Socks and gloves.......

  Horsey socks and gloves have to be the bain of my life.........Riding socks are more expensive than normal socks you would think due to them having thicker material on the soles of the sock, but yet ALL of mine get holes right on the heel, at the point that most long boots have the starting point of their zips. Why can't they just put a bit more material there or make it more hard wearing???? I have a set few pairs now that are for competition life only, I struggle on with the gammy pairs for daily life. And then there's gloves......horse riding gloves are special in that they have a more hard wearing material ( be it suede, or a rubber type) in the area that you hold the reins. And again I have a set few good pairs ( not many now) and last weekend I lost one of them. God knows how. I have a feeling it was a dog related thievery 😕


Surprise, surprise, this week was another week of getting ready for competition.  This time it was Dressage Ireland. The summer championships are on the end of September and I would really like to go. You need to qualify for it and I'm still not sure whether it's 3 or 4 scores of 64%. So eyes on the prize (prize being actually getting there, not winning! Gotta crawl before you can walk).

Tuesday evening was fabulous and we had a lovely big arena to ride in. Fred was up first. We did a good bit of lateral work, shoulder-in along the hedge, some leg yielding and then we tried a serpentine in canter ( I've seen it before on telly and had always wanted to give it a go). He did it no problem. He was a bit lethargic in general but did everything I asked. To finish off I decided to give him a little gallop, Fred had other ideas and decided he wanted to keep going, so we did 3 sides of the big field and he was delighted with himself!!

Nice big arena!!

Just me & my pony

Our shoulder-in hedge!

Shiny & filthy?! But happy!!

Next up was Cu Chulainn. There was a bit of argy bargy with leg yielding and tension, but we got over it and finished off with a gallop too, which he really enjoyed. And we got some serious sunset pics!

No filter or edit!!

Who needs the city?!

All set to work!

Even CC appreciates it!!

I had a lesson with hard-core instructor on Wednesday and I brought Fred. Once we arrive, I always open the window of the box for him to look out, then take him out. He knows exactly where he is and I literally have to push him out of the box!! 'Nahhhhh, I know what this place means - hardwork!!' Once he got out and begrudgingly walked to the arena, we got warmed up and got going.  He was fantastic and did everything we asked of him; rein back, counter canter and extended trot. We left feeling exhausted but ready for Sunday!!

Fred loves chillin in the stable after he's had his dinner

Thursday evening it was back to the field for more flatwork. CC was up first. We kept it to walk and trot and stayed nice and relaxed with good transitions. I was delighted with him and we ended a nice note. A lovely relaxed walk back down the lane to the yard and some dinner as a reward.
Next up was Sir Fred. We worked on some of the stuff from our lesson the night before, his rein back is unreal now, yay!! Another good session. We were walking back to the yard and he took exception to a pile of cut grass..........yes, I hear you, grass? That stuff he eats ALL the time? Oh well ya know, when it's in a pile it can be soooo scary. Luckily, I knew it was coming and I didn't fall off during his hissy fit. In the end he walked through said pile of grass.........so yeah, bombproof old Fred can be a big baby and worse than a 3 year old!


On Friday, myself and Fred had a nice relaxed hack over to the river. Rusty came along with us, but abandoned us at his girlfriends house. I thought he'd catch up with us, but oh no, we are not worthy. We got him on the way home........Fear not, it was on quiet roads, so he was safe.

Costa del Annaghbeg!!

His favourite spot

It's nice to mix up the training

Saturday was my first sleep in in 6 weeks, I was looking forward to it all week, so it seemed natural that I'd wake up at half 8 right? Uck......I got up and watched the Lions barely win. Then I decided to change all the furniture in my room and moved it all about. Then I got the stables ready for the boys, their first night in since April. Then I rode Cu Chulainn over the road to the yard & rode him there. Then I helped my Riding Club get ready for their show the next day. Then myself and CC rode home. We hacked over and back in just walk. But it was a round trip of 5 miles and he was fairly knackered after. Our flat session there went really well and I felt all set for tomorrow. I decided not to wash them as they weren't too dirty and I was tired. I plaited up CC and most of Fred's mane ( he still has really light hair where the rug rubbed him). Then I tucked them up for bed, they were delighted to be in. Poor Pablo was by himself in the field, as Pena has gone on a working holiday.
This week I am only doing 3 tests, as I didn't feel I had the brain capacity to learn 4 after the mentalness of last weekend. Fred was doing one prelim and one novice test and CC was doing two prelim tests.

Operation Tire Out Cu Chulainn!!

Go for a dip?

