Today it was super warm weather and I couldn’t pass up to opportunity to go out hacking in the fields. Bella was actually okay to catch today, although she didn’t seem happy about it. I also mounted on her in a different place to which she was much better at rather than messing about the mounting block in the school.

Once on I found that she was pretty wary of everything and jumping at every noise. I didn’t know whether this was because she was nervous, or if she was sensing my nerves as I still don’t have complete trust in her yet as I’ve only ridden her a few times on my own now. However I still was going to try and get a little work in and so began to use my thigh muscles and occasionally made her halt just using my seat like we did in my lesson which worked, however she did seem a little distracted.

After our little canter she was quite buzzed and was rushing a lot in the walk, we came down this big concrete hill and she wasn’t too happy about that either. Instantly her body went crooked and she veered to the right trying to get to the grass verge. To push her back over I used my right leg and just pushed her bum over a little bit to straighten her up which worked but only temporarily, I pretty much had to have my leg on the entire way down the hill. Another thing she didn’t like was going slow, because I was making her go slow. In the past her owner has just allowed her to march in the walk, and its so fast sometimes it might as well be a little trot. To try and make her slow down I used my seat and clenched all my tummy muscles – I think! – and stopped allowing my body to move with her and blocking the movement. This did work to a point but she was pretty frustrated. So you can imagine how worked up she was getting going down this hill with me forcing her bum over and slowing her down. We finally got to the bottom but it took what felt like forever! There were some moments when I thought all the aids were a little too much or she wanted a longer rein as she stopped and began to go backwards at some moments. Clearly we need to go down more hills in the summer!

I felt really bad when we got home as she had worked herself into such a sweat just from mostly walking, but it was still a nice change that to being in the school, worrying less about my position and hers and trying to relax a little and get to know her better. I can’t wait for our bond to grow so that I can gallop her comfortably, and so it just gives me more to look forward to this summer as today seemed liked a taste of what is to come. Just need to get all this uni work done and out the way!

Today I had my second lesson on Bella, it was super windy and kept frequently showing with rain, I had already previously got caught in it with the dogs, so I was worried about getting soaked again!

Unlike last week, I actually managed to catch Bella this time, for last week she bolted when I placed the headcollar over her nose resulting with my arse hitting the floor… I then used treats as bribery which fascinated the other two horses in the paddock, however Bella was having none of it, and wouldn’t let me near her even when I had just the leadrope. So after my failed attempt last week, this week I brought in one of the other horses she was in the paddock with in order to tempt her in. I then brought a bucket full of treats as she was still weary of me, however she let me get close enough that I could wrap the leadrope around her neck, which I then twisted over her nose and made a temporary headcollar.

Although I was happy I managed to catch her, I was a little worried as if this behaviour is to continue, it made me think of any reasons why she clearly does not want to be brought in. This may be because she doesn’t enjoy her work, however she really does try when you ask her to do anything, so I’m thinking there may be another cause. I mentioned this to her owner, and she found this surprising as she had never had a problem, so it might be something that we have to work on together.

With the lesson we began working on doing some turn off the fore-hand, where there were had four cones set out in a square, and then we went straight up to each cone, halted, I then turned her head to the inside by opening up the inside rein, using the outside rein to stop her forelegs moving away and pushing with the inside leg to swing her back end around. We did this on both reins, shortening the amount of time I spent in halt and making her swing around in the turn.

Then came the hard part, doing it all over again in trot. When we went into trot I found myself tipping forward and she began rushing and becoming faster and faster in the trot. With this I became a little panicked and found it difficult to slow her down. This was also made increasingly difficult as I began to lose focus with the aids I was giving became inconsistent and in turn made Bella confused as to what I wanted her to do. From this we slowed down and began talking about how to slow her down without using the reins and using my seat. We started with this in walk and when I wanted her to halt I simply squeezed with my thighs and stopped allowing the movement of the walk pass through my body. This was engagement with my core and those inner thigh muscles again which I need to majorly strengthen!

