Saddlery Doo Dah

We had our Saddler out today and it is so interesting to see your horse through another pair of eyes.

Firstly a fellow livery also had another saddler out and was being advised about the balance of her saddle. Her saddler demonstrated how her horse had been bracing himself and built up muscles in his lower neck and had dropped his back by constantly hollowing. Both boys were tied up together and I looked across at Charlie and thought 'ooh Charlie's back looks so much flatter than it used to'.

As this thought entered my head my friend said 'look how nice and flat Charlie's back is'.

Next my saddler turned up and I discussed the fact that we had lost weight and the saddle was tipping forward. 'You know why that is' he says. 'Charlie now has withers'. Whoop whoop and more Zipidee Dooh Dah. Then he says with our rate of shape change I may need checking every three months. Pah a saddler with pretensions of my paying for a Ferrari in quarterly instalments.

 It was interesting to see that when he got his bendy template out and put it across the withers what we have built between us is a nice wither shaped V. Last year the same bendy template came out almost dead flat.

Unfortunately as he is so careful with our saddle he wouldn't top up the flocking in situ and has taken it away to make it perfect. So I am grounded for a few days. I don't really want to give him time off so I may well be doing some major walking.

No Carrots here!

I would just like to share how lovely Charlie is. We are having a quietish week as we have lost weight and need our saddle checked and I need braces.

So this morning we did groundwork.

The groundwork was just a little bit of working with head and neck to inside,rein back- dead straight, whoop whoop, that sneaked up on us bottom used to waggle in every direction. Leg yield and shoulder in.

We did our leg yield together, I nearly cried when I remember trying 12 to 18 months ago he was dreadful. Today I walked sideways very clearly crossing my legs and he did too we was like twins :D

We finished off in the school doing 'no carrot' stretches. I had a bag of hay and a clicker. Each stretch was achieved with clicker and a fist of hay. The stretches to shoulder need refining as we haven't done them for a while and Mr Poshcob has a naughty habit of rotating to make it easier. Apparently a half Nelson with one leg hooked around his ears is not the way to achieve this correctly no matter how tempting it may be. The stretches to his side were wonderful he could get to his stifle both sides and the the one between his legs was fantastic. So glad I was in the school as this involved him nearly sitting on his bottom to get to his beloved hay.

What amazed me was he was loose with a head collar on and I parked him on the long side so we had a wall for the side stretches. When I went back to my hay bag he would turn and watch until I came back with my hay twist tucked in my pocket.

The rest if the time he follows me around the school like a big dark bay Labrador. Just love this boy to pieces.

Three More Hacks

Another week has flown by and 3 more hacks under our belts all with varying levels of company and success. The diet continues although this morning I have a sneaking suspicion the grass is putting weight back on we shall see.

We are still using Equifeast's Cool Calm and Collected and it definitely makes a difference although I am still tweaking the magnesium levels and we have migrated to Sensible Essentials which includes vits and mins  as we are soaking his hay and with the weight issues that needs to increase to mostly soaked.

The Hacks - firstly with one other horse who wasn't very forward going so we ended up in front too far and for too long. All disobedience was minor however when I sternly said 'Get on' at one point my companion whimpered that her horse was frightened and started walking out more. Apparently he was worried.

Second hack with 3 was lovely and I gave myself a holiday by riding at the back so I didn't have to plan and think. It also gave me the chance to practise a sneaky leg yield or two as the others don't hack and school so much. I was delighted that when we trotted up the very steep lane home I could actually use my legs and close my hands to slow the trot down with no objections and then soften and let him catch up. Perfect.

The last hack on Sunday was the big one. It was an OMG and eek from me as we went with 3 others, no change there, but but but we went up the hill the other way and through the woods to the scout hut. I have not gone this way since the infamous incident of the mountain bike which I believe was September. Obviously my memory is better than Charlies as I was tense and he was just chilled and very nosey.

We had one incident where he spun 180 as the pretty mare with us spooked and he loves her to pieces and immediately though oh no Lions Run! and one where she had a bit of a flid and he said eek and did a bounce.
I was absolutely delighted as none of this sent my heart racing and I felt very stable and secure. I was also delighted that as back of the ride I could slow his trot down and get some sneaky steady quiet canters in with no issues at all.

My tools of safety are :-

Neueschule Verbindend with Universal fittings. Its the same mouthpiece that we school in so he is used to it and doesn't get upset at gently applied brakes.

Breastplate and Martingale (doubles as a neck strap).

Acavallo Gel out pad <<<<< I had not had a chance to test this in emergency situations but when he panicked and spun in the woods I was delighted to find that my legs were still wrapped round his sides and my bum was firmly in the saddle.

My lovely Ariat Grasmere boots which keep my legs hugging his sides.

And not forgetting my BP hat and on the advice of my trainer a nice short whip so I can hold it on his worried shoulder.

Zipidee Dooh Dah!

Well folks if it wasn't so exciting in Anna land it would nearly be boring.

However today we reached a milestone in our hacking out.

 We hacked out with one other horse and Charlie was magnificent. He Took the lead several times when his companion was being a bit of a Jesse. It was all road work because we realised there was a mad Motorbike trail going on in the woods. Part of it was in the lanes too and we went past lots of trail bikes then later motorbikes with sidecars (I shied he didn't) and met several groups of cyclists on a road race.

He led his companion under a railway bridge and later on past a sheet that had blown onto a grass verge he was magnificent very much the horse I fell in love with when I bought him.

We rode through a village with parked Cars everywhere and unfortunately got separated as his companion pulled into a gap to let a car go past. We were in front and the gap she though we would stand in was too small. If Charlie had decided to play up there wasn't enough room. We trotted on to a big gap opposite a builders yard and parked him up in the gateway.

I looked back and thought oops his pal is a long way back. Was he worried? Nope he confidently stood there and waited for his Pal to join him.

Happy days!