Energy is as Energy Does

Stressful day at work ..... Pony therapy needed.  Hot Summers evening, perfect then for taking the little madam that is thimble out in her trap. Employing the use of her Aunty Gabbi so that I can still walk with her and up my own fitness.... Ideal. Safe to say that my little pony is a little on the tubby side. This is because she has the skill of becoming fat on fresh air. Even on a virtually bare paddock she still has the ability to pile on the pounds in a way that makes me look slim! Needless to say, even the idea of a sedate walk out in her trap did not appeal to my little darling and she was not amused at being hitched up. However despite her grumpy face as soon as we set off she seemed to remember how much she likes being out. And being the awesomely nice mum that I am, I jumped out once we got going so that she had an easier job, and I walked with her. Well I'm starting to enjoy this getting fit lark, when you have an awesome dog, boyfriend or pony to walk with it ...

Stella earned her superstar status today! Her Aunty Gabbi is back for a week so we decided to take her for a ride, that meaning I let Gabbi ride because I am a wuss at the moment. That is changing however.  Anyways after a nice ride down to the fields I watched as she strutted her stuff in some of the grass meadows (This pony has a trot to die for). Her Canter work needs some attention.... in that when Gabbi asked her for a canter that meant flat out gallop to Stella!!  However once she had gotten over this entail queue to go fast and had settled its safe to say that despite her being a bit of a tank, she is simply lovely. She is much more relaxed out by herself than she is with other horses, therefore a lot of my work whilst building her confidence will probably be done with someone on foot as oppose to with another horse to start with. Having decided that she would chill out completely after her little wizz session I put my brave pants on and swapped so that I c...

Yesterday saw Stella really starting to understand what the clicker meant. We only did a short 5-10 minute session but within that she has already started checking herself and turning back to come close to me if her lead rein goes tight. To me this is a good start, I hoped she would understand but I didn't think it would be that fast.  I plan to continue these short sessions every day, and we wont move onto the next step until she has come to trust me in allsorts of places. She improves so quickly once she realises that there are positive results from what she does, its incredibly rewarding to work with her.  Thimble on the other hand revisited some older ground. She had about a fifteen minute session at liberty with her old trick training. Safe to say the little madam remembers it all. I was a very happy mummy yesterday and their reward was staying out for a nice relaxing time in the paddock today. I plan to give them a few days off every now and then. Just to give the...

I'm a day behind on my posting, good news is that means I have been busy! Thimble was tacked up in harness again yesterday and went for a little walk. This time we went with my sister on her large ginger ninja as thimble has never been out with another horse whilst in harness before.  Safe to say she impressed me. Poor old Sid had little to no idea what the strange small creature in the blue harness was (He's only five himself!). But he decided that he liked his new pet and was quite happy for her to accompany him for some schooling out in one of the fields.  Thimble decided that exercise was much to much hard work in the sun so behaved almost impeccably.  Almost. She had one small tantrum when we first got into the field and Sid trotted away to do some work, understandable and after some bucks (A little unnerving when stood behind the little madam) And a lot of noise she resettled and walked across the field.  With Thimble and her driving the biggest th...

'I love horses... I really do love horses....' That is the phrase that is running through my head whilst I am listening to thundering hoofbeats, squealing and the rather impressive bellow of the stallion as he harasses his new mare friend in the paddock behind my bedroom. The issue is, now that summers here he is quite happy to stand around looking longingly at her all day. Whilst it is too hot to chase her around and convince her that she loves him. So instead he decides to do all of his pursuing at night. Late. Like 3 AM late.  I guess you could call it early.  However, I don't really appreciate it! So thanks to Sir Rags the stallion I am in a slightly overtired, hot and bothered grumpy mood. One that I am hoping will be fixed when I get home from the day job (yawn) and get to working with my two girlies again.  They both had a day off yesterday as Stella was sweating just stood in her field so I thought it would be a little unfair to ask her to work in the...

Thimble got a day off today after her superstar performance yesterday, she will be going out for another walk tomorrow and the aim is to just gradually bring her back into work. I don't want her to overdo it as she is one that is prone to tweaking herself due to getting a little over excitable.So whilst little one chilled out in the paddock with the sheep for an hour or so I decided that I was going to do a little back to basics with Stella.  Currently she is incredibly strong to lead, is only comfortable when she is up infront and pulling. If there is a space to fit through that is smaller than she would like she leaps through it and her reaction to anything scary is just to run, with you in tow. I found today that she also likes the typical pony trick of dragging you to grass. Yet she still loves cuddles. To me this suggests a lack of security and confidence.  Also a lack of manners and boundaries. Its like no one has every showed her how to behave and even less so ...

Well got back from work with the intention of getting both ponies out, only achieved the one but still, as my health and fitness improves I should have more energy, anyways both girls still achieved something today. To me this is success all round, Plus I will get time this evening to start my first assignment. Winner.  So got back and put both girls back out in their various paddocks for a little while whilst I got their stables ready. Stella tends to have a longer time out with a little less work than Thimble as Thimble stays out all night. (She turns into a rodeo , devil , killer pony if she is stabled for more than a couple of days.) So I decided tonight that the first thing I would do having set the stables up for the night would be to put Thimble in harness, with the help of my other half (The star that he is, always helping despite not really being horsey.).  To be fair her little winter holiday seems to have done her good. coupled with her being fat and unfit she ...