Stepping it up a notch I then did rising trot with no stirrups, which frankly, is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done! Basically I had to squeeze with my thighs again and lift myself off of the saddle. I wasn’t able to lift off the saddle much but there was enough. Then we trotted around as I tried to do this, it was really difficult as I didn’t really know if I was doing it right, and found myself holding onto the pommel of the saddle to steady myself.

Thankfully after this I was allowed my stirrups back, with this we then began trotting and I focused on slowing down the trot using just my seat as before, and by clenching my thighs and using my core muscles as well, I managed to slow my rise and get Bella very close to a walk without even using the reins. From this I again found that to slow her down I simply blocked her movement from my body which caused her to slow down.

Overall, I think it is very clear that I need to work on those inner thigh muscles to engage my core as well to produce a better seat and help with my overall position, so from this I’m going to make sure to use my legs and core every time I ride. I’m also thinking of trying out equestrian pilates will be a good idea to strengthen my core, so lets hope this helps!

Being the amazing friend that I am, I accompanied my bestie in visiting Writtle University College for an open day. Besides being surrounded by 18 year olds and remembering what it was like to be at that age, it was great with lots to learn.

We first got to see the equine course campus which was rather fancy with brand new stable blocks, their own stud yard and several indoor arenas. Our first task was fun and simple, as we had to get chalk to outline certain points of the horses’ body. This began with an amazing start as we had a bay horse which none of the chalk would show up on her fur, then add the fact that she was molting loads made it trickier.

The points we had to outline were:

1. The point of the shoulder and down the shoulder muscle to the withers and long the leg
2. Along the spine
3. The last rib

Looking at all these points we learned helps you to know what to look for when trying on a saddle. We also learned that you don’t want the saddle seat to come after the final rib, as being so far along the back the added pressure after the final rib is usually directly above the kidneys. The spine too is more fragile here and does not give as much support, in turn pressure is applied to the kidneys which can lead to all sorts of problems in the future, and particularly in mares this is also where the ovaries are situated, and so pressure can cause them damage.

After learning about the saddle and having a look at horse which did have good fitting or ill-fitting saddles, we then had a demonstration with another one of the lecturers at the university in the beautiful indoor arena. The lecturer began to explain what she had been working on with three current students – all on their own beautiful looking horses. Then we were shown a horse with all his muscles drawn on him (like the image above) and then she started talking us through the differences in one horse’s muscles to another. What was then amazing was that she could draw the same muscle as already drawn on one horse, and then do the same on another horse, but even though it was the same muscle, each horse had completely different shapes for it. At this point I started to feel very confused as I couldn’t really see what the lecturer was seeing when she began working with these horses and talking about their muscles and behaviours – it certainly made me want to begin studying.

However it was a fun day out and something different but still horsey related, so if you’re looking to go to a horsey university it is worth checking out! (Although be warned – there are no ovens in their student accommodation!)

So for the first time in this academic year I finally managed to get a lesson at my local riding school, in the past I have been too busy with team training or too skint living off as little as I could, so it was nice to go back as I think its been at least a year since I last went.

I was given a horse called Flossy (on the right) who was quite stocky but still very pretty. She was really nice off the leg and not lazy at all which was a nice surprise – as most of the horses there are the typical riding school horse. We didn’t really have a lesson today but the instructor Lucy just let us run around and work on our own thing which was nice, and then she gave us guidance when we asked for it which was a big help too. So with everything I have discovered about my position recently I decided it would be good to work on my legs today as I was on a more quiet horse who would be happy to trot around as I worked and not having to pay too much attention to them.

For this of course we had to do no stirrup work, which I had never really found too much of a pain until today! I tried to keep my legs still whilst trotting around – Flossy I also discovered was very bouncy! – but then in keeping my legs wrapped around her I started to tense in my knee and lower leg as though to try and keep myself balanced.

