Breakups, Outings and Team adventures!

So it's safe to say this month has been, well, a little bit disappointing. I mean don't get me wrong some fab things happened but some rubbish things did too.

Let's get the bad out of the way first, so as mentioned in my title, at the start of the month my boyfriend decided I was a little bit too much to handle basically (which I am I won't lie) and decided he he didn't want to be with me any more, and yes it hurt as I did really, really like him and I guess I kind of still do but people change, GCSE's are stressful and having a constant winge in your ear doesn't help ;) So I do honestly completely get it, and if he's happy then I have to find my happiness too, as gay as it is, life goes on and the world doesn't stop for anyone. All I can say is a massive thank you to my closest and bestest friends as well as my amazing mother and the deputy head because all of these sat me down and definitely let me be sad but gave me the massive kick up the arse I needed to get myself back on track. I also turned to my orange pony a lot and although he can be so naughty he is my best pal and he gave me the much needed cuddles I required so thank you monkey!!

Anyway, let's stop talking about the sad things now!
Me and Star have been out in the trailer twice! We went jumping at Priory to try some mini courses and we didn't have an overly great time because I thought he was really ill and felt awful the whole time I was riding. However touch wood he seems okay and we're watching him very closely! But overall he jumped the things I asked and was a super little horse trying his very best!
We then went xc and you can most definitely tell he has hunted! Jesus did he fly! I can honestly say I have never felt that brave xc schooling ever and I never imagined even looking at some of the fences I did! We went with Emma and Beth and although Emma fell off and was a little hurt, I think we all had a really good time! And hopefully this is the start of many team adventures with the ponies!

And then at the end of this month we went and fence judged the xc at Stafford Horse Trials and we had an absolutely fab day and i cannot explain how much i needed that pick me up, those guys never fail to make me smile no matter what day I've had or am having.

And Johnathon as you're probably wondering is doing fine! He is just being his usual naughty self! However he has had most of the Winter off bar a couple of rides and I just think he has connected with and started to respect me so much more for it. I just love his little face so much and I cannot wait to get him working again in the Spring!

Lottie learns to jump (again)

So as I mentioned in my last blog, Star the newest pony to enter my life, arrived last week(?) and he has lived up to his name ever since he arrived.

He has only been ridden 3 times since arriving at the yard and has been ridden with two other horses in the school on more than one occasion and had horses coming in and out during our rides but he has still remained focused on the job and well behaved! 

On our second ride there was some poles out so we decided to have a go, one of the women on the yard was riding and when star was a bit unsure she very nicely led us over them first. After star knew what the task was he loved them and was pulling me into the poles and generally having a great time! 

The next ride we had Beff come visit and we again tried some poles but at a canter this time and again Star was dragging me into them and zooming around like a pro! He schooled beautifully for Beff after I got off and then even jumped some jumps showing that the height we started him at was clearly not enough for him at all, he loved it and by the end of the session he was taking me to the jumps when I had no reins or even any sense of direction haha! 

 

All in all, things are looking very exciting for me and Star and this show season (when I'm not at work!) and we are going out for our first time together next week! I'm a little nervous I won't lie but I'm also very excited! 

John has also been ridden and has definitely not been forgotten and was awesome to ride the other day nailing all of his canter transitions and starting to properly use himself and balancing up more and more everytime! So we shall forgive his naughty behaviour on our hack about a week ago;) 

So there's your little update for now and I will report back soon!

Enjoy some photos of what we've been up to recently!

I may have not been completely honest with you...

*holds hands up*

Yes, guilty, I have been keeping a secret from you.
In my defense, I kept it for a reason!

I'm hoping no-one has guessed this because I have tried to keep it as hushed and top secret as I possibly could but I think it's time you know now.

Tonight saw the arrival of Star.

