The weather is pretty bad here in the UK at the moment. Some poor people are being flooded in the North West and fortunately it’s not as bad here in the South, but still not very nice.
Star’s field turned once again into a giant pool and it won’t get any better in the next few days as more rain is on its way.
I am so fed up with this. That yard has the worst draining system in the world. Oh no excuse me, it does not have any draining system at all! The fields are all clay and as soon as it starts raining, water stands on the surface and below it, the mud is everywhere.
Poor star is having a tough time coping in these conditions. She hates the rain apparently!
When I arrive in the afternoon at the yard, she canters as fast as she can to the field’s gate and calls for me to come and take her to the barn.
Well at least I am not having any problems having her stay quietly in her stable all night. She loves it there!
I am starting to look for another place to go as there are more sandy areas around here, which would be better for Star.

Our Equine Podiatrist, Kate, visited us yesterday and congratulated me on the good work I did for Star’s feet. They are as good as they can be, given the bad ground conditions at the yard. Her hooves are even less twisted now (she is a bit pigeon-toed). So I couldn’t be happier. All I’ve done for her is finally paying off! I have to keep doing the same routine all winter though to make sure she doesn’t get any new infections!

With all that rain and wind, I haven’t done much with her since our lesson on Thursday. I rode her yesterday though, with the hackamore.
She was full of beans and kept cantering around the school. I could not stop her, I tried bending her but she was bracing against the pressure and going faster. Mmmm, not nice…
I have to spend more time working on the lateral flexion, it’s necessary. With Star, it’s either walk or canter, she hates the trot and so it makes our riding a bit difficult. I can do better things with her when I ride her with the bit but I want to achieve the same things when riding her bitless.
I wonder how I should do it though. Shall I do one day with the bit, next day bitless and so on? Am I going to confuse her? I don’t know what I should do…

I’m gonna make this post short, I am exhausted today. Couldn’t sleep last night and now I am a wreck. Star and I are having a day off today…

Yesterday we had our riding lesson with Mike and it was really cool once again.
Mike wanted to make us work on a new exercise this week but we never managed to get there. I was supposed to trot Star on a circle and again she didn’t want to trot on the left. She was so against it that she was backing up and backing up. It must have lasted 10 minutes with me trying to make her go forward and her backing up or turning in circles. It was getting ridiculous. So Mike sat on her and obviously she quickly respected him more. I asked Mike to remove his spurs (as I don’t have any, I thought it would be more fair) and Star got a bit more difficult straight away. But Mike is not the kind to let Star have one of her little tantrums. He worked with her on circles on the left for a while and then i got back in the saddle.

My goal for the next week is to make Star trot on the left rein. We were getting better at it this week but yesterday she just did not want to do it anymore! Punk! as Marion would say.

I think I’m gonna try to ride her with the hackamore at the weekend and see if it makes a difference (last time it didn’t) and also to work on our level 2 freestyle skills and patterns, as I’d like to audition for it before Xmas.

I spent the whole afternoon with Star today and it was good.
I went there early, after lunch (I’d already been there early in the morning to turn her out obviously). I had booked the school at 3pm so I wanted to have plenty of time to get her ready (she’s always very muddy when I take her out of the field), groom her, saddle her and ride at least 1 hour.

When I arrived, there was only one other lady who owns 2 horses and she’s very nice. She was cleaning her pony at the stable and her other horse was calling from the field as he hates being away from his field friend.
I prepared all my stuff and went to the field to get Star.
As usual, when she saw me, she came towards me. At the moment I was going to put the halter on, the horse who was left alone in his field, took off and started to canter around the field so Star spooked and took off as well. She spent the next 10 minutes galloping around, bucking, rearing, sliding in the mud. I let her do, there was nothing else I could do.
Then I saw the lady who was bringing back the pony so I thought everything was going to be fine as the lonely horse would finally settle down and so would Star.
Well, she opened the field gate and the lonely horse escaped! He started to canter around the yard so I ran to the entrance gate and shut it, just to make sure he wasn’t going to escape the yard. Then I ran to help the poor lady. She put her pony in his field and then didn’t know what to do to catch her loose horse. After a while, he started to eat the grass just next to his field entrance so I told her she could now put him back in but she was scared, she didn’t want to go near him. I told her I didn’t mind doing it but she said she didn’t want me to. She took a bucket of grains and lured him into the field.
That whole story made me lose all my time, I was a bit pissed off!

So when I arrived in the school, it was 3.15pm
Again, Star and I worked on Mike’s training program and she did so well. She gave me a real nice jog, such a good girl! It was so much more comfortable than her usual crazy trot!
And now she agrees to turn left! It’s not perfect but at least she does it. We are getting there!
I am very satisfied, I can see we are improving, which is good!
We stayed in the school until 4 and then the next horse came in. I let star cool down and then we went back to the barn. I originally wanted to play with her on the ground afterwards but my time got stolen by the other people so I had to give up that idea. It was a good riding session though!

