Wednesday 31st December

Today I started with Blossom, and we started with working on backwards to try and get her going backwards just a little faster than she is as it is really slow. This worked well and she was able to go backwards faster and straight, but as I backwards improved my draw then wasn’t as good as it has been. So we worked on that to try and get everything all balanced out again, and then started playing with back up with obstacles - over a pole, towards a jump, and into the trailer. Everything went really well, so I was really pleased.

We then played with sideways and today was so much softer and I was able to have the belly of the rope on the ground at all time and have her go and stop from just my energy.

Next was circle and to start with today I worked on getting them really soft before we done anything else, and she was really good today she really dropped her head and relaxed as she was trotting round. So we then played with change of direction and today I was so happy with the changed we got - a little work yet, but I think we are nearly there!!

As she was going so well today I decided to try and ask her to jump a higher jump than I have ever asked her to jump since started Parelli, it wasn’t that big I think maybe just under 3ft.. We had to do a little approach and retreat to start with to gain her confidence and then she was jumping it really well, so I was really impressed with her as jumping as always been an issue for her.

I then saddled and today I decided to use Smarty’s saddle on her to see if that would help as I feel I have a better seat in this one, or it might just be Smarty is easier to ride so it makes me think this..

Today’s riding session went really well, strange!! I started with just ride the rail of the arena to get her settled and connected to me. I then thought seen as the round pen was there it would be a good idea to ride the outside of this, so that is what we done. To start with Blossom was quite impulsive and did go into canter a few times and also had to be corrected a lot to stay on the rail of the round pen, she was drifting back out o be on the rail of the arena. But she soon settled and relaxed and I was able to ride round in walk and trot only using the CS to steer and stop!! I was totally amazed with this - I’m not sure if the different saddle was the reason or is it I am now riding better or is Blossom just calmer…

Today with Smarty I had ideas of playing with new things with him, but by the time it came to playing with him I just didn’t have the energy to do very much. So I decided to go out on a trail ride myself with him. He was really good and only spooked twice, once at people ice skating on what I would class as a big puddle in a field and the second at a house where there are dogs that really bark when you pass and I have to admit they do sound really scary! But apart from these little spooks we had a lovely ride and it was so nice to be out by ourselves as we could trot when we wanted or walked when we wanted. So we both really enjoyed this!

Tuesday 30th December

Today I started with Blossom, and we started with working on our sideways as I found yesterday when I tried to play this game at liberty it didn’t work. But I found out that is because I do still rely on the rope to stop her and to prevent her being too far away from me - so no wonder it doesn’t work at liberty!! So today I really worked on getting sideways really soft and worked on trying not to use the rope to stop her. This actually went really well and I will work more on this over the next few days before I try it at liberty again, otherwise I am just setting myself up to fail at liberty.
I then played with sideways over a pole and this was better today, still needs a lot of improvement and she is still not 100% confident with the pole under her.

We then played with yo yo game and today her back up was really good and straight, so I decided to test ourselves and asked her to trailer load backwards from 22ft away. The first attempt she lost her confidence when she got to the bottom of the ramp of the trailer, so we played around with approach and retreat until she was able to back straight to the bottom of the ramp. I then asked her into the trailer and she managed this fine, so I then combined it all together again and got her to back into the trailer from 22ft away and she done it really well.

We then went into the round pen to work on change of direction, we started with just walk to get the hang of the pattern again today. It was very interesting as I found I sometimes forget to walk backwards until she is already coming to me.. I tend to rely on the rope and the stick to get her to draw, when I should be walking backwards to encourage the draw and using the rope and CS to back this up. How interesting!! So I really worked on myself today and after playing around for over half and hour we were starting to get some really nice changes - so we are getting there!!

I then mounted bareback and had a little ride round and she was really good today and stayed calm and relaxed the whole time even in trot, so I kept our riding session short seen as she was so good!

