Slowly slowly…

Posted on 12/05/2020 by admin

We are keeping on keeping on over here in East London and whilst it’s not much fun, it could be a lot worse! Dino is well. Bit too well really as he’s not in much work and has a LOT of grass to be getting on with! We have been keeping up with the Connection Training Groundwork Study Group and working on the shoulder isolations and crunches I talked about last time. Our latest video is here:

We got some useful feedback from Hannah:
– the crunches are actually ok even if they don’t feel it to me! He’s got a super flexible neck so he can avoid doing what he’s supposed to do a bit by tucking himself up which is why it feels like it’s not going right
– for the shoulder isolations I need to be more obvious with my body language so he can see the cue.

So we’ll keep focussing on that for the next couple of weeks. I also think it’s got to the point where it’s ok to ride in the field!!!! AND hopefully Hannah and I can hack out together over the weekend! WOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Super shiny pony at the moment and hopefully we’ll bring the weight down a touch with some work. I could also start some lunging in the field I think to get him moving a bit. So things are moving in a positive direction for us at the moment.

We’ve also found a new trimmer. Sarah Swallow came out to see them last week as our usual trimmer wasn’t available and she did a great job and the ponies were very relaxed with her. They were four weeks overdue to lots of growth to remove:

Finally in the Dino tweaking corner David came out to see him this week. He’s generally ok but this time it’s the right hip that’s stiff instead of the left one! He hasn’t done much work so it’s hardly a surprise but it does explain why leg yield on the right rein is more challenging than on the left at the moment for him.

Well.

Posted on 19/04/2020 by admin

Quite the dumpster fire 2020 has turned into, huh? Just when the weather gets beautiful and I start thinking about bringing Dino back into work and getting going with some stuff the whole world has to lock down in the face of a Global Pandemic. I don’t know who’s writing this season but I’d like to make a complaint…

Dino and Pops are doing fine of course. We keep shifting them onto new grass as they eat up what they are on and although they are carrying more weight than might be ideal they don’t seem footsore. They are overdue a trim though. Hannah and I are alternating days to take care of them so we can each get some field time but we aren’t making unnecessary trips (or seeing each other!) The lovely Connection Training people have started a study group for the lockdown so I’ve been diving back into the Groundwork Course and started to get Dino moving at liberty in the field. It’s been a bit disorganised as my brain is all over the place but I thought I’d try and get my head together a bit here.

At the moment we are working on:
– being relaxed and not waving our legs around in general
– shoulder isolations (‘out’)
– crunches (‘kisses’)
– getting used to the new soft poles

Hoping to make some headway in all these areas this week. Some videos of where we’re at right now:

Hopefully we’ll see some improvement by next week’s video! They will be getting new grass on Friday and a slightly larger patch which I think will be good. It’s old, long grass so shouldn’t get their feet sore. I also want to start working on having them out of the field one at a time and learning to cope being apart so hopefully there will be some time for work on that this week as well. Watch this space.

By way of reminder, the field really is beautiful. These are the mares over the back field.

20 for 20: January update

Posted on 09/02/2020 by admin

I know it’s a bit late, but here is the January update!

Meditate daily and make more time for reflection each week
This going ok. I am remembering to meditate most mornings, at least during the week.
Eat more healthily
This is going ok. Still drinking a bit too much though….
Learn to cook a new recipe once per month
January: https://www.almostlikemoms.com/crockpot-beef-less-mushroom-bourguignon/
Walk 100,000 steps each week
This was going well for the first half of the month but new job is too close to home! I’ve been trying some things to sort this out, but haven’t quite cracked it.
January steps: 471,811 (out of 500,000)
Walk at least 10 miles four times in the year
Not yet!
Cycle to work most days
January: Not quite most days but I am back on the bike!
Make hanging out with friends in people’s gardens a thing again this year
Not yet!
Put some time aside each month to catch up with someone I don’t see very often
January: Had a lovely catch up with Chris!
Take one photo I’m particularly happy with each month
January: Below….
Read 25 books
January: 3 books
Use Duolingo most days to learn Spanish
January: 30 day streak!
Organise an epic 40th birthday thing
Not yet
Have a proper holiday
Plans are afoot
Make my own gin
Not yet
Work: Pass two ACCA exams (I have a total of four remaining)
Aiming for June and December
Work: Be an inspiring leader to my new work team (revise the IFL course notes)
New job is going ok 3 weeks in.
Horse: Hack 500 miles
January: 10 miles. Will pick up once the weather stops being so much weather.
Horse: Compete in the horse agility online competition at least once
Not yet!
WoW: Get #teameasilyamoosed through all normal raid content
January: Great start to Nya’lotha. 3/12 already
WoW: Get to 100 exalted reputations
Not much progress on this yet.

