Lilly-Lou <3

Lilly has always had issues with being pushy and having a lack of manners but she's really bad with leading in from the feild. She pulls me like crazy, yesterday I was leading her in and she snatched the rope out of my hands and just bolted off with the other horses around her galloping and bucking with her. I have a pressure headcollar which helps but she still pulls, tucks her head and prances around. The other issue is that there's a lot of mud and it's been raining nearly nonstop for nearly 2 weeks, somehow she manages to get mud all up her legs and her belly. Her legs have to be hosed off every night when she comes in, thing is that she won't stand still, she spins round where she's tied even if your stood in the way. She just doesn't care. All of the other horses stand and don't even have to be tied but she has to be tied and held and even then she carries on. It's super embarrassing having the only horse that won't stand completely still. She just lacks respect to be honest, I've had her for 8 months, she came from a dealer, she's 6 so still a baby but those are no excuse for her behaving like she is. She's nearly knocked me over, stood on me and she's made me pull muscles in my arms and back because she just pulls constantly. To hose her feet off it takes about 10 sometimes 15 minutes, it's ridiculous. She's an angel to ride, very rare for her to misbehave now but on the ground either just normal leading and things or lunging she just doesn't care and just has no respect. Help? I can't ask my trainer since she's in the middle of race season. She never liked her feet or head being touched before but she's fine with it now, it's just leading and hosing really.

Well merry christmas everyone :) Not really a real question but what did you get for christmas that's horse related?

I got:

ARIAT boots and chaps.

I ride in knee high socks so 2 pairs of them.

A hundred pairs of gloves haha.

A brown headcollar with fur of the nose and head band, so cute.

A new Flip camera so i can get better videos of me and her :)

And possibly one of my favourite presents is a baby pink, square saddle pad which my mum took to an embroidery to have Lilly stitched in in silver.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31972645&l=1...

Also if you got anything for your horse/horses what did you get for them?

For Lilly she got an extra scoop of feed and a stocking on her door full of carrots, apples, sugar cubes and polos. We spoil her rotten to be honest but hey it's her first christmas with us and she's been in for over a week now because the snow and ice isn't letting us get down to her field.

I went all out to make it easy for you guys, one at normal speed, one slowed down once, slowed down again and a still image.

Please bare in mind that Lilly is still only learning how to jump, this is a little bigger than usual and i've had a month or so off jumping. Also she's only 6. But you can still critique and generally be a perfectionist about my riding, just please put it nicely. Meaning say what i'm not doing and only give constructive criticism so give me some tips on how to fix it rather than just saying this is rubbish, you shouldn't be jumping, etc.

I forgot to cut the music off so when it goes black the video is over.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grohoOJd9K8

Well i went up to the yard today with a very nice camera and took some photo's of lilly and christmas-ed her up a bit. How about this for festive spirit?

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=17525192564...

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=17525170964...

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=17525208965...

I just couldn't resist taking it to the yard with me this morning to get a few photos to mark our first christmas together :) she wasn't overly keen on standing still to have these taken i must say!

Anyway any photo's of your horse that are christmassy/funny? When i say christmassy it can just be your horse in the snow or something, just get us all in to the christmas spirit :)

Well i hate questions like these because they don't really help anyone but i'm insanely bored so i'm going to be nosey and ask you what you've been up to today?

So i finished my christmas video that i've been making of Lilly and our progress in just over 5 months. Also took her for a gallop today and jumped her 4 holes bigger than usual, i feel like a proud parent because she just jumped it so well. So what have you been up to?

Here's the video if any of you are interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pjxeJNVC5Y

The clips are all in order from the first few days to today when i jumped her and did some canter poles with her.

