Went to visit Seraphina on Thursday, as it's the school holidays and Ali wanted to go and see her. Tess and Caitlin came along for the ride and we had a nice fun day with lots of laughing and gossiping....
When we got there the girls were calmly grazing together. This is a good thing since when I was there a couple of weeks ago to pick my trailer up, the new girl, Tayenne, was systematically breaking out through the fence and disappearing into the woods. Probably "encouraged" by Fina who has decided she is once again in charge. Tayenne is a seven year old Camargue mare who has spent her life so far in a herd and hasn't really seen much of the world. Easy victim for little miss bossy, really.....
Sheila's older mare, Lucie, has gone to the stallion and Tayenne has come to keep Fina company whilst she's away. Lucie is definitely in charge of Fina, so it will all change again when she comes back. And next year there will be a foalie for her to contend with!
We went for a nice walk, Ali rode Fina and we walked Tayenne the spook monster who did a lot of snorting at stuff, but is starting to get the idea that the whole world is not out to get her.
So yesterday it was cross country day, Carole is in the process of building a course so we had a few fences to play with. Again, Nahiade was a star and really seemed to enjoy doing something other than going round in circles in the sand school.
As she still hasn't got a bitless bridle for her, we tried Gandalf's new Micklem and she really seemed to appreciate it, maybe it was the bridle, maybe the Myler comfort snaffle, maybe the two, and maybe Ali's soft hands but there was far less head-in-the-air-taking-off......
She was the only one who was prepared to go in the water at first, Ali soon had her cantering through it, but all the others went in eventually, some more readily than others!
Caitlin was riding Sun, a big trotter who is very enthusiastic but is a big baby about things sometimes. Think he enjoyed the jumping too though :-)
Very pleasant day out, although I ended up doing 6kms on foot following them around the course, so no need to do any cycling for the 5x50! Chox enjoyed it too, I reckon......
Little bit of video here:
Really fancy a go at some XC myself now, wonder if Gandalf would mind?
It's the school holidays so that means Ali's doing a stage at the riding club. Yesterday was all about TREC and as I've apparently done more of it than Carole, she asked me to stay and help.
The girls didn't even get their bum in the saddle all morning, they had a lesson on how to read a map then they took the horses into the sand school for some practise at the in hand elements of the PTV bit. Have to say the horses were a bit nonplussed by this, I suppose they have been conditioned only to be ridden in the school......
Nahiade was great about the tarp and the polework, but getting her to understand we wanted her to trot in had took a while, she had no idea how to do that! I really do take my horses for granted when it comes to groundwork......but she got there in the end and Ali managed to jump in hand without ending up on the floor like I did once at a competition :-/
And for a long old beastie, she can do the maniabilité surprisingly well
We even took them up the track a ways to find some slopes to use for the up and down hill bits. Think they appreciated the change of scene and the chance for a snack :-)
Then after lunch it was up to the big field for ridden practise. Again, Naihade, being a creature of habit, got a bit revved up as she thought she was going to do a round of showjumping but instead she had to do some things at speed (slalom, tree trunk, L bend) and slow down again for others (immobility, S bend). You could see her thinking about it. Will do her good.......
As we didn't have a long, light pole to make a gate like the one we're used to, we opted for the rope version which you do get at some comps. So Carole says, "right, how do you do this, Helen?". Er, as it turns out I have no idea!!! So we had a lot of fun trying but the main problem was the horses being wary of the rope cos it could be an electric fence after all.......
Ali's face pretty much sums it up here!
Carole wants me to help her organise a TREC comp up there in the autumn and the first thing I'm going to suggest is that we make a proper gate with a pole!!!
But of course I had to figure it out so today I got on the boy and gave it a go. If you have to keep the rope in the same hand like you do with the barrier, then it's jolly tricky......
Must check the rules on that!!
