So...this program REALLY works?!

After a month of doing nothing coz I've been so busy, sunday I finally got back into the swing of things and took Olivia for a little online stuff. She was in one of those 'MAKE ME' moods' which I understood because it's been a while since I've exherted my authority over her. Anyway, as I was bringing her in from the field I noticed how bolshy and badly mannered she was becoming, after JUST a month ?! Her respect for me was waning very much...

So on Monday I came to get her in, and the little angel came straight to me :) After Sunday's session, as I was taking her back out again I was thinking 'dam, after today Olivia's not gonna want to come to me on Monday...' Then I smacked myself on the head and remembered not to give horses human emotions. She wouldn't be annoyed with me, she would respect me as her leader. And surely enough, she did :D

So online was beautiful, got a lovely sideways trot (although her hind end stills lag behind a bit too much for me to be REALLY happy with), got some lovely figure of 8s going. When I got on, the whole ride I barely had to touch the reins (I'm thinking ready for some really bridleless soon..yay!!). I'm just so happy with how we're progressing.

Also, in the good news, Terri Martinus (2* professional) is hopefully going to be coming to give me a 3hr private lesson in Decemeber, which should be great and really helpful with getting us out of this end of level 2 rut we seem to have got stuck in.

And if life couldn't get any better, I got an offer from one of my favourite universities the other day. WAHOOO !!!!

Poorly Pony

Poor Olivia was feeling down over the last couple of days with a mild colic :( She hadn't touched her food (this is a horse that literally inhales her food normally) and she was very uncomfortable. Annoyingly, my mum wasn't home and so I couldn't get down to the stables, but lovely lovely Emma and Sharon stayed until about 11.30pm to wait for the vet to come down and take a look and to make sure she was ok before she was left for the night. I love where I stable my horse :D :D

Today I went down straight after lessons, and she was much perkier (phewww) and was eating her hay. Took her for a little walk to stretch her legs coz she wasn't turned out, and by the time I left she was looking a lot happier (as was I).

It was a bit of shock because my horse is never ill, and also because its really difficult for me to be down there and I trust everyone 100% but I'd like to be with her. At least its all good now, as long as nothing happens next week when I'm away in Rome with school. Then I have a week free so I can begin to bring her back into work, and we can really dive in level 3.

And in brilliant news, I've booked my driving test for December, so FINGERS CROSSED!!!!

Growing Up

I think that's what Olivia is doing. She's beginning to mature and grow out of her silly ways a little.. She still throws tantrums but they aren't temper tantrums, and she's much more willing to cooperate than she has been. This weekend has been an absalote pleasure to spend with her, and shes really made my days !!

We can begin a session now and straight away she finds her comfy trot AND canter. Both online and freestyle. So I began to play with monkey riding at the canter, which so far she won't relax into it, but I'm just waiting for her to stop fiddling with her tongue so much when she feels the concentrated rein. I'm going to re-emphasize the monkey riding at a trot a lot as well, so that she remembers the feeling and will find it easier to transfer into the canter.

Yesterday my brother had a little ride, and I was really impressed with how she responded. He has ridden before, but just jumping on his friends horse in Poland, going for a bomb round the country side and coming home, so position, relaxation and calmness isn't very important for him. He picked up fairly quickly, and I think he was pretty impressed when I told him to 'stop his body and sit deep' and wooaah, Olivia came to a halt :) I'm so proud of my pony!

Today she was in a bit of a sluggish mood, so we played with our porcupine game and some transitions online. Her hindend yields are very ball-like, she just flows straight away from my fingers, every now and again breaking contact. But her front end yield and sideways yield is a bit rubbish. Something to do with being a LBI, she likes having that neck to porcupine/drive ME away, so she ain't to impressed when I play the same game with her. Transitions were beautiful, and I had a few circles around me at the walk without a single attempt to change direction or gait, which is a big thing for us because she finds walking aimlessly (as it kind of is in a circle) quite boring. What a star!

I have loads of photos from Saterday, here are some I picked out:

excuse the sun, I just love the way she looks in this photo. Totally loose and relaxed




very few corrections on the bullseye




my brother riding


standing on top of a horse, and yet he still must pose for the picture!


so i decided I want a posed picture too :)

Photos

Larissa sent me some photos from the Bissell Wood course today, which is awesome! I put some up on my facebook page, so if you would like to see just add me as a friend (email is jo.bialkowska@hotmail.co.uk)

I would add them on here, but I'm so busy at the mintue I barely have time to write this :P

sadly, the follow on course at Bissell Wood next year is at the end of May, which is smack bang in the middle of my exams meaning there is absalotely no way I can go. It sucks, but sometimes life chucks these things at you and I'm sure its because theres something much better around the corner which will benefit me and Olivia even more :) Positive thinking, aye!

