Slow periods are definitely a thing in this topic lol I've barely had time to jump online now the new semester has started- I thought last year's work was crazy, but man 2nd year hits you hard and fast
@ryukrem; Glad to hear your mare is sound again!
@Gam; Bit late, but I think a lot of your mare is 'ranch style' quarter horse lines. General use, hardy horses
I am not super familiar with quarter horse lines, so if anyone else knows more feel free to chip in. She looks like a really nice horse, lovely kind eye.
@callum hunt; Your boy is really pretty! Targeting can be so helpful as well, you can mold heaps of cool behaviors out of it!
@Soul Of Winter; Is Comanche the 3 1/2 year old? I only ask because he does look very young lol All legs and not much body bulk yet. All your horses/equines look great though! Very adorable and fluffy <3
@HIme; I forgot you were doing a student exchange thing, sounds like its been fun! Bet you'll be dying to get home and see all your ponies again. Hopefully the weather will be a bit nicer when you get home lol I totally sympathize with the work load; my second year subjects are sounding very similar to yours, assessment wise. Just not enough hours in the day to get everything done
@pills; You'd probably have to look around your area as to what brands are available. Tall boots are really only needed for showing and even then, you can often get away with short boots and gaiters at lower levels (its not uncommon for people around my area to wear this combination until just before FEI levels). If you do go through with getting tall boots (and if you can afford it, go for it!), it'd be worth it to get a 'cheap' pair of short boots for everyday use. Will help to keep your top boots in good condition, rather than worn down from everyday use.
@labradoodle123; Bit late, but doing well at competitions all comes down to the preparation you do at home. If you prepare well at home, you'll have better success than if you just pull your horse out of the paddock the day of the comp after you haven't ridden for a month. Without knowing more, generalised tips for jumping competitions would be to walk your course and know exactly what lines you are going to take to a fence and don't over do it in the warm up (most horses only need to pop over 2-4 fences max in the warm up. You don't want to tire them out before you get in the ring). Good luck!
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Uni has been kicking my butt -.- New subjects are very intensive and require a lot of 'at home work' on top of our contact hours and I really gotta pull my grades up if I want to apply for the DVM at the end of this year because I really flubbed my first year up (that is a whole other conversation lol). I have finally got to start my animal subjects though! I am enjoying sooooo much more than first year which is great! Studying is not so much of a chore.
Ponies haven't been doing a whole bunch, Miles is growing like a weed (like he is HUGE when compared what I remember the STB foals to be at the same age), Cleo is not fed up with him yet and Reg got to go have a play at his first horse trials last weekend.
It was such a hectic week leading up to the comp- I had my summer term exam the Thursday and then the comp on the weekend. It was a super important exam as well, cause if I had failed it I would have been unable to progress into some of the subjects I wanted to do this year. Luckily I passed so it was all fine, but I didn't get as much time to prep Reg as I'd like.
He still did very well, couldn't really complain about his behaviour considering it was his first proper comp- lots of horses and stuff going on, the worst he did was call out a bit in the morning when he was tied to the float. We just did the lowest level, since he doesn't have a huge amount of jumping experience (literally been out on a XC once before and that was mainly just walking around with a friend while she practiced) and though he is very brave, I wouldn't want to over face and spook him. His dressage test was a bit bleh by his usual standards, but still good enough to get us 8th in a big field. Then he went and jumped double clear and bumped us up to 4th! He is going to be a XC machine when he is older and more experienced- so much fun and just cruise-y as around the whole course. He's off having a spell now and enjoying it I think lol
I got to go up and see Miles and Cleo the same weekend as well- the comp was literally 2 minuets from my uncle's place so it was very handy to knock out two birds with one stone. Miles' legs are looking soooo much better! Pretty much normal now and not nearly as 'soft' when he gallops around like a nutcase
We put them both in with one of the other broodies last time I was there and Miles' seems to like his 'aunty' quite a bit, Cleo I think is just happy he has someone else to pester now
They seem to have a very nice family band going on which is good to see
Cleo is still a little light on for my taste, but she's not bad (she looks worse in the pics than she does in person). All the pasture has died off so there is just no feed around, so we've just been feeding out a bunch of hay and then some hard feed as supplement. Hopefully we'll get some rain soon and the paddocks can hopefully recover a bit.
