I’ve decided to write this month’s Riding Round Up a little differently to how I normally do. Usually I will wait to the end on the month and review everything I’ve done with the horses. However I’ve had a pretty packed start to April so thought it might be a good idea to blog as I go so I don’t miss anything out!

1st of April…

I am so excited to start this month, my main reason being I have a whole week off!! For anyone who knows me (or rather followed me on here or instagram for a while), I hardly have anytime off due to my job. In fact the last time I did have a whole week off was October when me and my Mum went to HOYS for two days. I had the odd day here and there at the start of the year cause there was a couple things I needed time off for. So I am really looking forward to having time to do things at my own pace rather than rushing to get back to work for the afternoon.

Unfortunately it looks like Dino’s going to have to have most of the week off till he gets his physio appointment which is a real bummer as I was hoping to have a play with him over some jumps.

Maisie was really good to school though. She done a some more work on leg yielding and is starting to understand the aids more each time and do a little bit more each time.

After turning the horses out and sorting the yard for the morning I decided to get some blogging done and have a catch up on Housewives Of Cheshire.

2nd of April…

Today took us to Newcastle for a good shopping trip! I had a look at the weather the night before and it looked crap for most of the day so deciding I wouldn’t be able to do much with the horses shopping seemed like the ideal replacement.

It was a quick turn out and muck out in the morning before getting a bit dressed up and hitting the road.

It was a lovely drive over with the sun shining. First we hit the Equestrian shop (obviously), were naturally everything was needed😉 I had practically stepped in the door and already found two things I absolutely had to have. These were two horse Easter eggs, for years I have always wanted to get my guys down but no where locally has them so I was thrilled they still had some left. Then whilst browsing round some riding boots caught my eye but I decided to leave them as they weren’t quite what I was looking for.

Then I hit the most beautiful shop corner you could possibly every find. This corner was crammed full of amazing treasures including browbands, stirrups and the most beautiful pair of De Niro’s I’d seen! I had a quick look at the size and they just so happened to be my size so of course a try on was required. I had stuck gold, they were a perfect fit!!!! There was no way I could now leave this shop without buying them as they were just too good to miss. A browband and number disc (I am trying to do some dressage so that’s my excuse for this one😂) also jumped into the shopping bag. Mum also kindly bought me a bun net thing which I thought would look nice for when I get round to doing this dressage I keep saying I am going to do. May as well look the part🙄

By this time it was around dinner time so we took a short drive to a retinal village which had some shops and places to eat. I too advantage of the Boots shop and got more of my favourite Mane n Tails shampoo and conditioner before heading over to Costa. IKEA was next on the list, huh where I get a bit carried away. If I hadn’t became a groom I’d definitely have done something like design as it something I’ve always been fascinated by since school. My equestrian side definitely came out when I found some sponges in the shape of funny fat little ponies for 90p. I’m not sure if it was the fat little ponies that attracted me or that they were only 90p and I always need sponges to clean something #equestrianproblems101. I don’t know if any of you are like me but I am really good at finding everyday household items and giving them equestrian purposes. My latest was an IKEA dish brush which you can put soap/water into and squish the soapy water out whilst you scrub. What do I see a brush for cleaning the horses hoofs with. I thought I would come in handy (I’ll have to give it a little review sometime).

4th of April…

Myself and Maisie are off to Greenlands EC this morning to have a play over some jumps. I’m really looking forward to being able to give her a good school over a course with fillers as we just lack the facilities at home.

Maisie had a quick travel prep then we were on the road. We got there a little late but still had plenty of time to work with her.

She flew over the warm up cross which had some little fillers under it. Then headed into an upright and after that an oxer. The oxer was were we started to have problems😅 till I eventually ended up abandoning that particular oxer for the time being and tried a line which was an upright to an oxer which she jumped! However Maisie being Maisie decided we couldn’t possibly do it again so we had another little battle before successfully getting over. Most of the jumps she decided she needed to have a stop and a look a couple of times but she managed to get round the whole course without a stop to finish on which was fantastic! Having the time to think out how we had gone wrong was so beneficial as it made me realise just have much leg she needed especially when she’s having a good look two strides out.

After such a good work out Maisie had Friday off and then I rode her at home Saturday in her new bit (I’m not going into too much detail as I’ll do a review on it soon). She been going so well in it though!

16th of April…

Lesson time!! This morning Dino had the physio visit to find the source of some of the problems we’ve been facing in our ridden work recently. He had the left side of his pelvis down and was sore on the right side near his poll. All sorted and ready to be ridden again starting with some hacking tomorrow. Maisie also got a check over and she was just a bit unbalanced in her shoulders so gets to do some stretches daily and before getting ridden.

After their physio visit they got turned out as usual whilst me and mum got the yard ready for them coming in later and everything sorted for our lesson tonight.

6pm, loaded and packed to get to our lesson for 7pm. I was super excited as I’d never had a lesson in years and there’s so much I want to learn and improve on. Maisie traveled brilliantly, she’s been trying out calming cookies which have worked really well on her. We got there tacked up and ready to start with plenty of time to spare.

