Hi
Not been on much recently as only activity for the last few months has
been wading through snow to feed horses -not very exciting news.
anyway the last two weeks have been goodish weather so resumed
groundwork with the two boys, who will be four on may23 and 24th.
concentrated on getting them back into focus after four months off
with lots of transistion changes on the lunge. Cody is very willing
and focussed -half-heartedly tries it on when asked to work on his
stiff side -although I did'nt push either of them considering they are
about as fit as me (not very). Kid lunges under duress -memories of
being round penned with his head tied back to his hock by his previous
'trainer' so I gave up after a few goes as we were beginning to take
off and he was not benefitting -did Parellii games with him instead
and he likes that -cody thinks that nonsense is beneath him lol!

Yesterday was turing out into the big field day after 5 months of
small paddock (2 acres) prison. major Buck and Fart fest, including
self imposed cross country jumping over the fallen logs and a play in
the pond, up to their bellles heads under the water -no I don't think
I'll have any problems with water features XC. Suitably knackered and
ready for a rest they spent the first half of the afternoon
sunbathing, laying flat out like bloated dead horses on a battlefield
(yuk)

Late aftenoon, I put up a temporary schooling area in the small
paddock, blue barrels and an assortment of cavaletti and tree branches
-very heath robinson. Because of the bucking issues from last year I
put my treeless saddle on cody and the leather GP on Kid. Despite
getting poked in the ribs by gary while he was mounting (quote:I'm not
using a bloody mouning block if I can't get on him I should'nt be
riding him unquote) we had not a hint of rounding, planting himself or
anything other than crunching the bit which I'm going to look into.
Gary got him to lower and relax and got some amazing trot from him.
Kid was, as ususal a little trooper. Kathryn (daughter) rode him,  as
I wanted to be on the ground in case of trouble with Cody. Kid was
fantastic -willing and listening and she got him to relax and do  a
little once round the school canter on each(correct) leg. Considering
they are only still 3, have'nt been ridden for 4 months and have only
been lightly schooled they did a cracking job. After 15 mins both
riders and horses had had enough and we finished on a good note. No
Pics as 'Someone' and 'No-one' the evil twins, have smashed my digital
camera beyond repair so will have to wait till I can afford another
one -or work out how to get the pics from my phone onto my PC lol!
Clare

CB wrote:
> Hi
> Not been on much recently as only activity for the last few months has
> been wading through snow to feed horses -not very exciting news.
> anyway the last two weeks have been goodish weather so resumed
> groundwork with the two boys, who will be four on may23 and 24th.
> concentrated on getting them back into focus after four months off
> with lots of transistion changes on the lunge. Cody is very willing
> and focussed -half-heartedly tries it on when asked to work on his
> stiff side -although I did'nt push either of them considering they are
> about as fit as me (not very). Kid lunges under duress -memories of
> being round penned with his head tied back to his hock by his previous
> 'trainer' so I gave up after a few goes as we were beginning to take
> off and he was not benefitting -did Parellii games with him instead
> and he likes that -cody thinks that nonsense is beneath him lol!
> 
> Yesterday was turing out into the big field day after 5 months of
> small paddock (2 acres) prison. major Buck and Fart fest, including
> self imposed cross country jumping over the fallen logs and a play in
> the pond, up to their bellles heads under the water -no I don't think
> I'll have any problems with water features XC. Suitably knackered and
> ready for a rest they spent the first half of the afternoon
> sunbathing, laying flat out like bloated dead horses on a battlefield
> (yuk)
> 
> Late aftenoon, I put up a temporary schooling area in the small
> paddock, blue barrels and an assortment of cavaletti and tree branches
> -very heath robinson. Because of the bucking issues from last year I
> put my treeless saddle on cody and the leather GP on Kid. Despite
> getting poked in the ribs by gary while he was mounting (quote:I'm not
> using a bloody mouning block if I can't get on him I should'nt be
> riding him unquote) we had not a hint of rounding, planting himself or
> anything other than crunching the bit which I'm going to look into.
> Gary got him to lower and relax and got some amazing trot from him.
> Kid was, as ususal a little trooper. Kathryn (daughter) rode him,  as
> I wanted to be on the ground in case of trouble with Cody. Kid was
> fantastic -willing and listening and she got him to relax and do  a
> little once round the school canter on each(correct) leg. Considering
> they are only still 3, have'nt been ridden for 4 months and have only
> been lightly schooled they did a cracking job. After 15 mins both
> riders and horses had had enough and we finished on a good note. No
> Pics as 'Someone' and 'No-one' the evil twins, have smashed my digital
> camera beyond repair so will have to wait till I can afford another
> one -or work out how to get the pics from my phone onto my PC lol!
> Clare

Good news, nice when everything goes according to plan.  I hope to do 
some riding over the winter.Its been very dry here but we have had rain 
last couple of days so dust is laid and no excuses for not riding as 
soon as I have some grass instead of dust in the home paddock.

<snip>
Sounds like they are ready to come back into work and hopefully go really 
nicely for you!  Best of luck with them, keep us posted.

Cheers
Alison.