Star is a 16hh, Cleveland Bay x Thoroughbred, but I won't tell you his age because I want to see if anyone can guess!
He's a fab horse who seems to really take everything in his stride and considering he hasn't jumped/been off the yard/been in a school in 5/6 years and he loaded first time, traveled perfectly, got off the trailer and walked down to the school perfectly and then proceeded to school amazingly and did not put a foot wrong, I think it's safe to say he's a gem. When he did the jump, he first just did a pole on the floor and clearly loved it as jumped it and then went it up to a cross pole he had a little look at it but popped it fine every single time after with no hesitation and I think that is saying something considering the last time he jumped a show jump was many many years ago.

I am very excited to get him fit and jumping again and get him out and about! Things are definitely looking very exciting.

The decision to get another horse was not easy, I just want to put this out there. John is still my number one and will not be forgotten about, no matter what, my Mum adores him and has already stated the rules. I'm not really going to explain it anymore because I don't feel I should have to but I wanted to just say John is still with us and he is my absolute baby and best friend and there is no way he will come second to another horse or be any less cared for, I just simply would rather get rid of the other one before doing that and I said that when I first started looking at horses.

But less of the serious stuff, Star is home!! Eeeek!!!

Having a trot

I am having the best time riding that horse

Not jumped in 5/6 years? No problem!

Cutest little face

All of the stuff...

I honestly don't remember everything that has happened since we last spoke, all I do know is some very exciting things have happened!

John and I had our first lesson in forever and I really did not realise how many bad habits I have, and it was definitely worth the lesson because I realised we as a pairing are not really ready to have all our naughty bad habits tweaked yet because he is still learning and balancing himself and just generally figuring out what leg goes where and when it needs to be there. So I have decided that one day we will have lessons again, but for now, we can just enjoy getting there and this is nothing against the instructor I had, Heather, as she was fab, I just feel we are not ready for lessons yet but I know that when we are ready, she is always there for contacting.

In all honesty, John has been ridden much, he had about a month off and I got back on him again a few days ago, and as always he was a star. A few things had dropped in quality, for example, his speed, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt because he worked lovely in the end and was really listening to me and working with instead of against me as he was at the start of our ride.
I rode him again yesterday and we went out on a hack. Now this was the first time we had been out since moving yards and I wasn't really sure what to expect, but all I can say is that the hacking is fitted perfectly to both me and him and I can see us often going out for a stroll in the summer evenings. It was quiet, picturesque and there were no roads, score! I cannot tell you how happy I am to no longer have to see scary road signs, white lines and red cars, I could not be more relieved if I tried. While we were out, he was perfect, he didn't look at anything, and wasn't even really tense from the start, because he has been so much worse before. However, he did find it necessary to jump the blue hose pipe we had to cross to leave the yard, but I knew this was coming and it didn't come as much of a shock to me as I know what's he like far too well. He even trotted away from Emma and Beth of a couple of occasions (one of which was his choice and would not let me walk because he wanted get home super quick to see his friends) and had no fuss about this either.

Apart from this though, not much has happened, some exciting things are taking place but these are all secrets and I cannot share, teheehhe

Here's some pictures to show you that John is in fact not dead, just not in a lot of work!

Good boy looking after me after I had the dentist!

They love each other and I love it.

Conquering the world with the wind in his hair

Happy Monthaviersary!

Well it's been a month since John had the stressful trauma of moving home! I really am missing my yard but at the same time, I'm so, so happy with the progression John has made and cannot believe the change in him.

Since moving, John has put all his weight that he lost back on and his coat is looking shinier than I have ever seen it and I could not be more impressed with how good he is looking considering. I was definitely not expecting him to put his weight back on this quickly and I was even more shocked at the amount his condition has picked up, I think it's safe to say, he really is a lot more happier.

