Super super happy with the pony yesterday! It was the yard summer show, and I had agreed with Meg that I would plait him up and turn him out and she could show him. We put him in three classes: blacks, bays, greys and chestnuts; handsome gelding and riding horse. Well, he is officially the Handsomest Gelding and the best Black, bay, grey or chestnut!

Riding horse didn’t go so well, but to be honest I wasn’t expecting much. He’s still not cantering well and Meg hasn’t ridden him in a year but it was a good effort. He was third out of four. But I was still really pleased with him and actually his trot looked ok!

Then as we’d won two previous classes we were entered into the championship and…. CHAMPION PONY!

My Spanish plating was on point even if I do say so myself. And Cassy Gadsby herself agreed with me! So there.

I was really pleased with him overall. He was pretty relaxed and happy, except when asked to actually move anywhere as it was very hot! But he didn’t get stressed or upset about the process and the judge loved him. She thought he’d make a good maxi cob if we ever felt like it but obviously I’m not hogging his mane!!!!

I think this week we’ll drop the Pessoa and try and introduce some pole work. Hopefully the equicore will arrive next week and we can start really getting that core engaged.

Well, work continues to be exhausting so things with Dino have not been as well planned as one would hope. We still haven’t managed to go hacking which is super frustrating, but I’m hopeful we might manage it soon! I can’t wait to get back out. There’s a new livery at the yard who might be up for some mooching so maybe we can work something out soon. We have been working in the field a bit still though which is a bit of a break from the school at least

His regular Pessoa sessions, annoying though he finds them, are really helping though! Claudia came to visit today and she agrees he is carrying himself better than he was last year and moving quite well, although you can still see the stiffness in his hips and he could be more forward. We hopped a tiny jump today as someone had left one up in the arena and he was super keen and bouncy for it though which is really good. I need to find the time to start scheduling in a proper polework and jumps session each week!

The other problem we’ve had recently that’s new is that his lower legs are getting bitten to fuck by horrible blood sucking tiny black flies *cries*. I managed to find some fly-specific turnout boots at Ingatestone yesterday though and he kept them on last night so hopefully that will solve the problem for the moment and this fly season will end soon. Poor poppet. I think maybe I need to stop using super friendly fly spray and just get some damned DEET.

Right, let’s actually make a plan this week then shall we?
Monday – Pessoa, with some ST afterwards [Pessoa atm: 1 min walk, 6 mins trot each rein]
Tuesday – Flatwork schooling
Wednesday – Pessoa, with some ST
Thursday – Polework/jumpies
Friday – Day off!
Saturday – Pessoa, with some ST
Sunday – Hack, even if it’s just round the fields again.

I’ve not updated for a couple of weeks! Things have been totally mad. The GBPRE show was a lot of fun but completely exhausting and work has been kicking my arse pretty seriously so there’s been limited pony time and no real capacity for me to learn new stuff with him at the moment. I just don’t have the brain power. So we’ve gone back to simple things which I would prefer not to use but can live with: for the past two weeks and the next while we’re using the pessoa three times a week for a short session. I’m still doing some ST work and smaller bits of CT but I just need to get him moving properly through that hip and build up some topline so the quick and dirty way to do that is to pessoa him.

Serious working pony

As I don’t like this I’ve splashed some pretty serious cash on one of these: https://www.thehorsephysio.co.uk/QuickShop/equiband/. It’s got some proper research done by RVC that says it genuinely does help and it doesn’t have the link to the bit that bothers me about the pessoa. It may not arrive for a while though so until then we’re sticking with the pessoa. I really want to get hacking but it’s just not been possible for a number of reasons. Trying to keep things varied and work in the fields and bit and stuff but I really want to get up to the Forest.

I will try and have a bit more of a coherent plan in a few weeks but I feel like we just need to hang in there for a bit at the minute.