Today with Smarty I decided to play the seven games and find any holes we have so we can fix them now instead of waiting until there is a big problem.
Friendly is getting much better and he is now becoming much more confident with this and is starting to accept the string around his hind legs, which was a real issue for him to start with. So I think he is now ready for some new friendly games.
Porcupine was really good.
Driving game was good, except driving the FQ in his right eye.. He tends to go backwards, sideways and forwards to get away. So today I played lots of friendly to help him be more confident with the CS in this area and will continue to work with this slowly as I do think he is scared more than being dominant.
Yo yo game is really good - He goes backwards from phase one and his draw is really good too and he will even come to me in trot if I ask him.
Circling game today was ok it has been better.. But I think the problem is as he has been a show pony I think he has been lunged a lot and therefore still just runs in circles without thinking. So I will work on this with him to try and keep him more LB and his focus on me using exercises I have been using with Blossom.
Squeeze game was good today, I only asked him to go between me and the wall more just to see how the send and disengage was and he was really good. So I think I will start playing with this game more with other obstacles.
Sideways is our most challenging game - he really finds it difficult to relax.. He can move sideways well, but he is always trying to escape! So we need to do a lot more work on this!

So overall all the games are quite good but now I know what ones we still have a few problems with and what ones we can start to challenge ourselves more with.

Monday 29th December

Today I started with Blossom, today her feet seem fine but I decided to play safe and try and just play with her at walk so not to put any extra pressure on her feet just incase there is a more serious problem.

So today we started with lots of friendly and the move on to playing with sideways over a pole, she is now really good with me in her left eye. But with me on her right she finds this more difficult and tends to still go forwards and backwards a lot, instead of just sideways. So I spent a lot of time working on her confidence with me in zone 3 while she was standing over the pole.

We then played with backwards, which was very good today none of her usual strops and trying to run off!! So we then played with backwards into the trailer and today she was very good and went in very quickly without any problems and stood there really calm and relaxed while I spoke to Marieke.

I then played with change of direction, but today only at walk and I think this really helped me and Blossom really get the hang of the pattern, instead of doing it a few times in walk and then rushing to do it in trot.

I then went into the roundpen to play at liberty. I started with some stick to me to really get her connected to me and then played with the seven games. The first 4 games were really good and I really couldn’t fault them, circling was also good but she didn’t always go in the direction I asked her to go on and sometimes would change direction by herself while one the circle. But her disengage was good and her draw to me was really good and this is normally our problem with this game at liberty. Squeeze game just didn’t work… I would ask her to squeeze between me and the fence (big space) But instead of disengaging she would canter off, and then stop half way round the corral and then come back to me! So I decided to give sideways a try and this didn’t work very well either, she did go sideways a little to start with but wasn’t connected to me and was more running away. So I put her back on line and started with the squeeze game and she was perfect!! Yes she was online but the belly of the rope was on the ground and I was disengaging her with only using the CS, so I thought well I will try with the halter round her neck. Again perfect, so I went back to liberty and the exact same thing happened… I am pretty sure I done everything the same so I am not sure what the problem is. Eddy is in America just now, so I can’t ask him but I will maybe try and get Marieke to watch me tomorrow and see if she can see what the problem is..

Today with Smarty my plans got interrupted as a couple of the geldings were turned out into the arena to let them have a play as they all have lots of energy just now - but these two went mad a really galloped about bucking and rearing etc. So I had just saddled Smarty so started of in the round pen warming him up to ride and then mounted, but he really didn’t like it in the round pen and was getting quite bored. So I headed out to the arena and just rode around the other horses, which was sometimes a challenge! So today we really didn’t do very much and finished quite early as it wasn’t easy to ride round horses playing and galloping about.

Sunday 28th December

Today Blossom’s feet appeared to be better, she certainly wasn’t as sore as she was yesterday so this was really good.

