Cranky opposition

Some people don't like horses. Some people are just rude. Sometimes there are people who happen to be both.

Emma and I came across one of those the other day. We were meant to be going to the beach for an evening ride but the overcast sky dictated that we stay close to home. So we headed down the woods.

We have always ridden in that woods. Everyone does. It's often the only place for the poorer horse owner to go jumping such as myself. I can't afford to buy jumps and even if I could the sand school at Kestal is only 20ft long. It's not a big enough space to practice without crashing into the fence. I would like to just jump real fences rather than logs but hey, you get what you need not what you want.

So we had had a few good jumps already, I'd taken Nell down a drop bank to do some exploring, and Emma and I were on our way back. I normally have a favourite jumping log of mine halfway through the woods. Its small with good firm run-up and a lack of trees to run in to.

So we were minding our own business and Nell was jumping just the right way when some nosy woman with THREE snapping, barking minature snauzers comes up to us. We had pulled the horses up to avoid aggravating the dogs any further but the woman was obviously on the war path now. We were in the woods. where she was walking her dogs. And it was a "footpath". Shock.

So she asks us if we knew it was a footpath. My response... No. I didn't know. Despite the fact there is a sign outside which says footpath. I'd never noticed it and as we'd always jumped in the woods I had never paid attention much.

Anyway, she goes on to say that we shouldn't be in the woods as it was a footpath and that we should leave NOW.

Normally I apologise; explain I didn't know, then head home. After all we could come back on another day... But this woman had such a rude tone and the fact she had the cheek to say "I can't hear you" when her own dogs were making the noise, raised my hackles. I told her that we were going to finish jumping first, and then we would leave. She asked which yard we were based at. I told her that we were from Kestal and that our yard manager was also the grounds keeper for the woods. I turned away from the rude lady, and continued as though she wasn't there. Obnoxious people only deserve the same back.

She continued to complain that she had to put her dogs on the lead because of the horses. Well what do you know? If you actually trained your dogs properly they wouldn't have to go on the lead. My dog walks alongside the horses when we ride, as do many of my friends dogs. And you don't have to have a horse to teach them that barking and running at horses is unacceptable behaviour.

So after ignoring her she storms off saying that she is going to report us and so on. Well good luck to her. Not only did she have the WHOLE DAMN WOODS to walk in, we were off the main footpath so what is she going to report us for? Jumping a 1ft log in a secluded part of the woods at 6:00 evening on a wet day?

Surely there are better things to be doing with your time. How about getting those nasty dogs of yours trained? At 6:00 in the evening you don't expect to see people walking in the woods. Especially when the grey clouds roll in and it looks like its about to piss it down.

We horse riders truly are sorry that we have to use the footpaths, and roads, and beaches and woods and wherever else you don't want us to be. However, I don't see any of you doing something about it. I don't see you building bridlepaths or offering to re-turf old ones. I don't see you volunteering to trim back overgrown lanes or opposing building new roads on our bridlepaths. So perhaps before you start complaining you have a look at a map yourself. Instead of telling me to look at a map and see I'm on a footpath, you look at a map and tell me where there's a bridlepath that DOESN'T cross a footpath or road.

Edited to add: The rough speed of a horse WALKING is 3mph. Trotting is about 10mph, canter is between 17 and 28, and gallop is between 29 and 40mph depending on the horse. In other words, a horse can cover 3 miles in 1 hours ride at its slowest pace. Our rides are roughly two to three hours long equalling between 6 and 9 miles covered if we were just to walk. You try and find a cornish bridlepath that long.

Duracell pony

I think Nell has a couple of duracell batteries stuck up her ass... she is that fit at the moment. We went on an intense ride with LOTS of trotting. The first trot was exhausting... for me anyway. She was somewhat lethargic to begin with after stuffing herself all night with grass so I had to sqeeze everytime I sat. Driving her up that hill was painfully hard.

