Pringles celebrated her 5th birthday this month 🎉 🥳

This month I have been focusing on building Pringles strength under saddle and cementing our basics ready to venture out of the arena and off the property.

I am happy with how she has been going on her feed, so I haven’t changed eating regime.

We are continuing with her bodywork with monthly chiropractic check-ups, weekly to fortnightly PEMF sessions and fortnightly Bowen/Emmett therapy.

As I am changing the way Pringles carries herself from racehorse to ridden horse, I expect her body is going to need regular ‘tune-ups’ with bodywork treatment.

We had a breakthrough this month with Pringles now happy to lift her back legs to be cleaned out and she was also a superstar for the farrier. I have worked hard with this and next shoeing cycle we will also look at shoes for her hind feet.

In training, we continued lunging (I have started using very lightly fitted side reins) but these training sessions are not long, usually 10-15min.

I have continued with lunging as I wanted Pringles to be confident on the lunge in canter before we commenced it under saddle and the side reins also help her start to feel for the contact.

I had my saddle fitter come out to check her saddle which needed to be adjusted (this has been done). This is extremely important as the last thing I want is for an ill-fitting saddle to be affecting the way she works.

Under saddle we have progressed to riding square corners to make sure I am able to move her shoulders and turn on the forehand which then was turned into baby leg yields.

I have started to introduce walk and trot poles to Pringles training which again is great for her balance/strength and good cross training.  We are also now cantering on both leads under saddle.

I’m pleased with the way Pringles is adjusting to the new workload, but I am mindful of the length and intensity of our training sessions, so I can push enough to get improvement without making her sore from the new work.

We also had our first hack-out through the trails around my property. A friend rode my older mare as a companion and Pringles was fantastic.

I have started regular lessons with my dressage coach which has been great to have a set of eyes from such a knowledgeable person to guide me as well.

This month we also had some float rides where my other mare Pandora became Pringles’ buddy.

Our first trip was to a Monmouth Pony Club rally where I was teaching, so Pringles and Pandora stayed in the yard and were able to take in the pony club environment.

Again, I was very pleased with how Pringles was able to take everything in, however as with all that I am doing with her in her initial training, I want to make sure I set things up as best I can for a good experience.

We have also had our first lesson off property with another of my coaches, where we went for a hack-out around the Tasmanian Equestrian Centre and Pandora came with us as Pringles’ buddy.

Once I made a few slight adjustments, Pringles handled the ride out extremely well and was the leader walking around the new environment.

Moving forward, I will move the mounting block out of the arena at home and practice mounting in different areas to help us more when we go out to unfamiliar sites.

Finally, this month we participated in the Tasracing Off the Track media shoot. It was great to catch up with so many of the people who run the fantastic Off the Track program, including the lovely Lily Mithen who is Tasracing’s Off the Track ambassador.

Next month I will be aiming to expose Pringles to different environments.

https://youtube.com/shorts/LELH1AB0