Pony Tales: A Very Horsy Weekend

I've not written a Pony Tales for so long! Which is ridiculous, as Ernest is my life (for lack of a less irritating cliche).
Since moving to my wonderful 'new' yard in February - technically not new anymore, and I used to have a Saturday job there - I've been hacking out round some beautiful places. But the other benefit is that one of my closest horsy friends keeps her horse around the corner, and she's been kicking me up the butt to take Ernest out more.
On Saturday we had a cross country (XC) lesson together. I haven't done an XC competition since 2009, and haven't taken him XC schooling for.... maybe 3 years? I can't really remember. To say I was nervous is an understatement, as I knew he'd be excited and would throw in a few bucks.   It was surprisingly fun! I rode quite well, handled his wilder moments calmly, and felt very positive about the whole experience at the end. The instructor, Julia, was patient and encouraging, and I liked that she always told us to give our horses a pat after each fence. Ernest loved every second, especially cantering through the water! 

Ernest enjoying a roll after his busy weekend of lessons

There was one drop fence which was very scary. I was halfheartedly nudging Ernest to jump down, but he wouldn't move because he knew I was terrified. Julia didn't force us to do it, but I said I'd like to try it at the end. Jaime led us over it after we'd finished jumping some of the other fences and had done a round of the whole course. It felt like free-falling; I can honestly say I felt sick! Julia asked if I wanted to do it again afterwards, but I thought once was quite enough... until the next time, when I might be a bit braver!  On Sunday I had a dressage lesson booked with Nadine, as it's Sparsholt Dressage Championships on the 7th. I was looking forward to my lesson as I have a lot of improvements to make, and knew that Nadine would set me on the right track.
The main issue is when I close my fingers on the reins, there's no reaction. I need to encourage him to round over his back - one of the comments I often get from dressage judges is that he needs to be more supple over his back. There's also no reaction when I use my legs, so we worked on getting him more responsive to my hand and leg aids. We created 'gears' in his paces - walk, trot and canter - and tackled his strops when I ask him for more in his canter (he bucks). This weekend was pretty good for me getting to grips with him when he throws shapes, instead of backing off.
Overall, I think Ernest and I had a fabulous weekend. My head is buzzing with all the information from Julia and Nadine, so I can't wait to get on and practice tomorrow. Jaime and I are also hoping to go out again in a couple of weeks' time to the same XC course. Roll on the weekend!

Pony Tales: Showjumping... and Falling Off

This will be somewhat of a mini post for two reasons - one, I am extremely tired. Two, I have an awful headache due to a very... acrobatic fall earlier today.
Since the start of the year, I've managed to get some showjumping practice in nearly every week. I'm a bit rusty, so my focus at the moment is to get into the correct position over some smaller fences and work on my approach to the jump before upping the height.
Last week, we managed to get to around 2 ft 6 / 2 ft 9. It was really enjoyable and gave me a lot of confidence, even if my position still wasn't perfect.

25.01.2015

Today was not so great. Ernest was feeling quite fresh, as he's not been out for nearly four weeks due to bad flooding, and it was windy. Something clearly jumped out of the bushes behind him while we were jumping a small cross pole, as he shot off across the school upon landing, bucking furiously. Suffice to say I went somersaulting over his shoulder and landed in a heap. I think I hit my head on him, which explains the bad headache. My knees are also very painful and I have a bruise in a very unusual place when I bashed into the saddle during my rapid exit. Diagnosis: ouch.
However, as all riders know, you have to get back on straightaway if possible. Maxx picked me up (literally), helped me back on, and I jumped the cross pole again before taking Ernest for a hack.
What's frustrating is I also think he became a bit silly because we were jumping with friends, unlike last weekend. He became overexcited in the warm up arena at a clear round showjumping event in November and bucked me off then, too. Perhaps I need to practice with friends more, perhaps on both the aforementioned occasions he was just overjoyed at the thought of jumping again. Either way, I'll try to do a couple of fences this week to make sure I don't lose confidence.

01.02.2015

Pony Tales: Ernest and The Hat

I like to put things on Ernest's head. It used to amuse me greatly to put my gloves on his ears - partly because it made him look like a deer and partly because it meant I wouldn't forget to wear them out riding. One dressage competition many years ago, I dressed up as Father Christmas and dressed Ernest up as Rudolph - I coloured in his nose with red lipstick and sellotaped a reindeer antler headband to his bridle. He didn't bat an eyelid but inside probably thought 'somebody save me'.

One day I was bringing Ernest in when I bent down to pull up my sock - don't you hate it when you get slippy sock syndrome? So uncomfortable. I was wearing my black knitted beanie hat, which my Grandma M had knitted me a long time ago (I now have them in navy, purple, yellow, black with a yellow and white stripe, among others) - it's super stylish and warm, if I say so myself, and many of my friends have requested a beanie from my grandma since they saw me fashionably modelling my black one.

I digress.

While I was bending down to pull up said slippy sock, I felt a certain steed breathing warm air on the top of my head. Then, very delicately, my hat was pulled slowly off. I stood up and saw Ernest holding it is his mouth, ears forward. He then started waving it around, but didn't drop it.

This was highly amusing to me, and I giggled all the way down to the yard where Maxx was waiting for us - we like to go on family walks with Ernest. I told Maxx about the hat incident and we decided to put my hat over Ernest's ears. 

He loved it! I thought he would shake it off, but he kept it on and had his ears forward the whole time. I tacked up and got on, and he still didn't shake the hat off. We started walking to the woods, hat intact, ears still forward - I only took it off in case he changed his mind. 

Ernest is a quirky creature - he's grumpy, loyal, intelligent, playful, funny, gentle when I'm tired or ill, inquisitive and sometimes just downright odd.  I recently put my purple hat on him, but as it wasn't his hat, he shook it off - how would he know it's not his hat? He can't see colours!

Maxx and I now talk in Ernest's voice yes my animals have voices and always ask, 'Where's my hat? Can you bring me my hat please?' I even had an email at work reminding me Wednesday was 'BringMoominHatDay' Ernest is called Ernest, Biff, Moomin, and anything else I think sounds good.

This might seem a bit of a weird Pony Tales, but it reflects Ernest's long-suffering character and our relationship - I do strange things to him, he puts up with it.

Such an expressive pony - look at the annoyance in the second photograph!