After a year or so of being stuck on the ground we kicked the week off by popping over to Brook Farm with some of the yard ladies to do some jumping! I think Dino really enjoyed it and it was a nice change of pace. Really pleased with how he walked onto the horsebox – no issues at all, even in the pitch dark car park on the way home!

The rest of the week has been pretty quiet pony work wise….not aided by him getting bitten by a horse fly on Wednesday. Apparently he’s allergic:

Vet wasn’t unduly concerned and it went down over the next couple of days but really don’t need any more of this thanks!

Dressage next week so we should get practising our test really:
Monday: Schooling with Equicore (poles if I can be bothered)
Tuesday: Day off
Wednesday: Lunge with Equicore
Thursday: Schooling / test runthrough
Friday: Lunge with Equicore
Saturday: Dressage at Brook Farm
Sunday: Field or hack ride

Yesterday I drove out to Oxford to my friends’ yard to fulfil a lifelong ambition to have a go at side saddle!!! My mount for the afternoon was the super experienced Ted who was an absolute dude.

It was really interesting! You have no seat aids at all as the saddle is just too padded for the horse to be able to feel. It’s quite hard to sit straight, Michelle recommended riding bareback more to develop my own balance. It’s also a very different set of co-ordination challenges, with the whip in the right hand acting as your leg on that side. I’d certainly like to do more of it! I think my sensible next step is to get up to Contessa, who give lessons, and see if they are any good. You can hire a side saddle for a bit to see if your horse takes to it so longer term maybe we’ll do that….

Dino has been really good this week. I think the Equicore is helping him a lot actually. His trot is a bit more rhythmic and we have some canter going on. So hopefully this will continue!

So yesterday we finally got out on our first hack since April!!!

Just up and over the golf course, but it was a pretty chilled ride. We had a couple of tense moments with cyclists (that Jake doesn’t like) and inconsiderate drivers (that Dino doesn’t like) but it was a good hack overall.

This week we’ve been mostly focussing on short bits of work with the Equicore on to start to get him work more ‘correctly’. He’s not stressed or upset by it, which is good, but we’ve just been doing short bits of both ridden and in hand. We need to start working again on intro C which we’re doing at Brook Farm on 30 September.

Plan for this week:
Monday – Schooling (Equicore)
Tuesday – In hand (Equicore)
Wednesday – Polework
Thursday – Day off
Friday – Day off
Saturday – In hand (Equicore)
Sunday – Field schooling

After our thrilling win last week we’re back to normal this week. I’ve been snowed under with work (again) so pony had a fairly easy week. And I decided to give him a week off from the Pessoa as he’s been working hard recently. Happily towards the end of the week the Equicore arrived! It’s great. It really is. I think it’s much better for him.

On Thursday I tried it on him, to get it fitted correctly. He only had it on a few mins but it seemed to be making him work so I thought he might like few mins loose in the lunge pen to move a bit. Well apparently he didn’t agree. He went galloping off round in one direction and landed up in a corner. Happened to be a corner where the fence was a bit lower…..and when I to ask him to turn? He jumped out of the pen and went hooning off round the field. Joy. Feeling ok then I take it?!

Scene of the crime:

I’m glad he’s feeling well I suppose! I did have a tiny jump on him myself on Saturday. He seems to be enjoying popping some fences, which is good as we’re off to Brook Farm for some course hire in a couple of weeks 🙂

Here’s his first time out checking for fit:

Emma, our lovely saddler, was out again on Sunday. She’s pleased with his progress. She thinks he’s getting that muscle he lost back and is looking more symmetrical which is super good news. I feel like we’re back on track!