more birthday celebrations

This morning we had a brief respite from the perma-rain (fear not it has returned on and off all day) and so I took Moo down to the school. Well that sounds way too simple; in fact prior to coming in he had rolled in the muddiest bit he could find and was disgustingly damp and dirty. Oh well, so after brushing off under the saddle and bridle areas we finally got down to the school.
Again slightly different today. After mounting we walked with buckle-reins and halted regularly, after a dozen or so halts (using seat/leg/weight and if necessary voice) we halted and I laid the reins on his neck and checked my watch for 1 minute, he remained motionless (incredibly) and so I clicked and treated and off we went to repeat.
I took the same 'feel' into the trot work, reins on the buckle, neck reining  and seat/weight/ legs to turn and keep it slow.
He worked really well and after 30 minutes we were stretching down and could work a figure of eight without rushing or leaning...it is still fragile, I could lose it at any moment (and do regularly, lol) but it's coming.
Rain stopped play with Chapsi so we just had a quick in-hand wander up the lane.

As it was Patrick's birthday today we went  to les Voyageurs and ate lunch from the menu gastronomique...I chose the trio of foie gras then noix de St Jaques followed by the cheese trolley and sablee de poire et pomme with caramel ice cream. It was all divine and the service the best you can find around here. Now I'm stuffed but have to consume pink bubbles....just to be sociable of course.