During my last lesson on Legacy we used poles to switch it up a little. Although I pretty much understood what was wanted of us after a tester warm up round. It took me a while to translate it over to Legacy. 

What we did with the poles;

On a 20 circle I would either go on the inside, over or on the outside of the fan of poles. Then on the set of 2 poles I would go between the fence and poles, between the 2 poles or on a smaller circle between the fan of poles and the 2 poles. 

I did this exercise in trot on both reins and my instructor would say what she would want us to do with the next set of poles as we finished one set. For example I would go between the gate and the poles and then over the fan of poles. Sometimes she would leave it a little longer so I would have to react fast and get Legacy working quickly and effectively. We struggled with this a little in the beginning because it took a while to get Legacy into a nice rhythm, she would be running along in trot. When she's at this pace I never know to kick her on to keep her going or slow her down to steady her I'm fear she's going to think I'm asking her to canter or if she'll stall on me. I had to try get her into rhythm without showing her I'm worried about what she's going to do. 

Even when you think you've got Legacy working at a good speed you still have to be on the ball and concentrating on her at all times or she will just give up and go back to walk or even just stand there. There was a few times I lost my stirrups and took my concentration off of Legacy to sort these out during the trot and she was back to walk. 

So the stirrup situation is something I'm going to work on, through my position and possibly trying out the cheese grater stirrup grips so help with my losing stirrup problem.

At the end of the lesson we did a little canter on each rein, this is something that Legacy needs to work on a lot as she's not balanced at all, and I don't feel like she's balanced enough to get any benefit out of being cantered on the lunge. So in my sessions with her when I feel like I've got her in a good trot I will ask her for canter but only do a few strides then bring her back and continue doing this as she gains balance. Another thing she needs to learn is that when she comes back down from canter to trot is to keep working and not just die down back to walk.  

I really enjoyed doing this exercise with Legacy and it was nice to get her working over poles. This is something I would do again with her on my individual schooling sessions with her. 

Horslyx Respiratory Lick Review

This review is a Cloudy based one. The reason I chose the respiratory lick is because Cloudy has been known to suffer with choke and will cough throughout the winter when in the stable depending on how dusty it is. So the reason behind choosing this is because it's designed to provide a unique approach to supporting the respiratory system. The ingredients such as menthol, eucalyptus and aniseed supports the airways and helps keep them clear of mucus which helps the horse breathe more easily. The minerals such as Vitamins C & E, selenium, chelated copper and zinc in the balancer package help maintain immunity which then helps support and aid a healthy lung function. 

The high oil content helps for healthy skin and coat while the Biotin, zinc and methionine helps with healthy hooves. 
The 2 main reasons to why I chose this one for Cloudy are:

• If your horse is prone to coughing or any respiratory compromise, Respiratory Horslyx Balancer can support the body’s natural defense mechanism.
• For horses that are stabled for long periods of time, Respiratory Horslyx Balancer can help maintain healthy breathing and lessen the chance of ill-health affecting performance levels.

After the first night of giving Cloudy the lick this is how I found his stable the next morning. Safe to say he'd had some fun fighting with the lick to get it out. Please excuse the mass amount of poo in this picture, this was on a bad night haha. After retrieving and trying to clean the lick the best I could, I paired up the licked with it's container again for him. The next night he'd managed to get it out of the pot again and hide it in a pile of hay, thankfully the third night he had it, it stayed in the pot. 
After all the fighting with it to get at it I'm sure he loved the lick. I was also told that he had brown patches on his nose from where he was getting in there to get at the lick.  

Now although Cloudy loves these licks, Legacy isn't that keen on them. I bought her one after the Nettex one's she used to have stopped being sold in my place of work so I thought I'd try her out with the original one. She has licks in her stable to try keep her occupied while she's in there for a long period of time. This is mainly because she gets stressy and starts to box walk and crib bites. When I first put down the Original tub she went over for a little smell, but wasn't majorly bothered with it. I thought she'd take a few days to try it out, but it ended up just staying in her stable gathering dust. In the end I had to throw it as it had gone to bad to give to Cloudy.  

These licks are great if you have a horse that's not needing any food and is on a good forage diet. These can supply all the vitamins & minerals needed for a balanced diet for them. They are weather-proof which is great for being used in the field as well as the stable. 
They come in 3 different sizes
- 650g which lasts 3-4 days
- 5Kg which lasts 20-25 days
& 15Kg which lasts 60-75 days 
The length of time they last depends on the size of your horse and how much they use it for. 
They also come in 4 different flavours Original, Respiratory, Garlic & Mint.

The average prices for them are:
 650g one is £3.50 - £4.50
5kg one is £14.00 - £16.00
& 15kg one is £28.99 - £34.00

The original is the cheapest one and then the flavoured or specialised ones are more expensive. 
You can also get a stable holder for the 5kg tub, and a ground holder for the 15kg tub.

Here are 2 sites I've found which sell a range of the Horslyx.
Naylors Equestrian & Countrywide Farmers

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