Looks like I haven’t updated for a while.
Well last week was fine. I got to ride Star almost everyday and she did not too bad. I was pretty happy with what she offered me and thought she was starting to make some efforts.
I am only talking about the riding part as I didn’t do any ground sessions with her last week, I kind of wanted to focus on our riding.

Last Thursday, I went at Mike’s to help him with his horses and it was fun. There is so much to do, it just never ends. I ended up that day feeling very tired!

Yesterday, Star and I had our lesson with Mike and it started well, but then she started to be very difficult.
She was putting her head up and she kept trying to lope when I was only asking her to jog. Mike sat on her at some point and she got a bit better.
I was pretty disappointed as I thought that my (almost) daily rides had had a positive impact on Star’s behaviour but I guess I was wrong. Oh well, if she was easy, I wouldn’t learn as much as I do, so overall it’s OK

This week, I do hope to ride her everyday again, it is good for the both of us.
I’ll try to have one or two ground sessions with her as well this week, I am planning on trying to make her trot on the figure 8 pattern. Yeah right, as if that was ever going to happen!

Oh and finally, here are two photos of Star that Mike found on his phone. They were taken when Star was in training with him, I think a year ago. Look how tiny (and beautiful!) she looks.

Today, I spent most of the day at the yard. I got there very early as always and did all sorts of things.
I did my usual mucking out of Star’s stable and also poo-picked her field. Star was following me around and trying to push the wheelbarrow herself, she’s funny.

One of the horses there was ill. I noticed he was shaking and told his owner who called the vet. He had very high temperature so they gave him a painkiller and took blood samples. I hope it’s not too serious.
Because his owner had to go to work, I decided to stick around as there was absolutely no one there and I just felt like staying anyway.
The horse quickly got better and started to eat again so I was relieved.

After doing all sorts of things around the yard, I went to get Star from her field, tacked her up and went for a ride.
It was raining a little bit and it was grey and dull and ugly (as always!) but I had such a good ride, it was worth it!
Star did well, she did not act like a punk and put some efforts in everything I asked her to do.
We had a few spins and that was fun, she spins a bit too fast for me but I guess it’s a good thing!

Her lope was a bit better today, it was still a bit too fast but we got a few really good strides, we will keep working on that. Same for her jog, it was much better today, way more comfortable!

I was really happy with that! I can see the difference now that I am back to riding her on a daily basis (or almost), she wastes less time fighting or doing silly moves as she understands that when it goes well, I leave her alone but when she doesn’t make any efforts, I keep asking again and again. Being her lazy self, she prefers the easy option I guess!

I spent some time with her in the barn cuddling her and grooming her after that and then put her back in her field.

I was desperate this morning when I looked at the weather forecast that said it was going to rain all day but I must learn to live with it and Star makes it easier to bear ♥

Tomorrow, I will be at Mike’s all day and will probably be riding Flint again. I should be riding his mare soon as well! I look forward to that!

Today was lesson day and it was good. Not only was it sunny but Star was a good girl.

I mean she is still very difficult and doing all sorts of stupid moves to escape what I’m asking from her but apart from that, I had the feeling she had a pretty good attitude about work today.

Mike sat on her at some point as I could not seem to get her to lope right. She was going way too fast, head up in the air and I was not getting into the right position so was not helping her.
I love to watch Mike ride her, it looks so nice. She was loping so nicely with him, nothing like when I do it!

So then I tried again and she only did a few correct strides but the rest was still a bit wrong.
Oh well, it will take the time it takes. I have been given a lot of good advice to work on that so I just hope the weather will be better than what’s forecasted and that I’ll be able to ride her every day and see how we can make this more comfortable for the both of us. I know she can do it because she does it when Mike rides her.

Overall, a really good lesson once again. I feel we are progressing and I am really happy about that.

Mike made her spin as well, she was so cute!! I ♥ my pony!

Today, I enjoyed the sun and peaceful state of the yard to go riding Star during lunch time.
She was in her field when I arrived and she went straight to the gate when she saw my car and started to paw the ground impatiently.
Saddling went pretty well, she looked relaxed. I got on her without too much problem and although she did take one step forward when I got on, it was not as bad as it’s been. I made her back up and she waited, still for a while.

We walked and worked on our direct and reverse bends, which she did very well. The reverse bend is starting to look really good, I am glad about that. Then, I quickly moved her into a jog and I was expecting her to go really fast, head up in the air, like she almost always does, but instead she gave me a nice comfy jog, with very little head tossing. Wow!

I worked a little bit on the HQ disengaging and then tried to spin her again. She didn’t spin very well on the right, but pretty well on the left. It felt so funny, she is a fast spinner!

I also did a few stops, I mean transitions jog-stop-jog. Her stops could be improved as she stops well but walks on straight away instead of stopping and staying still.
Her back up on the other hand was really good. She does naturally tucks her nose in (I don’t pull on the reins, she does that herself and she even does it when we play on line!) and backs up beautifully.

