His First Show...

Smokey had his tail and white socks washed yesterday and was great for that. Didn't wash any more of him because he's not covered yet and would have ended up dirtier than he was!

And this morning after having been prepped mentally for his first outing, a little inhand show, he decided at 7.30am was NOT a decent time to be caught and said "pass" hehehe. Didn't help that they all thought they were getting grass and Mac and Roger were hot on my heels which means Smokey gets out the way!

So caught him, plaited his beautiful long mane into a hunters plait and loaded him on the float. He traveled like a pro, and exited the float perfectly. At the bottom of the ramp he looked around and grew a full hand hehehe. Shame it didn't last, he settled within 30 seconds and shrunk back down to pony size hehehe.

Bridle on, and off to the ring!





What a star, there was no pressure (except to get him to trot on lead, we don't do that too much and it tended to be a bit of a pony club hauling on him to get him going) so we both just had fun watching the horses (and him eating, cause lets face it he missed breakfast at home LOL)



So we were in 5 classes and came home with 3 ribbons :) His attitude was fantastic, but the judge coming at him with a flapping ribbon was a bit beyond him so mum had to put his ribbons on him. A 2nd and a Reserve Champion (lets be fair, there were only 2 of us in those classes!) and a ribbon he earned, 1st in mount suited for pony club out of 4 or 5 :)

he's such a dude

grrrrr just tried to interupt a video upload and lost the whole lot!!!

I had been saying *sigh* that Smokey had had nothing done to him since our ride last Sunday, not even been caught for anything. Caught him today, jumped on him and had a lovely ride. Nice walk, good little trot, not leaving his legs behind so much, good attitude and not a stubborn "I'm stopping" halt in sight. I told him Sola would be proud of him :)

Then a lovely ride on Mac too, some NICE work coming from him these days, I love my horses so much!

Roger is enjoying being ridden by a young girl from in town.

Dogs are good, Life is good :)

Winter is on its way and STILL it's aaaaaaaall good LOL.

So now that is a shorter version than first time round, lets get the RIGHT video up this time LOL.

oh dear!

Smokey is getting entered into an inhand show here in Blenheim in 2 weeks time! I don't do "showing" I certainly don't do inhand showing! oh well, it'll be a float trip and a chance to see some other horses for him :)

but in the meantime he was a good boy again yesterday, not too keen to trot on a circle, much happier on a straight line so we'll have to work on our steering a wee bit, but is coming against the outside leg and saying "hmmmmm" so it's a good start to get him moving away off it again.

we trotted!!! and then we STOPPED!

LOL, stubborn little Kai baby! When he's had enough he just STOPS! But that came after 2 lovely little trots (and he hadn't been ridden since last weekend so he's a great little boy!)




Here he was..... stopped.... rock solid! LOL



Here he was..... a good boy.... :)



And then later a ride on Mac, wasn't as good or effective energy wise as our last reported one, but after a work in we did get some lovely work out of him so still very happy! :)

Where to start?!?!

So starting my experiment this morning, practiced some of Klaus's techniques with leading, taking Roger and Smokey to the back yard and then got Mac out for his ride and got on....

Here's where it turned exciting from an energy perspective anyway. The way to test anything is with as little body interference as possible right? So long rein and no leg and off we went.....! Well that didn't work, little sod kept wanting to zip off in a different direction and wasn't even paying attention to my "pick a spot and ride to it" that he'd been a star at, so haul him straight again, haul him straight again, haul him straight again and then pick a part of the paddock to ride in..... so here I am on a circle and I get into concentrating on him and what we are doing. Reins NO contact and no leg, drop the energy for a 1/2 halt, drop it further for a full halt, lift the energy for a walk, lift it for a trot, drop it for a walk, lift, drop, 1/2 halt, lift, forward trot, lift, lift lift canter, steer on the circle just looking, drop energy, 1/2 halt, trot.... on and on we went! Got some lovely long and low in there, got a tiny bit of "lift" of the front end but he wasn't round and collected so it really didn't count in "dressage" terms LOL, but he tried to respond to what I was asking! It was actually very exciting, particularly since this horse was my chronic fear bolter and for the first 2 yrs I owned him we pretty much rode with 2 inch long reins! LOL.

So, more experimenting with that to follow and to work on that roundness and collection without the reins.....

Then this afternoon was Smokey's turn. Knowing how to halt and increase speed without the rein and leg I thought I'd try it on Smokey, heck I'm lazy, if I can teach him to go without leg it makes it that much easier for me!!!!

Worked well, on lead out past the horses (and by now it's blowing quite well) practice a halt, drop the energy, bang, stopped. Lift the energy, off we go.... take the lead off and we walk around the paddock. As we're going I see a big patch of bare dirt that looks like it should have a rabbit hole on one end of it so I set Pete to checking it out and circle around him. Marcus catches us up and I circles around both of them. Tell Pete to get the camera out while we there and hey presto a magic video appears hehehe. Is it just me excited by a wee video of Smokey walking around in a circle????!!! LOL He was a pro with the halt and walk on but kept wanting to duck back out towards the other horses and wasn't such a pro with the "pick a spot and ride to it" thing but hey it was day one!

So no vid of Mac unfortunately, but here is Smokey :) (I might get tired of going on about him one day hehehe and be able to drop those stirrups soon! LOL)

and we're awaaaaaay!!!!

and here they are chilling this morning...



and a walk on lead right around the paddock and then off lead for a little wander around the "corner" of the paddock :)









Another fabulous day and I promised him I wouldn't interrupt any sleep he needed afterwards hehehe.

and ridden today...

he took it like a man ;)





We did about 5 mins of walking around (on lead and having to teach Pete how to walk fast because Smokey sure likes to LOL) steering checked, halts and walk on checked. Then finished and back for photo's where Pete got all nervous about having to take the lead rope off to go back far enough to take the photos LOL. Not all his fault, I guess I have had some problem times with horses in the past to make him nervous hehehe. But Smokey is not now known as the Little Dude for nothing. He wasn't phased by anything! Then filed his feet and a feed and put him away.

An hour later I look out the window and thought I killed him!!!!!!





But no! He was just DEAD asleep!!!! Eyes shut, out to it hehehe, must have mentally exhausted him, poor baby!

He opened his eyes, blinked a hundred times and decided he'd better get up!





Then it must be cuddle and play time LOL...

Backed for a 2nd time....

Yep, I swung the leg over on Smokey yesterday, rain has disappeared for the day so will do it again today too, see if he's ready for a walk around (right and why wouldn't he be?!!) and then rides on Sat and Sunday and we're off!

I got Klaus Hempflings book Dancing with Horses, really good book, he's using the precise body language to get the results but if you read more of what he's saying, he's actually using the body language to focus HIMSELF and he talks of meditating with your horse, concentration and being aware of yourself and cutting the idle crap out of our body language by BECOMING AWARE OF WHAT WE DO.... I say become aware of what we think and cut the idle crap out of our heads and thoughts but it's exactly the same thing! By being very aware of what we're doing body wise we are THINKING only of what we are DOING to get a very specific DESIRED OUTCOME..... so if we did the same thing WITHOUT the body language part it should work the same way.... my experiment will be to see if it does! And I'm NOT a disciplined thinker so I'm going to have to get my A into G with this, but I want to prove what he's doing is communicating via thoughts and all he's done is put a physical movement with it (which in reality should be extraneous!)

Well, I'll either be right or wrong LOL, we'll see as we go :)