What I've been up to with my riding (:

In the last week or so, I've been to Pony Club (became an official member as of yesterday! :D ) and we've had some seriously bad moments. There are videos on Facebook but I don't know how to public link them cause I don't want the whole world to go through my Facebook profile :O. But basically we went to PC on Sunday, in Showjumping my pony was sooo naughty, and was just a massive explosion of energy as soon as I turned her towards a pole on the ground. Plus we kicked two instructors (whoops) and had many, many spaz moments. Thirza redeemed herself a little in flatwork with Kerri. Eventually came on the bit, worked on laterals and our canter rhythm. Must improve our canter rhythm as it is extreeemely messy!! Since Sunday I have been and bought a new running martingale, a new crop and a hanoverian band for my bridle to keep Thirza's 'gob shut'. I've included a photo of one of Thirza's infamous bucks....

Over & Out, 
Love Emilia xox

Changes

So I've decided that this blog is just going to be simply about my riding & experiences & my time while I have Thirzie. :) 


So to kick it off, this was today's ride: 

1. A few laps of walk in each direction with random halts (achieved first square halt ever! but there was also 4-5 bucks).
2. Leg yielding in walk, but Thirzie decided to trot during in this and buck repeatedly. We have to work on this because I know she can do it. 3-4 yields in each direction in both trot and walk, but majority in trot with a few bucks. 
3. 3-4 laps of trot in both directions, working on calmness, head carriage and corners. Have to improve the head carriage majorly, as this is raised a fair bit to start with, a light contact maintained. 
4. 20m trot circles, at A, and another one at E. Worked fairly well considering she hasn't been ridden all week. 
5. 3-4 laps of canter in both directions with no bucks whatsoever. Two wrong canter leads, this needs to be improved. Another improvement to be made is the falling in, but I think this is associated with the wrong lead. 
6. Cool down as she was being good and it's better to leave it on a good note. Plus pony was sweating, so 3-4 laps of walk to cool down. 

^ a photo in the paddock today. 

Naw Thirzie Dirzie

My pony is so gorgeous. She tries so hard for me....although not detailed in this photo as she was trying to run out, but she really does. Today we started with flatwork with a small jump in the centre of the arena, and we warmed up and did a few leg yields with many a bucks but we got there in the end. Then we started jumping, just a cross bar with a tyre underneath a tyre standing up. We probably did 6 or so times over the crossbar, and the a small pole was raised on one side before it got put up to a straight bar. She was so good, not one refusal or run out...(I think she was apologising for Tuesday's embarrassing performance). 

A Challenge.

Day 01 – A paragraph about yourself.

Day 02 - A hobby.

Day 03 – A thing thats on your mind.

Day 04 – A goal.

Day 05 – A person you miss.

Day 06 – A blog.

Day 07 – A picture of you when you were little.

Day 08 - A pet peeve.

Day 09 – A show.

Day 10 – A insecurity.

Day 11 – A actor.
Day 12 – A thing that worries you.

Day 13 – A list of favorite memories.

Day 14 – A bad habit.

Day 15 – A wish.

Day 16 - A picture you took.

Day 17 – A secret.

Day 18 – A thing your afraid of.

Day 19 – A recipe.

Day 20 – A picture of your “crew”.

Day 21 – A dream you had recently.

Day 22 – A thing you do every day.

Day 23 – A meme.

Day 24 – A topic that makes you think.

Day 25 – A song.

Day 26 – A thing you want to do before you die.

Day 27 – A thing that makes you mad.

Day 28 – A quote.

Day 29 – A place that gives you wanderlust.

Day 30 – A future.

Thirzie Pony

Thirzie (otherwise known as thirza) is the most amazing pony to walk this earth. She is moody, grumpy and old but deep down she's lovely. She's taught me a lot in the small 6 months of me owning her, from how I can't make her do anything, to learning how to actually get on with her kicking out. 


Thirzie is a 14hh, 15 year old Clydesdale Welsh Cob cross. She is often extremely fat, (especially when i haven't had the chance to ride her for a week!) but i think if she shrunk, i'd be too big for her. I bought her from Leslie Vale, from Marcia who owned her for roughly around two years. 