And finally, we loped! I loved it. She does go really fast and should lift her rib cage more, but overall she lopes well and she’s comfortable so I’m pretty happy with that for now! It felt so good!

After so many positive things, it would have been rude to ask her more so I left it there, dismounted and took her back to the barn. She had a lot of cuddles for that! I put her back in her field and left. I was completely satisfied with this. Regular work is going to pay, I can already see the difference.
Hopefully, the sunny days are ahead of us and I can finally enjoy the company of my horse full-time again!

I look forward to discovering what Star is going to offer me tomorrow!

Today I uploaded a video that I had had on my video camera for months and forgotten about it.

The video was done on the 23rd of October, 2009. Mike, my riding instructor, had come over to ride Star as she had been off work for weeks as a result of several hoof infections. Mike was checking if she was ok before I could get on. Safety measure…

I like to see her ridden by Mike because I can see what she does (which I cannot when I ride) and because he knows what he’s doing so it’s always good to watch.
Mike is the only person allowed to ride my horse because I trust him, I would not let anyone else ride her I think. Yeah yeah, I am very possessive with her. Maybe… I just don’t want anyone to mess her up. I let some people get on her shortly after I bought her and I would not do that anymore. It’s like a lack of respect towards her.
Super obsessed horse owner I am!

This is me riding her, but only at walk, right after Mike had a ride on her. He kind of looks a bit desperate about me, which I can understand!

Would be good to video one of my lessons so that you can se what it’s like. I’m glad I didn’t do it on my last lesson though as it was pretty ugly I thought. Maybe the next one…

Also an update on what I did this week.
I went to spend the day at Mike’s yesterday to help him with all his horses and it was really cool once again. I cleaned and groomed and mucked out and fed and showered and turned out…Perfect day!
I also got to ride Flint again (remember, Mike’s Mum’s QH 3year old?) and it was very interesting. I got to lope him this time. I was a bit all over the place, I struggle with shifting my body weight so it was far from perfect but it felt good anyway.
Here’s a photo of Flint I found on Mike’s web site. He’s so cute!

I will keep on helping Mike and learning from him as much as I can, both with Star and his horses and it is for me a perfect opportunity to learn the job. It could not be better than this. I am just a lucky, very lucky girl! I am surrounded by knowledgeable and kind people. I know I will get somewhere someday!
As Mike says, it is all about dedication!

As for Star, well I did ride her and she still switches from very good to very bad. She is funny. I don’t think she likes being back in full-time training much!

I also played with her on line this week and applied Vicky’s advice on dealing with her tantrums and it is coming along well. She still has tantrums but I deal with them much more efficiently.

She cantered nicely and with a good attitude around me for several laps without breaking gait the other day, I was so proud of her. She also did the weave pattern in reverse once again, I think she likes that one.

She is getting much better on the ground now I think; and with more regular work, our level 2 should be a piece of cake! I am not worried about that anyway. I know that when she gets a good attitude about all this, that horse is an easy level 3!

Yesterday, I had a ride on Star. I was excited as the sun was shining, it was cold but it was a perfect afternoon.

Star impressed me with some really good moves from the start. Superb direct and reverse bends on a circle and almost a good jog!
So I thought I’d ask for spins. I have not done that with her yet in my lessons but as I was taught how to ask the horse to spin when I rode Flint, I thought I’d try it. She spinned ok on one side and really good on the other side (can’t remember which though!) It was fun!
I’ll do more of that soon…

Everything was going well and I was happy with her. I even thought about not going any further as it had been 30 minutes only but she had been so good, she deserved some rest. Unfortunately, it all went suddenly wrong. Some horses from the yard came back from their trail ride and all the horses in the yard started to run around like loonies (that so annoys me when they do that!) and Star got excited or scared I don’t know but anyway she started to buck and jump around too. This time, I almost fell off! I kept asking her to jog and maintain her head position (and not put it up in the air) but it was getting difficult. That lasted for about 5 minutes and then she finally agreed to calm down a bit and so I made her work on a circle for a little longer and left it there for the day.

Even though it ended wrong, I have to admit that it was a pretty positive session as Star made some efforts, which was not the case the day before, during my lesson.

I am going to ride her again this afternoon and hopefully I will get more positive things to talk about and less negative.
All we need is a quiet yard without crazy ponies running around! I know it’s part of the learning process and it can’t be bad to have a bit of fuss going on around, but not after weeks off work
I am looking forward to riding again today!

Yesterday, I had my weekly riding lesson with Mike and it was a bit difficult.
Star did not put too much effort in anything and was again acting like a punk, throwing all sorts of things at me.
If I fix one problem, she will create another one straight away and instead of behaving nicely she goes from one extreme to the other.
I got really annoyed at some point. Why does it always have to be a fight?

