What a Specimen

Have I mentioned lately how awesome my horse is?
Well... he is.

The other week, Mate got some float training. And, to my complete surprise, he was so good about it.
For once he used his brain and actually THOUGHT about what was being asked of him.

My horse actually has a brain? What?

But all jokes aside, he was awesome.

First, he was showed the float - much to his dislike - there was load snorting and trembling. I think that was one of the main reasons why we were all very surprised. He was obviously so scared but trusted us enough to take it all in his stride and walk straight on.

 

Good boy!

He seemed so curious as to what it was and offered a foot onto the ramp - he quickly withdrew after the ramp made a noise...

After a few laughs at Mate's expense, we asked again and he put forward both front feet onto the, now deadly, ramp.

Smiling ear-to-ear, the surprises kept coming:

 

Three feet.

 

All four feet on!

In the world of float-training, he was technically in - he felt like he was in (which is probably the most important part)
With about twenty minutes under his belt, Mate clocked off for the day!

 

What a specimen

In other very exciting news, I finally bought a new saddle! But I'll save all the beautiful details of it for my next post.

 

"I am pretty awesome, hey."

All the Crazies

In the winter months, the herd gets put on seeded grass, full of sugar. While this is good for some, it never fails to send the rather 'hot' horses up the wall.
Mate is not a horse you want 'hot'.
 

"I am crazy. Sorry."

On Sunday, our little 'play' ride took a bit on an unexpected turn...

We went from this:

Nice relaxed, plod around the arena. No problems.

To this:

I simply asked him for a 'bigger' trot....

...and apparently entered 'buck city'.

Then back to this:

He's so funny, isn't he?
Still not sure how in the world I managed to stay on - but we ended on a fantastic note; first canter tackless.

Anyway, my boy is still very sore. I no longer have a saddle and won't for a good two months! So moving will have to wait for a little while longer than I planned. This is why I hate saddles...
Until I get my hands on a proper fitting saddle, it'll just be lunging and ground work for this mule.

"I said sorry."

Moving Day?

I've been thinking a lot lately about my horses training. I only get to see him one (twice at the most) a week because of where I have him boarded.
Gosh, I love Glenworth and honestly couldn't see myself staying away forever, but I'm really liking the idea of seeing my horse more often and getting some proper training into him.

What prompted me to think like this?
A friend's horse is about to be PTS and, for some reason, this news has really affected me (god knows how SHE'S feeling!?!)
I honestly can't imagine life without Mate. He's my absolute everything!
He's not 'just a horse', he's my best friend and means the world to me -  so I'd love to have Mate closer to home so we can both improve more!

I would plan to see him everyday - after school and on weekends - to at least lunge him (but riding for only twenty minutes at the most per day). I would be keen to get some quality schooling into him so he can stop looking like a mule 100% of the time...
It'd only be for about two months tops. Enough time for him to improve heaps but not long enough for our presence to really be missed (and vice versa).
My focus will be flat-work! No jumping. No 'play' rides, just schooling.
Sounds boring, I know, but I do really enjoy flat-work and am keen to really get into the dressage scene.

The fact that I won't have my instructor handy, will probably be the hardest thing to leave behind.
My instructor has the biggest influence on my riding. I think she's just the greatest!
She's so knowledgeable and has an answer/solution to all of my stupid questions.
It's scary to think that if a problem arises I would be on my own. 

Am I biting off more than I can chew?

But I do really think Mate and I would both benefit from having some time away and concentrating on the important things.

I think 'where' is going to be a challenge. Everything around here is something like 150+$ for full board! But hopefully something perfect will peek it's head out and I'll take that.
Nothing is set in stone, and won't be for the next month or so.
Hopefully everything will work out.

But until any decisions are made, lunging and schooling will be my main focus!

Screw you, safety.

Lately I've been a bit reckless when riding Mate.
The other day, I got myself thinking about what I wanted out of this pony. One of my conclusions was seriously getting into free-riding. So I thought "there's no time like the present, hey?"

 

 

A few posts ago, I mentioned that bareback wasn't allowed at all - who ever was game enough to try was bucked off within seconds... So, with this in mind, I made very "reckless" decisions and tried.
Our first saddleless experience was conducted with three very heavy saddle pads held in place with a surcingle. And he was completely fine with it too! We went on a mini trail ride and were even on gate duty. I was very impressed.

This is when I start to get a bit cocky - on that particular day, the herd was spending the week in a very far away paddock. So I decided to jump on Mate with only one saddle pad this time.
Reckless... but it paid off! He wasn't even fazed. We plodded down the drive, back to the paddock, all happy and sound.

The next time I saw him, I decided to go full bareback.
Not even kidding, ALL my friends gathered, pointing cameras at me... thanks guys.
It took me about twenty minutes for me to mount (trying to find the balls to actually get on)
Mate's reaction?
To my complete surprise.....nothing....
Not even an ear twitch.

 

phone quality /10

 

Whaaaaaaa?
Last time I checked, bareback was illegal!
When I tried last time, down in the valley, I took about ten seconds for Mate to throw me off - I tried my best to hang on but he went full bronco... and won. Little turd.
But this really just shows how much he's changed since being up at agistment and in my care.