Mission get rid of tension = successful

All tucked up for the night

Sunday, I got up, had my breakfast and hit the ready. I had the jeep packed the night before and the trailer on ( benefits of having the horses at home). We hit the road more or less when I had aimed for. But in my tiredness I under calculated what time I needed to be there in order to have a nice warm up for my first test, the novice test, the harder test. So poor Fred had the guts of 10-15mins warm up. I was so disappointed in myself. All the work we put in and I go and do something like that. He wasn't warmed up enough and it showed in our test. He still managed a 63% -but short of what we need for summer champs. Lesson learned.
Cu Chulainn was still tired from yesterday, not too tired to do his tests, but too tired to get super tense and anxious. So our warm up was a delight. The tension was nothing like it's usual self, he wasn't on the bit, but that will come. This new technique of tiring him out is working! He was ready to work!! His test went well, one or two things that we could have done better ( within our current abilities) but altogether delighted with him.
Fred then had that test to do too. We had a much better warm up and he went lovely, again a few things I need to work on. I think in my practice I need to do tests, even just make them up so that I'm practicing transitions in a test atmosphere because I feel that currently I'm rushing through everything and not planning things enough. It all comes with practice and experience. The day you stop learning, is the day you give up!!
Cu Chulainns last test wasn't for a good while, so I did a spot of scribing in the mean time. I love scribing, it's a brilliant way of learning - as long as the judge isn't giving loads of comments ( great for the rider, but means you're busy writing instead of getting to watch). I managed to not bring any proper food with me - again with the great planning........
I went and got CC and we began our warm up again. Unfortunately for our last test there was confusion as to who was on next, so it was a bit longer than I'd anticipated before we got in, so he'd started to get a bit edgy, like a small child when they're tired ( which I totally understood). We walked around an unused arena while we waited to go in and he relaxed a bit more. We got through the test and he behaved really well. He got 7s for all of his centre lines!!
The boys brought home a rosette each for each of their classes, so I couldn't be happier. We were a tired bunch heading home that evening.

As usual we all had Monday off. I bought draw reins online and they arrived that morning. Can't wait to use them with CC.

We want our dinner!!!

Pooped pooches!!

Tuesday evening it was back to it again. CC was up first. He was in great form. Chilled out still, like Sunday. Maybe he learned that the world is not out to get him when he does flatwork! We warmed up and did some lateral work, then I got down and attached the draw reins. It is one continuous rein as opposed to two separate ones, so that lead to some adjustments. I ran it from the girth through the flash and put both reins in one hand then. I left the draw reins loose and kept normal contact with the normal rein. Once I felt he wasn't going to have a meltdown, I took up more contact on the draw reins. The difference in our transitions was clear. He used himself more from behind and because he couldn't throw his head up he got on with it. I didn't do too much with him, as he'd been so good. We did walk trot and canter on both reins, on the right rein he had a small hissy fit but I think that was more to do with the flies that were annoying him. So I just left him at that and we went in. Then I brought Fred out. I didn't do a lot with him as he was going to lesson the following evening. He did everything I asked, so we went in. Next up was Pablo. I was only lunging him. We started on the left rein. Walk and trot. It went really well, he listened to me, didn't freak out. Wahoo. But then we tried the right rein and, well it was nothing short of a disaster. A disaster that meant I didn't get in till after 10 and pretty much went straight to bed.


Wednesday was hard-core lesson night. Again Fred was like; 'hell no' when he realised where we were. But I coaxed him into the arena. Another tough but great session. Super tough tonight, jelly legs situation. The kind where I nearly couldn't sit the canter. I think we're all set for Sunday. Myself and Fred are heading to Dublin for some more Dressage Ireland. CC has the day off.


Thursday evening it was time for a bit of fun with CC. We went to the yard over the road for a jump lesson. Poor CC has jumped about 3 times in the last 2 months, but he loves it. We had a lovely canter coming in to the first cross pole which was about 70cm, so naturally he decided he saw a spider and jumped 1.20 over it!! He got a little excited when we did the course, but nothing too bad. He dropped one pole all night and that was when I was messing around doing silly turns to jumps. There was one jump a good 1.10 we jumped after a few smaller ones and he jumps it the same as any of the others, just pops over it. He is such a confidence giver, all you have to do is point and he's over it!

SPIDER!!!!

Great position I have 😁

Saturday I plan to sort out my stables and tack room and start getting them ready for winter. I need to wash my rugs too. I use the big industrial ones you see at filling stations and then I got tent water proofer that I paint on. It worked a treat last year. I keep getting emails from equestrian outlets about summer sales, rugs 50% off.........must not look.....must avoid..........look at bank balance.......OUCH