Don't be shy of adding me though :) xx

And so it begins...

The beginning of the end. My god it's scary, daunting, fullfilling and exciting at the same time. We are well into the school term now and teachers are feeling confident to give us ridiculous amounts of homework. I have actually forgotten what my horse looks like since I haven't seen her in so long :(

Last Sunday she was a little star when I just did about 15minutes of online with her, just warming up to ride. By the time I got round to riding her, the horses had been bought in from the fields and we were alone at the school. That freaked her out quite a bit. I spent the whole session practising our lateral flexion until she relaxed, and she eventually did chill out. Her tongue was going crazy with its silly licking thing though, so I know she wasn't confident, its something I've got to work on, but it's hard because I don't know when other people will be using the school, so it's just luck (or unluck) if one day we turn out to be on our own.

If we had a graph of our progress, I reckon that we are a stable line going across, so increase or decrease at the moment. I wouldn't except anything else since we have so little time together, but its so frustrating because after a massive 'up' in our savvy over summer I really don't want to be pottering about at the same level. It's important for us to do this though, get our feet on the ground and heads out of the clouds before we shoot for the stars again :)

Hopefully pictures soon xx

What happened to time ?!

I can't actually believe I haven't posted since I got back from Turkey. It's like every single second has been jam packed.

I had a brilliant holiday, got nice and tanned, and am safely back in chilly UK. Olivia is fantastic, she really couldn't be better. I'm gutted I have so little time to work with her because just before school started we really started to accelerate our learning.

But now its my final year of school, which means from now until October is packed full of university applications, personal statement etc. And then its packing everything in for the a levels at the end of the year. So literally all I got at the minute is weekends. And even then its not great because 8 - 2 I'm working and really tierd by the time I can do work with her. But oh well.

Good news, we went to see a car the other day and we've put a deposit on it and its coming home next week YAYYY!! Its a 2006 little black polo, super cute. I've got lessons planned and hopefully I'll find a minute to book my theory. My goal is to pass before christmas, and then I can go to Olivia every day.

So theres a super rushed update on my life, its 9:20 pm and I'm shattered and rushing this.

Hopefully I'll be able to get someone to take some photos soon, and hope you're all progressing well !

Jo and Olivia xx

Busy Busy...

Summer holidays are supposed to be when I have too much free time and nothing to do, but this year has been compeltely different!! I got back home from Poland on Sunday morning, and although I was looking forward to seeing Olivia, I was sad to leave !! I love it out there, the people are fantastic and its so chilled! I rode a few other horses (for the first time in a year) and it was great, especially one Arab called Ziomek who I used to ride all the time before I got Olivia. He's so fun and quick, but kids ride him all the time so he's also uber chilled :)

From Blogger Pictures

Anyway, I went straight to Olivia on Sunday expecting a nicker or two from her being so excited to see me. I was totally ignored, how HURTFUL!! Anyway, I gave her a nice long groom, and took her out on the 12ft line just to see where we were at after a two week break. Everything was super until I asked my fat little pony to trot. MY GOD that was an effort. And to make sure I knew how much of an effort it was there was head shaking, rearing, bucking, pulling. It was hilarious to watch as Olivia exhausted all her arrows and finally thought 'ah sod it, I'll just trot!'

This week has mostly been working on Olivia's emotional fitness in trot and canter, just in the hackamore, to get her up to speed with where she was before I left. She's not being too impressed with the extra work though, and it's been a tad frustrating (don't worry I took out all my anger on my brother !!), but yesterday I thought I'll try her in the cradle and see how she goes. Lo and behold, it was a new horse..! Not a buck or head shake in sight, loverlly. We even cantered the rail, giving her opportunites to speed up down the long sides (we normally just canter the bullseye or cloverleaf). It was fan-taddle-astic :)

So yet another week is over, and tomorrow at 5am I need to leave for the airoport for our family holiday to Istanbul. I've had no time to do ANYTHING I had planned this week - load of undemanding time with Olivia. Between driving lessons, results coming out, packing, unpacking(!), looking after my grandad ETC. its been a hell of a week. I've also being having a bit of a crisis about university-esque things, in that I'm not sure I want to go but I know my parents expect me to go and I don't want to dissapoint them. BUT I just want to go straight into parelli and start having FUN!!!!!!

ARGGHHH. But thank god results are out, and I did MUCH better than expected, so thats one weight off my chest. Until next year....

Hope you all are having fun relaxed summers though, and I'll be back in a week! xxx