New beginnings

It's been a while coming but *drum roll* my business website is up and running!

In future I will be blogging at least monthly from Wordpress (mainly for tech reasons) and you'll find my blog on the website blog page, I hope you'll continue to read about my life with horses; thanks for all the great support here on Blogger over the years. I think it was Claire that started me off in blogging so I suppose this whole process could be blamed on her :-)

http://www.creativeequinetraining.com/



Yours, Trudi x

Exmoor

When choosing our area for relocation it was my husband who settled on the South West of England so it was over that area that the pin hovered! It is an outstandingly wild and beautiful National Park of 267 square miles and in some ways not unlike the area of France that we lived. A bonus is being close to the sea; Exmoor's coastal cliffs and wild rolling moorland never fails to surprise!

Oh la la

Goodness me, June last year! OK I have a good excuse I've been moving countries!
To be honest it wasn't too much of an upheaval, we had plenty of time to plan it and the movement of the horses was relatively straight forward.
So here we are on Exmoor in the South West of England, it is the most beautiful place to live and I'll try to fill in some gaps over the next few weeks.
For now I'll just rest content that Lionhearthorses is back in business!

thundering hooves

The boys are in our most distant paddock, it's our largest and sits on a steep hill. Tonight, standing at the top of the hill by the shelter, I whistled for them to come. Not a sign of them for a few seconds but then thundering hooves were joined by mad galloping Spaniards with manes on end and nostrils flared. It's a fine sight and lifts your heart, makes you happy that they are are so keen to be first to get there and see you.
After some serious bum scratching (they stand bum to bum in a V shape so I can do both at once) we played double clicking. I love the motivation of playing together. Chapiro can't even bear to be distracted from the task when he has competition for being top man! Polite distance, walking on, halting and backing and then goodnight cuddles.

Where does the time go

Where the heck does time go? I've been a rubbish blogger lately; must do better!
Sometimes the motivation just ain't there to tap tap one's horsey goings on and sometimes there just ain't any goings on!
I have been busy though, trying to sell the house means even more mowing and strimming than usual and I've written a baroque dressage test for Interdressage (big thanks to Karina Hawkridge for taking that one on), you can see it here.
The boys are rather 'soft' round the edges but when Lydia and I have had a chance to work them they've been total stars.
I shall try to be more active here again, it' a great place to get your head square so back soon.

For Sale Equestrian Property Dordogne France

As I'm sure you're all aware we are moving on. Here is the link to our for sale website http://maisonsevey.webs.com/

Grand National Sadness

I'm trying so hard not to be reactionary here! As a kid I loved the atmosphere and attended many a NH race meeting with my Dad. Today I'm saddened yet again that horses die for OUR sport, it's just wrong. Nothing in life can be 100% safe but when only 15 from a field of 40 can finish (of which two had to be destroyed) then I just feel the price is too high.

honest horse

In my head I have a plan. I see it clearly but I very much doubt my horse does. He comes to me with the honesty that is horse but sometimes it's so simple that I fail to see it.

Watching Lydia and Moo during their first attempt at clicker training tonight made me smile...it's so simple to see it when you can watch quietly from a distance. The horse knows what he is but it's our job to communicate what we want from the relationship. Please grant me the infinite patience required to communicate.

I see you

still smiling

Lydia and Moo

the smallest things

Make me smile :-)

over and over

Well we've been busy working on the property, making it beautiful for someone else! Still managing to fit some time in with the horses and had a good week-end with Lydia riding Moo out on their first hack, me on shank's though!! Sunday I gave her a little lesson and she's coping very well with him, the rising trot is coming and whilst he looks like he's about to disappear at a rate of knots he never does, being a mum is tricky in these situations. I hacked Moo out a few times last week and he was a superstar, I just need to keep him fit enough whilst Lydia is at school so light school work and a little hacking should do the job. Chapiro and I have played with our liberty again! I keep going back over this work because there is a niggle. Trouble is I'm not sure what it is but it's there I just know it is. I've gone right back again to the keeping his distance but keeping tuned to me and going for mega clicks for the basics to really make sure I haven't messed up there. I had a lovely session with him yesterday, it felt like we could one day dance in a true partnership. Video shows us picking up some basics for turn on the haunches, early days but I think he's getting it.

healing power of the sun

The new routine is working well, I admit to having been nervous about having just the two boys but I needn't have been. They are very calm on the yard, in the field and with just a minimal amount of calling when one goes out to work. Today I hacked out on Moo and Chapiro was very relaxed about being left behind, what a good lad and Moo was very relaxed in the lovely sunshine that has been a regular feature recently.

We have gradually upped Chapiro's work rate, he's so different to Moo and taking some time to get really fit but he's getting there now. We've been working on lateral work at walk and lightening up our transitions, very pleased with him. I'll attach some recent videos, Lydia and Moo winning their All Round Horsemanship at Interdressage (how well timed was that) Chapiro with some CT groundwork for the HT Challenge, some CT ridden work and some very laboured canter transitions from Chapsi but if I don't show the bad ones I'll forget once they're amazing!!!

