WRC Ribbon Day - 21st august

Took Scotty to the WRC ribbon day yesterday - his first competition since September 2009 and he was good. Took a little while to get onto the float - and over the course of the weekend he had to get on 3 times, so it was good to practise. As soon as we get the bum rope in place he generally goes on - but will keep working on it!

At the ribbon day Scotty started with Passage and snorting like a dragon! Was excited to be out and about again! Only a couple of bucks in the ring and we came home with three 2nds, one 3rd, two 4ths and three 5ths. I entered him in the afternoon with the jumping but only stayed for three classes as I felt he'd be a good boy and a whole day out might be too much, although he handled the whole day quite well. Will hopefully get a season calender some time soon so will be able to see what future events to enter him into.

Also got Scotty measured today for the season, he measured at 161.5cm's - roughly 16hh. A bit smaller then I thought he was (I always assumed 16.2hh) but good news, less far to fall!

Arena ride today & off for schooling soon

I hired the neighbours arena today and attempted to lunge scotty, he was all over the place, so gave up and got on him. He really lacks bend and gets quite tense when I ask him to leg yield, he's lost the basics so it was a challenging ride today. His reaction to tension is to buck, or throw his body around, not hugely, but gets quite off track.

I've asked some people if he could go to them for a month to be schooled later on (probably september) as I don't have the time (or is it patience?) to work through these issues at the moment, with having started a new full time job and continuing to ride other horses. I also think I am not consistent with my aids so I probably don't help his cause!

I think I've ridden Scotty about 6 or so times now, and its all road riding, there is no where else to go.. which means I get to put up with crazy drivers who seem to not even notice they are speeding past a horse. A few slow down which is kind but far out - the amount that don't? Insane! The weather is miserable, last thing I feel like doing really is riding but I need to build Scotty's fitness levels, so road riding it is! I rode him to a friends place this morning to say hello, Scotty gets so fidgety all the time, throwing his head around and wanting to do something. Never heard of 'standing still'. Was trying to take a pxt (next to the horse road sign) and he was trying to tank off at a trot! Think I got the picture, lets go home! He was quite tense today, tried a buck or two when I first got on - what i've found is if I sit on him without moving for a few minutes he is ok, if I get on and try to start riding straight away he bucks, he also took fright at a horrible german shepherd that came screaming up to the fence as well - gave me a fright too!

First ride!

Got on Scotty for the first time since I got him back - if I was the last person to ride him it would have been 10 months since he'd last been ridden. He was perfect! He is normally quite cold backed and bucks when you first get on, or is tense but today he was lovely. Went on a short road ride with him - it wasn't the most ideal setting for our first ride but I didn't organise an arena to potter around in in time - so just trusted he'd be a good boy! Was nice to be back on board. He also had his feet trimmed yesterday so hopefully we are all in tip top shape to begin the long slow process of fitness work - right in the beginning of winter! Hooray!

He badly needs a sheath cleaning too..lots of gross smega, *almost* feel like paying the vet to sedate him and get them to do it!

Teeth!

So on Saturday Scotty had his teeth done by Kristina Naden (www.horsedentist.co.nz) It had been probably around 4-5 years since his teeth had last been done so I was really curious to see if leaving them that long had done any damage.

Kristina and the vet got all set up in the stables with a long extension cord out to the stables only to find (after Scotty had been sedated) that the cord was giving Kristina shocks... so we had to move the whole set up and Scotty out onto my landlords back yard and use the old swing set up (kids playground thing) which you can see in the photos.

It was certainly interesting watching the power tools, I'm used to old school rasping - Scotty was pretty well behaved (and sedated), he was infact rather cute, snoring at times. I'm so happy he's had his teeth done now as I want him to be comfortable - and I noticed the difference in him eating hay - the grinding noise he had been doing had disappeared.

New Jim Jams

Scotty's new jammies arrived and I had to take a photo before the cover gets covered in mud!! I should have put it on tonight (as he is wearing his inbetween) after reading that north Auckland is going to get lashed in rain but figured I'll do it in the morning, bring him in and put the nice warm ones on before the whole day of nasty rain is supposed to be upon us.

The landlord and I took the horses for an inhand walk along the road this afternoon. I was well impressed with how Scotty is with traffic now. Kudos to his old owner. When I first had him he almost killed us one day when I was riding him on the road. He swung out infront of a concrete truck which was going WAY too fast, I honestly don't know how he missed us. But I was really happy to see he's gotten ten times better - I tired to ease his traffic phobia when I first had him but I think living on a state highway, no matter how much I tired, traffic was fast and barely ever slowed. I'm also looking forward to road rides with Nic and Rachel (who happen to graze not far from me) when I do get on him. I want to buy this 1/4 sheet to ride in from Tackshop that is bright yellow with silver reflectors on it...they'll see me a mile away!

You spin me right round baby, right round..

I decided to give Scotty a quick lunge tonight after I got home, and wooo hoo, he hooned around, bucked and carried on, probably the first time in awhile he'd done much work, he settled after a while and is great - still has all the voice commands down pat, worked up a little sweat, kept it under 10 minutes. He's probably thinking, damn it, this lady means business! I do wonder if he remembers who I am!