After some questions on the equestrian bloggers page I'm apart of on Facebook I decided to expand Adventures with an ex racer and create a Facebook page. I decided to create this page to keep everyone updated easier, as it will come up on their timelines. Also I know that not everyone follows me on twitter or Instagram so I think this will be great up put up some pictures, updates and thoughts.

You can find our new Facebook page here

And other social media links are:

Twitter - @xraceradventure

Instagram - @xraceradventure

Getting Back's Checked

Legacy and Cloudy had the back man out last week. This is something that was well over due for them both. I typically like to get them checked every 8-12 weeks. This is because they are both idiots in the field. Thankfully it's just Cloudy who's an idiot after I've put him out in the morning, Legacy just walks straight over to the haylage and will have the odd roll now.

The man who I have out to have a look at them has been doing them since I first got to the yard I'm on now, this is the 4th year using him and I've never had any problems after having him out and he's only ever been great with the 2 horses. He checks them all over, all down the spine, checking the poll, hips, legs, feet.

Legacy was first up and she had a sore tail bone and a dropped left hip. This is the first time that she's ever had a sore tail bone but it's a regular thing for her to have a dropped left hip. This must be something she does while being an idiot in the field. This typically never effects her when being ridden or she never really shows any pain from this. She can be lazy with her hind legs so maybe this could be contributing to this. The main time you do know when she's got something wrong with her hip is when you try to pick her back feet up. She will very much let you know that it's painful and I know it's bad but due to this I tend to leave the picking out her feet hind feet when I can, thankfully she doesn't have hind shoes on. Due to her hip she had to have a few days off work for the pain to go.

Cloudy was pretty good with his check over as he only had his poll out. Typically he will have his left hip dropped like Legacy and his arthritis with be showing in his foot, but this time he wasn't too bad. Super flex must be going a great job for him during the winter. Due to him only having his poll out he was fine to be ridden after but my mum wanted to give him a day off for him to get back to normal again. He was defiantly feeling better when he went out after as he was running rings around the field stopping for the odd buck, rear or roll. He even went over to Legacy who just went over to the haylage to try and get her involved but she didn't both and then he carried on.

Although there wasn't much wrong with either of them and there were no major issues in terms of pain riding before hand I'm going to make sure I don't let them both go 6 months without being checked again. The 2 times I've been thrown off of Cloudy have been due to back pain which could've been avoided if they were checked more often and that's even when they were done every 8-12 weeks. 

Do you get your horses backs checks? How often do you do it?

Aims for 2018

One of my aims for last year was to get Legacy doing the online dressage competitions in the ROR & beginners classes, unfortunately this was not something we managed to reach by autumn time when the ROR classes finished. This is now something I have rolled over to this year and my new aim is to get her ready over the rest of winter and start adding her to the classes some spring in the march - may months depending on how we're getting on. 

With this being our main aim for the year the other aim I'm wanting to do which can make the online dressage seem simple compared is to get Legacy's canter sorted this year, I'm going to be looking up loads of schooling exercises for when I'm riding and for us to do on the ground to get her balanced and holding herself in canter. Over the last couple of years it's been her trot that we've been establishing getting her being able to work into a rhythm. Outlines aren't something I'm majorly fussed about at this point with her, I'd rater her come down into an outline when she's happy rather than add on loads of gadgets and force her into one. There have been signs of her lowering her head and coming into somewhat of an outline once we've established a nice rhythm in a 20m circle trot, so I'm happy with this for now. As I said the main aim is now to get her canter balanced on both reins and have her working happily. 

Legacy's been having a nice rest over Christmas and the New Year as I'm finding it hard to get any motivation to ride in this cold weather, Not being able to feel my toes is not my idea of a fun or relaxing ride. Unfortunately the lack of motivation to ride has resulted in the lack of motivation to blog, hence why I've been MIA for a few weeks but both horses are getting their backs done Tuesday to have a fresh check over on everything. I'm really hoping with that and now writing this blog post I will get my riding and blogging mojo's back.