                           Before

                              After

As well as this, he has just become the sweetest, most perfect little pony at the moment! Maybe a little strong too but nothing silly and this is totally outweighed by the good. In the stable he is the most chilled out I have ever seen him and even let me muck out his whole bed around him the other day, little superstar that he is. I've also recently started working on getting him better with having his legs washed and he is a bugger for it and tends to figit and fight against being washed, so now that we have hot water at the new yard, I've started washing his legs off a couple times a week, twice so far. He's taken to it really well, with the help of some treats but this is still an improvement and he will get better over time so I cannot blame him for needed a little something extra.
However, the other week he was due to be wormed and was an idiot about it, so I just stuck it in his feed and he didn't even notice it so we will work on this next time as we're both still getting used to the new environment and he is not the worlds biggest fan of the tie up area but again this will come time.

          Mucking out around the pony

            Enjoying his field time lots!

                He does have socks!

His riding has also come on leaps and bounds. I haven't done much with him recently because of the weather and other commitments but he doesn't mind none the less. I mentioned my ride the other day and I feel this really does prove it.

But I think that has made this all worthwhile was tonight when my mum was watching him having a stroll around the school to stretch his legs while I mucked out as the yard manager had put him in early for us and my Mum turned to me and said "He seems so much more chilled out and happier, especially recently" so I know I'm not just imagining this, he really is getting better and seems a lot happier! I could not be more chuffed to see him happy again, I really couldn't ask for anything else.

He's also started to really show a very cute side, especially towards me. All he does is give kisses and cuddles and follows me round and does whatever he can to please me and make me happy, especially when I'm riding. He's just such a little star, I really am very lucky.

                Tonight, he's so pretty

That one day that owning a welsh actually was a good thing.

Bonjour mes amis! How are we all coping with this icky weather? I know I'm not coping well with it at all, I hate winter, bring on Spring where birthday, anniversaries and many things happen as well as some decent weather!
Anyway, here in sunny England we have been having a LOT of wind recently, and not even nice little breezes, no, full on gale force winds which I am not enjoying one bit.
Luckily, this is where having a hardy welsh pony (I say this with some certainty as John would not call himself hardy) comes in handy.
Now, Mr. Smith was born and bred on the Welsh cliffs, hence his name Rhondda John Smith, as he was born on the Rhondda cliffs and this fact is very nice to know on days when the weather is like this as when out in the field, he gives zero cares to the fact he could be blown over, he is eating and that's that, it does not bother him at all and to bring in and put out, he's the same, he does not care that I'm being blown into him and falling over at all.

So the other day I had a bit of an insane moment because John hasn't been ridden in two weeks, it was as I said before, gale force winds and he had not yet been turned out that morning and I decided it would be fun to try and ride him. Now I knew that he would be fine after having a bit of time off, he's pretty chilled like that. But, John is not the most bombproof so why I decided to try this I am unsure, but he sure as hell did not show me up because I got on him, he stood fine and then walked round as if it was any other day of the week. He wasn't tense in the neck, nothing, even when things were flapping around and making loud noises, nope, he was fine. Beff walked round with us at first but John was sort of like "why are you here, I'm big boy, go away pls" and so Beff left us and he was no different at all. Some cows mooed and again he did not care. Probably thought he was back in Wales in all honesty. We had a little trot around and again he did not change, he was fine, it felt like being back on my little Molly pony and not having a care in the world, I very much enjoyed it.
May I add, there was also another horse in the school with us, which he had a bit of a think about but other than that did not really mind as the other girl stayed a safe distance away and was very forgiving of how rubbish we were being lol, so thank you for that, I really do appreciate it!

All in all, he had one tiny spook at I don't know what, but I will take that considering he has such a baby brain and I have never ridden him in the smallest bit of wind, let alone that and the other factors. I only rode for around 10 minutes because I was happy enough with him, I was over the moon in fact. I just did not expect him to be so chilled about everything, he's such a star, I should really doubt him less.

He had lots of pats at the end and then went out to the field to graze and be a pony because he real enjoys that.

Have a cute photo as a gift.