I was doing this for a good 40 minutes I think and everything really began to hurt! My thigh muscles were killing and then I also found myself trying to engage my core by sitting up straight and sucking my stomach in to keep myself balanced doing that instead of using my legs. From this my stomach began to hurt too and I wished that someone had told me to ride like this about 10 years ago, as it was like learning everything from scratch all over again.

I did find riding Flossy for this a lot easier than Bella as I just didn’t worry about her head or position or anything and just used the time to focus on myself. For the last 20 minutes or so I gave myself the stirrups back which felt very short after that, and continued to try to keep the position whilst doing sitting trot. I felt a massive difference in my hips as I was sitting deeper in the saddle and felt more confident in my position. From this I began to focus on Flossy a little more as she was quite like Bella in wanting to turn her head to the outside when on the left rein – it always has to be my weakest rein! – and so I managed to get her going straighter and it was also very nice and easy to get her working over her back and she was looking gorgeous by the end!

From this I was also thinking of doing some pilates in order to build up my core strength as that was pretty difficult to engage today, so that is another thing for the horse amazon wishlist! But at least there was some good progress made today and I’m already dreading the pain in my legs tomorrow!

Today I was super excited to get on someone different and familiar that being 22 year old cob Jack! He is such a funny horse as he takes the mic out of you half the time and mostly does what he wants. He also spends the first 20 minutes trying to convince you that he is very old and delicate and would rather not be ridden today. However when you catch him in a good mood he is brilliant, and I’m hoping to take him XC in the warmer months.

Recently it’s been unusually warm for February and when I took Jack’s rug off he was covered in sweat underneath it. At first I was pretty worried about him and gave him a good brush down trying to cool him a little, and decided to not work him too hard today but to simply do a little test and see how it went.

On warming up Jack seemed a little slow however after a few transitions he perked up a little and began to understand what we were up to. Throughout I didn’t really concentrate on my legs too much however I did notice that I was pretty much constantly nudging him with my leg in order to keep him going at times. I tried to keep control of this as well as place my hands in the right position so that my elbows were continuously bent. This I found pretty useful as in one part of the test you have to give and retake the reins, in the past when I have done this test I found that I did not get a very high mark for the movement and it probably was because of my hands!

When it came to filming the test I felt very sorry for my cameraman Luke as out of four attempts we only managed to complete the test once! I found that when warming up Jack was fine with transitions and wasn’t looking at anything down the long side, however when it came to filming it was though he knew and decided to look and swerve bending his head to the outside. Thank goodness it wasn’t a real competition as we would not have got very far! On another attempt at filming Jack decided to buck into the canter transition – it’s one of his qwerks – this has happened before when competing and the judge noticed and gave me a rather disappointing score of 4 for the movement. So I gave him a quick whiz around the school once more and practiced the transition and the movement, however when it came to filming again he did an even bigger buck!

At this point I could tell he was really hot and bothered and not in the mood for any more dressage. So instead I took him on a little hack and gave him a good long walk round to cool him off whilst Luke walked the dogs as well. It was a great way to end and to give Jack a chance to cool down after sweating under his rug all day. When we got back I gave him a little wash down and tried to even his fur out a little and turned him back out naked as the sun was still shining.

When looking at the test though it isn’t actually too bad, there are some moments where he was even working over his back nicely and getting his head down – as he has to be in a really good mood for you to ask that – and the buck that I worried about before was barely noticeable, so hopefully the judges won’t be too harsh about that!

If you want to see my video please click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_LLKq-4dUE&t=16s

And if you’re interested in entering online dressage competitions, read more on my ‘Competing’ tab where you can find out how to enter, and who I compete with.

20th February 2019

After last week’s riding lesson on Bella I felt pretty confident today in trying out some of the things we learned. I let my friend Katie get on first to warm her up, as both myself and Bella’s owner have a bad left side, whereas Katie had a strong left side, and so I wanted her to help counter that.