But we're on the up as the night's are getting longer and the morning's are getting lighter earlier. It won't be long before I'm putting the horses out to the sunrise at 7:30am soon.

Legacy's First Group Session

The other week Legacy had her first ever pole work lesson. Since I first got her she has come along way with working in the school with others. The first time we went into the school with another horse she thought the main aim was to race this horse. At this point I wasn't even working her, she was just standing in the corner trying to get her used to others in the school as I didn't know what she'd be like. Thankfully the other horse wasn't far off finishing in the school when we went in so I could just manage to keep Legacy calm enough for the others to finish and leave. 
When my mum got Cloudy she had no choice but to get used to working with others in the arena. When she would first go in with Cloudy she would get a little excited but it's something she got used to and is know completely fine with. Although I do feel she uses him as a distraction when she doesn't want to work and does her planting. 

As I've been having my weekly lessons on Legacy and we've been doing poles recently when the instructor had an idea of doing some group pole work lessons I thought this would be great for Legacy. 

There's a few reasons why I thought it would benefit her:
- She will learn to stop and start work without stopping meaning finishing.
- She will learn to have to work while others are around without getting distracted

This was the pole set up for the lesson, the poles on the left were set up as walk poles in the beginning then changed to a trotting distance further in the lesson. The pole in the middle was a small half pole which was used for one person at a time to do figures of 8 over to help supple up the horse. The poles on the right in the fan where first set up at a walk distance when changed to a trotting distance. The session first started out walking over the 2 sets of the poles to warm the horses up. After this one horse would go onto the middle pole. After doing this for a while a set of the poles were changed from walk to trot distance and we where then working in trot and walk. The fan of poles was then changed to trot as well so we were constantly working in trot. After that the exercise changed where a jump wing was put half way through the poles so when approaching the fan we had to choose if we were going over the wider part of the poles or narrower part. After that all the horses stood in the middle of the arena while they had their own turn going over the poles on their own, the other 2 horses did some canter work around the poles, Legacy just kept to trot. 

Over all Legacy wasn't too bad working with the other horses in the arena. She was a little pent up at the beginning playing up when I was walking her over the poles. I feel this was due to her not being worked for over a week rather than being in the arena with others. There was a couple of times where I did feel like I wanted to get off and give up on the group lesson with her, but after a little perseverance she calmed down and I stayed on and had the lesson. She worked well with the other horses and the only problems we had was that she was a bit stiff and was a bit awkward to get turning. There was a couple of times where she wanted to stop working and planted but after a little hit with the reins she was away working again. I'm really happy with the way she worked in this lesson and hopefully she'll keep it up when I school on my own or with my mum.

Winter Motivation

I'm definitely a fair weather rider so I find it hard to find the motivation to ride when the colder & wetter autumn/winter days hit. I don't mind the mucking out as I'm inside out of the rain and I warm up quite quick doing that. Especially starting off with about 4 layers on including a thermal base layer. 

This is the 4th winter I've had Legacy and she's been in every winter I've had her, but as she's on a livery yard they have always put her out in the morning and brought her in at night and given her food. After mucking out in the past winters I've always struggled to find the motivation to ride or even bring Legacy in for a groom as I liked her to spend as much time out in the field as possible, rather than cutting it short for a groom. This motivation wasn't even there on the days of the week I would muck out before work.

So this winter hoping it will give me a little more motivation to do more work with Legacy throughout the winter me and my mum have decided to put the horses out and bring them in ourselves. 

I will be the one up early to put them out, depending on what shift I'm doing in work I'll either be up at 6:45am or 6:15am to do them. The earlier time I'll just be putting them out and my mum will muck out and bring in after work. The later time I'll be putting them out and mucking out when my mum will bring in after work. 

I'm really hoping that having to put them out will give me that little extra get up and go in the mornings. If all goes to plan I'm also hoping that I could get a quick lunge in there for Legacy too so she keeps up with the workload, rather than being worked once a week if we're lucky on weather.  

