Monday 04 Jul - a new regime

So; today was the start of the new regime.

I was out of the house by 7am, at the yard by 7:20, and had Tartine in from the field and tacked up by 7:30 - thank goodness for clean ponies!

I lunged her in her EquiAmi for 40mins, which included 10 mins warm up and 10 mins cool down.  She was great, and she is showing great abdominal tension (in a good way!) while she is working.

I was finished, and Tartine tucking into breakfast by 8:20.

I then had a sneaky lesson this afternoon, and Tartine was FAB again. We practiced leg yielding in walk, then accuracy on the markers and volte to LY in trot.  Our canter work is improving soon much. Today after practicing the canter transition on both reins from trot, we started practicing the walk-canter transition and Tartine was great. It really did"t take many attempts before we were going straight to canter without a trot stride in-between.

And just to demonstrate how sweet Tartine is, I found her like this this evening

Whoops! But she just stood there waiting for me to rescue her <3

And as another aside, This is why I have a little trouble riding Blitz

Sunday 03 Jul

Well I guess you could say that the hard work started today.

When I got to the yard B and T were already out, so I brought T in and gave her a quick brush off.  Today I was really looking forward to trying out my new EquiAmi which I received on Saturday.  We were very color coordinated today with turquoise over reach and brushing boots, as well as a turquoise saddle cloth.

I was really pleased, the EquiAmi was very easy to fit, and as the whole premise is that it is a self centering loop, there was no faring to make sure each side was tightened the same amount.

T accepted the aid without fuss, and she worked really nicely -  even the canter (which isn't her favourite thing to do on the lunge), but she really started stretching down nicely.

After 30 mins we stopped, and went back round to the yard.  She was a bit warm, but not very sweaty, so I hosed her legs and belly off, then stuck her back out for a few hours while I pottered around.

We changed to night time turn out today, so I'm a bit at a loss of how to work out her meals and hay, both of which contain soaked food.  I brought her in at about 6:30, so she could have her grass nuts with her supplements in, and that would also give her time to relax before I rode.

Today's experiment with the zoopharmacognacy involved ginkgo biloba, chickweed, gotu kola, eye right and chaste berry.  She stuck her nose right in each bowl and had a taste, but didn't really eat much of any of them, but I'll leave them out for her to nibble during tomorrow.

Horror of horror, I then got Tartine ready to ride - poor girl wouldn't know what's hit her, being worked twice in one day, though she is going to have to get used to it.  I only wanted to do some bits and pieces, nothing very much, but perhaps build on what we did in our lesson yesterday.  Of course there was a party on at the Ecurie, so there were about a million cars and people being rather loud all over, so T was finding it a bit difficult to concentrate.  Once warmed up I worked mainly in sitting trot, I find this much easier for my hip, and I also feel like /I have more control over everything.  Lots of lovely direct transitions, and lots and lots of transitions in general.  Our canter was great, and T was really working in a much lower position than normal - whether it was because she was feeling a bit tired (though not fatigued, as she was storming tonight!) or whether even the one session with the EquiAmi has already made a difference - who knows...

After 40 mins she was really quite warm, so I cleared up the school, and took her round the other side.  I put her muzzle and fly ask on, then gave her an all over shower, before putting her fly rug back on.  Back in the field, of course she immediately had to have a good roll, so she is going to be a little dirty in the morning.

The plan for tomorrow is to get up to the yard early, and lunge Tartine, then put the beds down ready for when B comes in - which should be around 8am.

I'll need to hang T's haynet up, and I think I'll have to give her both of them at once.  Perhaps in different parts of the box, otherwise I can't see how it's going to work... Hmm plenty to think about at the moment.

Saturday 02 Jul

Hmm... I think that is a basic good summation of today...

