bonus

Sunshine always makes things feel good. Today was sunny. Not just sunny but warm with hardly a breath of wind to give you any idea that winter is on it's way. Eighteen degrees at four o'clock is hardly seasonal for November. Today was just one of those 'bonus' days curtesy of the universe; thank you universe.

Started work early and worked all three. Moo first, worked in-hand with lots of stretching and opening up with shoulder yields etc. and by the end he seemed to be loose and showing no stiffness. We'll try riding tomorrow and see if he really is feeling less tight.


The pony's box comes next so he works next. He is so amenable is Peanut. He is also the cleanest equine on the planet with regards to his box. I wish he could share his secret with the others! Peanut started in-hand; we're on the very basics...halt, walk on by myself (him not me that is) and moving away from me ie the very beginnings of giravolta/moving turn on the forehand. He isn't a super star andnever will be but boy does he try. Finished on the lunge and I'm thinking that he MAY stretch down one day. I'm also thinking that he's almost good enough to be able to lunge Looby on him soon.


Last up was Chapsi (maybe I should write that as Chapsy Claire, hehe I hadn't thought of Maria's EE name). For the first time yet the boy chose not to play to start with. As usual we started loose and he just took himself off to play ALONE. In the past I think this would have upset me, enough perhaps to have gone and hooked him up to, at the very least, the cordeo. I'm not impatient, or at least I don't think I am, but I just know that I couldn't have coped as well as I did today. I think my horses are having a very positive effect on me :-)
I got out some cones and made us an area of influence. We had some poles to target and walk over and a couple of cones to target and bend around. Of course he could walk away whenever (and he did a couple of times) but after ten minutes he was quite intent on playing together. I think clicker helped me out big time because of his desire to please (and of course get his treat); I'm not sure if I'm relying on it too much but by the end of our session the reward of him walk/trot/walking on a circle at liberty around me was worth the risk.

Sunny Days

I'm aware that weather bragging isn't cool but in the interests of recording life I will briefly nod in that direction just to say it has been truly the most wonderful three months of sunshine. So much so that we really have no green stuff (more an autumnal beige) and we have for the first time since moving here used our hay field to graze; so in spite of having just over 12 acres for three of them, I'm mighty glad we had a good hay supply of hay stashed in the barn....we may be needing it.
Monday I forgot to say that Chapiro's breeder (Karen who was a student some time ago when I was teaching with Fidge) came over, I worked him in the school to show her our progress and then we worked Moo and she had a play too; it's lovely to spend a morning chatting about Spanish horses (Karen has some mares in Spain).
Today I rode Moo in the school, really because I wanted to check that all this 'horsemanship' stuff (I can't bring myself to type the 'n' word that so many put with horsemanship these days) isn't sending him into lala land. Erm, no worries there then, he was his usually energetic self especially in the trot but he worked very well and his back is starting to really swing again. We finished off with a walk down to the bottom of the hill and back and he was really striding out, marching on! Haven't felt that since Fidge. We had no spooky bits or stopping and we had a trot part of the way back.