How do any of you keep up motivation to keep your horses exercised throughout the winter?

The Trams Lines Exercise

Yes those lines in the image are poles, it was the best I could work up after forgetting to take a picture of the actual poles. Although this is something I might try doing in the future with pole work posts, then add in a picture of the actual poles too. If it came up to a more complicated exercise to explain I will be able to add in arrows etc to show which way we went.

What we did with the poles:

Throughout a circle that took up half of the arena we set out 3 pairs of poles. One in the middle of the arena (orange),  one by the entrance gate (blue) and the other in between them too (green). 

The exercise was to then go through the poles and around In a circle or oval depending on which two sets of poles we were going through. In this lesson I hadn't done any work with Legacy since the lesson the week before so on the rare occasion she was a little lively (she can normally go awhile without work and be fine when you get back on.) this toyed with my confidence a little and I'm going to be honest there was a few times I was ready to throw the towel in and say I wanted to get off.

Thankfully I had put my big girl breeches on that day and I fought through it. 

Before using the 2 outer sets of poles we did a few exercises between the blue and green sets of poles. At this point I was fine confidence wise with Legacy. 

Some of the exercises we did were:

- Go through the blue set of poles and then through the green set.

- Go through the blue set of poles and either go on the a inside or the outside of the set of green poles.

- Same as above but opposite way around. Going through the green set and either way around the blue set. 

These exercises were done on both reins. 

After that we started to incorporate the orange set of poles. Were we would do big circles from blue through orange and smaller ones in between of orange and green then blue and green.

It took us pretty much the whole lesson to get a nice rhythmic trot out of Legacy this day as she was very much running in her trot. My Instructor was very determined to get a nice trot out of her before the end of the lesson and to end the lesson on a nice trot aswell.

When we started to incorporate the orange poles was when Legacy started to heat up a little. I hadn't been this far down in the arena with her for a while as we'd been working in the top quarter to half in 20m circles and on a square/rectange that way I could always have a good amount of control of her.

The control when she starts to heat up is definitely a communication error rather than her needing another bit, something not fitting correctly, her not being happy etc. As when she does heat up my first Instinct is to stiffen and tense up and pull back on the reins slightly. Now I know that both of these are something I need to work on. In terms of the pulling on the reins this is also something we worked on in the lesson as the instructor told me to try intermittently slightly pull on each rein and that if she doesn't go off on me to send her into the arena fence a little by turning her head. I did manage to find some control of her by trying these out and maybe we'll get there when I stop stiffening up. 

The Funnel Exercise

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. 

Long and low

The main aim of my lessons in the last couple of weeks has been to get Legacy to work long and low and stretching down. In the past she's always had the typical racehorse head. When I ask her to do something she isn't keen on (like working) she will throw her head up, there's even been a few times where I thought she was going to hit me.

There has been a few times where I've got her working in a happy rhythm on the right rein on a 20m circle where she's started to stretch down before.

Since having my last lesson I've also started to think that I've been stopping her to allow to stretch down and drop her head by keeping her on short reins due to her running off when I've ask for trot before. Although once we've gathered a nice rhythm and I've been comfortable I have allowed her to work with long reins.

From what I've seen on the lunge she also seems to get into a rhythm much quicker on there and is willing to drop her head down. I'm not one for using different type of lunge accessories and gadgets, I'd rather her learn and work properly the natural way. I don't mind if that takes us much longer to get to, I'd rather the outline come naturally. 

In my last couple of lessons she's been working well with teaching her to stretch down, and the small set back we've had is me trusting her enough to ask her for trot on a long rein and her not running off with me. I'm fully comfortable to trust her about halfway through the lesson to change transition on a long rein when she's warmed up and listening. I'm still struggling to do this at the beginning though. This is something we'll both have to work on in the lessons and other schooling times.