Usually I only ride for half an hour or so if i'm riding in the arena just because going around in a lot of circles gets kind of, well.. boring. If I'm out hacking an hour tops. And distance wise.. around 2-2.5 miles. But this week the arena is frozen rock solid, i tried kicking the sand and nearly broke my toe. Anyone who has ever wanted to like in England... You don't. Today I was lucky enough to get to hack Lilly out though because the roads weren't icy for the first time in around a week. Since I didn't know how long I would have to wait until I can next ride I decided to make it extra long. Yeah we hacked out for about an hour and a half and covered nearly 4 miles (3.8 to be exact!) For a pony that hasn't really been worked very hard these past couple of months (long story, she's just been used at a walk with a bit of trotting on short hacks) she handled it really well. Especially since I pushed her into trot up any hills I could find apart from one which i just went into jumping position and let her walk up. She was sweating from her neck to her hind legs though and steaming. And the best thing? We went out alone! Just us two, no other horses, no one on foot. She was amazing, had a couple of hissy fits where she just stopped dead and refused to go forwards so threw in a few lateral movements instead and one or two when she saw a youngster who she's got very close to.. I mean they lick each other and race each other up the fence that's between them. But yeah, last time I went out without another horse I ended up hitting the tarmac so it was an accomplishment to get back without getting off/falling off and to have covered that far alone too... Hehe I had my doubts about her I must admit, but after today I think she'll be just fine eventually.

Anyway, how long do you ride for? And how much distance do you cover while out of the barn? I'm curious to see if i'm just odd?

Also, what can i do with Lilly while this horrible icy weather is here? There's no snow, it's just ice and the arena is barely usable, one end is still usable but I'd just rather not risk injury to be honest. So what can I do? I can't use water, there's 4 barns on the yard I'm at and only one of them has their water supply working, the others have been turned off because they're completely frozen and also to stop water from running down the yard. It's so cold here that i used a brush and water to "sponge" Lilly down tonight, put it outside the barn for about 15 minutes and it was actually *frozen* to the ground! So yeah what can I do other than riding with her? I'd quite like to do some bombproofing with some tarp, a plastic bag and a beach ball or something. I think that would be a bit of an experience for her since I'm pretty sure no one's ever done it with her. But I want some other ideas?

So Lilly is at the point in her jump training where cantering in and out of the jump is the next lesson. I was wondering whether I should just canter her over a single cross pole and when she has that down canter in to a vertical. Or if I should lay canter poles down, canter her over the poles and then raise the last one into a cross pole and then raise it to a vertical? I've cantered her into a vertical once or twice but I was just wondering whether laying poles down would help her or just make it more difficult and confusing for her?

Also when I trot into jumps she trots out too when I want her to learn to canter out, I use leg and drive her forward but she just doesn't understand that when she lands she's meant to canter straight away not a few strides after the jump. When I cantered in she cantered out so I guess it's just she doesn't know that when she trots in she's meant to canter out. She's only 6 and has only been jumping for about a week of her whole life if i add up all the days i've jumped her so i know this isn't disobedience it's just lack of understanding and training. So how do I teach her that she's meant to pick up the canter as soon as she lands after trotting in?

Would you rather:

1. Do stable duties, etc or ride?

2. Ride in the Spring/Summer or Fall/Winter?

3. Have a bridle or saddle?

4. Have a horse or pony?

5. Have a mare or Gelding?

6. Ride English or Western?

7. Ride competitively or pleasure ride?

8. Do high speed/risk riding (barrel racing, showjumping, etc) or happy hacking/trail riding?

9. Be very rich but only have time to ride once/twice a week or only just be able to scrape enough money to get by but ride any time you wanted?

10. Board at a big barn with a lot of facilities but can be a bit snobby or a smaller barn with maybe just an arena or round pen but aren't very snobby at all?

My answers:

1. Stable duties, grooming etc. Great bonding time.

2. Fall/Winter. I like the cold and Lilly likes stomping through the leaves to the point where she will just choose to cross the road to walk through them.

3. Bridle. I need control with Lilly, at least if i have a bridle I can just get used to riding bareback.

4. Pony definitely. I just love their stubborn natures and the pride I get when I succeed in getting them to do what they were being defiant about.

5. Gelding. Just find them more willing. Lilly shows her opinion about doing things with her sighing, snorting and swishing her tail or just point-blank refusing. When I had my old pony he'd just have ago at it anyway without voicing his opinion. Less stressy.

6. English. I've never tried Western but I just like English because of the jumping and I like the look of English saddles more.

7. Well I pleasure ride/school Lilly right now, but we're schooling for the show season next year which will be my first ever time competing.

8. I do a bit of both, but I definitely rather do jumping and going full pelt through fields and bridle-paths over just going for a casual walk and trot ride.

