Shilogh - The horse next door

When I moved into my little cottage, now nearly two years ago I was seriously in transit and could not even cope with owning a couch or a dog. As we all know that has slowly changed over the last two years, with me drifting less and less and slowly settling back down into the routine of life and responsibility. Getting a puppy, buying a couch, acknowledging my relationship with John....and recently, starting lessons on Shilogh and taking over the management of his upkeep.

See, Shilogh is the little horse next door that I have been riding on a very informal and irregular basis for the last eighteen months. In the past, I have kept the relationship and the riding very loose and uncommited but the desire to start competing and taking my riding more seriously have steadily been growing. Firstly I thought of finding a horse to halfbate, then to buy and eventually I decided that I actually have a wonderful little horse to ride, I just need to put the effort and the cost into him and upgrade my riding experience with him. So I spoke to the owner and we have changed his food and his stable management as from today - no more will he be treated as a live-out second class citizen. Oh no - he has gone onto competition quality food and stable management principles. Even though this is quite costly, if we share it, it is affordable and the results I am sure will blow us all away. But to start with - this is what the little guy is all about.

He is rather skinny at the moment with very little muscle tone especially over the hind quarter which is a critical area for your showjumper. This is also then the area that are currently enjoying the most focus in terms of the exercises I am doing with him. I love his short compact back, well balanced neck and kind face. A bit of downer is the rather straight shoulder and very long and angled pasterns....fortunately he is not a very big horse and he has a very kind and generous disposition with more than enough ability to give me back my confidence and teach me how to ride properly again.

He is a really well banlanced little horse with a lovely soft mouth and even though he is not really well developed as yet, he is an easy and supple ride
Working on that dreaded seat my girl - get those legs longer and chin UP for Pete's sake! Shilogh is engaging really well here and you can start to see his paces coming out in this photo. Now imagine what he will look like in about three or four months time with proper food and exercise!
A really well engaged little horse paying attention to my every move, he really is a lovely soft and responsive ride and I am scared that I might just fall in love with this gorgeous little boy!
And hate me if you must, but these photos were taken today, in the MIDDLE of winter, we are really enjoying lovely mild daytime temperatures at the moment.