The Windy Lesson

After last week's fall I had a chat with my instructor about what's going on with Legacy and we have come down to a possible answer of she's not getting worked enough. In the past she's never been the type of horse that does need to be worked constantly as I have left her out of work for 2-4 months before and getting straight back without another thought. But it seems to be that with us now having lessons she's starting to get into a routine of at least being ridden once a week, and she must be liking it. So after deciding that could be the answer to theso many questions of why? I had my fall on Tuesday then lunged her Thursday although she wasn't the most cooperative we sort of got there as when I changed the rein to lunge she came up lame.

I'd arranged another lesson with her on the Monday so I decided to give her until then to come up sound which she did. We just had some awful wind on the Monday and the 2 horses were bolting and doing laps around the field, just to give me that little bit of confidence just before my lesson, thanks Legacy. After explaining to my instructor what had just happened and knowing that Legacy could be a little spooky by the arena due to sheep trailers clanging in the wind I didn't want to get back on her in those conditions.

We decided to give her a lunge to see what type of mood she was in that day. After having a good lunge and not playing up once I decided that I would be brave enough to get on her. During the lesson she then went really well, she was a little slow and lazy and made me work to keep her going but I would much rather that than what I had last week.
Towards the end of the lesson she was stretching out and staring to lower her head, it felt a little odd for me to give her more reins so she could lower her head as I'm used to her ears nearly hitting me in the face. And we did some transitions where I didn't shorten my reins before asking for trot as this has become somewhat of a safety thing for me as I never know what she will do.

So it definitely feels like we're onwards and upwards now, myself and the instructor have decided on working Legacy 3 times a week. We feel this would be enough to get the energy out of her. I'm aiming to ride on my 2 days off and give her a lunge on either the Thursday or Friday. But obviously when it comes to the winter I will have to work harder at sticking to working her the 3 days and possibly not be so much of a fair weather rider. How that will go, I don't know. We'll have to see...

The Horse That Hates No!

I'm really starting to like that beginning half of that blog title, might actually be something I might carry on with. So today's events have again confirmed something I already knew, Legacy hates it when I tell her no. If you haven't gathered from any of my previous blog posts Legacy likes to get her own way and typically will find somewhat of a way to say no I want it this way if I tell her no. 
This is something which we have worked on, on the ground (the post The magic halter) and something she has surprisingly adapted to, but once again like in my previous post ( The horse that hates the school ) she isn't liking listening to me when I'm on her back.

After my last riding session and then lesson after went so well (We're back on track) I got on her to ride with confidence and motivation to get her working which started out well until we had a little hiccup of going the same way around a jump wing as my mum and Cloudy which once stopped she wouldn't turn away. After a little fight I got her out of the way of Cloudy and any crisis was averted until I got her back on the circle working and asked her for trot. She then said no I want to canter and it all went downhill from here. 

I said no to her and she didn't like that which resulting in her taking off with me around the arena diverting jumps and jump wings while I'm still trying to slow her down. I don't think she liked that I was still trying to tell her no at this point as she decided to stop rear upright to which I ended up holding around her neck, come back down for a small buck rear upright again but this time she did a bit of a jump forward as her back feet also left the floor then she went back down and did a bit of a body shake which finally got me off resulting in her throwing me against the arena fence just missing the 50/50 chance of landing on the horse on the other side of the fence in the field next to the arena. And amazingly she didn't come back down to stand on me because I spooked her on the floor. This is all what my mum told me what happened, I have no recollection of what happened from the point of thinking I'm coming off to when I'm back standing up after I've hit the floor.

I'm definitely feeling like it's 2 steps forward and 1 step back with her at the moment. If you weren't reading back when I first started blogging, she did the exact same to throw me off the last time she did it nearly 2 years ago now. This time is doesn't result down to her being in the stable at night and having loads of conditioning food like last time. Unfortunately it's not that easy to fix this time. 
I'm really thinking about getting someone in to sort her out and give her a 2-4 weeks schooling with someone who will show her who's boss and is strong enough to deal with her when she says no.