9. The second definitely, in fact that's how it is right now really. If I couldn't ride Lilly more than once or twice a week I think i'd rather sell her to a home where she was ridden all the time but that's just because she's a pony that gets pent up energy badly.

10. Bigger barn. I can just ignore the snobby comments from other people, as long as Lilly gets the training and use of facilities needed then that's all the matters to me.

Well I'm not in school today and i'm pretty bored so have any of you got Youtube videos of you and your horse/s? I'm having withdrawal symptoms because my mum has taken Lilly over until I catch up on all of my overdue school work. So Youtube is where i'm getting my horse fix from.

Mine:

http://www.youtube.com/user/charlystarly24?feature...

So I need a decent camcorder that picks up colour and has good quality. It's to film horse riding so it needs to stay focused with movement. Any ideas? Not too expensive though, my limit is about £150 (around $200?) Thanks.

Well Lilly has come on so much it's quite unbelievable to think how far me and her have come. Thinking back to my first few weeks of owning her i never would have thought that she'd be jumping, or that i'd still have her for that matter!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31808019&l=8...

I know it isn't very big but considering what she was like when in the first few weeks (taking off and ditching me on the road, napping, generally being a cow.) I am so impressed with her. And myself for getting back on after falling pretty much weekly for that matter. Ponies, gotta love 'em!

For those who haven't seen how she was: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfGTle8Rgr0

Lilly is only 6 years old, she came to us having NEVER having her teeth done, she had ulcers all over her cheeks and gums and was not vaccinated against tetanus of equine flu. We reckon she's only been broken for riding use for a year or so and broken for cart before that which is why she isn't scared of traffic at all. We think she had never been schooled before she came to us let alone jumped. Which leads me to the question...

Lilly has done trot poles, small cross poles and some small verticals in a small course of 3 jumps. We've only been trotting both in and out of the jumps but i have cantered her into a vertical a couple of times. If she's asked to trot into the jump then she'll trot out, if i canter in she'll canter out. I want to start getting her into the mode of cantering out no matter what gait she's in before and I was wondering how to introduce that to her? I can't have a lesson until after christmas now because as most of us know, horses aren't the cheapest to keep especially over a cold winter.

The other thing is working on impulsion? So I know how to get it and i can get it out of her in canter on the flat sometimes but i really need some more coming into jumps. Her attention span is that of a goldfish so keeping her listening to me fully is a nightmare at times. She goes over the jumps better in canter from what i've tried, it's obviously easier for her to do it in canter than trot. But I want to get impulsion coming into the jumps, it's not that I don't know how to do it, it's more about getting her confident and on the right day. She has her off days where she's just not willing to try or has a low confidence but then the next day she might be ready for anything i put in front of her. I jump her while she's on the lunge and she clears 2'6" at trot quite nicely. It's probably because she has to think about me being the rider and what i want from her along with her balance and what to do with herself. If that even makes sense? I've been jumping the same height for about a month or so now and I feel like she has more confidence going in at canter it's just that she doesn't know what to do when she canters in. Skip to about 1:10 if you don't want to watch it all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRF2Y9JYRM8&feature...

She sort of canters then trots then canters and then trots again. I sort of went off topic, but I want to work on impulsion? She jumps better cantering in because it's easier for her than trotting in but she's still working out what to do with her feet. I'm not afraid of doing something new, I just don't want to rush her and ruin her confidence forever so feel free to tell me if I'm taking it too fast? I just feel like we're both getting bored of doing the same thing again and again and just need something new to do.

So help with impulsion into jumps but also impulsion in trot all together. She can be a bit more laid back and near enough "jogging" when she trots sometimes so i want her more forward going with more impulsion both on the flat and jumping at trot?

Okay I'm 5ft 3 and slim and, even though prom isn't until May I'm getting excited about it so decided I'd start deciding what style of dress I want. I really want a knee-length dress because not many people get them in my school, most get the princess dresses. Not to mention I'm quite comfortable with my legs being on show. People say that princess dresses tend to "drown" shorter people and that shorter one's will do the opposite and help to elongate the legs. I just wanted your opinion on what kind of dress to get.

I really like this sort of thing:

http://www.coast-stores.com/ALLURE-SHORT-DRESS//-/...

