Thursday, October 30, 2008

ROAD TRIP!!!!! eek!

Well next Tuesday I'm heading to the North Island with child in tow (tell me why?!)

Stopping in Waitara for the night heading up, spend a week with Smokey (who stalled for a couple of days and I know he's finding riding not so exciting right about now, in fact it's a bit "hard") and organise to get him home.

Delivering salt along the way including to a new saddlery shop that's going to be opening in Sth Auckland.... Gail at 358 Ridge Rd, Taukau/Pokeno, www.freewebs.com/2ndchancehorsegear/ will have some 1kg bags in stock so pop in when the shop opens and check her out!

Heading back down south again on the 14th to get to Owhango in the Ruapehu District to do the school fair there on Saturday, (old school friend I caught up with recently at our school reunion rang out of the blue to see if I would do their school fair and it was timed perfectly for when I was planning a trip up!) and then over to Taranaki on Sunday the 16th to do some work and catch up with an internet buddy.

Home sweet home on the 18th November!!!

Looking forward to it actually and hoping like hell I find time to do a couple of stop offs and say hi to some people along the way!

Saddle Fitting...

Took Mac to get his saddle fitted a week ago, unfortunately it didn't! Ray (the blind saddle fitter!) recommended a couple of different types that would suit Mac's shape best and said he needed an XW gullet (and here was me thinking he was looking so "trim" lately LOL)

Had some wonderful ladies in the horsey industry offer me some great deals on Trainer saddles and it was only the fact that my local saddlery shop decided to match that price and get me a trial one that I didn't go with the others, but really appreciate the offers made from Jude at Provista Riding, Danny at Rangiora Saddlery and Sue at Lucas Saddlery here in town. All great ladies!

Had our lesson in the trial saddle today, it's a very bouncy saddle! Will have to get some stickybum jods to do those sitting trots now hehehe.

Best thing is Mac no longer has to "be patient" I've finally got it sorted for the poor boy!

Friday, October 17, 2008

YAY GO SMOKEY!!!

Smokey was backed yesterday! His first time with someone on him and he was great apparently!

Roll on the photo's!!!!

I had actually just given him a pep talk the night before too, reminding him he needed to trust Sola so that she would feel OK about getting on him, and giving him some nice positive images of what being ridden will mean for him.

Then I got the email last night saying Sola had been on him.... a while later while watching TV and working during the ads (slack I know but I'm still hopeful McLeods Daughters will get back to the good viewing it USED to be!) my screensaver came on and it's a slide show of all the photo's on the computer. The first one up always seems to be of Smokey. Well I saw it come up and the the link was instant complete with the all over body shivers. He was just so happy with himself, so proud! When I'd seen him in Auckland I told him how great he looked in his "big boy clothes" (his saddle etc) well he fired at me his "big boy clothes" were now REAL BIG BOY clothes including a rider hehehe. So cute!

So now to book my trip back up in November. Got work to do but will be in Auckland for just over a week so will be able to see the boy each day and work with him.

He's such a sweet heart!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Busy days!

Still trying to get through work, child isn't falling asleep till 8-8.30pm most nights which is driving me nuts, weather is BEAUTIFUL, garden is sprouting and needs some more planted in it fast!

Haven't heard anymore about how Smokey is going :(

Mac and I are gearing up for our dressage on Labour weekend. We're going to do our first Elementary (level 3) test, simply because on the 2nd day of the competition one of the 2 Novice tests I would do is a musical freestyle!!! I don't think so! Still wanted to do the 2 tests each day tho so decided to give 3.3 a whirl! Nothing much exciting in it so we should be OK with the content even if we don't perform it to a level 3 standard hehehe.

Have just picked up a couple of books to read, I got Connecting with Horses by Margrit Coates for mum for Xmas and knowing she'd give it back to me to read, thought I'd better read it first instead hehehe, made me curious as to what some other communicators write like, so grabbed The Language of Miracles by Amelia Kinkade and Beyond Words by Marta Williams (the only communication book I had prior was Marta Williams' Learning Their Language, which although I've never quite got round to completely finishing is a great book!!! So no point asking what the new books are like (apart from Connecting with Horses which I'm about 1/2 way through!) as it'll be years before I read and actually finish them!!!

Have had a few people recently wanting consults done who ARE already communicating with their animals, which is interesting. A couple have found it harder to do their own animals, and a couple have "lost it" recently, which prompts me to ponder what happened that they've suddenly found it harder to 'hear' them than previously....

So! Share YOUR experiences! When you've said or thought something to one of your animals and they've done it, or acknowledged you in some way, or what you've actually "heard" by way of words, images or feelings from something other than your own mind!

Monday, October 6, 2008

Smokey Video



Can't get the longer one to load, this is a shorter one, he's such a good boy!

So that's Smokey! He'll be up with Pepe and Sola at Ewen Equine Management for another month which will break the bank but tie in well with my next proper trip to Auckland and they are doing a really good job so far, although they do of course have a great little guy to work with hehehe.

Smokey!!!

Just home from a weekend visit to meet Smokey. I must admit to meeting him on Friday and thinking "What the hell have I done???? He's WILD!!!"

He didn't want to be caught (particularly without feed) Didn't want to be touched by anyone but Sola who is working with him, certainly wasn't interested in being lovey dovey with me!

But by the end of the session I'd gotten a couple of pats in there and watched him put through his long reining paces etc.

Saturday came and he remembered me from the day before. I was allowed to catch him (all be it with food involved!) brush him and pick up his feet. Sola ran me through long reining (never done it before!) after we'd have a wee play, and he was much more settled with me that day.





Then on Sunday I was left to my own devices with him and we had a wee play in the round pen and just a bit of a bonding session. He was LOVELY! He is a carrot-aholic, so bribes were frequent but he was such a sweet chilled out boy it was great! :)



The video clips take so long to upload and crashed and burned 2 mins from finishing uploading the last one I tried so I'll try to get that done separately to this post!




Wednesday, October 1, 2008

YAY! Dressage weekend went well




Had the first of our spring/summer series over 2 days, and although I was disappointed AGAIN at the tension in our tests we got 4 2nds in our 4 Novice tests and after even my coach who was there (getting the 1sts on her younger horse!) said he didn't look tense I watched the videos of the tests. She was right! You couldn't see that much tension there at all, which makes me wonder how great our lessons look with NO tension in them!!!!

One test was done in gusting strong winds and poor old Mac loathes the big winds so we had a few "episodes" during that test but everyone else must have too, because it was still worth a 2nd place LOL.

So now trying drastically to get some work cleared as I'm off to Auckland on Friday for the weekend to see young Smokey.

Heard today he's not being ridden yet which is actually really disappointing since I was told over a month ago it should only 3-4 weeks as his attitude was so good and that was factored into how much I paid for him and the timing of my visit (3 weeks after he was confirmed mine!) GRRRRR, might have to have a talk to him about blowing the budget! Doesn't the horse know he's supposed to fit into MY plans?! LOL still, I guess the last thing you do is put a time limit on anything to do with animals right?!!!! I'll curb my disillusionment at no longer having the "perfect horse" who can be started in a fortnight hehehe and still looking forward to at last meeting him!