Watching Katie it was clear that Bella is simply a very difficult horse to ride. She really resists in working over her back as she has not yet developed the muscles in her neck needed for that kind of work, and it is pretty hard bless her! However Bella really did try her best which you could clearly see happening, as although it was not consistent, there were many fleeting moments where her body position would be perfect and she was working over the back nicely.

When doing canter work Katie tried ‘going through the gears’ like Ben Hobday did at his clinic, just to see how she would react. The reaction was: gallop! As Bella flung herself as fast as she could down the long side of the arena, when it came to collecting her again in the corner it took a long time for Bella to slow down, as it appears that in the past whoever has trained her made sure she was nice and forward, however this now means that whenever you put your leg on she goes even faster. This was the case when working on circles to try and get a little inside bend, by asking her to work over her back we did halt halts in the outside rein, opened up the inside rein, and then squeezed with the inside leg. However, it often happened that as soon as you put on the inside leg Bella would pounce into a trot, and so is not clear on what we were asking of her.

Furthermore her canter was super unbalanced, as she tended to just run around the arena not really knowing what she was doing. It took a while for Katie to balance her canter a little by lengthening and shortening the stride and working on a circle. However it was clear she also needs a lot of practice in the canter too.

By the time I got on Katie has worked Bella so hard she was super sweaty! And so when I came to try and ask for a little bend I found that she was listening, and her back end was really powerful which is good, however she wasn’t fully capable to lower her head and neck. I also found that she began doing her bad habit again by trying to snatch at the reins which made her lose concentration slightly in what I was asking her to do. However I found that by rewarding her with a long rein letting her neck stretch she was very grateful for that!

Katie also put me through my paces in terms of my position, turns out that my left leg sticks out away from the saddle instead of pointing forwards. From this I did some of the exercises that I learned last week in order to get my leg in the correct position, Katie also tied my stirrup to my girth to further implement this. However I found that this was very difficult to practice on a horse like Bella as all of your attention has to be on her, so to focus on my position as well as her proved to be a little mind boggling as I felt so alienated in the saddle!

It was clear today that because Bella is so young that she needs regular schooling pretty much every day in order to learn and develop as a horse. The only frustrating thing is though that I live a 2 hours bus commute away from her whilst at university, so I only can ride her one day a week. I don’t think she is schooled very often by her owner either, so I know that the only way I’m going to make progress with her is over the summer when I am home and can ride her more frequently. It’s just a matter of waiting and fixing my position and bad habits until then!

16th February 2019 – As the best Christmas present ever – my friends and I made the drive down to Gloucester to see the one and only Ben Hobday! The clinic was amazing in a word. We saw Ben make a grand entrance himself to the classic ‘We Will Rock you’ getting us all the chat and clap as he came in which was fantastic from the beginning. He worked on horses Shadow Man, Wiz Kid, and Dillion.

He showed us several demonstrations of how to encourage horses to do something that they have never tried before, by just keeping the contact there and ‘holding their hand’ through the process. Another thing was to keep the question the same of what you are asking the horse to do, this way even though they may not fully understand the first time, they will come to understand in time.

With jumping Ben talked about how you must be able to ‘change through the gears’ of your horse before beginning jumping. By this he meant being able to change the pace in canter, still keeping the power and control. This way you can adjust the number of strides between fences by either lengthening or shortening the stride, allowing yourself room for the fence so that you don’t end up a stride too far out or too close.

He also mentioned when when approaching the fence you must look at the take off point, this way you will be able to train your eye to see the number of canter strides you have left before the fence. When you can see the strides, you can work out whether you need to hold back for half of a stride, or push forward. This way you can adjust the stride as you approach the fence. When I first heard all this I was really confused as I have never really been able to see a stride, and recently having been on multiple numbers of different horses it is difficult when they all have differing stride lengths. However, I did come up with a way of learning to ‘see’ the stride:

1. Set up your fence.
2. Make a line in the surface with your shoe two steps away from the fence, this is the takeoff point.
3. Walk four more steps away from this line, and draw another line. This is a canter stride.
4. Do the same again.

