replacement

The good news is that my wonky Barefoot is being replaced, yay!! They agreed (after some foot stamping on my part) to take it back to look at it and have now apologised for what they call a little 'setback' and are sending me a new one. It's hard enough to sit on a horse, with all it's imbalances, being a wonky human; sitting in a wonky saddle is just one step too far, LOL.
So today I rode Moo bareback again (I could shim my treed saddle to suit but as the new saddle will be here soon I think I'll do without) we had a good session. He is improving with the moving away from the left and I played with slowing the walk right down and then letting it out again. It's quite strange because bareback I only have to raise my toes/drop my heel and he halts and that even works with the reins on his neck and my arms in the air (yes I've been playing), I suppose this transfers from using a dropping of weight into the stirrups as an aid to halt when saddled. I have also noticed that the problem of the chair seat could well be down to my inner thigh! You know, the bit that some folk think you can pull out and back to get the thigh flat to the saddle! To be honest I can't tell what I look like bareback because my trusty camcorder has thrown a sicky and I'm working on a cure. When Yvonne was house sitting she saw me up bareback and said I looked straight so for now I won't beat myself up about the thighs and I'll just keep stretching it all in the hope that my legs may end up 5cm longer.

Chapiro worked at liberty to start, oh that boy is just such fun to be with and he makes me smile. The clicker work has helped his concentration enormously but he still has his baby moments but they are very forgivable. We finished on the lunge with some good trot and canter transitions and then some trotting poles to get him stepping through a little. A good day in all.

getting in to the swing

Well the work ethic is well and truly back in place and both boys worked well this morning. I was truly amazed that my legs/hips didn't hurt after riding Moo bareback so today I decided to give it another go (the saddle is on it's way back to be 'investigated'). I did a bit more trot today and it felt quite good, the lateral work in walk was fine but he still avoids opening the right hind  to allow the left hind through when moving away from my left leg. I picked up the scooling whip so that I could just touch where I expected him to move and he responded well, I think if I continue in this way he will be get the hang of using it properly.
Chapsi was back to one cool man :-) and so I hopped straight on and worked on clear signals for walk on, halt and turns; all part of the 'tidying up' process so that before we progress further all this basic stuff is truly in place.