I got up at sparrows fart this morning to drizzle, which is always appealing. Tally was dragged in from the paddock and "groomed" while he spun around in excitement, then he dragged me onto the float and off we went.
He had his usual "omg is that *gasp* MOVING WATER?" at the beach as I tacked him up, before riding down. His eyes bugged out at holes people had dug, and he attempted to jump into my sisters arms because someone had created a very impressive crocodile out of sand, and Tally thought it was far too realisitic for his liking. I sent him off in trot, so we trotted for a couple of k's, much to the disgust of my thighs, before going for a bit of a canter, then a walk.
He was actually pretty well-behaved for Tally, who usually has a tantrum halfway up the beach and rears. He did get a little overly excited later on, but we kept going at a gentle trot, before cantering again and hopping a few logs (cue eyes on stalks from his lordship). I then sent him off for his first gallop where his half TB certainly comes out and he zoomed off like a nutter and I couldn't stop. After a walk, I convinced him into the waves (finally!) and we splashed our way down the beach getting absolutely drenched. Tally was convinced the waves planned to eat him and occasionally slammed on the brakes to step over them.
Eventually I hit drier sand again and sent him off for another gallop, he basically galloped for a k and a half before I could pull him up again, then he walked back down the beach and did it again. He then shied at the crocodile again and came home. I then spent an hour washing all the sand and salt off and cleaning up his new overreach injuries. Must go clean slightly sodden tack. While re-watching the CSI premiere.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Saturday, February 2, 2008
I attempted to exhaust an eventing fit horse
But I don't think it worked.
I was determined to do some work on his canter today because it's pretty shocking. My sister describes it as "a show-jumping canter", its more of a battle of wills between him and me, he tries to tank off, I try and half-halt him and we sort of roar around the arena with periods of good bits and periods where it feels like I'm riding a rhino. Who's on a homicidal charge.
It started okay, I gave him a big groom so he was all bored and raring to go when I got on, I let him walk around for a bit, before convincing him that walk-halt-walk transitions were fun. The first three went walk-halt-rear-walk-halt-piaffe-buck, but I eventually got an acceptable if not perfect transition. We proceeded on to trot and he seemed determined to show off his lengthened trot almost continuously. I then made my first mistake of the evening (first mistake of the day was having gherkins for breakfast. Then microwave popcorn for lunch) which was to let him trot over a pole. For a normal horse, this would be no big deal, but Tally felt that this pole was a 6ft liverpool and he needed to throw himself over in daring style because it planned to eat him.
I then began work on canter. The first canter was nice. The second canter had the most beautiful transition but then he grabbed the bit in his teeth and tore down the long side and motorbiked around the end before I could convince him to stop. This pattern continued for quite some time, as Tally got progressively more hyped up until I dug out a flash noseband from the depths of my tackroom and tied his mouth shut.
This was fine until I asked him to trot, it resulted in one of his more impressive recent tantrums during which he managed to simultaneously buck sideways while moving forward in a semi-gallop. Looking like a stunt double in a Western movie, I directed him to the corner he'd be least likely to jump and replaced my ass back into the saddle. I eventually convinced a half-decent canter out of him and gave up. Twenty minutes of hillwork then followed, through the whole time, he didn't even break a sweat.
He goes for a big beach gallop on Monday. And I mean big. Horricks Park is on Wednesday and he needs to have blown out the bugs up his ass by then.
"I do not look like a complete arse in this photo"
Playing with his toy. It didn't take him that long to get the swede off, sadly
I was determined to do some work on his canter today because it's pretty shocking. My sister describes it as "a show-jumping canter", its more of a battle of wills between him and me, he tries to tank off, I try and half-halt him and we sort of roar around the arena with periods of good bits and periods where it feels like I'm riding a rhino. Who's on a homicidal charge.
It started okay, I gave him a big groom so he was all bored and raring to go when I got on, I let him walk around for a bit, before convincing him that walk-halt-walk transitions were fun. The first three went walk-halt-rear-walk-halt-piaffe-buck, but I eventually got an acceptable if not perfect transition. We proceeded on to trot and he seemed determined to show off his lengthened trot almost continuously. I then made my first mistake of the evening (first mistake of the day was having gherkins for breakfast. Then microwave popcorn for lunch) which was to let him trot over a pole. For a normal horse, this would be no big deal, but Tally felt that this pole was a 6ft liverpool and he needed to throw himself over in daring style because it planned to eat him.
I then began work on canter. The first canter was nice. The second canter had the most beautiful transition but then he grabbed the bit in his teeth and tore down the long side and motorbiked around the end before I could convince him to stop. This pattern continued for quite some time, as Tally got progressively more hyped up until I dug out a flash noseband from the depths of my tackroom and tied his mouth shut.
This was fine until I asked him to trot, it resulted in one of his more impressive recent tantrums during which he managed to simultaneously buck sideways while moving forward in a semi-gallop. Looking like a stunt double in a Western movie, I directed him to the corner he'd be least likely to jump and replaced my ass back into the saddle. I eventually convinced a half-decent canter out of him and gave up. Twenty minutes of hillwork then followed, through the whole time, he didn't even break a sweat.
He goes for a big beach gallop on Monday. And I mean big. Horricks Park is on Wednesday and he needs to have blown out the bugs up his ass by then.
"I do not look like a complete arse in this photo"
Playing with his toy. It didn't take him that long to get the swede off, sadly
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