Halfway around the ride she started to perk up and the trotting was steady rather than *rise... Squeeze! rise... Squeeze!* Nor was it at the other extreme of having to stand because her trot's too fast to sit then rise to.

We had a couple of nice canters with good clear aids, resulting in a canter straight off the leg instead of the awful extension. Both canters were steady and controlled.

Overall it was an enjoyable ride but all that trotting really tired me out and I sweated buckets. As for Nell? No sweat. literally. Not under the girth, saddle or the elbows. She was as clean as when I took her out.

The weather is set for rain tomorrow but on the off chance that it is clear in the evening, Emma and I are heading down to the beach. I'll work her hard then and see - after the climb up the cliffs - if she actually sweats.

Oh and update on Rocky: He's absolutely fine. Just a pulled muscle as we suspected although after his fall he had a couple of small nosebleeds. They havn't come back since though so he's almost back to normal.

Not quite the way we planned it...

Lisa, Emma and I all got out for a ride today. Unfortunately, it doesn't always go to plan.
It wasn't the nicest of days to start with - a bit hazy and grey - but the air was warm and it wasn't raining for the moment.

When we got down to the boys field they were all sleeping, with the exception of Quids, and Rocky who was standing some distance from the rest of the herd. When Emma went to catch him it was pretty obvious he was lame. Suspecting nothing more than a pulled muscle, we decided to go ahead with the ride and it did - to some extent - loosen up.

He was happy to try overtaking Tralee, so we made the decision to press on and do Rocky Road. Trotting on the lanes was fine but the road seemed to be a bit of a struggle for the old boy so we stayed to the walk until reaching the top of Rocky road where we always start the canter.

Nell was being an ass, refusing to step up a gear into the canter, and instead extended her trot. Still; it was fast enough for the boys to get a canter behind me. As I slowed her down however, to try and stop the extension and get the canter, I heard Lisa shout my name.

I pulled Nell up to find Emma clambering to her feet. The wet ground combined with a pulled muscle has caused Rocky to slip sideways and fall. It was a bit of luck that he chucked Emma out of the stirrups as she fell and no-one was badly hurt. I felt bad in some ways that Emma had fallen off but in others relieved because she got back on and we had another canter, so her confidence is not totally in shreds. ;)
This was only her second fall in all the time she has been riding. The first time she fell was the first time she ever sat on a horse - which dumped her quite badly. To be fair she has gotten away with it so far. I normally average about one fall per year, while she has taken 4 years to fall off once. Either she is lucky, is a better rider than she thinks or she has some special magnets in her jeans...

All I can say is I'm just thankful I didn't take Jade today.
We got back in time as a wave of rain hit us. It wasn't particularly heavy but it was consistant. I was pleasantly surprised to find not a speck of sweat on Nell. She really is thriving at the moment. She is behaving wonderfully well, and seems to be establishing a relationship of sorts with Tralee. It could just be her getting broody and fruity but I would like to think they'd become friends...

Rocky was fine, although he may be a bit sore tomorrow. The poor lad hasn't had a very good day, poor bugger. Mum left him in the stable tonight with plenty of haylage as he seemed quite reluctant to go out into the rain - which I don't blame him for. We'll give him a few days off riding and see how he goes. He was never worked hard before we got him so a lack of fitness makes him more suseptable to pulled muscles. Of course we always worry about laminitis but a lack of heat in the hooves and the fact he is not overweight doesn't really scream it. We will keep an eye on it and keep you all posted on how he's doing.

Blech.

The weather has been up and down all week. One minute sunny then the next, grey and cold. Today is a grey, wet and chilly day. Certainly not riding weather.

Hopefully though, this week will be dry enough to take Jade and Lisa for a ride down to the beach. I should be riding with Liz as well and possibly do some jumping with Emma.

Peter, down at Tregurtha has leant us a homemade rope halter to try on Nell. If it works then I'll have a go at making one of my own, just thinner. She hasn't been quite so bad now that she's settled in, but the longer I leave her in the field, the harder it will be the next time I want to get her out.