We're Back On Track...

The last 2 days I've ridden Legacy and I've managed to do more than just sit on her or walk her around in circles on the spot. Yesterday was just your average schooling session in the arena with my mum on Cloudy. I started out the session by trying out some starting suggestions I got over on facebook through the equestrian bloggers group and she was just doing the usual of stopping and throwing her head when she doesn't want to work. 

After feeling inspired from the comments over there I seen a whip on the side of the school and decided to give it another try. I never typically use whips on her as she must've had somewhat of a bad experience with them in the past as whenever you give her a tap on the bum to back up the leg she will try to kick your leg as to say 'get off'. So knowing that I decided to just show her the whip, and it actually worked. I didn't have to hit her with in once, she knew it was there. Each time I felt she was going to slow down I would just show her the whip and she go back to working. There was a few head throws in the beginning but when she got into a rhythm she would work nicely. Even at the end of the session I asked her for a little canter on each rein, which we both have to work on very much as more as ground work before ridden but it was nice to have a little canter on her which we haven't been able to do for about the last 6 months.

In today's lesson she tried to start off a little slow but there was no stopping and no head throwing as usual. In the lesson today we worked on a big 20m circle then smaller ones at certain parts of the bigger circle. This was so we could help Legacy become more supple from her left side on the right rein and so she doesn't flick her back end out on the left rein. As she flicks her back end out on the right rein she's not sure what to do with her back legs as she's turning corners within the circle, she's kicking herself with her back legs which results in her stumbling and then having to correct herself. This now means that she has to wear boots on her back legs. This isn't too much of a major problem as I've gotten her used to having boots on her back legs, she can just try to swipe her legs at times to try and get them off, once the first velcro is done she's fine. This is just something I've got to watch with her. 

Didn't manage to get any pictures from the lesson so I've added these in to break it all up.

The Horse That Hates Schooling...

As a follow up from my previous post the magic halter where I talked about Legacy's manners and her stubbornness. I'm happy to say she is now a dream on the ground, she'll happily walk into her stable even if I stop and then ask her to come in. I've even tried this is a general nylon headcollar with no pressure points and she's a different horse.

Due to the training of this she's had pretty much 2 months off work, just being in the field getting fat and coming in for grooms when Cloudy comes in. We're still not 100% on being on our own in the stable, but again we're making progress with that. 

The other day I decided that enough time off was enough, it's the summer and I wanted to ride while I still could, soon as they come in at night time the amount of riding I can get done is down to my 2 days off and I have to hope the weather is on my side or nothing gets done. 

So I took her down to the arena for a little 15-20 minute school. The first 5 minutes of starting to work she's fine and this is the same every time, there might be the odd time where she's happy to work longer than 5 minutes but it's never any less that this.

After the time she's happy working, it all stops. She's very rarely does anything bad it's mostly she just stops and decides to plant herself there, whenever I try something to get her working it usually results in her throwing her head up as if she's saying no!

I have tried many different ways to get her back working. 

I've tried:

Squeezing her 

Kicking her (although I can't give her a good kick cause she tried to kick my food then)

Using a whip (which she also tries to kick)

Using a whip whop (which doesn't work cause it's too soft)

Circling her one way then trying to walk her forward the other way 

& Using my reins on her like I would the whip whop, this works but only for a step or 2 then we're at it again.

I've tried doing transitions with her in my warm up to get her 'into' working, but that just results in a small fight getting her to move on after asking her to walk. I can get a nice trot out of her after she's warmed up and at times I'll get a little explosion of wanting to canter when I ask for trot, these days I can get her working nice when she's worked through the 'explosions'. I've had to stop cantering her due to her not being balanced in it just yet as I'm trying to get her more balanced and working well in the other paces first but I'm not getting anywhere. 

I just find it so frustrating as all I want to go is get on her and be able to school her and learn new things together, like movements and jumping. 

The head position in the picture blow is how she holds her head when she's first in trot before she relaxes.