Lilly is being a retard in the arena. She's always had a problem with napping at the gate when she went past it which is easily overcome with a bit of leg but now she's decided that she wants to be clever about getting to the gate. We will be cantering clockwise and the gate is in the bottom right corner, she'll get to the top left corner and will do a sudden U-turn back to the gate. She's flipped me over her left shoulder twice by doing this, i'm never hurt and get right back on but it's just so frustrating because it keeps on pulling muscles in my shoulders and arms when she does it. It's gone from refusing to put a foot forward when she's at the gate to going forwards properly just straight back to the gate. Any ideas how to stop this? Before you state the obvious of outside rein, I do that and purposely keep it ever-so-slightly shorter for a bit more control but, as you can imagine, a young cob mare is a lot stronger than a teenage girl and she just pulls the rein from me. She's very... Strong willed, to say the least. I'm going to ask the yard owner/trainer as soon as i see her about it because if she did that at a show next summer i would be completely mortified. Any ideas to stop her from doing this? I'm working on an inside bend because she has a tendency of looking outside of the arena and losing all focus, just like most green 6 year olds who are kept on a busy training yard, but that's a bit difficult when they're being that naughty and taking an inside bend to the next level. It's like asking a young child to concentrate in a toy store.

Well me and Lilly had another lesson today, she did brilliantly. I took her around her first course, admittedly it was 2 jumps and a trot pole to make it a triangle. The jumps went from 6 inch cross poles to 1 foot straight/verticals by the end. I was so impressed with her, we only trot in to them right now, she ran through one cross pole because she didn't listen to me telling her to go forward but no refusals and she tried her little heart out. She wasn't even that safe to ride 2 months ago, in fact i wasn't riding her 2 months ago because of her biopsy, she'd never been in a school in her life about a month ago and now she's jumping 1 foot verticals in a course set up and she's really willing to learn. On friday the yard staff are going to take her up the gallops for me to see how she behaves and if she has brakes since the last time she galloped with a rider was with me, on a road, with no control and most of us know how *that* turned out! But i'm very proud of the little girl, she's hacking out in company perfectly, front or back, but only on roads until i trust her enough since i don't know what she's like in open spaces as of yet. She isn't backing in to cars any more which is great because that is a riders and car owners worst nightmare to have a horse backing up with them/in to their car.

Legit: If you could have any horse (apart from your own!) what would it be like? Colour, discipline, breed, gender, etc etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-F5sZly1is

I know my legs are terrible before the jump, no need to tell me that but today it was quite hot so i was really having to push her on so no need to comment about my legs before the jump. This is her second day ever jumping coloured poles under saddle and third day jumping in her entire life under saddle. The jump is about 6 inches hence why i didn't fold too much and didn't really release because it would be unnecessary. I know she barely jumped it really but 6 inches for a 14.2 pony isn't high enough for them to snap their legs up and considering how she was under 2 months ago this was quite an accomplishment as this wasn't in a lesson either. So yeah, crit over the jump, i know i didn't sit back soon enough after but that's one of my flaws when i ride over tiny jumps like that. So just crit over the fence itself please?

We jumped in our lesson yesterday! I'm so pleased with her. I will have had her for 2 months on the 5th and when i first got her she had pretty much been a hacking horse only, and it had to be in a group as she wasn't confident at all on her own to the point that she galloped home on the road and i fell on tarmac. We've had 4 lessons now and yesterday we started over poles under saddle and my instructor decided that we'd try a few small cross poles, about 6" or so but considering when we got her she didn't even have good brakes, wouldn't co-operate and wouldn't move forward (only back) this was amazing. No refusals of going over the brightly coloured poles and she didn't refuse the jumps or knock them down. Very proud of my little pony :D She's also picking up her canter leads better and her transitions to canter are much better, we can even canter figure of eights, trotting through the middle but even so! She still has her moments of course but yesterday she didn't put a foot wrong, even with the tractors bailing hay and going right past her on the other side of the hedge, she didn't spook at them or anything.

How was your last "horsey" day?

