falls and contact!

Wednesday was my long day! My alarm went at 4.30 and I got dressed as quietly as possible so as not to wake Jannick who is sharing my room for two weeks whilst she stays for daily lessons. I released all of the horses into their grazing pastures and was nearly finished when i remembered i needed to collect their haynets! so i had to go around again before i could head home for breakfast.

that day i was on the feeding tour doing haynets. we had a lesson on getting our horses to jump confidently online and Paris showed that his confidence level is pretty good now. Gabbi said he is ready for me to make things more challenging and give him a series of jumps to do. it was really interesting to watch the different phsychological techniques for differnet horsenalities.

we then had a youngster trail ride - i had to feed Paris and sort a couple of things and then i brushed Sirius, the horse i was riding, and byb the time i headed into the outdoor arena the others had already saddled their horses. Sirius was very left brained so i saddled him and by then the others were mounting their horses. i played with a respect and impulsion excercises and then mounted Sirius. i checked out his lateral flexion, direct and indirect reins.

Sirius was a foal Marie-Claire bought when she bought her brood mares from Tunisia. apparantly it had been a very bad year with no rain and there was nothing for the horses to eat in tunisia so Sirius had only the milk of his dam who was very malnurished herself. As a consequence he never had the important development of his muscles and no matter what he eats his back end always looks boney. despite all this Sirius is very left brained and loves to play at a very high level. he gets extremely bored if you play at level 1/2 but becomes more extroverted if you play at level 3/4. I played with him for a few days in january and had ridden him on a trail ride on our last day.

I remembered from before that Sirius would just try to eat grass unless you were really firm and could phase four him for snacking. We headed off on the ride into the forest and around the feilds and i managed to stop Sirius eating. as we were trotting along one of the feilds Sirius got annoyed with me for using the reins to much to stop him eating and went into a bucking fit. he left about and turned as he bucked but I just stayed upright and stuck it out until he realised it wasn't working. then i decided to try being in neutral more and using my carrot stick rather than the reins. it was a good experience for me - this horse knew what level four felt like and he demanded to be treated fairly! As we headed back into the forest there was a nice long canter trail. Sanne was riding Smigus and headed off in a canter and we followed happily. suddenly Sirius slowed down and dropped to a trot. Anna was cantering Quasi behind us and i knew the gap was closing. i asked Sirius to go back into canter which he did but his plan had already worked. Quasi was close behind us now and sirius was bucking out at im as we cantered. his canter had so much movement anyway that i just sat there and cantered on regardless. the forest got a little more dense and delicious fern leaves were just to irresistable for Sirius. he would turn for a leaf i would life, swing and smack a phase four from the carrot stick on his neck or rump and he would just snatch a great big leaf and keep going. i knew this wasn't working - he was still getting the leaves and so his reward and was virtually completely ignoring my phase four.

when we came out of the forrest back onto the fields we all went for a last trot but Sirius decided to canter. i was trying really hard to not get into a fight with him again and was using the carrot stick to steer and slow him down, or trying to. he then dived into the bushes at the forrest edge, beside the feild and i was suddenly surrounded by low branches with no time to duck forward so i leant back to avoid being wiped off. Sirius started bucking again and i managed to stick the first few bucks but my balance slipped to the left and i felt one last buck unsettle me completely and Sirius leapt right and forward as i fell to the ground, still holding the rein. i didn't want to lose him but as he pulle the rein out of my hand i knew i couldn't hold him. everything was so strange. i was completely aware of what had happened but i was completely unable to move. i could see a horse running towards me and hear noices and i realised at least one of the others had fallen from their horses. apparantly when i hit the floor it spooked Quasi who is an extreme RBE inately and he took off bucking and Anna had rolled to the ground. thankfully she says she had a soft landing and was not hurt. Both Sirius and Quasi had cantered ahead of Sanne on Smigus but turned and headed back which scared Smigus who reared and almost fell sideways but managed to get his legs underneath him in time. Anna jumped up and caught the two loose horses but i was still unable to move. suddenly i could feel my body again and i leapt up to makesure everything was ok - but i was extremely dizzy! i sat back down and we waited a few minutes for my head to settle. i could feel that i had hit the ground with my left shoulder blade. we discussed how we should head back and i said i wanted to get back on but just ride at a walk. I mounted Sirius but my left arm hurt and felt weak and i could only try correcting him with the carrotstick in my right hand so he managed to get lots of grass on the way home as i was a pretty useless passenger.

as we rode back toward the arena we saw that Marie-Claire had arrived. She has been away for the whole time i have been here because she is having health problems and lots of tests. she is hear only for a few dys and then she is going away to have surgery and treatment. They quickly spotted the dirt all over Anna and asked if she fell so i quiclky filled them in on what had happened. i dismounted and untacked Sirius and suddenly felt like crying! the others told me not to cry in front of Thomas or Marie-Claire, i said it was probably just shock but i would not cry any more. Sanne and Anna sent me home whilst they finished the jobs off. i found some paracetamol which i hoped would thin my blood a little and ease the pain and then i had a hot shower and stood with the water hitting my left shoulder blade for about 10 minutes. i was completely seizing up by the time the others returned home. Sanne put volturen gel on my back and then i sat for ages using Sanne's phototonic red light on my injury. by the time i went to bed i could move my arm again and whislt it was incomfortable i could actually lay on my left side.