Star was such a good partner today. I mean she is most of the time but some days, she is so nice with me. Today was one of those days.

Tonight, I put her in her stable and all the other horses were still out. Only one of them was supposed to go in, but only later and I was worried Star may get nervous of being on her own in the big barn. Well she was not. Actually she even called me from her field at 6pm as I usually bring her in earlier and she got impatient!
I stayed with her and she was looking at me and playing with my hair or my clothes, and eating her hay. She looked very relaxed. There is one thing I am sure of, our herd of 2 works really well. Sometimes I even think Star prefers to be with me than with the other horses. How lucky am I!

And sorry no photos as promised, maybe at the weekend. I went there alone so couldn’t take myself in photo…

This afternoon, Olivier cleaned Star’s box completely and we added the last rubber mat that was missing and it now looks very neat! Spoiled girl!
While he was working hard, I spent some quality time with Star.

I started riding her and although it was far from perfect, she gave me some really good efforts and we finally jogged!! Yay!! I mean a real jog, not the usual crazy trot!
I tried to work on all that Mike told me at our last lesson and it makes quite a difference. I was really happy and proud of her. She is so funny though, she is trying to avoid everything and she is so lazy. And she kicked the cones once again. She’ll do anything to go and mess up the cones!

As I went back to the barn and unsaddled, Olivier told me I should go and play with her on line. I thought it was a bit silly at first as it is quite obvious we should play on the ground BEFORE riding and not the other way around. Plus, I am trying to avoid ground sessions as Star is so hard to handle and she bullies me too much.
But then I thought why not!

So we went back to the school. I was not expecting much from it I must say.
I started with some friendly game, star stood there looking completely bored but looking at me. So I thought I’d try some porcupine game, which usually triggers the devil in her, she hates being touched on the neck or head or shoulder or moved away, even a little bit. I tried to move her forehand full circle and surprisingly she did! So I tried the other side and it worked too…Mmm… Lower head? Yes!…Sideways (the porcupine one, without moving my feet)? Yes!
So I thought the driving game would wake her up (when it’s not porcupine, it’s driving game hell!) but it went really well. Spinning on both sides and then driving to different places to put her nose on. I said “Let’s go and touch letter B!” and she went to touch it (well I drove her there but you know what I mean).
A bit of yo-yo? Oh yeah, phase 1 at the end of the 22′ line!
Sideways? Sure, but without a fence, thank you!
And then it started to rain. Well I thought she’d done so well, it would now be rude to let her stand in the rain after all the good efforts and positive attitude she gave me today! So we went back to the barn and she just hung with us while we were cleaning the stable and preparing her bedding and food. She loves to be nosey!

What a nice day it was! Hope tomorrow will be as good or even better!

How strange that Star seems much nicer and willing after being ridden. Could it be the answer to our on line problems? Sounds a bit crazy but hey whatever works for us!

Ps. Will try and take photos tomorrow. It’s been too long since we last took some photos!

On Friday and Saturday, awful weather kept me from being brave enough to go riding. I mean it was really awful! Crazy rain and wind and poor Star was looking really miserable in her field under the trees. I was going mid-day to change her rug and put on a clean dry one…but obviously it was too clean for her so she was rolling straight away in the mud.

Fortunately, today’s weather was a bit better so I went for a quick ride. I rode her with the hackamore and she did OK. The good thing is that we managed to do a figure 8 just using my weight and legs but not the reins.
She keeps turning in circles when I do the lateral flexion so we are working on that. As soon as she stops, I let go.
I even managed to get a nice easy trot by the end (it obviously started with a few canter departures as always) so I guess it’s not too bad overall. I am pretty happy with that!

Tomorrow I have to work on our western program, as we haven’t done anything since our lesson last Thursday. Should be fun!

Well I’m gonna make it short because I am so tired now, I don’t feel like writing a novel!

Today, riding lesson with Mike. We tried to sort out the problems I’ve had while riding Star recently (like not wanting to turn left, going too fast at the trot) and I learned a lot.
We have a lot of work ahead of us, that’s for sure! But I am learning every time and that’s the most important thing. I have to be more persistent and not let Star “cheat” on me, as Mike says.

My body’s in pain though now. I’ve been riding almost everyday and Star never makes it easy for me so my back and legs are sore. Off to bed soon I guess! Yawn yawn…

I rode Star today. She was pretty good but she wanted to go forward and faster all the time.
I tried to get a nice looking jog but it just doesn’t work.
And Star’s new thing is to avoid going left by any means. She won’t trot or canter on the left rein and it’s very hard to make her turn left. When trotting on the left, she was waiting to get to the big wall and would fight her way to the right. It was very frustrating!
Same thing happened at canter so I stopped that as I didn’t want something really bad to happen and I don’t want to pull on the bit so I’ll wait until our lesson tomorrow to see what happens.