Well i was riding Lilly today (well it's 2am here but whatever.) and it was particularly windy. The trees and hedges were rustling and the wind was whistling too, not ideal conditions but it was finally a dry day. Bare in mind Lilly is only 6 years old, very green and very nappy. She spooks a lot in the school just because it's a brand new thing for her but a lorry can go past her on the road and she won't care. I killed the top of my arm from hanging on to her, it was quite funny and you can even hear me laugh at myself. Just thought i should share this with you guys, please no criticism. She's done the same thing before because a hedge moved and i stayed on then too. We're working on her spooking and napping still and also on her canter lead on the right lead, she's not comfortable going on the rein she was on anyway and it's the rein she has a problem on no matter what gait she's at.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lat6KeZ6B28

Have you ever caught any funny falls/near falls on camera before? This is the first we've caught on camera.

Sorry Laluna for stealing your question but i'm ecstatically happy and needed to share it with the world... Well, Y!A.

I got to ride Lilly today since i fell. We had a lesson with the yard owner, she's going so much better in a pelham and i had brakes! The plan is to have the pelham on her until she understands the aids of stopping, turning and to help her to learn to balance out, then we'll go back to a snaffle hopefully. I love how i can use really light hands with her when she's in a pelham though, that's a bonus because i only squeeze my fingers together and sometimes move my hand about a centimeter towards me and she and she turns rather than moving my hands too much. She went around perfectly, a bit unbalanced when she's cantering so she whizzes around as fast as possible but she's getting better. We only did simple flat work, 20 metre circles, figure of eights, changing the rein and i even managed to stop her from a trot to a stand still on X (middle of the school) and she was stood square, no backing up. She didn't play up once apart from slowing down at the gate a little but she's better than she was. I'm just annoyed with my own position now, my leg position is perfect apart from in the canter it comes back a bit but my body position and seat is fine. Then in trot it's the other way around, in trot i lean a bit too far back so i look stiff but my leg position is perfect and stays really still. I've got another lesson on her tomorrow, seems like two and a half hours of schooling has worked. She's also leading fine now, to the point where i can put the lead rope around the back of my neck and over my shoulders (not wrapped around of course, that would be stupid.) and when i go to catch her in the morning she comes to her name and walks over even if she's at the end of her field. Bless the little Lilly-kins. We also free jumped and jumped her on the lunge this past week, got up to a 2'6 vertical by the end.

Did you ride today?

Not sure if this question would need a legit question so i'll add one anyway:

What's favourite horse coat colour?

Well i just got in to a new relationship and he smokes. We're both 15 which is why it bothers me because to me it's his health that he's risking. Anyway, I've asked him to not smoke around me, mainly because if my mum smells smoke on me she'll think i've been smoking and she'd kick off about it or if she found out my boyfriend smokes she'll kick off about that too. A lose, lose situation basically. He's said that this is fine but i feel bad for asking him not to do it around me. I've never asked him to quit by the way, that would be out of order, even though i'd love it if he did. I think the main reason i feel bad is because smoking's an addiction so i feel kind of mean for asking him.

Anyway, if you were him would you be annoyed by that request?

My pony usually goes out at night and comes in in the morning, but today we left her out for the day. My mum will not stop hassling me about the risk of laminitis, this is her first day where she's been out all day in nearly 4 weeks. She's where she needs to be weight-wise and she was exercised pretty much 5-6 days this week (first week of being able to ride her.) She wants me to go up to check on her and then walk back 2 miles when i could just wait about 2 or 3 hours until she comes back from work and then i can get a lift back too. She wants me to go up sooner because she could get laminitis and she doesn't want to pay any vet bills which i understand, but she's staying out all night anyway so it really doesn't make any difference whether i wait a few hours or not. I need to skip out her stable but that only takes 5 minutes. She basically wants me to spend 10 minutes there and then walk back when i could go up later and get a lift back too. She's more of an outdoor horse as she chews the stable door and gets bored easily since she's still young (6 years old.)

Anyway, my little rant's over. What is the likely hood for a on-weight, getting a lot of exercise, 14.2 cob, who was out all day for 2 weeks before we got her, no past history of getting laminitis to get laminitis? The grass is fairly lush but it's not like i keep her out 24/7, just the one day. We're seeing about sectioning off the field so it's about half an acre anyway as she has just over an acre all to herself. She doesn't get any feed really, just a handful of chaff so we can get seaweed and garlic down her.