The Horse | Arena Maintenance's Effects on Horse Movement

The Horse | Arena Maintenance's Effects on Horse Movement

Understanding Analysis for Horse Forages | Equinews

Understanding Analysis for Horse Forages | Equinews

My wonderful husband

My wonderful husband got up at 04:30 to take me to the coach stop then later went and put my ponies to bed and then stayed up to 23:30 to see me home and make me a cup of tea,

A Day Trip To Paris To See Les 4 Ecoles D'art Equestre

So yesterday I went with Joy on a day trip to Paris to see the four schools at Bercy.

Alarm went off at 04:20 <groan> and I rang Joy with her wake up call, Joy sounded very bright and jolly.

So 05:30 coach to Baker Street then breakfast in St Pancreas International had a very indulgent breakfast of warm croissant with Gruyere and a warm Belgian waffle with a *lot* of white chocolate sauce. Clearly we were too relaxed as I suddenly realised it was 08:00 and we were supposed to be checking in on the Eurostar!

So onto Eurostar and we dozed ourway to Paris, first glitch was at Gard du Nord when my ticket wouldn't work in the metro gate reader so tail gated and off we went to the Tullieries for a stroll and lunch.

Leisurely lunch took a LOT of effort to get the bill, if it hadn't appeared at the third time of asking and some twenty minutes, walked to Place de la Concorde  and caught the metro, had to exchange my metro tickets as apparently my phone had nuked the magnetic stripe (!) 

So onto Bercy where we had a coupe de Champagne.

It was lovely being there again and once again we had excellent seats.

The stadium was less than half full, the performance itself was a lot more of a crowd pleaser then the first show back in 2007,

For me the SRS stood head and shoulders above the other three schools:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DxXtlufZek&feature=player_embedded

I liked le Cadre Noir when doing the long reining quadrille but in general I do not get the feeling of partnership and joy from the Cadre Noir  that I feel stands out with the SRS, The Real Escuela exude joie de vivre and as always R Soto played to the audience and just looked to be having a thoroughly excellent time.

It was a shame that Rubi did not make the advertised appearance

We had to leg it as soon as the four schools had taken their final salute to get back to Gare du Nord to check in and go first through French passport control and the more passport control with the UK Border Agency some 10 metres further on. Why?

Grabbed a bottle of Champagne and a tube of Pringles and had a pleasant journey back to St Pancreas toasting horses we have owned or just owe a debt of gratitude to.

Crawled into bed at 23:30.

Another day that wonderful memories are made of

Seven lessons in a day and a half!

So this is what we did   Friday evening was spent at The Jolly Frog for Ron's birthday

Friday PM

Blackberry

Turing left and right

Pooh

Good ride got some decent FDO, looked at moving sideways in canter and how to keep Pooh moving sideways and not change. Fab fab bits of trot, walk -> halt was a bit agricultural at times

Mouse (lunge)

Worked on sitting trot with Connie cushions under legs.

What was interesting was that Mouse before riding was quite tight on the right side of his back but was so much looser post riding, whilst I have always known this is possible I hadn't expected that my riding could cause this change especially given my weight

Saturday AM

Woke up early and could lie in bed and look out of the window at Pooh and Mouse grazing 

Blackberry

Worked on rising trot and going down into heels and rising from back of legs at one point had my foot in SFO's lap   

Rope round middle to test core muscles, I need to remember to look at the psoas release article

Pooh

Interesting that he was better today than yesterday we were much moree on the same page and doing things together rather than me doing things such as halt to Pooh, SFO was of opinion he came out better today because I put him away better last night, am still  that SFO could consider that my riding could improve a horse 

Got asked what I thought the schooling plan should be once we had done long rein/walk/ hlats and trot. I stated I'd now canter large and easy then see how he moved off leg in canter, then would go back to trot and sideways is trot having used canter as a warm up for lateral work in trot.

So got quizzed and failed to pass on the benefits of leg yield, SFO went off for a comfort break leaving me alone so I did some leg yield did think it was a bit quarters leading anyway SFO returned and was told my leg yield was nothing like a leg yield and that leg yield was often tuaght the way I was taught and was WRONG!  so parked Pooh in front of the white board and got an illustrated lesson on leg yield.

So onto leg yield on a circle, which is basically Erik's halt, angle, flow. So on ten metre circle halt/slow/woah move the quarters over and out then flow forwards. Found very hard to orchestrate all aids and not turn it into rein yield!

Leg yield really improved Pooh's hind leg engagement and we were off  

Break for lunch had bad news from a friend so lots of   good vibes and being sent virtually towards home for her. Felt very close to tears over it all as felt so helpless as there is nothing you can do to make it right just talk and let them know you are there but it doesn't feel like enough.

Saturday PM

Mouse (lunge)

More work on sitting trot with Connie cushions then looked at rising trot, need to rise through back of leg, however overall I am well chuffed with how much more stable my lower leg compared to how it used to be.

Pooh

Dear dear Mr Pooh started off like a slug on Prozac but soon became super speedy Poozles! So this was great but I really struggled to get this energy up and under me rather than Pooh using it for marching around the school at Mach 3. Lots of   with Mr Pooh at his new found energy!

Looked again briefly at leg yield and that was much better than yesterday  

Put Pooh out in field, packed up last stuff in house, paid up and drive home in sun via a nice piece of topside from Marston Meats