Marieke spoke to their barefoot trimmer and she is going to come and see Blossom on the 5th and have a look for me and suggest what I should do with her feet and what all the possibilities are…

Today I started with Smarty and decided seen as the riding is now going so well I should work more online and start with some of the level two tasks to keep us both progressing.
So today we started with friendly game and the yo yo game, this was really good today. We then spent a lot of time playing with sideways as he still isn’t confident with this game - he can move sideways really and both front and back legs cross really well, but he is still always trying to go forward. Just now we are still playing against the fence, but even then his head is as close to the fence as possible and he is even trying to get his head over the fence like he is really trying to escape. So today I took it really slowly and I asked him to keep going sideways until he did relax, this seemed to help and he done lots of licking and chewing!!

We then played with yo yo game over a pole, he was really good at this - a little unsure to start with but very quickly worked out what I was asking of him and he was going backwards and over the pole without any problems.

We then played with circles and started playing with transitions today by wiggling the rope, but this didn’t go very well so we will need to work more on this to teach him what I am asking and also make sure he is confident.

We then started playing with change of direction - only at walk and he was really good and appeared quite confident doing this and would even draw to me at trot!!

Next we played with the figure of eight pattern, we had a few problems to start with - but by the end he appeared more relaxed and was nearly able to do the pattern in trot without problems. So I will continue to work on this so he learns the pattern.


Today with Blossom I didn’t want to do very much with her because of her feet but thought it would be good for her to walk about a little if nothing else.
So we started with a little stick to me just playing with walk, stop and backup and she was really good and her feet didn’t appear to be hurting her. So we played with sideways and then sideways over a pole, she is now more confident going sideways over the pole with me in zone 3 so this is good.

We then played with backwards over a pole and today we only had to retreat once, so this is an improvement for her!!

I then mounted bareback and we just walked round a few times and finished for the day.

Saturday 27th December

Well last night I went out with Nadine to the local nightclub, well I think it is the only one in the area!! So today I was very tired as we didn’t get home until about 3.30am, so the plan today was just to do short sessions with the ponies and get home early and back to bed!

But today Blossom had sore feet - not really sure why or what was wrong with her… So today I just gave her a day off to rest and I will see how she is tomorrow - hopefully better, fingers crossed.

Today with Smarty I played lots of friendly and the just had a little play around with all seven games. Everything went quite well, not perfect and there is a few things I would like to work on especially sideways. But today I was just too tired to do anymore so I finished on that for the day!

Friday 26th December

Today I started with Blossom and played with all the tasks we have been playing with lately and today I was a lot more firm with her than I usually am, and it seemed to work well for us. Blossom done lots of licking and chewing and appeared more confident with the tasks we were playing with.

I then saddled and mounted - today’s riding session started well and Blossom was relaxed, but half way through she became more impulsive so we had to play about trying to calm her down again. But the session ended well with a nice relaxed pony!

Today with Smarty I decided again to work on my riding and started with one CS riding, this was going really well so I decided to use two CS. This went really well and I was able to walk, trot and canter like this and was able to do upward and downward transitions from just the energy in my body and using the CS, I was very impressed with this!! Marieke was in the arena with us and commented how well he was going and couldn’t believe it was just his second time being ridden like this.

Christmas Day!!

This morning myself, Coine and Nadine had a lovely Christmas breakfast!!



After breakfast I had a lovely surprise as I had lots of presents to open. Santa had brought them all the way over to Holland for me, and Corine and Nadine really put a lot of effort into keeping it a surprise for me. So this was really nice of them to go to all that effort for me!!

Even though it was Christmas I still went and played with the ponies. I started online with Blossom and played with:

Driving from zone 5
Sideways
Sideways at trot
Yo yo game
Squeeze game over a jump
Circles and change of direction

Today she was much better and seemed more focused on me and I was even able to play with circles next to the trailer without too many problems today!

I then played with Smarty and then saddled - I started with one CS riding today but I still felt I was leaning forward or always wanting to use my reins, so I decided to give 2 CS riding a go. Smarty was a little Star and I was able to walk, trot, canter, stop and backup like this and I felt totally safe and in control. I then got Blossom back out and led her from Smarty, they were both really good today and both were really focused on my energy. I felt it was going so well I even decided to try Blossom at liberty and this worked quite well too - she did leave a couple of times but came back to me very quickly!!