Cross country day tomorrow, obviously not going along to teach but to learn....... :-)
So after hearing about the Micklem bridle from someone on the forum, I did a bit of research and decided it could be good for my lot. The Indian bosal things we usually use work fine on a totally loose rein but if you need to use any pressure they tighten round the nose and the horses shake their heads so it must be uncomfortable for them. The Micklem is designed to fit the shape of the horse's skull and avoid pressure on the delicate facial nerves, which is why it looks a bit weird.
But when you look at it with the skull in mind, it makes sense
And regular brides don't. For a start, if you use a noseband, it means there's a thinner bit of leather under the headpiece just where it can dig into the poll. A regular noseband lies over the area where the nerves run along the nose. And flash/crank nosebands, especially overtightened as you often see them, mean that the horse's skin is pressed against its molar teeth.
So I put the new purchase on the boy this morning. The leather looks great quality but it's really stiff, going to need a bit of soaping I think. I did the straps at the back up loosely and he seemed OK with it all (although not thrilled at having a bit back in). So we went for a little amble and it's so far so good.
He can certainly manage to eat with it on!
I'm not a fan of any kind of "strap the mouth shut" noseband, so I was not sure about the strap under the bit, but it just seems to support the bit really, I had it on the loosest hole
You also get some plastic bit clips that can be used to attach the bit to the D rings of the chin strap and apparently lift the bit in the mouth to relieve tongue pressure.
But one of the main reasons for buying it is that you can use it as a bitless bridle. I tried it in the mildest version of the 3 available options, the sidepull and that seemed to be fine, so I'll probably use it like that most of the time.
You also get extra straps so you can use it like the bosal, crossing under the chin, or like a Dr Cook type bridle, crossing under the whole head. And the D ring at the front means you can use it as a lungeing cavesson or headcollar too. Pretty well thought out piece of kit, I'd say.
I bought the largest size though and the strap under the cheek is a bit snug, so it wouldn't be big enough for a draft horse or cob with a big roman nose. I have read that people have had problems with them being too small and I can see why!
Lovely day out today, lots of and fun with the ponies from the riding club at a local showjumping competition. St Antoine sur l'Isle this time, just up the road from St Seurin, but no movie connections and no famous Olympic medal winning horses buried there.........
Ali rode Nikos first, the Fjord cross, but got eliminated as he took exception to the scary red jump (just as he'd done with the first girl to ride him) and he absolutely refused to entertain the idea of going over it.....
But the 80cm class with Nahiade went really well, yes she had a couple down, but the main thing is she was calm and listening and there wasn't any tanking off like last time (even though she was in a Dutch gag, apparently the bitless might not be enough to control her in a public situation, they are more enlightened than most at our club - but bitless competing is still a step too far ). And they came second :-)
Spent a bit of time grazing Nahiade in hand at lunchtime and discovered that she likes Gingernuts, curry flavoured crisps and beer
The best round I saw all day was by Carole, Ali's instructor, on one of the livery horses Girlache, who had had a bad experience out jumping previously and was seriously scared at first, rearing and backing off, and she just sat there calmly and gave him the confidence to go and do the round, which he did, getting better and better as he went on
Nice venue but it was painfully obvious that the "home team" was rather too familiar with the courses and had been so well drilled so they pretty much swept the board....
And why do they feel the need to stick tiny kids (wearing spurs) on huge horses (wearing gag bits) all the time over here?
Finally looks like spring has arrived with some decent weather. Haven't been doing an awful lot with the horses recently, been busy with the 5x50 Challenge. I got a nice fundraiser's t-shirt from World Horse Welfare in the post today so I had to get out there with it on for a picture.....
Gandalf is still off ridden work so gets taken along for a drag most days. If he's really lucky he gets the SNO on the end of his lead rope, as he knows he can easily drag her across to the nearest patch of grass. She doesn't half tell him off for it though :-)
He can't be feeling as bad as he was though since this morning, when we put Sky and Kinna in the neighbour's field for a bit of grass before we went out, he ran off up the field bucking in protest at being left behind........the girls were very happy to see some green stuff.
Not sure if I should let G have too much of it though, so he's restricted to a couple of hours a day to start with.
Also got a new fleece today with the forum logo on it, it's navy blue so those white horse hairs show up a treat!