The funny thing is I managed to make her spin (not fast) and I don’t even know how I did it! It was fun though!

OK, lesson with Mike tomorrow. Should be interesting…

Yesterday, I had a great ride with Star. We worked on what we learned with Mike last week and she did much better than usual, I was very proud.
When I asked her to jog, again she went way too fast, always trying to accelerate and go into a canter. I kept on going for a long time but it was so uncomfortable. My bum’s in pain!
I managed to get her into a nice trot but again a bit too fast, so I decided I would try cantering. And we had so much fun! We did several laps at high speed and it felt really good.
She apparently likes to canter on the right lead but not at all on the left, so when I tried to do it on the other side, it got really messy!
We also did some amazing stops. Whispering a “whoa” is enough for her to stop dead in her track. So cool!

Today, I wasn’t feeling at my best and the weather was very ugly so I decided to do a ground play session with her instead and it turned into a nightmare. At first, she played with the big ball and seemed to be having a great time. then she tried to climb anything she could find (the mounting block, jumping blocks, bars, anything)!
But when I started to ask for her to go in a certain direction (ie pointing), she blew up, started to gallop as if her life depended on it and did gallop flat around me, at the end of the rope, for what seemed an eternity! I was trying to stop her or at least slow her down but nothing worked. I was bracing myself to avoid flying away at the end of the rope. I started to feel exhausted and my head was spinning. I managed to get to the fence and thought that making her face the fence would stop her but instead she did a crazy stop in front of the fence, pulled back and went back in the other direction! When she finally stopped, she looked at me, licked her lips and came towards me, head down, as if nothing had happened. Smoke was coming out of her body and her nostrils were huge and her breathing really fast.
I’ll stick to riding for now. Ground work seems to be a bit out of control at the moment and I am not enjoying it at all!

So on Saturday we didn’t do anything, it was our day off. Star looked a bit defiant with Olivier in the field on Saturday and it’s very strange as she never does that. I hope she’s not trying to keep him away from me too. She does that with the other horses but if she starts doing that with Olivier, we’re in trouble. She is so possessive with me! She managed to scare Olivier a little bit and it’s not good.

On Sunday afternoon, we had a good ride in the sand school. We worked on what we learned with Mike on Friday and Star was being very lazy again but I didn’t give up and she ended up doing not so bad. We are supposed to work on our trot this week. Well actually we have to work on our “jog” and it should be slow, comfortable and laid back, but it is fast and furious! Star hates trotting so she goes really fast and usually she starts to canter so I have to do 20 laps trying to bring down her energy and then she starts doing it correctly. I hate sitting trot though, it’s so difficult on a fast horse! That’s why we now need to jog and stop trotting!
I was not supposed to work on our “lope” (or canter) but I felt like doing it and Star did beautifully. Loping is definitely her “thing”! She was so comfortable and not going all over the place like she does when we trot!
It was so cool!!

More of that today. I hope she’ll be ready for it this afternoon! This morning I just took her from the stables to the field and she was nice and quiet.
She made me laugh this morning. As she rolls in the mud all the time, I decided to braid her long manes and tail to avoid the mud drying in the hair (which makes it very hard to remove!) and she doesn’t very much like standing there to be groomed so she makes herself busy with anything. She first started to have a look around my coat which was hung there, she emptied all my pockets and then shook it with her mouth to throw it away. I was not happy so I made her stop but she kept going at it. Once the coat got thrown away in anger, she did the same with the towels that I keep there to clean her feet, then it was my sprays, the brushes, anything! She is so mouthy, it’s unbelievable! You should have seen the mess she did when I finished grooming her! And when she had gotten rid of everything around, she tried to chew my sweatshirt. Of course I don’t let her do it and I stop her every time she “attacks” something but she never stops. I know it’s silly but it made me laugh

Can’t wait for our afternoon ride. I could have ridden this morning but it was too cold so I decided to wait until it’s a bit warmer…

Ps. If looking for someone to start a young horse to be ridden western or if you’re looking for a trainer (both English and western) in Southern England (Hampshire, Surrey, W. Sussex), visit Mike’s brand new web site. I cannot recommend enough! http://www.positive-equine-solutions.co.uk/

Edit at 7.30pm – My ride with Star was GREAT! We had a really nice time. She was responsive and very dynamic so we cantered for a long time! Will write more about that tomorrow…

I forgot to say, I got a subscription to Western Horse UK magazine. Yesterday, I received my second issue :

The first issue featured an article about Parelli. Read it here!