New grass

Posted on 19/01/2020 by admin

So it’s only been seven weeks since Dino & Poppy moved, but it’s rained for about five of those weeks the section of field we originally put them in has been looking extremely damp. Mud everywhere! And they have basically run out of grass. Today we made them much happier by moving them over to a new section of field! It took a couple of hours to rearrange all the fencing but they certainly seemed to appreciate it!

The before bit: this is where they’ve been

Both ponies immediately went down for a roll so I think they had really been feeling annoyed in the old section.

I’ll miss seeing them so much in the daylight now I’m going back to work tomorrow but the new office operates on a 10-6 basis so it might be that over the winter at least I can get up a couple of mornings during the week first thing and still see them in the light! Should have time for a quick clicker session those mornings so maybe we can start getting back to making some progress! We shall see.

Mostly it’s been pretty beautiful a the land this week though:

20 for 2020

Posted on 12/01/2020 by admin

Here are 20 things I’m going to try and do in 2020!

Meditate daily and make more time for reflection each week
Eat more healthily
Learn to cook a new recipe once per month
Walk 100,000 steps each week
Walk at least 10 miles four times in the year
Cycle to work most days
Make hanging out with friends in people’s gardens a thing again this year
Put some time aside each month to catch up with someone I don’t see very often
Take one photo I’m particularly happy with each month
Read 25 books
Use Duolingo most days to learn Spanish
Organise an epic 40th birthday thing
Have a proper holiday
Make my own gin
Work: Pass two ACCA exams (I have a total of four remaining)
Work: Be an inspiring leader to my new work team (revise the IFL course notes)
Horse: Hack 500 miles
Horse: Compete in the horse agility online competition at least once
WoW: Get #teameasilyamoosed through all normal raid content
WoW: Get to 100 exalted reputations

Long overdue Dino update!

Posted on 11/01/2020 by admin

Been a while, huh? Sorry about that! Things have been a little hectic and I did not keep up with all Dino’s news!

The last time I remembered to update here he had just moved…and since then he’s moved again! The short version is: we had a great summer at Hunters Hall! The hacking was amazing, he and Poppy settled really well into the field and everything was great. So obviously what happens next is the lease gets bought out by developers and the farmer gives us all notice. Some horses were offered spaces at a different farm, operated by the same people, just down the road and initially we were told we were on the list to go. But after weeks and weeks of stress and people being difficult and not really telling us what was going on we found out that they weren’t willing to take us to the new yard as they didn’t want horses on 24/7 turnout all year round.

Bugger.

This was a really stressful thing to happen. There are very very few yards that will keep horses in work on grass livery in our area. It’s not really economic and although you can get grass livery for retired horses those setups don’t allow for horses coming in and out of the fields to be exercised. We have been extremely lucky however to get some space on some land only a few minutes walk (although a much longer drive!) from Hunters hall. We literally have a corner of a field sectioned off using electric fencing and a garden shed we put up in a field but it’s lovely!

It’s been a challenge to settle them, and they’ve understandably got a lot of separation anxiety so we can’t easily take one out of the field and leave the other in at the moment . We can work to improve this but at the moment we’re taking them out together to do stuff and get the lay of the land. The weather being completely terrible hasn’t exactly helped so they’ve been taking it easy over this worst part of the winter.

We have made progress this week though and got them out for a hack together! They were so good. We were expecting they might be a bit stressed but actually once we’d got on them they were great. We also had the trimmer out this week. I was expecting this to be a challenge as well as they had to come up to the hard standing where we park the cars but they both stood patiently and were generally well behaved about handing their feet over when needed!

A Very Good Pony having his feet trimmed.

Agility and clicker training in general has taken a bit of a back seat but we’re hoping to get back to this very soon! I’m going to start trying to get him to relax and do some clicker outside the field to start to get them used to being temporarily separated.