She often gets her back check, she has her teeth done yearly and she's recently had a new saddle, I've even tried changing her bit. So I've ruled out all of the physical aspects of any pain or problems. 

If there is anything anyone would suggest I could try to try and work through this please let me know.

 I can't school her out on the road hacking as she is the same on the road, when she doesn't want to move on she won't and this can result in her being in the middle of the road having a moment. So not only does she hate schooling, there's no hacking at the moment either.

The Magic Halter

After seeing how much I struggle with Legacy and her stubben ways of choosing when to go into the stable or not, the farmer on the yard had had enough and helped me out with her. He went to get his pressure halter to try out on her. She was being temperamental with going into the stable or not, if the stable door was open and you were leading Cloudy in front of her there was a 98% chance she would walk straight into the stable with no problems. But if you had to stop her in the hallway to open the stable door you might've well of not even bothered to try get her in the stable and just tack her up in the hallway. She would plant her and if you tried to pull on her a little bit she would throw her head or back up, I'd even tried bribing her with carrots, her feed, treats etc. It even got to the point I would have someone standing behind her. Sometimes these would work other times she'll just play up. 

I couldn't ride her on my own because it meant bringing all her tack outside into the middle of the farm/car park and stand there with her tacking her up and of course she wouldn't even stand still. 

So when he brought this halter out to try on her I thought why not, I don't think she'll get any worse. The halter he had was the Richard Maxwell training halter. He told me to walk her around on a long line with the lead rope and to not look her at. She can only be looked at when she has been good and the looking at her is a reward to her. 

He worked with her for about 10 minutes walking her in and out of the stable so she could get used to the halter and the meaning of the pressure, if she's naughty she'll apply pressure to herself and if she does what's asked or corrects herself there will be no pressure or the pressure will go. After a couple of times of trying to stop going into the stable she soon realised that it was much easier to just walk straight in. 

After this I tried with her for a few times then he took her out for a 5-10 minute walk on the road. Now she's never been the best on the road in the sense she gets separation anxiety when leaving the yard or so we thought. She just walked straight out, the horses across the road from the road were running over to come see her and she didn't even bat an eyelid at them. She went out and came back with only one little manner problem on the way out.

I now have to walk Legacy out with this head collar near enough everyday or every other, if she hasn't been on a walk she's come into the stable for feed so she's had to accomplish something with it on. I also have to walk her around the arena, over poles, in between objects etc just to keep her interested and listening to me. 

In the end we figured out that she had no respect for me and didn't care what I wanted her to do and if she wanted to do something she would, we have now come to the point to where if I'm leading her and I stop she won't pass me and she listens to me now. Using this halter on her has literally turned her into a different horse and the horse she should be and one we can start working with to achieve more. 

Richard Maxwell Training Halter - £30 + P+P (£34 for UK)

Or I found one on eBay which is the one I bought, they are the same material, just the ebay one is a bit more silkier to begin with so the rope can slip around the face.

Natural Horsemanship Pressure Halter - £9.99 + P+P (£13.29)

"I'm Not Working Today!"

Now the weathers much better I'm getting to ride Legacy much more, and I'm having lessons every other week. I'm trying to ride on my days off from work and after or before depending on what shift I'm doing and she's not enjoying it. 

I've always heard that ex racers are great to have because they love to work, well I definitely got the odd one out and she hates it. She won't hack out on her own due to having separation anxiety and I can't hack out with Cloudy because she plays up in the road when she doesn't want to go. This is why I started up the lessons again, getting her to listen.

When I take her down to the school she may work nicely for 10 minutes, 20 minutes or even just 2 before she decides that she's finished working and will just stop in the middle of what we're doing. Have it be in the middle of a lesson, just warming up or down she will just stop. Now I can't give her a kick to move her on as she's sensitive that and will fling her head up in the air. In my lessons I've now learnt that giving her intermittent squeezes with my right then left foot will make her move but not until she's given me a cow kick out as to say get away trying to kick my leg. 