We finished up a little earlier as me and Corine were making ourselves Christmas dinner, it was a really good evening!! We started with making our dinner and then we watched Annie and then Miracle on 34th Street.

Wednesday 24th December

Today I started with Smarty, we played lots of friendly and I gave him a groom and then started with playing with yo yo game. I had to really work hard at this today as he is starting to assume every time I back him that I will then want him to go on to a circle, so today I tried to brake that pattern. In the end I got some really good backwards and I even got him to draw to me at trot!!

We moved on and played around with all the other games and then I saddled and girthed him in three satages. I then mounted and checked my lateral flexion, which is now getting much softer and then started walking the rail of the arena I then added in some 9 step back up and today he was much softer than he has been.

We then played around with trot and canter transitions and these all went really well and today he was more relaxed with the loose rein - so this was really good!!

Eddy then told me to ride with a CS, then informed me this wasn’t for Smarty but more for me to try and encourage me to sit on my bum and stop leaning forward so much!! So instead of bending to a stop I was to use the CS to push his head towards the wall and to sit on my bum!

Well this took a little but of getting used to for both me and Smarty, he was a little scared of the stick so I had to do lots of friendly to start with but he got used to it very quickly. Me on the other hand, I had to really concentrate on staying in the correct position and using the stick at the correct time. But I soon got the hang of it and wow what difference it made!! Smarty seemed much more connected to my energy and was stopping more from my body than anything else, by the end of the session I was able to canter and then come back to stop without really doing anything except lowering my energy levels and sitting on my bum!!

So I went out to play with Blossom in a great mood and hoped that my improved riding position would help her too. But today Blossom had other ideas and there was no way I would be riding her today!!
We started with working on line with all the tasks we have been doing over the last week or so, some went really well. But I then wanted to work on change of direction and Eddy was riding a horse at the top end of the arena, so I decided to play with circles on the bottom half. But as the trailer is also there this caused a few problems as all Blossom wanted to do was go in the trailer and she was takng off in canter towards the trailer!! So I put the trailer ramp up so she couldn’t get in but still she would run towards the trailer. S to try and get her focus on me I played with the fallen leaf pattern at walk and getting her to stand once I disengaged her to help her relax. This seemed to help a little so I tried asking her to circle again this time at the top end of the arena and all she wanted to do was gallop! So to interrupt her pattern I the started asking her to jump - but as she was so RB she would get to the jump and only see it at the last minute and would therefore stop and the go again.. She eventually did do I couple of really soft circles blowing out so we finished on that.

Marieke was playing with Benji at liberty and then mounted him with only a bareback pad and savvy string and I was saying to her that’s what I want to be able to do with Blossom. I sure this is most peoples dream to ride bareback and brideless!! Well I was very lucky today as Marieke asked if I would like to ride Benji like this, well this isn’t the sort of offer you get everyday now is it!!

Well of course I said Yes, and I was able to walk, trot and canter Benji like this and felt totally safe and in control. Marieke also got me to jump a jump on him like this, it was so cool - I was even able to get him to do a figure of eight pattern in trot. I can’t even do this on Blossom with a hackamore on!!

Tuesday 23rd December

Today online with Blossom I played with:

Getting her to draw to me at trot.
Sideways in trot.
Sideways over a pole.
Backwards into the trailer.
Driving from zone 4 and 5
Started teaching her to back from her tail
Lots of circles (to get them soft)
Change of direction.
Jumping on a circle.

Everything went quite well and I will continue to work on all of these things for the next few days.

I then saddled and mounted and checked lateral flexion which was very soft today. We then walked round riding the rail and I would every few strides bend her to a stop to really get her used to doing this. I then added in 9 step back ups and also sideways. She was really good with all of this today and was really calm, so I asked for trot and she would do a few strides and then would come back to walk herself… I was shocked, Blossom stopping by herself!! Our session continued like this and she was calm all of the time and was able to trot circles and the come back to walk really easily!! I was very impressed with her today and I think it is one of the best rides I have had on he for a while.