So here’s hoping 2020 will be a more settled year for them, and they can be in this new home forever! It’s really beautiful. There’s lots of deer and rabbits and muntjac and all sorts of stuff and it’s still on the same hacking routes as Hunters so once we’ve got them used to being apart briefly we should be back to lots of hacking again!

Summary: 19 for 2019

Posted on 05/01/2020 by admin

So this year I did a project from the Happier podcast with Gretchin Rubin when I picked 19 things I wanted to do for 2019. I kept monthly updates…for the first half of the year but the second half of the year was a GIANT SHITSHOW and posting stuff kinda stopped.

But I did do things! Here’s my end of year progress report:
1.Have at least one holiday that involves a hot tub – DONE: September with some of the lovely gothic massive
2.Go walking in a National Park: DONE: On the same September holiday in the South Downs
3.Go to at least one cider festival: DONE: There was a super lovely chilled ‘sausage and cider’ festival in Walthamstow in September
4.Visit at least 3 museums: DONE: Wildlife photography with my sister, the Capitol Building in St Paul (which is sort of a similar if not quite a museum) and the Gormely at the RA (Ok so my definition of museum is a little loose)
5.Drink cocktails at least 6 times (in a cocktail bar): DONE I lost count actually
6.Do a come and sing Mozart Requiem (or Mass in C minor): Not done. I just didn’t get round to this,
7.Get to show 400 of Girls Gone WoW: DONE. 401 tonight. Show 400 was lovely
8.Go to Blizzcon: FUCKING DONE. IT WAS AMAZING
9.Finally get caught up with Arrow/Flash/Supergirl/LoT etc: No so much progress although I have made progress
10.Eat more healthily: MIXED: This started well but the more stressed I got the worse I ate. So fits and starts.
11.Regularly cycle to work (at least twice per week) EPIC FAIL: I literally didn’t cycle all year as work was just too far to comfortably make. BUT new job is 25 min cycle so I’m confident this year will have lots of cycling in it!
12.Read 20 books: DONE: I read 23.
13.Have Bibliogoth happen every month: DONE: You should join you know.
14.Either get a pay rise or get a new job: DONE: Start on 20 January. This was HUGE so I’m very pleased about it
15.Have a better mental health year: Ooof. I’m not sure what I was really thinking about with this but it wasn’t a great mental health year… This year should be better though!
16.Compete at prelim: Not done: Pony had a very different year from the one intended due to moving twice.
17.Compete in the online Horse Agility competition: Not done: But we did do quite a lot of agility practice stuff.
18.Jump a clear round: Not done: Just didn’t quite come together.
19.Go hacking at least once per month: DONE (sort of) The first half of the year was not great but after moving in July we hacked enough to make up for it I think!

Overall it was a mixed bag but I think the list did help me find fun things to do when I was lacking ideas which was helpful. Currently working on a 20 for 2020 list!

19 for 2019….er July edition

Posted on 18/08/2019 by admin

June sort of vanished. Sorry. Here’s July….

1.Have at least one holiday that involves a hot tub
It now looks like September holiday plan might actually accidentally involve a hot tub. And I’ve organised a week away in April.
April: I had a nice time in Wales! The photos are here: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmAMPgVx No hot tub this time though

2.Go walking in a National Park
Part of the September plan!

3.Go to at least one cider festival
Not yet! But there is a plan for September

4.Visit at least 3 museums
Saw Wildlife Photographer of the Year at Natural History Museum with my sister

5.Drink cocktails at least 6 times (in a cocktail bar)
Jan: Ticked off one of these with Kath and EJ at Mother’s Ruin
Feb: Ticked second one off at Every Cloud with the whole crew
Jun: We had robot cocktails at The Barbican!

6.Do a come and sing Mozart Requiem (or Mass in C minor)
Not yet

7.Get to show 400 of Girls Gone WoW
Jan: Currently at 351
Feb: 358 up this evening
Mar: 359 up this evening
Apr: 363 been and gone
May: 367 up this evening
July: 372 at the end of the month

8.Go to Blizzcon
WE ARE GOING. We have tickets, hotel and are booking the flights this weekend!

