JUNE 2010

10th June – Lesson with Terri – Worked on ridden and online impulsion and dealing with Bella’s Crabbiness and dominance when asked to trot. Will expand this later.

12th June - INTRODUCING PRINCE
Prince Is My mums new (1st !!!) horse. He is a 14.3hh 6 year old Black heavy weight Irish Cob Gelding. Will do a proper post on him later.

15th – Rode Dougal Bare Back in round pen – was amazed with how long it took him to relax. And stop. No I mean really STOP! It made me realize how long I was keeping my energy focused and not REALLY stopping when I asked him to stop.

19th – Rode Bella, she was really good, worked on clover leaf pattern walk and trot. Had to shut her down twice, she has learnt to try and bite my foot when I do it to try and out focus me! Cheeky pony!

20th – Lynne and Liqurish came over to play. We had another go at filming her L2 online.

21st – Claire Hollywell is back again for a while – confidence lesson on Dougal, walk only

232nd – Rode Bella in bareback pad for the 1st time. She was really good. 2nd lesson with Claire, she almost fell off when Dougal half fell over but didn’t! AND SHE STAYED ON!!! And continued walking! Sooooo proud of her ☺

23rd – Helped Clare with Dougal – made her be a little bit more ‘focused and not let Dougal out focus her and stop or wonder off the rail. I then rode Dougal barefoot(me not him)! Great for realizing how often my feet touch his sides, whether I mean them to or not!

24th - Claire rode Dougal in the lane!!!!!!! I did Figures of 8 on 45ft line with Bella, love watching her think her way through the puzzle and all the different things she tries. It took her 15 mins to finishing processing!! Wow


26th – Workshop at Terri’s – spectating

Yet again Terri provided an interesting and thought provoking workshop – as if there was ever any doubt! This one was lucky enough to be blessed with hot sunshine, which made a nice change from the rain, snow and cold winds of the winter ones. But enough about the weather, lets get to the important stuff – the horses!

Todays clinic was working around the concept of Level 2 freestyle: Impulsions and patterns - Level 2 patterns in the arena and larger areas, building go=whoa, carrot stick riding. The morning was spent mainly in the classroom and doing simulation, followed by an online session. The afternoon started again with a simulation, a little online to prepare the horses to be ridden ad the onto riding patterns


27th - Rode on the beach with Claire!!! ! Had an amazing ride on the beach with Bella, who was a star and is Soooo proud of Claire for riding Dougal on the beach.

May 2010 - Summary

So much has happen recently I am going to have to do a summery and do separate posts later to expand things! So here we go:

MAY 2010

20th may -  Was so proud of Bella today for keeping control of her emotions whilst tackling a scary 'Carwash'. Every time we play she is wows me with her amount of try.

21st  May  – Savvy Sussex Study meeting @ Lynne’s. Talking about LBI & LBE using the LHB DVD set as reference

22nd  – Started to teach Bella canter circles

27th –  Taught Bella to Lead by the tail!  Will expand on this later.

28th  - Had the most amazing liberty session with Bella our new round pen :)

Bella was AMAZING!  Walk, trot, canter, halt and backup transitions, changes of directions, stick to me walk and trot, back up by tail with only a few strands and without anything!, spins, standing on the pedestal. But best of all was when she got confused she just ran to me then tried again! Sooooo proud of her :)

30th – Another liberty Session today – Liz  kindly took some photos for me

16th May – Level 2 Online Re-film

Liz came over today and we re-filmed my Level 2 Online Audition.

Here it's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSHtCxDhDqs

25th May - Just heard .... Passed my online audition with a Level 2++ !!!!!!!!!!! Yeeehaaaaa !!

8TH May – Play Day with Beth

On of the things I am working on is approach and retreat for taking Bella to clinics, so as part of that Beth kindly invited us over to hers to play. After a rather rocky trailer loading start, we arrived and meet up with our good friends Linda and her horse Tizzi. Beth was kind enough to lend my mum the use of her beautiful mare Sol, and she played with Terri’s horse Pumpkin. We all had an amazing day and there where loads of 1st for everyone including both me and Linda both getting changes of directions at Liberty and Linda getting Tizzi to jump the barrels!!

I swapped with Beth at one point so she could have a play with Bella and feel the difference a year has made, which meant I got to play with Pumpkin who is just amazing. It felt like I was playing with a feather, she was so soft, willing and light. Now I really have and idea where I’m heading with my feel with Bella. Bella loaded like a dream to go home which was a big plus!

Bella, Pumpkin, Sol and Tizzi where perfect partners all day. Big ‘THANK YOU’ to Beth for organizing it :)

4th May - Bella's lessons for me today was: 'Feel during the day, Think at night' and 'Trust that she will respond, but be ready to correct, not one

Today we played with ‘feel’ and boy do I have a lot to learn, but Bella is teaching me everyday so we are on the right path.

1st May - Bluebell Ride

Today some of us Savvy Sussex Girls got together and when on a ride around the Bluebell Woods at Angmering Park. Bella was AMAZING and did me proud. Even having to contend with Giant Log Pile squeeze's, guns shooting, race horses, scouts hiking, sheep and a new place Bella was Cool calm collected Bella ... Well apart from walking backwards down a slope a few times, but we will ignore that for now ;), which is more than I can say for me!!! I lead her the first bit till I was more LB then hoped on and off as my confidence went up and down. Nothing to do with Bella, just my own hacking issues.

By the end of the ride I was laughing with everyone else, and taking pic’s of the woods and the rest of the group from on top off Bella as she walked along as a perfect partner.





In the afternoon I went out on a small hack on Hazel with Liz & Merlina. Merlina is just getting her confidence hacking so we went along to hold her hand so to speak. This was also my last ride on Hazel before she was sold, so a nice end to a nice day.

23rd April – Putting ideas into practice.

Today I worked on the things Rachael suggested yesterday. So we played on the ground till I could drive her forward, then ridden. All so far so good :)

22nd April - Had a great day at Rachael Morland’s clinic :) Oh, and Happy 5th Birthday Bella!

Today I went to watch a clinic Lower Sparr Farm, Wisborough Green with the always wonderful Rachael Morland 3* Parelli Instructor.
We where also lucky enough to have 2* Jody Ruysen helping out.
Rachael was kind enough to cover a 4 day clinic last minute for Carmen Zulauf (4* Parelli Senior Instructor) when volcanic ash made it impossible for her to fly.

As this was the last day of the clinic it was a lot of recapping more than teaching but that suited me for where I am at with Bella. The thing that where covered where: Sideways at a distance (up to 45ft) between two poles (for guidance for the human). Saddling, riding in arena and in the field.

I also got the chance to ask Rachael about a few problems I was having with Bella refusing to move forward. One thing Rachael recommended was getting her drive well in zone 3 so that I could tap her and have her move off without bucking, then take that to the ridden.

17th april - level 2 filmed. check. mums level one filmed. check. both loaded to youtube, double check!

We had ago at re filming my L2 and mums L1 today. They both went well but not 'perfect' so we are redoing them

8th april - Bella just offered sideways OVER the barrel! (twice!!!!) My little girl is so cool!!!! :)

What more can I add to that! We where just playing 'how many things can you do with a barrel?' and that was her idea! TWICE!!!