So not a very long update, promise I will write another one very soon.
So this week I have had time off work to assist my hubby for the lambing period. We have only 16 ewes and we sponge them to synchronize their cycle so that they are lambing around the same time. For us it makes it easier.
They were all due to start on Easter Sunday. Unfortunately they didn’t actually start until Tuesday morning when our lovely homebred ewe Flotsam gave birth to twin girls in the early hours of the morning. Currently it is Wednesday and only two more have lambed so far. They both had singles so our lambing percentage currently stands at 125%. It would be nice if the 13 others would get on with it though!
My aim for this week had been to finalise my preparation with Jack for Eden Valley Horse Trials. This started on Sunday with a trip to a local arena event training session which had both coloured show jumps and also a working hunter course. It was nice to have a pop round
Thanks to H for taking the pics and putting the jumps up/down/poo picking!
On Monday we did some gallop training, I have been using the heart rate monitor for his interval training and I think he is reasonably fit. His recovery rate is very quick – around a minute, so I need to build this up to include gallop and more hill work to increase the fitness for Novice (1.10m) BE if we go well enough to move up to this level this season. If the events I have entered run, then all of these will also help him.
We are heading to Eden Valley this Saturday for the BE90 as a schooling round, with the bad weather up here its been a nightmare to get anywhere for any gallop/hill work. I have some extremely good hills for fittening work but it’s been too hard to ride in them and they need rolling.
I also have a flatwork lesson planned today, when schooling yesterday I feel like I’m a bit stiff in my upper body in canter so will try and sort that before the event!
Will keep you posted!
Onto Larry!
My plan this week was to start Larry off under saddle. So far his education has been sporadic and really only includes long reining 4 times, laid over his back once, and ridden once – all of these will breaks in between due to his kick, mud fever and cellulitis. Now that has all cleared I had prayed for good weather so I could crack on.
Luckily for me this week has been perfect so far!
I started by long reining him on Saturday, which he did at a leisurely pace! So on Sunday, I did a short spell of long reining and then got my husband to walk alongside him in a 20m circle both ways before moving away. After that I only sat on him for a short period, going forwards into trot and some wobbly steering before giving him lots of pats and polo’s!
Steering and trotting:
The following day, I rode him again for around 20 minutes, repeating the same thing. Little and often is my plan and he was brilliant, not a foot wrong.
Yesterday I got on him without a person standing by after the first circle, and repeated this a couple of times while doing some trot/walk around the school. He took a polo mint from my hand while I was on him, and even let me take a photo while he enjoyed the view. Lastly after my other half came and walk with us down to our road end and back. Its only a couple of hundred metres long but he was foot perfect and didn’t bat an eyelid at anything new! We did turn before the wheelie bins – I’ll leave those scary horse-eating-gremlin-bins for another day!!
So I cannot complain! He has been great, not even looked at the giant HGV lorries flying past the arena on the main road (my other horse is scared of them!) and is totally chilled out about everything I ask him to do. He has even started to jump the steps up out of his field like an eventer
(there are 3 small steps but hey ho if he wants to jump them!)My aim now is to keep is slow and easy, short walk hacks to start with over the next month or so to get him built up a bit. He’s a big horse and doesn’t turn 4yo until May so I’d like it to be nice a gentle. Perhaps an outing planned for August time if we can but nothing too difficult.
Big pats to the orange superstar in the making!
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