Thursday morning i woke up and was rather stiff again. i took some more paracetamol and cycled up to the saddle horses, moved them from their pasture and then met everyone for breakfast. Thomas had wanted Sanne to go shopping with him but Sanne said i should go instead because i had been hurt and would not be able to do the feeding tour or kaka force. it was really cool and interesting going out to the different shops with Thomas. we went to Lidle, then a horse feed merchant, then a place to get Sanne some wellies and finally to Super U for the majority of our shopping. when we got back i unpacked the shooping and helped Gabbie make a lunch of stuffer courgette, pasta and sauce for everyone. Marie-Claire told us to et our horses and then meet at 2.30 to discuss the day's lesson. i figured i can play with Paris as i know our limits and he wont pull me. i brought him in and groomed him. he has a really nasty bite mark on his back which is bruised so he cannot be ridden at the moment. i picked out his feet - they could do with a little trim or some serious roadwork. we met at the picnick tables and discussed the horse situation.

Paris and Kaluwa are not meant to live in the forest - they were meant to be turned out there inividually until Thomas and Gabbi arrived and then moved to Dino's place but after the disaster of introducing Rox and Kaluwa Paris and Kaluwa have shared the forest for more than a week. I was told they want Paris and Rox to be on the pasture at Dino's place. Sanne's mare was offered the student herd or the saddle horses. And Anna was told (because she is going away for three weeks on sunday night) to either take her horse with her or put some fences up near Dino's place so he can be reintroduced to Paris and Rox with a view to turning them out together and forming a gelding herd.

we then began simulations for the game of contact - OMG it is amazing. it is a strange idea at first because you teach the horse to move against the pressure it feels on the bit. you need good impulsion and for your horse to be left brained but basically it means that when you pick up two reins your horse will become engaged and either maintaingait or go up a gait! i worked with getting Paris to stretch downand forward with me using the bit with my hands from the ground. then i attahced some reins and stood on the mounting block so i could play the game as if i were in a ridden position. the others roade and a few even got a stride of walk into the bit!

when i was warming Paris up i had littlerally just started and was doing some stick to me and i asked Paris to back up and he did his normal "yeah yeah in my own time" so i did my usual wave the carrot stick and string in formt of him harder to say "back up!". suddenly i heard my name being called. Marie-Claire had called me over and seen what i had just done. she said i was stuck at phase 2.5 but couldn't reach phase fopur without risking taking Paris eye out with the savvy string. she told me to grap the string so it was out of the way and phase one - energy back in my body, phase two lift the stick in front of me, phase to move the stick in font of him and phase four SMACK his chest. within a couple of goes i had the snapiest backup stick to me's that i have ever had! i ran backwards and Paris was like "oh we're backing up fast!" and kept up with me!! i was very happy as this has been bothering me a little while and it was funny that it was just such a simple peice of advice but it was the difference that made all the difference. i also did some changes of direction but Gabi said i was running forward when i had two eyes (as i was tought a level 2) but not pointing in the new direction and letting him turn first. she said i was asking him to come to me and then running into him with my energy which was why he was not drawing to me with the CoD.  she said as Paris is so sensitive i only need to walk back into place once he is goign out in the correct direction and then speed him up once he is out on the circle again! it was another WOW moment and suddenly i had a nicer expression on Paris' face and smoother changes of direction.

When i put Paris away he kept marching ahead of me so i used the end of my rope to smack him chest when he did this. soon he was sticking with me beautifully but when i released him in the forest paddock he turned and trotted straight off! i suddenly worried that i had ended the session on a bad note and i had a pocket full of carrot peices i had wanted to give him. so i walked out to his pasture and as soon as he saw me he turned to me and RAN TOWARD ME! i ran back and he came in faster and as soon as he touched my hand with his nose i stopped running and opened my hand and gave him all the carrots! he followed me back to the gat and even nickered after me when i left him! now i was a happy bunny!!

we finished off our evening tasks - the others played with a second horse but i was not up for playing with strong minded left brained horses of the plessis with my weak arm. i cleaned out our stalls and helped Anna poo pick our forest as we need to clear it before the horses are moved. then we came home, ate a lovely salad and watched Bride Wars.

Today is our sleeping day so i am letting myself heal so i should be virtually back to normal tomorrow! i'm going to help Anna clear the pasture now.

hopefully i won't have any more falls - i am determined to learn from this one - i should have warmed up better and been much cleverer when i rode. i need to not let horses drag me into low branches or bushes and be more prepared to get off and fix a respect issue from the ground!

looking forward to giving you a less dramatic report next time!