Today I "rode" Blitz for the first time since my osteopathic manipulation... or at least I got on him, and found I couldn't straighten up without some pretty severe pain. Nearly pushed on and had a walk around, but good sense prevailed as I was gasping involuntarily with each movement, and it is never really a good thing when you can't sit straight in the saddle :(  Will leave a message for the osteo, to see what he suggests.  I know now, that is is to do with my sciatic nerve (which was *really* pinchy while it  was being manipulated), and stems from when I fell off Blitz last year. The degree of pain I get waxes and wanes.  If I do a lot of lateral work, it tends to be a lot worse on an evening (tonight it is very uncomfortable just sitting at my computer).

So, riding was out, I decided to lunge him instead... hmm

I ended up with a new hole in my (doeskin roping) gloves and a friction burn on my rein finger.  Blitz escaped three times and took himself for a hooley around the school (at least having a trailing rope doesn't bother him at all)  Despite the naughtiness, I can't really blame him.  He is in a tiny paddock, without any space to get up a good turn of speed, and since we aren't allowed to free school, he really doesn't have the opportunity to really let rip now... I might have to get sneaky and let him have a blast in the school anyway (and be prepared with a rake to fix any holes!)

I redressed Blitz in his flysheet and mask, and put him back out int he field, and brought Tartine in.  She rested in the stable for 30 mins while I had a drink and psyched myself up for my lesson;)

The lesson was GREAT, even though I reduced it down to 30 mins as my hip was really hurting.  I spent most of the lesson in sitting trot, and we worked a lot on accuracy of dressage movements within a dressage square.  I absolutely LOVE this type of work, and I often school on it by myself when I can have a large bit of school to myself.  I do have to remember that the hits have to be progressive, and not direct, so that is quite difficult finding  a happy medium for the transition (as we practice a lot direct transitions, and it doesn't take much "hold" for T to go from trot to halt.  Ooh, I'd forgotten. I found medium trot :D First long diagonal to change the rein, I had a little too much leg and we made a change to canter (and I was perfect fine with this, didn't faze me at all - go me!), but the second attempt, I got that amazing feeling of the shoulders coming up and the push from the back - it was only a couple of strides, but now I know we've done it once, I know I can do it again.

Canter transitions were a dream today, only one wrong leg, and it was totally my fault for not setting it up properly, but we didn't miss a marker or transition once.  As much as I hate to say it, but wearing spurs really makes a bit difference. Not that I'm really heavy with them, but I think they just make everything a lot clearer for T.

Finished with practicing linge brisé/courbe before calling it a day. An absolutely Fab, FAB lesson, with lots of ideas on what to do over the course of the next week before my next lesson.

After I put T back in the field, I made up her nets (we're on 2.5kg nets now, as she get's a lot more hay replacer, but still totalling about 6.5kg total dry weight forage) and left them soaking (can usually do a 1-2 hour soak on an evening, and around 5 hours on a weekend)

Then I put up my self selection trugs for Tartines herbs.

Today we had (as a sample, to try) echinacea root, white willow bark, hawthorne leaf and flower, plantain and goats rue.  As far as zoopharmacognacy goes, I'm not sure I'm convinced... T ate everything, one after the other, just moving down the row of buckets.  So, she either really is deficient in *everything* or she just isn't fussed and it's just new taste.

Herbes in her dinner consisted of: spearmint, dandelion leaf, cleavers, calendula, burdock root, milk thistle, nettle and chamomile.

And finally... official weigh in today... 470kg

Friday 01 Jul

I was a lazy cow today and didn't ride Tartine.  Though on the other hand, I had an exciting delivery of herbs arrive.  I've always thought that feeding herbs isn't going to do any harm, and may add a bit of different flavour into what must be a really boring and restricted diet, especially for Tartine at the moment.

I ordered a couple of selection packages and some spares just to see how Tartine would react to them.  So far she hasn't turned up her nose at anything... typical really.  So today she had spearmint (which smells divine!), nettle, dandelion leaf, cleavers, calendula, and burdock root mixed in amongst her Agrobs LichtGenüss and Agrobs Weisencobs.

