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.......

Chilly day at Beaumont

Took Ali up for her first session of the year at Beaumont today, very chilly!! Didn't hang around long at the stables, took the SNO and dog for a walk to warm up......

By the time we got back, the faffing to get the horses ready and out had just about finished....

 ...so we watched the lesson for a bit, but didn't get too close to the rail as the wet sand and mud was flying everywhere!!!

Then we headed off for lunch and when we came back to pick Ali up, Isabelle said she should be OK to do some jumping competitions this year. One very happy daughter......

A chilly hack!

Took Chester out for a last hack before he goes home on Sunday. Tess came with us on Fina. Not very warm today!! We went somewhere different, Chester of course started looking at things funny as soon as we were off familiar routes, white signs, wheelie bins, puddles (that's a new one), sheep......The sheep were very worrying apparently, they all ran off when Choccy bounded up to the fence (which was thankfully one of those electric mesh fences so she couldn't get through and try to "play" with them until the owner turned up with a shotgun), then they turned round and rushed back towards us, Fina spooked at them, Ches just did his strange "looking at them by twisting his head around trying to work out what they are" thing......

We saw a lovely couple of spotties who came bowling over to say hello, unfortunately they got a zap from the fence touching noses with Ches and took off at high speed!

Then we got in a bit of TREC practise going up a new path in the woods which obviously hasn't been maintained, at least not since the latest storm, lots of trees down to go round or under and slippery slopes up.....

Found a nice jumping log too!

Very foggy at the top of the hill which meant that the locals were driving around at high speed and in some cases without any lights on whatsoever so we thought it best to stick to the edge of the vines.

We (and Choccy) made it back down the hill unscathed however and had to trot a bit on the way back to warm our feet up. 14kms in all, here's the map

A strange lump!!

Gandalf has had a lump on his back for a while. It doesn't seem to bother him much but as it wasn't going away we took him up to the vet's to get it checked out. They did an ultrasound, he wasn't too keen on the machine but didn't make too much fuss and didn't seem bothered about the clippers to shave him either......

The lump looked a lot bigger without his hair on it....

Anyway, the good news is that it's not a melanoma or an abscess, just probably an infected insect bite so he's been given a cortisone injection and hopefully it will go down.......

Stairs? No problem......

Took Sky out for a little walk again today. This time we went right through the middle of the village and across the main road, she didn't seem to be bothered by fast cars rushing past.....

....nor a rattly tractor in the woods, she was more concerned about keeping out of the puddles, she's not worried about them like Gandalf but prefers not to get her feet wet!

Éowyn and Choccy had no such concerns, they appeared to be competing to see who could bring the most mud home with them.....

On the way home, we went past the passerelle over the railway and I just decided to see if she'd attempt the steps......

....didn't actually expect her to go all the way up, what a good girl!

Skýfaxa's little outing.....

Ali has been having a sit on Sky for a while now so this morning we decided to go for a little tour round the village. Sky was very good but is still a bit confused by stuff going on on top of her!

Ebony......

Did a bit of work with Ebony today, introduced her to a few things, like a saddle cloth....

....and a saddle....

....and some weight!

She took it all in her stride, really, think she's got the idea that she can trust us.......  :-)