Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas to 'all' my blog's readers! Quotation marks as I am not sure how many I have! Only four, so far, have made themselves known in the reader list. But, nevertheless, thank you for reading my ramblings on and here's to another year of horsey stuff and life! 

Things have started to improve again after my loss of confidence a couple of weeks ago. I have had a couple of booster lessons with Annika, private and in a group, to get going with R again. She has been trying to 'spook' at things but I have taken heed of Annika's advice and started to ride R with more purpose. If/when she has tried to look at something I have given her more leg or tapped with a whip to say "Oi, listen to me, you ARE going as I want you to go, no messing." And I think it has worked.

To round up the year with Rainbow, we took part in Christmas Dressage competition yesterday. First I wasn't going to do it, due to being busy with Christmas prep, but then I realised it might be my last chance to ride R before the Xmas break, and as the school is always reserved for competitors on the day, I knew I wouldn't otherwise have a chance of riding indoors. As my decision to take part was as quick as made on the day before, I didn't even have a chance to learn the test, so I asked for a reader. 

Fancy dress was optional. We donned reindeer antlers and I had a bit of tinsel around my neck. I didn't know if Rainbow would be afraid of the tinsel, so didn't put any on her, just in case. However, she seemed to be very interested in my tinsel and tried to eat it off my neck! So she's not scared. Tim came to help me with the preparations – attaching the antlers on both, and such. I also made him plait some of Rainbow's mane. He was doing as instructed but exclaimed that you can tell they've been done by a man. They were perhaps a little haphazard but I think we weren't exactly Grand Prix either :).

In order to get some extra points, I introduced myself and Rainbow to the judges as "Elina and 'Reindeer'... I mean Rainbow!" *cue laughter* ... Well I thought it was funny...

The rest of the test didn't go brilliantly, I only remembered the first two moves and after that had to rely on the reader. When we had to do two half circles from E to X and then X to B, my mind went blank as to which way I was meant to tackle it. So lost two points on that. Silly me! Anyway, overall, we didn't do much worse than last time: 57,39%. And, now we have done both W&T test A and B, so now we can start improving on both. I maintain the main thing is to do it, to make competition as routine as possible, then we can start improving on our craft.

In the warm up ring

Sorry, no pics or video of our actual performance. Tim didn't get my mobile phone to work for some reason. Perhaps it's for the better...

Results

Time to chill out

This week hasn't been easy. I have been feeling less confident and upbeat about anything horsey. The dark, busy time with work and impending Christmas, I don't think, are helping either. I feel I don't have enough hours in the day (especially daylight hours!) to complete all the stuff I want to – and I don't even have a nine-to-five job or children! I don't know how those who have manage it all... But I guess, at the moment, I do everything myself with Rainbow, so if I had other responsibilities I would delegate more possibly. 

After my last post, the week continued in tricky terms as my sore back and shaken confidence didn't make riding or doing anything with Rainbow that pleasurable. I rode her on Tuesday – after having given her the weekend off and having lunged her on Monday – and she seemed to take the mick in the school, by looking at poles and whatnot lying on the ground. I didn't feel strong enough, mentally, to take her on, although I now realise I should have. Scared I was, I guess. Really didn't want to fall off a second time in the same week. Then I tried to raise canter and R shook her head and leant downwards, as if to buck, so I quickly pulled on the reins and didn't attempt cantering again. I realise how cowardly this all seems. 

Falling off didn't bother me when I had my bump a few weeks ago, as I knew it was my balance error and R did nothing wrong. But when I know the horse has misbehaved and caused me falling off, it really affects my confidence. And the 'problem' with owning a horse is that I can't hand her back and just pick another for the next time. 

On Thursday I thought I'd lunge her again to give myself a break and to get R moving anyway. She went fine one way but when I changed reins she just began turning in and refusing to go in a circle. I tried to get her going for a bit but she just kept squaring up to me. I had to get help, as I knew I wouldn't be able to leave it at that. Some of the girls came to help but despite all of us trying in different ways she wasn't really having it. In the end she went the other direction with the lunge rein in her mouth, cantering like a wild horse, when one of the girls was trying to get her to obey... No, not like this... 

Then, a very experienced dressage instructor, who was about to start a lesson with someone else, and saw me struggling with R, said to just stand next to R and ask her to walk with you. Rainbow didn't want to move/do as she was told but kept reversing. Well eventually got her to move with me and the instructor said that at least this means you've won at least one battle with her. Next time I have to get help when lunging her and today Annika suggested that she just needs one good slap on the bum if she's not working – from me – as often you just need to show them who's boss. At the moment she is testing me and this week has been Rainbow's own little "Let's test 'mummy' and see if she's really worthy of the name 'mum'."-week. Yeah, thanks.

