowed her down with squeeze/release on alternate reins rather than a tug of war, and I suggested to Carole that we put the other ponies one in each corner of the carriere rather than all together. Certainly got her attention......

And in other other news, we took the goats up to the club as Carole has said they can come and live with the sheep and goat already in residence. They were deeply unimpressed at having to get into the car....

...but once they arrived in a huge new paddock with  little houses and everything, they soon got over it!

More Pony Club.....

As it's yet another Bank Holiday here in France (there are far too many in May), I got the job of entertaining the Pony Club. We even have a new member, Aurélie, and her little TB, Solium, who is a star.

Went for a little hack first, map and pics here, then came back to mess about with some jumps. Solium and Polo were a bit concerned about the whole tarp over the pole thing, so we practised that and they were soon leaping over it unconcernedly......

Seraphina didn't even look at it funny.......

And Hollie got her Youngster's Challenge filmed for the forum competition:

And it didn't even rain (much). Good day......

Fun in the sun.......

Have had a great day with the ponies and the kids today, Hollie and Polo came to join us and we've been doing some practising.

Started off with a practise of the HT youngsters challenge (full details here), they soon realised that the egg and spoon bit isn't as easy as it looks, neither is one handed riding!

Some more work to be done there.......

Then we moved on to polework, and transitions, gave them something else to think about......

and we finished up the morning session with a bit of jumping the scarey black plastic draped over the pole!

Neither of them was too keen on this at the start, here's some video:

After lunch we went for a little hack, guess who had to walk? Yep, that'd be me as the SNO insisted on riding too......

Sky was full of beans and danced about a bit, especially when the other two went off for a hooley, and the SNO thought this was all great fun! She even did a big spook when the others came back.......and Éowyn laughed. And told her off........

She was grinning the whole time.

Went to watch a football match....

....involving ponies, of course! As it's the holidays, Magali had organised a footy match for all the kids on the little ponies, using a big inflatable exercise ball. Great fun was had by all....

Of course, we had to chase some runaway sheep and goats off the pitch before we started....

Then we had to get the SNO to give up the ball.....

Ali's team was called "Bella Sara" and they drew 3 all.

Some more pics:

Éowyn watched for a bit, then got bored and found a nice muddy puddle to play in......

Still, she's nice and knackered now ready for her trip tomorrow......

Playing football....

Pony club today was fun for Ali.They played pony football!

Yes, she is the tallest child on the smallest pony.....

....and the soggy sand school made it hard going!!

Her sister was cheering her on, as you can hear in this video!

Very casual atop her pony.....

More pony club.....

Some pictures from this week, Ali is definitely getting better at the flying dismount:

Éowyn was in full on naughty mode today and didn't listen to the instructor much........and she was none too pleased to se my friend's granddaughter Jeanne riding HER pony Enzo during the first lesson!!

Still, once it was her turn, she eventually settled down and got on with the serious business of having fun. With the pink plastic hoops, of course.........

New Poney Club

So as Éowyn wants to start riding, what did we see in a local shop the other day but a flyer for a new pony club near us opening this week......I called, it seems they do a lesson for Ali at 10am and one for Éowyn at 11am on a Wednesday, very convenient so along we went this morning.

Brand new tack for the ponies, it was the first ever lesson, we had to get saddles & numnahs out of the packaging. Off to a good start as Ali got a spotty pony to ride!

He's called Obi-Wan, nice geeky name.......

There were only 3 of them in the class, turns out I know the mother of one of the others, she has Irish Cobs in Bonneville where Gandalf & Maverick  live. Also found out that the monitrice at this new place used to work at the place where we went for the open day on Sunday and has now set up on her own. The girls did lots of fun stuff in their lesson, she seems to be a good teacher, Ali really enjoyed it.

Nice little pony she had, Welsh x Shetland apparently.

And at the end, the Frankie Dettori flying dismount, needs a bit of work I feel......



As you can hear, Éowyn waited patiently through Ali's lesson (not), then it was finally her turn. She insisted on riding the white pony (Enzo) rather than the chestnut (Barbie), and was very good once on board, the monitrice is happy that I'm having to translate a bit for Éowyn as she wants to improve her English!

Think the smile says it all!

After about half an hour in the school we went for a little ride in the vines,

predictably, Mademoiselle wanted to go faster......so she did a little trot too!

Safe to say we'll be going back next week......