Thursday 30 Jun

Alas, I still didn't make it out of bed to work with Tartine in the morning, but I did have a lesson in the evening which was FAB

Katia worked the pair of us very hard, and Tartine did so well.  It was the first time I've ridden her in her new bit (bushed SS eggbutt snaffle), and it felt really good.  For some reason Tartine really prefers the single break snaffles, rather than the "nicer" double broken ones - I suppose that's horses for you ;)

Anyway we warmed up in walk and trot, with lots of changes of rein, including serpentines and spirals, making sure the bend was correct, and the contact was light (and my hands herein the right position. Finished the warm up with a nice loose canter on each rein.  The hard work started with some lateral work, volte-SI-volte all the way around the school on each rein.  After that we did some LY to SI, which I found really difficult, but after some attempts we managed a passable execution.  The most fun though, was out first attempts at a true counter canter.  This exercise consisted of a 20m circle then as the circle started a second time making a short diagonal to change the rein, then continuing in CC before  making the long diagonal back to true canter.  The pair of us were knackered by the end of the lesson, as it was quite a lot of sustained canter.  But I came out feeling on top of the world, as Tartine was fab, and really tried her hardest for me.

Starting point

So, I guess this is going to be my starting point. A record of Tartines weightless (hopefully!)

It all started back in the middle of May, when i returns from holiday and a week where I was really unwell, and found Tartine with a hard crest and fat ripples along her crest.  I immediately taped her, and she was a massive 518kg. A year and a half ago she weighed 400kg, and I thought she looked porky then! :(

Anyway, we immediately had some changes in her routine.  First of all, I put her straight into a muzzle when she was in the field - fortunately she took to this like a duck to water, and I've not had any issues with her accepting the muzzle at all :)

Secondly, I started weighing her hay, and started giving her two 3.5kg (total of 7kg  -1.5% of her bodyweight) nets a day. I also started rinsing them, to damp them and hopefully wash some of the sugar out.

I requested that her balancer be stopped (although she didn't get much it still had molasses in it), and I started giving her soaked Agrobs weisencobs, with Pro Earth ProLaminae+, brewers yeast and cinnamon, with 100ml of micronised linseed to compensate for eh reduced green in her diet.

It didn't take long to lose the initial bloat, though her crest seems to harden up and go soft again with a mind of it's own.

Silly me forgot to take any photos right at the beginning, so I'll have to make do from Wednesday 28 Jun, when she was having a "fat" day, and taped at 490kg.

Tartine 490kg 28 Jun 2016

Short update

Well, in a way I can't believe it has been over a year since I last posted in this blog - but then again I can really as I'm pretty bad at keeping things up to date!

Hmm... How to make this update short...

1. Blitz is going from strength to strength, thanks to the fantastic work my instructor is doing riding him 2 hours per week
2. I have huge confidence issues riding Blitz, and it is very slow going getting me to improve - which isn't helped by the fact that I'm still a bit lame from when I came off him
3. Tartine is going from strength to strength. Her lateral work is improving all the time and  she is becoming much straighter and stronger (in the good way) in the contact.
4. Tartine is very overweight at the moment, and for the past 4 weeks has been on a diet, which has seen her weight decrease from 518kg to 470kg by weight tape.  There is still a very long way to go, and starting from tomorrow I'm trying to work her twice a day... We'll see how that goes!

I'm partly going to repurpose this blog, and keep a log of the work that Tartine is doing and also what she is eating, and her weight.

Yesterday, 25th Jun, I lunged for 30 minutes with elastic Vienna reins, surcingle and bridle. W/t/c and lots of transitions up and down w/t and some nice canter.

Today I lunged in just a cavesson for about an hour.  Lots of trotting, as she just didn't want to stop!  Some great canter work, with some good transitions c/t/c.  Definitely need to improve the w/h transition!  

I'm beginning to wonder how I could incorporate a bit of clicker into the lunging - especially as it is going to be something I'm doing fairly regularly as part of the weight loss exercise.