So my mood worsened as the week wore on. I got Claire to ride Rainbow for me on Friday, which was good as asked her to work her hard, as I had only been dilly-dallying with her most of the week so she hadn't had proper exercise, and not let her look at things in the school. Then, in my darkest moments, I have also been harbouring thoughts of turning Rainbow into sausage – so, hands up, I haven't been in the best place for 'harmonious horsemanship'. 

On Sunday, however, we had a hack with Denise and Zara. The exciting place came when we had to pass a stud farm, which we have passed many times, but Rainbow was super sensitive to all the sounds coming from the fields on both sides of the road. There were yearlings frolicking on one side but the hedgerow stopped R from seeing them, so she decided to side step along the road in an alarmed manner. I was trying to do my best sack-of-potatoes impression on her to keep her calm. Somehow I managed to control her, though at one point I nearly felt myself losing the moment. But falling on the tarmac wasn't an option in my mind. Luckily the rest of the hack was less eventful. Though, Zara, at one point, took dislike of a man cycling along a path with his two little sons, so I overtook Denise and Zara, as R wasn't bothered by them, so we lead them for a bit to get past the cyclists. The little victories I guess...!

Today I decided to have private lesson with Annika and was just honest about my feelings and asked her to give me a simple 'confidence booster' lesson with circles thrown in, as those we didn't perform well in the last dressage test. Annika just told me to ride Rainbow effectively and do lots of things with her – transitions, then circles, another transition, canter, trot, etc. Meaning that basically by giving Rainbow things to think about she'll have less time to spook at things. Annika also reminded me that Rainbow isn't a spooky horse, so it's just her excuse to misbehave. After a 30-minute lesson I was absolutely knackered. I think I wasn't only riding Rainbow and getting tired but I was also off-loading the bent-up frustrations I had harboured the whole week, so afterwards I felt tired but a lot more positive. It's amazing how a little lesson like that can instantly make you feel better and help you to put the negative thoughts aside and help put things in perspective. 

Like butter wouldn't melt... :). No but I wanted to show off my mum's present to Rainbow - a new rain turnout rug from Biltema (in Finland)! It's very well made and has all the clips one would wish for.

I am not saying R isn't going to test me again and that I am 100% back to what I was a few weeks ago, but I guess it's the eternal fluctuations in mood/confidence/horse/me that makes life interesting.

To finish off, I have added a link to my new favourite band's song, I Will Wait for You by Mumford & Sons. If you have never heard them, have a listen. Love this song, and I think it's upbeat melody as well as the poignant lyrics have actually helped me to have faith in me and Rainbow again. Time to chill out and slide into the holiday season and Christmas with a smile on my face.

Mumford & Sons - I Will Wait for You

And I came home
Like a stone
And I fell heavy into your arms
These days of darkness
Which we've known
Will blow away with this new sun

And I'll kneel down
Wait for now
And I'll kneel down
Know my ground

And I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you

So break my step
And relent
You forgave and I won't forget
Know what we've seen
And him with less
Now in some way
Shake the excess

But I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you

So I'll be bold
As well as strong
And use my head alongside my heart
So tame my flesh
And fix my eyes
That tethered mind free from the lies

But I'll kneel down
Wait for now
I'll kneel down
Know my ground

Raise my hands
Paint my spirit gold
And bow my head
Keep my heart slow

Cause I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you

Lunging Rainbow

I thought I'd lunge Rainbow today as the lesson we try and do on Monday mornings was fully booked and I am also suffering from a slightly sore lower back thanks to Rainbow chucking me off on Friday (fallen off, again!, I hear you say... My thoughts exactly...). It was a very calm lesson and we were just trotting around the school and taking turns with others in doing some forehand turns at the other end of the school (in which she was very good at, despite never having done them before!). Anyway, I think it was just a strip of sunlight beaming in from the ceiling and perhaps our shadows moved in the light, so suddenly R decided it was too much and did a sharp evasion to the left while I was mid-air in doing the rising trot. Before I knew it, I was on the ground. Stupid horse.

So that's how I came to the decision today that lunging would be the best mild activity for both of us. As an extra bonus to a beautiful day outside, a friend agreed to film us, so here's the film. To jazz up the relatively mundane video of a horse going around in circles I put Robbie Williams' "Candy" soundtrack to it and added some snazzy transitions. I do have real work to get on with but I am clearly procrastinating by compiling silly videos instead... 

I claim not to be exactly like Candice in Robbie's song, even though I am fairly educated and sometimes struggle to count to ten ;)... However, the song has always struck a cord with me as it has been playing on the radio for the whole autumn and I've often heard it on my trips to the yard. 

