Sunday, January 18, 2009

The rain cometh


Allegedly it cometh for the whole week. That throws a spanner in the gubbins then, I don't do getting wet so maybe no lunging, no hills and no teaching this week :-( So I have to learn to dance in the rain.
Soooo, today it was back to flexions indoors, having changed to a fulmered snaffle (haven't used one for I can't remember how long) in an attempt to see if I could encourage him to be more wet in his mouth. He is far less *worried* by the in-hand bit lifting and today was the first time he had actually relaxed and swallowed ,which is the intention.
I spent longer raising the bit and relaxing out his neck and jaw. Then I got on and did the same thing mounted. then we went on to ridden lateral work and he's now really clicked with the renvers and travers. Interspersed half pass with leg yield so that he didn't get too tight. It's excellent that he is today calmer in my hand and not throwing his head about, so much so that to end he took a great stretch down into the rein.
On a completely different front, I'm having so much fun cooking Indian food from my Christmas pressie book. It's the best book I've had on the subject and it's already got me experimenting on my own. Puts me in mind of training horses, there is a recipe but it's so very personal to each horse that there could never be a big enough book to cover every eventuality.

2 comments:

Claire said...

who's book? i like madhur jaffrey ...

trudi said...

Yes I've got a MJ one too but I got two books by Anjum Anand Indian food made easy andAnjum's New Indian....both follow the BBC series. I can't recommend them enough so far we've tried chilli and coconut chutney, Chapatti, black eyed pea curry, tarka dal, chicken with spinach, mussels with coconut, chicken patties....and they've all been great.