Recently when riding her I have to know that I'm feeling confident that day to fight with her to get her working properly. Once you fight back with her she will fight back a little but will give up in the end, and at times she she will work lovely after. I'm hoping this is just a phase for her and she will be happy to work soon as she starts to learn the basics more. 

How Much Does A Horse Really Cost?

As I was scrolling through Pinterest the other day I came across this post called 'The Real Cost of Owning a Horse',  and to be honest I was shocked with the prices that this post had put up. 

I feel that if I was a person looking into buying a horse this would be daunting to me and be a big put off. 

Up first they did the initial costs to start up, then the first big expense on this was the horse, which okay is dependant on the skill and experience of the rider and what they want out of the horse, but it's been awhile since I've seen a horse sell for over £2,000, even for a well schooled all rounder. 

The next is stables at £1,500, I'm guessing this is livery as that's not on the regular costs list, this would be too cheap to be buying your own stables. Again I'm finding this very high for a livery cost even if the horse is on full livery. If you know what this actually is please say as I'd like to know. 

Stable accessories can be done cheaply and still have some good quality equipment, to start out I would say you'll only need a wheelbarrow, stable brush, bedding fork and if you wanted to a muck scoop and fork. I would say this would cost no more than £100. This would be higher if you're planning on buying hay racks, tie rings etc. 

Stabling and feed equipment can also be done for a fraction of the price shown, I would say depending on what buying under stable accessories this shouldn't be more than £50-£60 for some feed buckets and scoops. 

I'm guessing that tack has been included in riding equipment to explain why they have priced this so high. All I'm going to say is I definitely didn't spend £2,000 on riding equipment even including myself when I got Legacy. The Misc costs is totally down to the new owner, although the passport should come with the horse and this shouldn't be an added cost. I don't have a horse box myself so I can't comment on the price but I'm guessing this is for a new box, and these can be bought for a fraction of the price second hand. 

Onto the regular costs these prices are down to the trainer but these are priced at £30 if you were to have one a week. 

The insurance price seems to be quite good at £33 a month for horse insurance as I've seen some people pay upto £50 a month for theirs, this comes down to what you will be doing with the horse.  

The price of the feed comes down to paying £90 a month, on an expensive month I'm paying this for the 2 horses, so this can be cut down quite a bit, although again this depends on what type of horse you have. Good doers you won't be paying barely anything for compared to a bad doer or performance horse. 

Bedding is a good one as I can be known to spend a fortune throughout the winter on bedding for Legacy as at times you know she can go through a bale of shavings a night. I've calculated this on 6 months of stabling which is around how long Legacy is in depending on the weather. If you were to have a horse as dirty as her and have them in all year around you probably have more money than sense or no all year turn out and your crying at the bedding bills. 

Healthcare is a good one, as your average farrier visit is going to be £60 and this will be averaging one every 6-8 weeks. After this you have worming or worm counting up to 4 times a year. Then there's flu & tetanus jabs including vet visit, and dentist visits either from the vet or a equine dentist. There's also the options of chiropractor visits a few times a year. 

As I've previously said I don't have a horse box so I can't really personally comment on the price of the insurance, annual testing and maintenance of these, but I can imagine the prices being somewhat right as the box would need to be looked after well for the safety of the horse. 

What are your opinions on this post from Vale Stables and their pricings of a horse. Do you find them just right or slightly too high like me? If you'd like a post with a breakdown on how much Legacy costs me a month/year let me know.

Acavallo Gel Out Seat Saver Review

   

Amazingly this is something that I'd never seen or heard of online before it was mentioned to me on the yard. At first I was very much confused and put off by the idea of having so much gel on the seat. I always thought it wouldn't give you much movement in the saddle or I'd be stuck not being able to do any rising with my trot. 

But then one day I actually realised that I was spending my time correcting myself in the saddle quite a bit due to it being slippy, and it was worse when it came to the rare time I gave my tack a clean. I then found that I could only ride comfortably when I had full seat breeches on, and with the price tag of these I thought I'd do some research into this seat saver.

