We Qualified!

Woohoo...i got my wish for an early qualification, which takes the pressure off! We can now concentrate on training. I was pleased with our scores for our first outing of the season, we came home with 5th in the 5.2 with 59.5% and scored 59.2% in the freestyle.
Silly me forgot my spurs, so there was a definate lack of impulsion, which wasn't helped by the heat! I stuffed up my pirouettes in the 5.2, and ended up with 4's, which let me down hugely considering it had a co-efficient mark. Am looking forward to the next outing, and having a wee play in some level 6 tests.

Cossack as usual is being a little star. He is having a range of riders come and hop on him, and he looks after them all so well! Yesterday we had Joe's sister come have a ride, she has had a brief lead around on him a few weeks ago, and also hopped on hammer for a walk on lead last weekend. Yesterday she was trotting on the lunge, and then had a potter around the arena for about 15 mins off the lead. ( he does tend to just try and follow Hammer around though!)I decided to have a play with him over the dreaded poles yesterday. I was very impressed with how hard he tries. It is very obvious that he is scared (I would love to find out what happened to him!) but he is very trusting and i had him lunging over them with little issue, after about 5 minutes. I am hoping to build his trust enough that he starts enjoying it and i can then try while riding him. He is alot braver when he has a person leading him!

Hammer and Joe are doing exceptionally well. Joe is having bursts of trotting off the lunge now ( he is a hard one to learn to trot on, as he is still quite unbalanced) and Hammer seems to have realised Joe is boss now, and he is SO much calmer for it. I have jumped on him bareback twice to ride him back to his paddock and he is an angel :)

Grindy's Lesson

Yesterdays lesson was great! Still alot to work on, such as straightness and me not holding on when Grindy is round enough....but Bill seemed happy with our progress and seemed excited at me having a play with a few advanced tests this season.

We ran through 5.2 as practise for Saturday, and its quite straight forward, I think the counter canter half circles and simple canter change down the centre line will be our biggest challenge, again due to straightness issues!

Will give Grindy an strech tonight, and a quick schooling session tomorrow and we should be all go!

Cossack Update

Cossack is SUCH a star! Bringing him back into work has been proving rather difficult due to my own time restraints with work, and schooling Grindy. I have been inundated with offers from people wanting to ride him! I am usually not very keen on people riding my horses as I like them to have consistant schooling..but i thought, while i am unable to give Coss regular rides i should take up some of the offers. I had a friend who hadn't been on a horse for 4 years, come out on Friday to play with the horses and she hopped on Coss. This was only his second ride after a few months off, and he was just a perfect wee gentleman. It is going to be very hard to part with this wee man in the future! He did about half an hour of walk and trot in the arena, then we went for a ride around the paddocks where he happily followed Grindy on long rein!

On Sunday I had a 14 year old come out and hop on him, and again he behaved perfectly, even when the rider hopped on with the girth too loose and the saddle ended up sitting on him sideways with rider onboard!! The girl is slightly nervous, though she does have some experience and Cossack just took it all in his stride. His trot is so much more balanced than when i first got him, although his canter will need a bit of work.

Not alot else to report...Grindy is ticking along nicely, I have a lesson booked with Bill on Wednesday which i am really looking forward to. And still waiting to hear if i got my late entries through for dressage at Clevedon on Saturday!

Saturday's Ride

The Boys: as i expected, both boys were absolute angels. We lunged them for 5 mins with no worries, so jumped on board and did lots of walk-halt-walk transitions, bending etc. Cossack really has grown into himself, and his trot is looking super. He doesn't rush and works well off the leg coming nicely round and soft although we need to work on consistency. Hammer seems to be carrying his head lower, which to me means he is a heap more relaxed! There was alot less resisting and both boys looked very happy to have the attention!

It was far to hot after riding the boys, so i went back in the afternoon to ride Grindy, and brought Joe for a play with Hammer. Grindy was good, as per usual...but i realised i haven't been sitting straight..I tend to put my weight to the outside especially in canter, which isn't helping me with straightening her! It felt extremely odd to sit my seat more to the inside, but as with most position changes while riding, I know I will adjust if i keep at it. She was going lovely and straight by the end of our session, very light in the contact and carrying herself which is something we have struggled with!

Joe learnt how to lunge Hammer (eventually....Hammer wasn't giving anything away that afternoon!!) and then jumped on and Hammer was excellent. Joe has found the ground work he has been doing with Hamm is giving him more tools to use when on board. So we shall keep doing alot of ground work to keep them moving forwards!

Grindy and I are on the waiting list for Auckland Manukau Dressage Festival on the 13th December, so here's hoping we get in. And we are looking at starting up our weekly lessons with Bill again, from the 10th Dec...exciting!