The horses are back out on the fields again. It has been a long and difficult month, but now Tralee and Rocky are back in the summer field, Nell and Lucy have the whole chicken field to themselves and we have two young women who are interested in part loaning the Rockstar. Just Tralee to go, and some of our financial worries will be sorted.

To top it all off, we may have found somewhere cheaper and closer to home for Nell and Lucy to go. I can't say anything much though in case someone snaps it up before us. Everything is up for grabs at the moment and all it takes is a slip of the tongue and you've lost a field...

Salami!

I swear, I'm going to make salami out of Nell! The damn mare has now learnt that if she canters off while I'm leading her I'll let go of the rope and she can run back to the field. I was so angry with her. The sooner we give Lucy back the better it will be for both me physically, and Nell mentally.

It didn't help Lucy crawled under both electric fences then came galloping towards us. Mum took Lucy and walked her back up to the paddock, fixed the fence, hooked it up to the mains then came to look for me. By the time that was done, Nell had shoved her shoulder into me, pushed me into a field half way down the lane, took off in the canter then buggered off back in the direction of Lucy.

And people think Haflingers are all sunshine and butterflies! Huh! I would like to let anyone considering buying one know that THEY DO NOT POOP RAINBOWS! In other words, they are not all well behaved little ponies who will be perfect show ponies for your little darlings.
In fact some are just hell raisers. I can't fault Nell when I ride, in fact I had a very nice ride that same day, but every horse has their bad side. Nell's happens to be her bad ground manners.

We got from Kestal, round the lakes and back in record time - just over 1 hour. Nell was sweaty and a bit tired but not enough to lead quietly back to the field. The safest option was to lead her through the fields as I knew she would have to get through 3 gates before getting to Lucy wheras it would have been too easy for her to get back to the field if I had led her down the lane.

At the first field we got half way up before she tanked and left me standing alone. She got to the gate and unable to go through, ran around the field screaming. There was nowhere to go - neither towards Lucy or back to the stables - so I walked calmly over to the gate, pretending I was going to open it. Smart as Nell is, she fell for it and I took her rope, led her back down the field towards the barn, then turned and walked her to the next gate.

As soon as we got through the gate she surged forward. The same process as above followed for two or three times before she walked the length of the field.

At the next gate she didn't even wait for me to get through before shoving her shoulder into me and galloping to the next gate. I repeated the process. Catch, take back to previous gate, lead. By the third attempt I was getting tired of being pulled through the gateway so I tied to to it.

As I opened it, she tried again to shove past me but found herself stuck. I gave her a good whack with the end of the lead rope to let her know it was not acceptable behaviour. Eventually after much pulling and sidestepping she stood waiting, so I undid the rope and she walked on to the last gate. I tied her again, opened it up then retrieved her.

We did eventually get back to the field - both in one piece - but it took a whole hour to do it. Yesterday I practiced leading her away from Lucy, which worked fairly well with a bridle on. I have decided to get a pressure halter instead though, as I know leading her in a bit will only make her hard mouthed. The halter I want is quite thin so she should quickly get the idea that trying to pull away = discomfort. I'll be getting it as soon as possible so watch this space to see how that goes!

Spring fever!

the long dark of winter is over and I have spring fever! I can't wait to be out riding all easter and don't worry - there will be lots of photos this time!

I'm finally getting somewhere with regards to finding out Nell's real identity: I got an e-mail from the westphalian horse registry. They may have found her. The downside is it will cost me 250.00 euro - roughly £116 uk pounds at the moment. I am considering it as it will include a full investigation, dna testing and whatever else they can give me. I may wait for a while though - I have livery bills to pay over summer and I'm not in a hurry for it.

With the days warmer and drier, I will be doing some competing. There's a fun showjumping show locally coming up that I might attend and an agricultural show where I want to enter some art, photography and the dog into.

Here's a piece of my artwork that will definitely be going:

Lisa and Jade are going to be riding again this easter. I WILL HAVE PICS THIS TIME! so keep watching this space. ;)