I know she is difficult and I am ready to accept that but sometimes I just fancy a nice easy ride, nothing more.
Mike will let me ride his Mum’s horse again so that I can feel what I need to achieve, which is really difficult with Star.

What we did today was again working on our direct bend and indirect bend on a circle and on hindquarters disengaging. When I try to disengage her HQ, Star often starts to jog to escape the pressure so Mike sat on her for a while trying to fix that. It is still far from perfect but we will work on that again.

I am going to ride her again today and hopefully the weather won’t be as bad anymore now and we can get back to our daily rides, which I hope will fix the punk attitude soon…

Last week, I spent two days at Mike’s place, one to watch him ride and another one to help with all the horses.

I had a very good time. There are so few things I really enjoy doing and it seems one of the things I love the most is to be very busy grooming horses, mucking out stables and doing all sorts of things around the barn. I was born to be a stable hand it seems!

Oh and I got to ride another horse at Mike’s too. I rode his Mum’s 3 yo QH gelding called Flint. Such a cutie! He’s my favourite horse there.
It felt so good to ride a horse who’s not always fighting against everything I ask. It felt very easy and smooth. What a difference! I need to aim for that with Star!
I even got to do my first ever spin! That made me a bit dizzy though…

On Saturday, I finally had my lesson with 1* Parelli Professional Vicky for on line (ground) and it was very good!
We started with a simple exercise. Back up Star to the end of the 12ft line and make sure she stays there, still. For Star, standing still is VERY difficult, she wants to be busy and walk all the time so I was backing her up every time she was moving a single step and she ended up standing there quietly eventually.

We kept on working on our back up and used a pole on the ground to make Star back up above the pole and stand behind it. Then we tried to make her put only one foot in front of the pole, etc. and she did well.
Then the exercise was to make her weave pattern in back up. It was supposed to be very difficult but my clever pony did it so well, I was impressed!

And then came out the dragon in Star. We tried to make her jump a small obstacle which went fine the first time but asking her the second time was one time too much and she had a huge tantrum, leaping in the air, rearing, bucking, bracing herself to escape, etc.

So Vicky took the rope and dealt with that tantrum for a while. Star was out of control like she always does with me when we play on the ground.

According to Vicky, this is pure LB tantrum and no RB fear at all and she’s having fun doing that too. She got into that pattern that she uses against me every time so I must break that pattern. Once this pattern is broken, Star and I will have much more fun and no more fighting.

I must adopt a power position to avoid her flying away by holding the rope strongly, to the point of almost “sitting” on it. Then, I must try and disengage her hindquarters and as soon as she does, I must walk towards her in a very dominant manner and make her back up (possibly using the c/stick if she doesn’t). The aim of this is to make sure she backs up, which is something I never tried before.
I did that several times and it worked every time but Star being Star, every time I was sending her on a circle again, she was having another tantrum…until she calmed down and had a positive attitude about all this. Phew…

So now, I have to make sure I do that every time she has a tantrum and one day she should have enough of this and stop fighting and become more obedient, so that we can go further in our program.

Vicky gave me some homework until our next lesson – Make Star stand still, far from my personal space and break that tantrum pattern.

Today was lesson day at last.

My friend Heather had her Cob gelding worked on the ground by Mike as she is planning on riding him again soon (her horse that is).

And then it was my turn. Star didn’t want to stand still for me to mount, so I will seriously have to work on that!
Mike made me work on my position and especially the position of my hands but I am struggling with that. It must be because my lack of coordination.
We managed to get a sort of consistent jog but the position of her head still needs a lot of attention!
Star had a few tantrums but I cannot be mad at her as she had not been ridden for 2 weeks because of all the snow in the school. I hope I can soon get back to riding her everyday!

It was nice to get back in the saddle, it is what I really enjoy. And I particularly like when I’m having a lesson because I like to be told what to do!
I look forward to our next one.

I have been able to go to the yard these last few days as my friend Heather was kindly picking me up, except for yesterday when I finally managed to drive the Mini there!

Nothing’s happened as there is still snow all over the yard, the school is still completely covered and so are the fields and Star is not doing much.
Yesterday, I spent most of the day at Mike’s place to watch him ride the horses he is training at the moment. I like going there, it’s always a good day.

When I drove back to the yard in the afternoon, Star saw my car enter the yard and had a crazy gallop around the snow covered field. She was totally out of control and at first, I thought her pony friend had been taken to the barn and that she was on her own (she is not really on her own as there are horses at grass next to her so she is never alone but when her pony friend goes away, she is never happy!) so I ran to the barn to get her halter and rope to take her back to the stables but I noticed that the pony was not in.
When I got to her field, I saw that all horses were still out so she was not worried about that. I guess she was just happy to see me

We had some cuddle time in the barn, she is such a sweet horse. I adore her. I would not want any other horse in the world.
Last night I dreamed someone had stolen her from me and it was a horrible feeling so I woke up and could not get back to sleep after that. I could not live without her ♥