Following the leader & Plaiting

Hey everyone!

Yesterday I had my first pony club session in quite a while, and I was on my favourite horse. Naturally, I had high hopes for the lesson. Unfortunately, Bails had other ideas and decided that he would be in his follow-the-horse-in-front mood. I wouldn't have minded this too much because I was having quite the battle with the stirrups (which I had to twist twice because they were so long, and even then they were still three holes away from the shortest length) but it meant that I couldn't successfully complete the serpentine. The whole point of us doing them was to encourage bend, but where he kept falling in slightly to try and cut corners to be up close and personal to the pony in front, I had a hard time encouraging that bend when I also had to keep a firm hold on the outside rein as he wasn't responding to my leg. So that was fun. I would have worked on just the bend, but we were working on accuracy so I kind of had to keep him on the track.

We later had a little bit of a competition so see who could strike off most accurately into canter at A. Bailey, the rascal, knew he was cantering and so on the first attempt he went in the F/A corner without me asking for it. On the second attempt he still went as I moved my leg mere millimetres - not even squeezing or anything like that - and he went off like a rocket so I went too early. He lost brownies points for not listening to me, but it is something I plan to work on next time.

Another thing we started yesterday was plaiting, as we're working towards this badge next. I'm quite excited as it'll be my first badge. I'm possibly going to get the equine first aid one, but I don't feel deserving of it as I missed at least two of the sessions in regards to it and my knowledge is quite lacking. I wouldn't know what to do if an injured horse was in front of me, to be perfectly honest! I think the blue cross website and the manual of horsemanship may have to be my friend for quite a while.

Anyway, I was plaiting Bails' mane in his stable, and needless to say he wasn't helping. I've never plaited a mane before, and his was quite knotty so the separations weren't all that clean. Then, as I started to plait his head was a bit like a yo-yo as he found the best parts of the hay to eat.

I think he was deliberately being annoying when I went to tie to the braid. We were just using elastics, but he would not keep his head still, and then the braid just looked wrong. You know how you fold the braid so it's in that ball shape? Well, two folds seemed too little, but a third fold emphasised the lack of braiding at the top. I hope that makes sense. It would have helped if the separations were better.

My instructor said that next time we will be working with a needle and thread. Goodness knows I won't find that quite so therapeutic! If any of you have any tips for the plaiting the mane of a hungry horse that doesn't like keeping still, please tell me haha.

That's about all from the stables. Have you ever had any tack that just wasn't the right length/size?

Until next time :)