No prizes for spotting words such as "Rainbows and her ponies" :)... Hey ho here we go!

Mud, mud, mud...

After my snowy weekend stint in Finland, I am left somewhat forlorn and disappointed about the local weather here. Life in the yard is a constant battle against mud and dirt. However, the little snow fall we had here yesterday, remarkably cheered me up. My chickens were so funny: being so young, they had never seen snow before, so even the little dusting on the ground made them suspicious and, bless, they tried to fly over the snowiest bits, in order to move from one part of the garden to another.

With this in mind when I went to the yard this morning – during the daylight hours, for a change! – I wasn't really overly surprised or shocked to have discovered a spot of mud fever in Rainbow's one hind foot. I was brushing off the dried up mud and picking her fetlocks to remove some stubborn lumps of mud, when I suddenly noticed the irritated, pinkish skin... "Oh, no, please no...", thinking to myself. Having never seen mud fever before – other than in photos – I asked for a second opinion from one of the girls. As such it was confirmed and I was instructed to gently wash it, dry it and then add anti-bac onto it. Fine, except the frozen taps due to the exceptionally cold weather and no clean towels at hand made the whole operation rather challenging. I had to boil some hot water in the warm room a couple of times, in order to wash the fetlock area and to make it a bit more comfortable for Rainbow. Didn't really have heart to splash ice-cold water on R's feet. 

I also had to get some stuff to put on the irritated skin. One of the girls told me to go and buy Hypocare in the shop... As I didn't have any other stuff at hand, I thought I'd give it a go, as the girl had told me it's "amazing stuff" and can be used for almost anything. 

www.horseware.com/hypocare

No mud spa (the paddock) for Rainbow for a few days, while I keep an eye on her feet. Will need to keep her as dry as possible for a while, too...  I hope I've caught it early, as the skin only looked a little irritated pink, not totally raging red or oozing anything, so that's good. 

But it's never fun to discover something like this and, especially, when I have tried to be sensible, so haven't over-washed her feet and always let the mud to dry before brushing it off. I have also kept her stable as clean and dry as possible, with plenty of straw bedding, which actually is brilliant stuff for cleaning. I often put R in her stable with muddy feet and by morning the straw has brushed them off and dried her feet too. Apparently, according to the shop-keeper, mud fever has been bad this year. So, possibly, I am not alone.  Ho hum. 

Weekend in Finland

This weekend, I popped in Finland to see my folks. I combined the visit with attending Johanna's birthday bash and I also wanted to see her new pony – and she had recently moved yards as well, so wanted to see their new abode, too. Now her trotting racing horse, Emmi, and the new pony, Kuu, live in the posh stables in Laukon Kartano (Laukko estate). It's a private livery yard and also a racing yard. The facilities are superb. For example, the stable Johanna's horse and pony live is so beautiful and roomy inside – just look at the width of that corridor in the middle! The stable, obviously, also has warm showering and wash-down area for horses, with warm water on tap. Ah, if only where I keep my horse... And the radio in the corner of the stable was playing to cheer up both horses and their humans ;).

Driving there through the estate

Laukko estate and fields

Posh stable

We arrived when the sun was already setting – around 3pm in Finland this time of year – so, unfortunately, we didn't quite manage hacking out around the estate. But we rode the horses in the outdoor arena under floodlights, for about 20–25 mins until I started to complain losing sensation in my fingers and toes... Well it was a 'mere' -17 Celsius, so rather nippy! I haven't ridden in such cold conditions – and in snow! – since I was a kid. Rather puts the complaints of cold weather in England into perspective... This morning it was 2 degrees here. 


It was lovely to ride Kuu (he's a Haflinger, originally from Belgium). He is only 4 and he seems very eager to please, but he is a bit basic in his skills at the moment, as even the tiniest squeeze of the leg results in rather enthusiastic 'jolt' forwards. I had to learn to just squeeze buttocks to get a gentler effect. He has been, so far, ridden with basic aids, so he always thinks leg means forward and nothing else – I couldn't get him to yield (though must be said, I am no expert either!). So we ended up trotting around until it got too cold to hold the reins. Kuu has also been taught a bit of reversing by Johanna and her friend, so when I asked him to stand, he instantly wanted to show me his new reversing skills, too! 

I believe that in this case, photos speak louder than words, so here a few pics:

Bijoux - aka Kuu in his box

Elina and Kuu

My feet rather sticking forward - I blame the cold!

Reversing when should be standing still :)

And staaaand...

Johanna getting Emmi ready

Kiss kiss

"I love you, Mummy!"