By doing this, when approaching the fence these lines in the surface shall become your targets. You can see the takeoff line and so make sure that you do aim to take off at that point. Ben says it’s the rider’s job to get the approach to the fence correctly, it is the horse’s job to jump it, you just have to make everything as easy as you can for them to do their bit properly. From this exercise, over time you will come to train your eye to see where the strides are, and this then allows you to know when to adjust the stride. I haven’t tried this out myself yet, but I plan too soon.

Ben then demonstrated the differences between his young horses and the older ones, showing how the training process comes to take effect, as with the younger horse Dillon it was a little trickier to quicken and slow down the canter than with expert Shadow Man. He also emphasised that the canter must be powerful, and that this must not be mistaken with speed. A horse needs power to get over the fence, often the harder the fence, the more power needed, and the important part is to maintain the power throughout all different paces of the canter.

At the end of the night Ben was even kind enough to stay behind and meet us all, the clinic didn’t finish until 10pm and we didn’t meet him until 11! He looked super tired yet still put the effort in to have a chat with us and have a photo – it is the most awkward looking photo ever – but it was still amazing to meet the man. According to his instagram story he didn’t get to bed until 6am but it was still an amazing night!

26^th January 2019 – Today I had my first proper ride with Bella! I first brought her in with the other horse which she is used to, however Beth had asked me to change over some rugs so it was easier this time to bring them both in, although it was a little difficult trying to close the gate when leading two horses.

When getting on I found there was an area to work on as she does like to be in one specific position in order to get on from the mounting block, which made it difficult as if she were not in this position, she would move her back end out making it difficult to get on! At first I began by walking her around on a long rein, letting her stretch and encouraging her forward. However, when then checking her girth whilst on, she began to trot. I think this may have happened from her never having had someone check the girth whilst mounted, and could have been mistaking it for a leg aid. So I began work by using a short whip and applying pressure just in front of the girth, trying to replicate me checking it. At first she did begin to trot again but she quickly learned that I wanted her to stay in walk. I did this on both sides to get her used to it, and from this I was able to check the girth fine with her remaining in walk.

When warming up I found that her canter was pretty unbalanced and felt a lot like she was rushing and wasn’t able to collect herself. There was pretty much one speed to her canter it being fast! My friend Katie was also riding with me and so we both started to push the horses  down the long side and then to collect the canter as we came into the corners to establish an elongating as well as a collected canter. At first when I pushed Bella down the long side of the arena she really went for it, so much so that when coming into the corner it was very difficult for her to slow down enough, causing the canter to feel pretty unsteady. However after a few goes I was able to collect her canter a little more and she began to understand the differences in canter paces, causing her to become a little more balanced however it still wasn’t perfect.

I then began to ask for a little contact along with giving and taking a little on the outside rein. From this she was struggling and fighting against me a little bit however her head did go down for moments every now and then. However I soon discovered that Bella is a very talented horse because she actually does not need a contact! Instead of fighting against her I decided to give her a long rein, then using a little pressure from my inside leg to push her outwards, and then a little give and take on the inside rein. With this she began to drop her head into the contact, amazingly carrying herself as there was no contact at all. It was very strange to ride with however I was able to stay balanced myself and continued to look in the direction I was going, as well as pretty much completely dropping the outside rein and not using it at all, which was rather strange as it is often used to maintain the contact with some previous horses I have ridden. This way by not focusing on the positioning of her head she began to do it naturally, really working herself hard over the back which was super rewarding, she never maintained the contact for long, however there were often moments when her head was in the perfect position, so she was certainly working hard as it is difficult for them to maintain and build up the muscle. My only note in this regard was that when she was focused on her head and bend, she then began to lose the power in her pace as well as direction, however I am confident that these are things I can work on in time.