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.

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.

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!

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:

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!

Things have been busy! Dino is doing really well though. In the last three weeks he’s seen his trimmer, his osteopath and his saddler and everyone is really pleased with him. The osteo thinks he’s moving really well through his pelvis (which is usually quite jammed up) and whilst there is some stiffness in his lumbar spine he’s generally doing very well. Saddler agreed he was moving very nicely, and said he’s lovely and symmetrical so the padding just needed a bit of floofing and otherwise all is well! Given the struggles we’ve had to get to this point I’m really pleased!

I’m also very pleased with this new fly rug. He was rubbing his mane again so I got one with a full neck all the way up to the ears and it fits really well! As you can see he’s full of summer enthusiasm. The summer fields are open now and even muzzled he’s getting a lot grass so much time is spent sleeping.

New ears on the rug do have a tendency to give him hilarious forelock deely boopers though !

In my possibly exciting news: we might be moving yards to somewhere he can be out in the field 24 hours all year round and that has excellent hacking. Hoping to confirm plans this week so watch this space!

I’m really not sure who’s in charge of time but whoever it is should slow it the fuck down. No idea where April went at all! Dino continues to be doing well but I’ve been rushed off my feet. He’s really bouncy and forward though, except when it was super hot. He got a bit lethargic then but who can blame him?!

Yesterday we managed to get out on our first hack since January. It was a bit more eventful than hoped as our hacking partner, Coast, who I was told was completely bombproof, turned out to have a massive fear of golfers. And we went across the gold course. Poor Chanel ended up walking him on foot most of the way! But it was good to get off the yard.

Hopefully we can get some time to hack with Sam and Woody again soon! The clicker stuff has taken a bit of a back seat this month. I’ve just not had much time. I’m still working through the Connection Training Groundwork course but quite a bit slower than hoped. This is fine though, I think he’s enjoying it. I’m also still trying to work on agility stuff but there’s so many new things to train in each monthly competition it’s a challenge to get far enough to have a go at the whole course. I think we need to pick one or to of the obstacles each month and spend the whole month really cracking those rather than trying everything. Need to get more organised.

Overall though he’s moving really well. We’re back in the big summer field, which is a relief, so that makes life a bit easier. Summer coat is nearly through as well so he’s looking very pretty. Hopefully things will calm down a bit for me soon and we can spend some more time doing stuff!

Dino is feeling pretty good at the moment, which is excellent. We have been doing a bit of Connection Training groundwork, mixed up with some flatwork and….some tiny jumps! We haven’t jumped in months so this is pretty good and I’m hoping to keep this up once a week. He really seemed to enjoy it!

We’ve been working on flags for the Horse Agility as well, and he’s really getting to grips with them. Still not sure about the waving but not too bad at all:

He’s looking really well. He’s put back on all the weight he lost so now it’s trying to make sure he doesn’t put on too much again! Might take him back to one haynet during the day and keep the amount he’s getting at night. Hopefully the fields will open soon.

He’s been in pretty high spirits though which is lovely. Still moulting though, really hoping the super shed stops soon. Everything is covered in pony hair…

As I mentioned last week, few weeks ago I had a clicker/agility lesson with my lovely friend Judith who is a certified Connection Training coach. We were focusing on two things really: Dino can get quite tense and a bit pushy if he’s learning new things or feeling a bit anxious, and this can lead to a lot of waving his front legs about. He was at one point taught Spanish Walk and picking his front legs up has become a rather ingrained habit which I’m trying to stop but it’s a challenge. I covered the main learning points last week but here are the videos Judith took which are super interesting!

This first two videos were taken when I went to get more treats (as we used my whole bumbag full in the first half of the lesson. It’s fascinating to see how anxious he got when he couldn’t see me – apart from going to and from the field he doesn’t really get handled much by other people these days.

Here we are actually doing some work on the flags. This is the first time he’s ever seen flags. You can see how the multiple click is helping him stay ‘with me’ and keep his attention. You can also see the leg waving and hear us having a bit of a discussion about it. (The flags have a bit of an agenda – the pink/light blue on represents trans people, the EU one is self-explanatory and the dark pink/blue one represents the bi community) It was quite windy the day we were working!

This is a few mins later so you can see he’s chilled out about the whole thing.

These last two are interesting and funny. We were finishing off and having a natter by the gate and he decided he didn’t want to be ignored so he took himself back off round the thing he’d just learned to see if this generated any more sweeties…. I had run out again by then though!

…but things have been hectic! The weather this past few weeks has been quite mad. High winds, heavy rain and generally storm conditions means we haven’t been doing as much as we might like. Good news: he’s put on some weight. They’ve got hay in the field now and he’s still getting a pile in his stable so that seems to have turned the corner *phew*. He’s a couple of months into the new supplements which is too early to tell really whether it’s making a difference but it’s all going into the pony which is a good start.

We have been riding a bit! Here we are in a very high wind (his mane is usually on the left of his neck…) which he didn’t much like but he seems comfortable in his feet and isn’t moving too badly.

We’ve also been doing lots of clicker and agility. Judith was in London so we had a lesson a few weeks back and started working on flags. He was so good! We were concentrating on a few things:

• Making sure I give him the treat in front of him and not to his side
• Treating more often! This was something I needed to work on before
• Using multiple clicks, partly to help manage his anticipation and help prevent him getting too ‘high energy’ (he gets quite excited about clicker)
• Reinforcing quietly standing, without waving his front legs around. This is a really ingrained habit he has and Judith thinks he almost doesn’t understand he’s doing it. It’s simply a reflex, which makes it really hard to stop. We need to focus on clicking for calm relaxation and think about whether to introduce a cue for standing with both feet on the ground. Still thinking about this!

We’re getting good at targeting flags now! I missed the second video competition deadline but I’m hopeful we’ll get something in for the March/April one.

I’ve also been continuing my own work on my riding with Sue and Douglas the simulator. We had a good session this weekend. I allowed to ride in the ‘school’ (so I could make the horse go where I wanted on the screen, rather than being in ‘training’ mode – hard to explain!). The takeaway points from this were:

• I need to focus on not blocking the head movement with my shoulders. I need to think about them being relaxed and widened, tucking my chin in and letting the weight fall into my elbows
• For turning I need to think about my shoulders to his shoulders, my hips to his hips (she said this several times and every time all I could think it ‘my mind to your mind’ from Star Trek) So if I turn my shoulders the rest of my body should naturally do what it needs to to turn the horse – my hips will follow and then his hips too.
• Overall she thinks I’m improving though which is good! I wish I could have actual lessons with her on Dino!!

Hopefully the weather will be a bit more sane now, the schools will dry out and we can make some progress. I’m really looking forward to getting started with the Connection Training Groundwork Course. I’ve done the theory bit and the rest of the course is really well put together so I’m excited to get going! I shall try to update more often.