TLS Equestrian - EET

WHAAAAAT! I think it goes without saying to never ever EVER even consider doing anything like this to your horses noseband or adjusting any tack like this to make a horse "submissive". The use of that word says it all really. This is outright abuse that is being put out there as "advice".

Wow.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/edUKCxS4yhJGKkb8/

After worrying for the last week that we would be too slow as Dusty's been flagging a bit at rides on her own, we had a fabulous ride today at Tresham doing the 26km GER and finished on our starting heart rate of 44 and managed a grade 2 😁😁

Thanks Nicola L Davies and Donna for the company, it definitely helped get Dusty motoring!

Thanks to the organisers and volunteers as always Wessex Endurance GB, we had a blast !

Feeling more positive for Barbury in a fortnight now 🦄

Dusty enjoying her post ride Banana 🍌

Dusty and I enjoyed a lovely training ride last week. We went exploring to check out some new tracks, which was a success until the final track only about 500m from the lorry 🙈 queue a 4km detour… oh well we know for next time now…

I have just entered Tresham 26km GER in two weeks time😬😬 it looks like a good mix of grassy tracks and forestry but with a reasonable bit of road work so I’m hoping we can keep the pace up 🤞🤞

Soooo as per I totally forgot to post this video here (another reason to be subscribed to the YT channel, this went live there two weeks ago!)

A few weeks ago Dusty and I visited The Avon Centre Hacking Track. I remembered seeing it advertised previously and as I had decided we weren't going to go to one of the pleasure rides that weekend I thought we could try this instead!

Lots of fantastic opportunities for cantering. It's great for fitness training or just having somewhere safe to have a nice relaxed off road hack with your friends (and everything in between)! This video is a bit of a "bonus" episode for the happy hacking series. I talk through my first impressions here, and what you can expect if you decided to visit. Honestly had a fantastic time though and I will certainly be back which is always a good sign!

Have you been here before? Are you planning on going? Let me know! I'd love to know your thoughts !

Charlie says hello !

The hacking video with him is going round again so welcome if you have followed from that 😁

I'll be doing a little update video soon so keep an eye out 👀

They all had some banana this morning, which is by far their favourite 🍌

I put a bit of salt water out yesterday with the heat. Georgia was definitely enjoying it, thought it was interesting to see how she was drinking it differently to the fresh water 😂 almost like she was licking an invisible salt lick 😂

9/10 times Sunny (and Beanie) do this little bum shuffle when they're rolling 😂 he usually does it to swap sides if he can't get over but he'd already done both ways so who knows 😂

Sunny's on the inside of the main track with the 3 "big" ones. I've made it a c shape so they also have to walk all the way round for water and what would in future be a hay station. They've eaten down most of the grass now so hoping they'll start to lose some weight soon 🤞🏻

How else do you move the water bucket with no handles 😂😂

The track system for the ponies is now all the way round the perimeter so I've been slowly moving the water down the track to the new spot. This was the last one to go down and it's such a pain to move unless going downhill 😂

The track system doing its thing 🐎

Dusty on her way up from the hay to have a drink 🦄 they then often trot on back round once they've finished. They're definitely moving around more, making use of those hills too !

A few weeks ago Dusty and I set off for our favourite ride of the year. Courtfield is such a lovely pleasure ride I'm sure the horses enjoy it as much as everyone else! Beautiful views and lovely riding along the river. Slow and steady, and unfortunately my camera battery died just as we hit the river so there's very little of us enjoying some nice trots and canters this year, but we definitely had a lovely time and missed the thunderstorms which was an added bonus!

A bit belated but as always a bit thank you to Offa's D**e Endurance GB Group for organising a lovely ride and a big thank you to all the volunteers that help these rides run.

That's right, another day in the life style vlog. If you saw last weeks video you'll have seen I spent HOURS setting up a "paddock paradise" track system for some of the horses. Do you think it survived over night?

I also catch up on all the jobs I was meant to do the previous day, like riding Charlie (which I felt went terribly, and we've reverted 12 months but hey we move) and clipping Dusty ready to go to her first Endurance ride of the year, which will be out very very soon!

Last year I set up a small section of track for the little porky ponies, of course by the end of the summer it had gotten a bit worse for wear, but as it wasn't needed over the winter I let it be. A job for a nice day!

However, with the grass getting greener and greener by the day, I have set the track back up and made it pony proof (hopefully!)

Why a track system? Well I do explain in the video but very briefly the main reason is, less/no grass and MOVEMENT. The key to helping horses who are prone to lami or other metabolic issues. Mine aren't laminitic but are very much the type prone to it, prevention is better than cure!

Also a little bit of loading work with Charlie towards the end!

So a few weeks ago, I shared the short reel of working with Charlies hacking confidence and it went down really well! In fact some of you reading this are likely new followers because of it (thanks!)
I have decided to post the full video here which will add a bit more context to what I'm doing and why. I'll probably continue to share the longer videos here seeing as FB doesn't like to push external links...

So for a bit of background. Since Charlie had a bit of a traumatic hack last Summer he has understandably lost a lot of confidence and has started to be "nappy" out hacking. He's never been a nappy horse generally but this is stemming from his lack of confidence and slight separation anxiety he's not being a "naughty" horse as most would label him. I'm using good old positive reinforcement to help him regain his confidence and get back to enjoying hacking (for both of us) Three consecutive hacks down and he's already improving. Hopefully with a bit more work and teaching him that hacking out is a positive experience and he's not going to have a hard time for stopping and being unsure, we'll have the confident Charlie back in no time!

Thanks for all the love on this and hello to all the new followers it's brought !

It reminded me that I actually didn't post the full video here again 🤦‍♀️ so for those interested in the full session with Charlie here it is 😁

https://youtu.be/_zSjdWJhXoo