Sleep tight Cacahuète

I've got to write this post but as I do I can feel the emotions coming anew so forgive it's brevity. Last week we said the final goodbye to Lydia's beloved pony. After three bouts of colic in as many weeks we decided to call it a day and let the little man be pain free and walk over rainbow bridge. We miss him like hell but the big boys have helped us no end and we are healing slowly. I'll be back to blog soon.

he's not really a horse

It's school holidays and as Cacahuète is back to rude health he has been back to his gymnastic jumping, it makes me happy to see the little man on form again, he really is a superstar!

Friday I scraped the mud off Moo to get a ride and he made me happy too, just sitting up there, playing with some lateral work and then blowing the cobwebs away with a trot up the track was just what I needed, he has become my Mr. Fixit for those blue moments.

Chapiro! Well I'm now pretty sure he's not a horse. Chapiro is more Border Collie than horse. We have returned to playing with some liberty clicker work this last week and as always he seemed to love it. I threw the mat into the school and he literally ran after it to get on it as soon as it landed. I then worked on some new cues to send him to a target (big upturned bucket) and back to the mat and then off to another target, I was pretty impressed with how on cue he was even though I wasn't perfectly clear all the time (note to self about planning these sessions!!). I think fetching a stick will be next, only kidding!

Chaps enjoyed a free jumping play and a couple of in-hand/lunge and ridden sessions too. Thank goodness the snow has gone and lets hope it won't be making a return any day soon.

The Melt

Finally the melt has started. Lydia off school for more than a week due to snow/ice and a poorly pony have made the last couple of weeks somewhat tiresome. Hopefully it has passed for the moment.

Yesterday I finally got to restart work with Chapiro, just  a little in-hand and lunging but it made me feel a much more whole person again, I hate not having play time with the boys.

The right rein shoulder fore is really getting very good, nice and relaxed in the walk and happy to engage the right hand under his COG but the left rein is now the tricky one! The left rein has a 'busier' walk rhythm, more tension and consequently more stopping for a couple of steps of reinback. Will be working on that over the coming weeks.

Reinback in figure of eights to finish, not the most perfect '8' s but hey this is new for him.

I'm all excited about what's to come again, just keep the cold away, please!!

there's more

Last little reminisce (promise) unless I find the ones that are missing at a later date, moving every few years I seem to have mislaid quite a few years worth!

Eite my friesian the day I brought him home, boy did I wonder what I'd bought when he came off the lorry.

   but the boney bum filled out and he turned into a black swan (think I've already blogged these pics but I'll show them again)

and Sam my Gelderlander (seems I 'used' to like big horses)

and Sam and I during a regular lesson with Inger Bryant (list 1 judge and a brilliant trainer) I love how Sam was paying great attention to our feedback!

and some shots of  Fidge my first PRE when I first got him, very grainy as they were never on proper photographic paper and haven't scanned well.

  So that's it for now from a very snowy Aquitaine.

wot plan???

Did I say plan? Ah, what I meant to say was .....

reminisce!

Lydia and I are on a mission to put all our 'photos on disc before we move and today we found some very old ones of me.
Sadly the days of digital arrived too late for my childhood and my early years on horseback are scarcely visible in our family album but what I have I'll share.

Aged 2 and probably the first 'sit on'

Aged 4 (nearly 5) and all turned out for an 'occasion'

Rosettes won, why I had to show them off next to a 'mushroom' is anybodies guess!!

friend and pony....

and 'off out hunting' on a bay NOT a grey (that love must have come later!!)

time to think

I realise many of you bloggers live in cold climes and usually I'm not one to moan but after the mildest winter in the last 8 it's hit me hard to be down into minus figures during the day.

The school is frozen solid and the tracks lumpy and bumpy so real work is out and my fingers just don't seem to work to even get some clicker going in the yard.  I really must invest in some wool, knickers and socks would be a good start.

The problem for me is motivation. The last couple of weeks I've been very motivated and riding most days but then a few days of bitter cold weather and I'm sidelined and frustrated. So this week-end I need a plan. Perhaps the plan should be to make a plan. I'll let you know what the plan is just as soon as I've worked that one out for myself.

whoop whoop

Or not!

Chapiro had a couple of days off (well he had worked 8 days straight and I had a lot on) but yesterday we were back in the school and then walked down the hill to the bottom field. On the way back up we trotted on a long rein where we have cantered but he stayed balanced in body and brain, no rushing or anticipation. We continued up the lane past the house and he seemed quietly confident, didn't go far on my own but he behaved well. The only niggly bit being his trot transitions in the school which remained a little 'sticky'.


So today, in the rain (is this really me, riding in the rain?) we worked on keeping a really relaxed neck through the transitions and keeping his head a little lower than usual and it made a big difference. We ended up riding relaxed transitions on long, long reins but with his back working, it felt good.

So is my boy finally relaxing? I hate to speak too soon but this last week his confidence has emerged and I can count the spooks on one hand rather than on all fingers and toes! He is walking boldly down to the school and even me whacking by boot on the fence today didn't induce even the merest spook.

I'm thinking that when Steinbrecht said ''ride your horse forward and straight of shoulders'' he was very wise and that maybe when l'Hotte said the horse should be ''calm, forward and straight' it could have read ''forward and straight (by virtue of the shoulders) will bring on calm''! This certainly seems to be true of Chapiro, the straightening work is bringing along the gift of calm...or let's hope so.