9.Finally get caught up with Arrow/Flash/Supergirl/LoT etc
Jan: Started on The Flash season 3
Feb: Making progress….
Mar: About halfway through season 3 Flash now
Apr: 3/4 of the way through season 3….
May: No progress here really

10.Eat more healthily
Jan: Been using the slow cooker a bit and generally eating better
Feb: Was doing ok but fallen off a bit recently
Mar: Not feeling great about this at the moment
Apr: Feeling a bit better about this
May: Not doing so great at this again

11.Regularly cycle to work (at least twice per week)
Utterly failing at this! The weather has been terrible and my new office is soooooo close to the tube…

12.Read 20 books
Jan: Finished two and halfway through a third.
Feb: Up to 5 by end of Feb
Mar: Up to 8 by end of Mar
Apr: 11 done!
May: 12 done, but should finish my current one tonight
Jul: 15 done

13.Have Bibliogoth happen every month
January happened, February happened, March happened, April happened, May, June & July happened

14.Either get a pay rise or get a new job
Jan: We shall see. I need to up my game I think as I’m sensing my boss isn’t that thrilled with me at present.
Apr: I applied for something but it’s a secret.
May: I have an interview…
Jul: Didn’t get that one but still working on it!

15.Have a better mental health year
Well it’s not been a great start… But maybe I can move forward now.
Mar: Still not great to be honest.
Apr: Better. Time away was good and making some moves to fix some stuff is also helping.
May: There are lots of things moving in the right direction but I need to prioritise my self-care a lot more.

16.Compete at prelim
Jan: Pony hasn’t been right so not actually ridden for weeks. Trying to get on top of his weight issues.
Feb: Got on top of the weight problem and he’s back in work!
Mar: Pony is doing really well at the moment. Thinking about putting in a dressage anywhere video
Apr: Pony still doing really well but I’m not organised enough to get video!
May: If we move, there is a competition venue hacking distance away!
Jul: Planned for September

17.Compete in the online Horse Agility competition
Jan: We have mastered standing in a hoop, tried some S-bends and started with the curtain. Really hoping to get something into the first monthly competition – deadline is 14 February
Feb: Missed February and March but aiming for April
Mar: Still aiming for April – done some practice!
Apr: We’ve been practising….but again with the video fail

18.Jump a clear round
Need to get his fitness back up!
Mar: We have popped a few tiny jumps this week for the first time since July!
Apr: Keeping up popping a fence each week

19.Go hacking at least once per month
We hacked at least twice in January!
Feb: Missed this as the equine flu outbreak messed meant we were restricted to yard.
Mar: Missed this as well.
Apr: Missed this BUT did go out early May
May: We did go out! It was lovely!
Jul: Ok so this is a thing now!

Loooooong overdue….

Posted on 18/08/2019 by admin

Wow. Sorry. Been a while! Lots of exciting updates in Dino-land! The biggest being he moved house. I think I said we were looking at somewhere in my last post and we’ve been there for about a month now. It’s wonderful! He’s out 24 hours a day, with the lovely Popsicle, in the middle of the countryside in Epping. We have hacking with only the very smallest of roads that are mostly empty. We are loving it!

Being able to hack on my own is amazing! He’s really beginning to settle and we can get all the way to Harold’s Park Farm on our own which is a local competition venue so I think we’ll have a go at some dressage in September. I need to get going with agility stuff again as that’s fallen by the wayside whilst I’ve been out hacking! The new yard is a working farm so we’re still getting used to lots of noisy farm equipment and such but not being on that main road is great.

David came out yesterday and says Dino is pretty good. Bit of odd new stiffness in his lower spine just on the left side so I should probably get myself checked to make sure I’m not causing him an issue. I’ve not really been doing my physio or anything lately so hardly mysterious. I need to get my routine sorted. I was concerned that being out at grass all the time would be bad for his feet, but although he is a bit over-weight he’s not terrible and we have ideas for how to divide up the grazing better to keep their weight under control. So all good! Very glad I made the move!

19 for 2019: May edition

Posted on 02/06/2019 by admin

Bit more on time this month!

2.Go walking in a National Park
Part of the September plan!

3.Go to at least one cider festival
Not yet!

4.Visit at least 3 museums
Saw Wildlife Photographer of the Year at Natural History Museum with my sister

5.Drink cocktails at least 6 times (in a cocktail bar)
Jan: Ticked off one of these with Kath and EJ at Mother’s Ruin
Feb: Ticked second one off at Every Cloud with the whole crew
Apr: Booked some in June with my sis