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.

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 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.