Firstly we were out at richmond at my old riding school, but that was way overpriced and wasn't that great. so we drove up the drive of bowen banks and jen said she had a spot and ta daaa, we moved to bowen banks. i'm so glad we moved there cause it's heaps closer to pc, and other places. we've jumped about grade 3 over the log near the bottom arena (and in my opinion jen needs to get more xc & sj stuff!) and we've done quite a fair bit of training there. yeah some of the people that ride there piss me off (like majorly) but its worth it. plus i can get fit and loose weight walking to her paddock cause its like a kilometre long, and her paddock is like 5 acres.....


The trip to bruny with ash & thirzie was pretty good, except for the reeeeaaally long two hour float trip. riding on the beach, riding around our 38 acres, riding out on the track, to the beach at home (till we got kicked off the beach!) and yeah. Lots of fun :)

So our first comp was at Huntingfield and was an ODE. Grade five was a fail. ahhaha, no practise, no idea what it would be like. but we rocked up and yeeeaaah. eliminated in dressage, eliminated in showjumping, and scratched from x country. 

then we decided we'd go to pc, woooow, she was simply amazing. she loved it! for a seriously non social horse, she was social! very funny to watch her try to get away with bucking during flatwork, but she was amazing at jumping and games and more jumping in the afternoon (about 70cm!) and yeah. I love my pony.

PC for the very first time

Bruny Island <3

that kid named Soph Evans

there's that kid called soph evans who is amazing. she's like a simply awesome rider (and most likely be a pro and ride for the australian team when she's older cause she's just that amazing) and her horsie Georgie is the cutest horsie going around :) 


best ever quote from soph: 


‎'Was that you trying to canter during the flat'?
'Haha, erm, yes..'


ahahaha, makes me laugh every single time kiddo :) 


that soph kid is so amazingly pretty, that even Jen Hawkins is scared to go on the cat walk because soph out does her in the prettyness section (don't even know that there is a prettyness section but anyways..) 


to sum that soph kid up, she is amazing, stunningly gorgeous, and is the most amazing rider. 


I LOVE SOPH EVANS <3

The Long Weekend

K, so I spent two out of my four days watching horse riding. Not just any horse riding, but state pc trials (and for you that don't know what the abbreviation "pc" is, it means pony club). Some of the kids that rode were pretty amazing, while others were just simply not. There were some pretty nice & humble kids there, but once again, there were spoilt, rich, demanding kids, that if their horse wasn't ride, would blame the horse and the parents and demand a different horse. I'd love a $5000 horse, but in reality I or my parents just can't afford that. Wow, and the saddles, expensive, 1000's of dollars worth in amazing saddles that are "designed to improve you & your performance". ppppffffttt yeah right. 


Haha, one day I can imagine myself competing at these things, but not on Thirza. She's too old, too small and really just doesn't have the temperament. I certainly couldn't do anything above grade 4. 


Anyways, back to the complaining about kids & rich kids. Woooow, there were quite a few little people on MASSIVE horses. And by massive, I mean, people who are what, 5 foot 3 are on freaking 17 handers! Maaan, I'd be too scared to jump nearly a metre (or over a metre for that fact) on a huge horse that is a looooong way to the ground if you fall. That's just seriously wrong and totally asking for trouble. I mean, what if the horse bolts, you're not ever going to have control over that beast. And that small like person my age on a 17hh percheron, who rides something that big when you're smaller than me! And then there's those kids that piss me off the most. The one's that actually FORCE the horse over the jump, whacking it with the whip, kicking like there's no tomorrow, and oh, to top it off, yelling at it, "GET UP!", I'm not sure that really works. Most of those ones happen to have some of the worst positions, and plus, they all have  spurs on....umm I thought western riders wore spurs? OR really really really really really experienced riders that have ridden for like 15 years! K, not really criticizing the people that can actually ride (with spurs), but if you know you have an unstable lower leg, why wear spurs that could potentially hurt your horse? 


Those riders that flew round that slippery spot today, and nearly risked their horses falling, all for what? A few seconds shaved off their time and to beat their main rivals? I honestly think thats stupid. That poor grey horse with the rider that just couldn't slow him down, really shouldn't be riding. That poor grey horse, I wouldn't be surprised if the rider said to their mum that they didn't want that horse anymore because it was too injured and they couldn't be bothered resting it and just want to compete compete compete. 


END OF RANT!


I must say congratulations to all the fantastic riders who did an amazing job of keeping their horses together and did well :)