Weekend round up 23rd / 24th Feb

Weekend roundup :)

Well, the weather was FANTASTIC... more like early May than the end of Feb.

On Saturday I had planned on 1/2 hour manege work before going out, but the manege was in use, so decided to go straight out, and considering Pinto had had no exercise all week, i thought it was a tod brave of me lol.

As soon as we got to the top of the hill and asked for a trot I realised why I normally wear a BP... not for protection in case I fall, but to stop my boobs bouncing! I only managed a few yards, then decided I just had to stop as it was too painful (and this was with a good supportive bra, just not a sport bra). I hummed and harred whether I should just go for a short ride, or a longer one, bearing in mind it was about 3 when I set off, but decided just to see how it went, after all it's light until just after 6pm now.

Poor Pinto, tries so hard, but obviously the lack of exercise was really telling on Saturday, and he was very fidgety and, I felt, barely contained. We managed a spanking trot up the road, which was actually quite comfortable, but then we ran out of road, and had to turn off up the hill. Pinto bounced a few times, then decided to walk nicely, which was a good job, as we met come walkers just over the brow of the hill.

Things kind of deteriorated after that, and the rest of my ride wasn't as relaxing :( After coming down the other side of the hill and back onto the road we can either go straight on (which leads home) or we can turn off up another hill. Pinto decided that we had to go up the hill, and we were going up it full steam ahead. I'm afraid that I took a rather firm hold of him, saying "stop" with every part of my body as well as growling at him and telling him not to be so daft. Then at the top of the hill (which we half bounced up, half walked up (very grudgingly) there is another choice of direction, either straight on (long hack) or turn left (quick route home). Recently every time we come to a junction, Pinto will fight to go home. On Saturday it was a very fine balance between putting your leg on as a 'block' or a 'wall' to prevent the falling out/whip round and Pinto interpreting any kind of 'leg on' as a GO signal.

Anyway we managed to go straight on after a fashion... only to see some friends in the distance at the bottom of another hill and across a couple of fields. This was a cue for some more bouncing around and minor strop throwing, and for a very brief moment I thought I was going to get towed down a rather steep hill before we finally managed to walk on through the woods.

After coming out of the woods (about 5 mins!) and heading towards the next village I heard a very faint neigh on the wind. I wondered where it came from because I didn't know that there were any horses in that part of the village. As we continue walking along the path and get on to the paved section, we hear very clearly 2 neighs from 2 different horses, and now Pinto decided to answer (as well as to start prancing). We are now practically bouncing along the road (in walk though!) and coming to a steep down hill section (which we bounce down), then just as we cross onto the other road (one which actually gets used by vehicles!), Pinto neighs really loudly again (and nearly shakes me off his back :rolleyes: ) and I'm beginning to think that I'm doomed! Luckily it all goes silent until we are back onto another paved farm track.

One more trot along the paved track, in the direction of home, so I must have been feeling braver again (!) and Pinto comes back calmly to walk with only a little bit of bouncing before we hit the grass tracks again. At this point I make a decision to walk the rest of the way, as I don't really want any more excitement thank-you-very-much and everything is fine for the next 20-30 mins until we're on the home straight. At this point we were heading towards the sound of a chainsaw and about 20feet from the crossroads Pinto stops dead, frozen to the spot. Not only does he stop, stock still, but he sits *really* deep on his hocks while the front end grows a good few inches, which for me is not the safest arrangement for me to be in. So I ask, very quietly, more with voice than leg for him to walk on... and he does, for a couple of strides, then stops again. This happens a couple more times until we are just around the bend in the road (and about a foot from a 3' deep drainage ditch) when someone drops a rather heavy log. At which point Pinto leaps off the ground, manages to jump sideways and hits the ground at a trot - for all of 2 strides! Fortunately this is about as big as Pinto's spooks get, and it doesn't happen often. Now this really is all the excitement I can take, and after another very brief trot up the path to get rid of the butterflies we are walking home the rest of the way.

So... all in all, not the best hack ever, but I'm pleased I managed to cope with all the bouncing around and arguing. Just not that long ago, any of the above would have been enough for me to get off and walk home, now I'm feeling more able to cope with these things, though sometimes it is a very close call!

Sunday:

The weather was absolutely out of this world! 18C on the way to the stables, and I was determined to wash Pintos legs and tail before doing some manege work.

After Saturday, Sunday was almost a worse disaster.

After much standing around, coping with buckets, shampoo, hosepipes and cold water, being much more fidgety than normal Pinto completely freaked out when I was drying his tail off: It was completely my own fault, and I feel really bad that I lost my temper :-[ Normally I just comb through his tail until it dries naturally, but yesterday, although it was warm enough in the sun, the wind was still a bit chilly, so I attempted to dry it by spinning it round - well I wont every do that again. Pinto thought it was a rope trying to hit him and he was jumping all over the place. So I untied him and went to trot him up and down the drive, only I backed him up too quickly, and the lead rope flapped at him and he pulled straight through my hands. Now I had a loose horse on the yard property with no barrier between him and the main road. Fortunately he headed straight back to his box where he was caught and handed back to (a very breathless) me.

After all that excitement the manege was finally free so I tacked up and in we went. I had planned on 30 mins trotting before going out for a quick 30 min cool down hack.

Pinto was jumpy as anything, though stood like a rock while I mounted and started our warm up. I had only been walking round for 5 mins when one of the other girls asked if she could come in to the manege also (at least that is what I thought she said!). So I said of course, her pony had all of his tack on, so I thought she was going to do schooling too. In the end there was three of them came in, and immediately divested their ponies of all tack and started messing around teaching tricks. Now normally I have absolutely no problem with this at all. Except this time I was in the manege trying to exercise, and there were 3 loose ponies in the manege too. Personally I wouldn't dream of doing liberty work in the manege if someone was schooling.

Not only was I not able to keep a steady rhythm going because Pinto was distracted by each cluck, click and whistle, but I had to keep coming off the piste and changing diagonals in bizarre places to avoid loose (and occasionally, unattended) ponies.

The straw that broke the camels back was when someone else came into the manege to lunge, not only lunge, but just in a head collar. As soon as she picked up the lunging whip I decided there and them just to give up. For me Pinto, although he was going quite well, wasn't relaxed enough for me to risk taking out without every small thing freaking him out. And the last thing I needed was someone waving a lunging whip around - Pinto won't have anything to do with one under normal circumstances, but yesterday it was just an accident waiting to happen.

In the end, after having to slow to a walk - again - I dismounted in a hurry, before Pinto got too freaked at the lunging whip and huffed my way out of the manege.

Pinto, luckily, hadn't done enough work to make much of a sweat, so I could put him straight back in his box so he could tuck right in to his haylage again.

I only hope that I have a free manege tonight, as I really don't want another day like yesterday!