First we started warming up working on getting our horse to respond to our aids by doing transitions. In the canter it was all about getting a big canter (which is something I needed to work on), Danni the instructor was absolutely fantastic at explaining everything and really encouraging. I was already starting to see a huge differences with Maisie, we worked a lot on improving her bend by almost leg yeilding into the corners. We then moved onto working over poles where I had to focus on looking up and keep my body as tall as I could we done this in both trot and canter. The poles then Evan to turn into a small grid again focusing on looking up and sitting tall. Maisie struggled with landing onto the left canter lead so at the end of the grid I had to work on getting her to do this. I really struggled to start with and it took me a good few attempts to realise just have much pressure I needed to use to get the reaction I wanted. We got it a few times but it is a working progress and something to work on at home. After we worked through the grid we done a short course which Maisie flew round first time. The second time one of the jumps was made into an oxer so Maisie decided to be a bit cheeky here. In the end we had to go over it as a upright which was a little frustrating but the rest she jumped really well.

Since then at home we have been working on the following:

*Bend- Maisie tends to look to the outside so the tips I got from my lesson have been incorporated into our training and have really helped me active a better bend with her and other horses I have been riding.

*Landing on the correct lead especially left lead- Maisie favours landing on her right leg. We have been trying to work on a circle over poles and jumps to get her to land on the left lead.

*More practice over oxers

*Changing the jump so it’s not the same every time we go over it

*Sitting up, looking up and sitting down in the saddle

*Using more leg 😂

Easter Weekend 🐰…

We’ve had a fantastic Easter weekend in the glorious sunshine!☀️ I didn’t get any bank holidays at work but didn’t stop me having a great time. The horses enjoyed tucking into some of their Easter treats including their Easter eggs and special edition Easter Donkey Donuts! Saturday night I enjoyed part of my Forelock and Fringe box which I won in a giveaway they ran, before hitting the pub for an 80s and 90s disco. Sunday afternoon we headed off to Langholm to watch the flapping.

22nd of April…

Dino started his sarcoid treatment today, which means he’s out of work again for a little while. Our vets recommend we tried the Liverpool cream (I’m not sure of it’s actually name but that’s what everyone seems to refer to it as). We took some photos of it when he had his annual boosters last month and then again a few weeks later to see if it had grown, which it had. These photos then got sent to the person who developed the cream who was able to tell us from the photo is was a grade two nodular sarcoid which had developed from a fly bite.

Over the next week he will be getting the cream but on by the vets every other day for five sessions. Then a photo will be taken again after 2/3 weeks to see if he needs a few more sessions.

26th of April…

Dino had his third session of treatment this morning and he’s been responding really well to it. The top layer of the sarcoid has almost all peeled/burned off. So far he hasn’t been too sore from it or been to swollen which is really good.

After the vet visit Maisie had a lunge for a change as she hasn’t been lunged for ages. She worked really well, she’s quite hard to lunge and it has taken me a while to get her to understand lungeing but we have finally got there! She still has tikes where she’ll try spin or go cantering off but today once we had a couple of these moments she was fantastic. For a moment I even seen her starting to work over her back more.

Unfortunately the rain has caught up with us over the last couple of days so I’m currently enjoying an afternoon working in the rain.

27th & 28th of April…

Dino has the whole weekend to enjoy being outside, with his treatment he’s been having to stay in every other day roughly so that the cream get absorbed. His next session is Monday so he can enjoy two days outside in the field with out having to worry about any cream going astray.

Sunday morning and I am off to work to feed round the horses. The 6.30am alarm wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear after looking forward to a bit of a lie in. However it meant I was done by 7.30am so went back to my own horses to feed and give Dino and Basil a brush before going home for some breakfast.

After breakfast I had such an amazing schooling session with Maisie! She worked brilliant and I couldn’t be more happy with her. We warmed up, at the moment in really focusing on getting the bend in our warm up so we have it when we come to work on things later. We then done a bit of work over a pole on a circle to work on her staying on the correct leg in canter. After that I moved onto some lateral movements. Since our lesson Maisie has really got leg yeild even though we didn’t work on this. I think by getting her to go round corners as if we are leg yielding has really helped her to understand the aids. I think today’s leg yeild has been the best so far! She was much straighter and felt like she was stepping better. When we finished each leg yeild I popped her up into canter for the long side then back to trot so we could turn and repeat. By the end she was working long and low in both trot and canter something she hasn’t really done before so it was great to have her really using her back for a short time at the end. Over all her self carriage and outline has also improved so much! I love how much of an improvement I can see from just doing a bit of lateral work so hopefully we can learn some other lateral work together.

29th & 30th of April…

Today (Monday) is Dino’s fourth session of treatment and then fingers crossed he only has one more on Thursday to go🤞🏼

He had a lovely time out this evening with Basil for a couple of hours whilst I gave Millie’s mane a tidy up after it getting a bit wild.

Tuesday Maisie done a simple flatwork session and she brilliant again! She was really moving from her back end and was even working long and low again. She’s really starting to strengthen up more now which is helping her work better. We had a few spooks which Maisie couldn’t resist throwing in here and there for no reason but I was able to get her attention back quickly and have her listening to me again which I was pleased with.

Hopefully I can get some interval training done with her at some point this week including some fast work as it’s been a while since we have done this. She really enjoys her fast work to it’ll be a nice change for her.

Hope you’ve all had an equally as good April as I have. Please share what you’ve been doing this month in the comments below as I love to see what my following has been doing! Thanks for reading and have a smashing May

Kay XX