So, from there, I started to ask him to slow with my seat and move off my leg ect ect.
Apparently, Mate's super good at all this. Who would've thought?

I tried with the neck rope - while still having the bridle on in case he decided to ignore me and run - but he was brilliant!
Our first free-riding experience was just a stroll down the drive back to the paddock. Brilliant, again!

We've had a couple "play" rides in the arena using only a neck rope since - both ending in succession!
Now, I hope you enjoy an assortment of photos.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm still feeling such wonderful things about this horse - it's such a feeling to mount a horse and have it feel like home. I don't think I've EVER felt this safe on any horse!

A lot of exciting things will be happening within the next few weeks, so stay tuned!

Saddles, Urgh.

I can never seem to catch a break with all this saddle fitting business. And it's actually driving me up the wall!
So a few weeks ago I got my Wintec 500 "fitted" to Mate.
And now?
well it no longer fits....

*insert many angry faces*

It turns out, Mate's lameness was caused by the saddle being far to narrow and pinching his back.
As angry as I'm feeling about this I don't blame the fitter herself - Mate has a strangely shaped back with a humongous wither. This makes it incredibly hard to correctly fit a saddle to, unfortunately.
If she had of made the gullet any wider, it would be sitting on Mate's shark fin wither and we'd be back to square one.
She did the best she could.

I've had this saddle for a few years now and I've always seemed to have trouble with it (fitting the horses I use it on ect.)
So I'm officially putting it on the market and buying a whole new saddle!
As much as I love buying new things, the saddle I have my eye on is very pricey. This one is specially designed for high-withered horses as is meant to have "maximum wither clearance"
Score!
It's super comfy and has the feel of riding in a full leather saddle.
Double score!

I'll most likely go for the all-purpose. Not like I'm going to be jumping huge fences, it's better to be safe than sorry.

In my last post, I mentioned the possibility of a super good physio coming out to see Mate on Saturday. She managed to cancle last minute so I still have that post in the works.
But I still went up to see how he was feeling.
As I didn't know it was a saddle fitting problem, I thought he was still going to be unrideable and still feeling sad. To my complete surprise, he was magically fixed!

*cheers*

His mood was lifted and went back to his normal, playful self. Just what I needed.

I'm honestly still shoked he allowed me to still ride him while being that sore last week.
Sometimes I feel I can ride this horse with a brick as a saddle and he'd be fine. The other half of the time I feel he's so sensitive that he could explode.

I have so many things to write about but I'll save our "free-riding adventures" for another post!

So happy to have my baby boy back.

Both Ouchy and Surprised.

My poor boy is lame!
His back is very sore and he's feeling a bit down about life.

I knew what I was possibly getting myself into when buying this horse, seeing as he had been ridden in ill fitting saddles his whole life, but I just hoped it never would become a problem.
Well.... it has.

So before and after every ride, since getting the saddle fitted, I have a little poke around to see if he's bothered by anything.
And each time, the reaction is the same. Nothing.

Today when I touched his back, his reaction was met with flailing and a little dance almost knocking me over. Okaaaaaay.
I felt around some more and could legitimately feel giant knots nearing the end of his back.

My poor, poor man!

During our last few rides, when ever I mounted, he would (what it felt like) lose his footing. I didn't give it much thought as I guessed he just wasn't prepared for me to get on - therefore becoming unbalanced...
But it seems the answer was because he was so sore that when I mounted, the saddle would shift and put pressure right on that knot!
I feel horrible.

I've booked a highly recommend physio to come out Saturday to hopefully sort it all out. Praying he'll be okay!

As for the surprised part, since Mate has been an agistment pony, I've noticed some changes in him.

His personality has really started to bubble and I'm honestly loving it!
He's a complete puppy dog that's just quite happy to be loved on.

The Mate I knew down in the valley was an arrogant, pig-headed, smart arse pony.
He always used to just have this evil look in his eye - which he would proove once you mounted.
Now? A massive candle bum!
And when ever he manages to get me off, which isn't very often, he's always very apologetic when I retrieve him.

So I guessed, if anything was bothering him ( ie. The saddle not fitting ect ) he'd let me know. I'm honestly shocked that he still allowed me to work him while being that sore.

He means the absolute world to me and I hate to see him in any sort of pain - hopefully this physio will work all of it out and we can go back to being awesome again!

"I hate you"

Taking Flight

Mate's juming style, like everything else about him, is a bit interesting..

I have a lot of trouble with being able to 'feel' things while riding. But I can definitely feel Mate pulling himself over the fences rather than pushing with his hind.
To say the least, it doesn't feel very nice.

And there's nothing like a photo shoot to proove how unco we BOTH are;

Trying ever so hard!

Fail...

I shouldn't really be surprised about his style.
I mean, even his conformation would suggest he's not very good. With that up right shoulder and a short forearm, he finds it incredibly hard to tuck and fold.

And, as you can see, it leads to some pretty attractive facials

On Wednesday, we had a bit of a jumping session and attempted our first baby oxer!!
I thought I was definitely in for it now but he did it surprisingly well (with some help from the grid that was set up, of course)

Such a wonderful boy!

I'm honestly still in awe at how much I love this single horse so much. The confidence he has given me is amazing - I adore every bit of him and, I hope, he loves me too!

Massive pats for such a good pony.