I found out that it's unique breathable gel construction supports the body of the rider by stabilising the bones and prevents and unnecessary movement. It also majorly reduces concussion in the lower back, helping people with any back problems. It's discreet and easy to fit, and helps the rider stay secure while training or hacking and helps achieve a deep and stable seat. They are also British Dressage legal. 

After having a bit of a research and reading some reviews I found there was also a gel in version to where the gel is on the inner side of the seat saver and sticks to the saddle rather than your bum. The upper part which you sit on which this one was like a suede material, so it would give you some extra grip in the saddle compared to a naked saddle but not as much as the gel out one. My mum then decided to invest into a gel out seat saver for Cloudy, this was back when I was riding him and decided to give it ago. At first I was sold on the idea and found it weird to sit on, but the more I was riding Cloudy I actually came around to the idea and felt more comfortable and secure in the saddle, granted he decided to throw me off twice in one schooling session not long after but I stayed on much longer with it that I probably would've without. 

I was then on the hunt to buy one for Legacy, and I got hers in black and in the medium size. There are 3 sizes available they come in pony (15-16"), medium (16.5-17") and large (17.5-18") and available in 2 colours of black and brown. You can get them in 2 different cuts gp/jumping and dressage. 

This seat saver has saved me from going flying off Legacy quite a few times where she likes to have her moments and bolt off or when I ask her for trot and she decides to canter. It has also offered me some security in the saddle when it comes to hacking out as she does like to nap and then go or she will play up in the road. These are also great for big moving horses as they will help keep you still in the saddle.

I would not like to ride a horse without one of these as I have become reliant on how secure this makes me feel in the saddle, I think it would feel like I was learning to ride again in a way without one of these. I would recommend these to anyone all day long and I can't rave about them enough. With the price of them starting from £60, it can be quite a bit for an initial outlay but I would say it's 100% worth the investment. They last for years if looked after the right way and if you do get one I will be shocked if there is anyone not happy with it, and also you'll then be the one not wanting to ride without it.

I have looked around for the best prices for you all and I have found a few of the gel out ones on eBay here. This link includes both the gel in and gel out seat savers. Most of these offer free postage which is a great added bonus with the amount being spent.  

My Aim by the End of Summer

Now that I'm back having lessons on Legacy every other week I think it's time that I give myself some goals to complete by the end of the summer.

The first big thing I'd like to do at the end of summer or possibly half way through and then again at the end to see if there's any improvement would be online dressage. I've seen that there's a few websites that offer this with a range of classes. I would love to enter Legacy into some of the ex racehorse classes I've seen. The classes that I would choose would only probably include walk and trot as we've still got quite a bit to work on with canter, but you never know there's still quite a bit of time until the end of summer. 

One of the best things about this is that I will be able to still compete with Legacy while not having to leave the yard. I find this is one of the hardest things for me to do at the moment, as Legacy won't travel on her own and Cloudy won't travel unless he's in a 7.5 ton horsebox and it's hard to find one of them around here to hire. Although my main aim with Legacy isn't to be out competing it would be nice to be able to do something small on her every once in awhile. 

Another aim I have to do by the end of the summer is to be back riding Cloudy, this is also another big one for me as I hate knowing that a fall has got the better of me with losing my confidence with him. I'm really hoping that with getting my confidence a lot better while on Legacy I will be able to transfer it over onto him and he won't feel any tension from me. I'm hoping that when I get back on him it will be like the fall never happened, okay I will be wary with him but I'm hoping that if he starts to play up with me that I will be able to sort him out and then he'll know that he'll get told off and made to work harder when he starts to play up and won't get away with it any more. Who know's I might start doing online dressage competitions on him too. 

I'm only setting myself 2 goals to achieve by the end of the summer because they are both pretty big ones. All my efforts will be put into achieving these and once these are done I will be able to set myself some more.