A little something I forgot to mention....

Aren't you a lucky bunch getting more than one blog off me in a month? Am I feeling okay?! I mean I have started back at school and realised how awful I feel about that so maybe in fact I am not okay.

Anyway, I forgot to mention, on the 14th December, John moved house! 

This was not an easy decision, John was stressing, losing weight (fast!) and I was trying every which way to work out what was going wrong before I realised he just was not happy and I can honestly say seeing him losing the amount of weight he has in the space of time he has while being on a ton of hay a night alongside two feeds was extremely terrifying and very worrying. Of course as anyone else would, I put his health and well-being first no matter whether it meant I would be strapped for cash or my friends would just not get Christmas presents this year, this was a painful sacrifice I was willing to make (and if you know me, you know how much I love Christmas, so that was not easy). 

On top of all of these stressful factors, John is not in any way, shape or form easy to load. I knew this before we bought him and so this was always in the back of my mind but he could not carry on losing the condition he was, it was just not fair to him and at one point I actually came to a choice where by I had to find him a new yard, or sell him because he simply was just not happy and it was not fair to keep him where he was whether that was hard for me or not.

In the end, I decided to hire out a 3.5 ton lorry to move him and this was after the hectic job of finding a yard in the first place! 

Safe to say, it was not an easy task. People asked me constantly running up to moving day if I was 'excited', I am going to honestly say, no, no I was not, I wanted to hide in a corner and let someone else deal with all of that and come out when John had settled and everything was fine. Unfortunately, horses don't work that way and if you know my pony at all, you will know he will put his heart into everything for me but will not trust anyone else at all whether he knows them well or not. 

All in all, it took us an hour and a half to load him and I know it may sound incredibly stuck up, when I say us, I mean mainly me with some assistance from Beff holding a feed bucket. 

Moving day was the most terrifying experience of my life, I won't lie. Once John was on, and this was after the massive amount of tantrums we had and tears followed by cuddles, he absolutley freaked out that he could not get off and frankly so did I watching him stress. I burst into tears and had to run off in the opposite direction and I can honestly say my Mum has never hugged me like that before, it was horrible. While I was pulling myself together, Emma was attempting to calm John down, but like I said, he knows he is my pony and so I told myself to grow a pair and go and help my horse who was clearly having a worse time than I was. 

As I expected, once I stood on the other side of the partition, in the back of the lorry and started talking to him, he settled and we managed to set off with one very exhausted owner and one very stressed pony. 

The little sod traveled perfectly. He chilled out incredibly quickly and just munched on his hay for the most part while I sat in the back thinking "Why did I buy this pony?! Oh yeah! Because we are the exact same, unfortunately." while being eternally grateful to have a pony on a box and going to a place. By the time we had got 5 minutes down the road I was able to check my phone to see I had messages from friends which were sent around half an hour to an hour before asking if he had settled... the answer definitely was a big fat no. 

Once we got there, he dragged me off the box but I knew that was going to happen no matter what and he was still better than when he was delivered where he had sedalin as well. So that was a proud moment for me. He was a pain to try and change his rug and take his wraps off but I cannot blame him because he was very confused and very stressed. He then walked down the field fine, a little on edge and a little bouncy but there were lots of new friends to meet so I can understand that. He went out and had a small trot around, met the locals, saw the sights and then just ate and ate and ate. I've never seen a pony so happy about a field of grass before, it was just so relieving to see him in a field again. 

Since his first night, he's been fab overall. Things are still a little scary but he's getting there and he has the brain of a 4 year old so I forgive him for most things. He will get there with time but I can proudly say he is now feeling better than ever, has put all his weight back on (but some more still to go until he's where I would like him to be) and was moved to his home using no aids, no calmers or sedatives but a good old feed bucket and a ton of praise.

Here's to the (hopefully less stressful) future!

Will share some pictures soon as may have some super duper exciting however top secret news to share!