Today with Smarty we let him loose in the arena to play with Benji, they only played a little as Smarty doesn’t really seem to know how to play.. But Benji worked really hard to get Smarty to play and teach him what to do, it was really nice to watch.

I then done a catching game with him with the help from Mareike, so after lots of galloping round not really knowing what to do with himself he caught me well and I played friendly game with him and the just walked him round the arena. Because of all his galloping about he was to tired and sweaty to do any play.

Monday 22nd December

This weekend Eddy and Marieke were away getting a seat builder, so today we all got a little play on it!! This is the first time I had seen one of these or had a shot, so it was really interesting. Today we didn’t really work on our fluidity, we just really had a play around finding our balance point and trying not to fall off!!








Today with Blossom I worked on out back up to start and she was good today. So we moved on to sideways over a pole, she still finds this quite difficult so we spent a lot of time on this and I gave her lots of rest spots while she was standing over the pole to help her confidence.

We then played with circle and today I just worked on walking backwards to improve our draw and to help her keep her attention on me. It went well today and she came in nearly everytime I started to walk backwards, so I was really happy with this.

I then mounted bareback and checked our lateral flexion and started with follow the rail she was very impulsive today.. So I started with adding in lots of backwards transitions and also bending her to a stop and disengaging her HQ. This seemed to help a little but any excuse she was off into trot.. So Eddy suggested I do the bow tie pattern with her and see if this pattern would help her impulsion. This did help slightly, but I was really having to hold the bend until she would relax before I could let her go again. We did then get a few nice patterns so I thought I would stop on that for the day.

Sunday 21st December

Today with Smarty I started with playing all seven games with him, all of them went really well. We had one little problem driving the FQ on his right side, but I think this is more down to a friendly game issue so I will work more on friendly game in zone 1 to help this problem.

I then saddled him and played with circles on the 22ft line and today I worked on getting his attention on me by walking backwards like I have been doing with Blossom. This really worked well with him and he did stop and come into me a lot of the time, so this was really nice to see.

We then played with circling over the jump and today he was really good and stayed really calm.

I then mounted and played around with my lateral flexion as I am still teaching him to bend, but it is now getting better. We the followed the rail and played with 9 step back up, he was much softer today than he was yesterday and move back really well.

We then had a little trot and canter and then we were ready to head out on our trail ride with Corine and Sophie. Sophie’s horse had a few problems today so she decided to get off and walk, but wanted to stay in front so she could see if she could handle her horses problems as if she was on her own. So this therefore made the start of the ride a very slow one as her horse seemed to have a lot of thresholds. During this time Smarty was a little star and happily stood and waited until I asked him to go again and didn’t have any problems with anything and stayed relaxed the whole time.

We then got Sophie to let Smarty take the lead otherwise it would have been dark by the time we got round the ride we planned to go on - Smarty was perfect and didn’t put a foot wrong the whole ride I was so proud of him!!

Today I didn’t play with Blossom as I done a ET session on her yesterday, so I washed her tail and gave her a nice groom instead which I think she enjoyed!

Saturday 20th December

Today with Blossom we started again with working on her confidence in zone 5, playing with the normal objects and then moved on to playing with loading into the trailer backwards. This took around 20minutes as she took very small steps and needed lots of rest spots. But she managed to go all the way in today!!




We then moved on to playing with sideways which was good and we even managed some trot sideways so I was happy with this.

We then played with circles and again today I worked on walking backwards while Blossom was circling to get her focus on me - this worked really well and she started to come to me every time I walked backwards. So we moved on to change of direction and we got some really nice changes but she seemed to just have loads of energy today and just wanted to canter all the time. So I decided to finish and turn her and Smarty loose in the school and let them get rid of any extra energy they have and then I would continue playing.

So I turned them both loose and they galloped about a little, but then Blossom came back to me and wanted to play - so we played stick to me in walk and trot and even jumped a jump and then I asked her to stand on the pedestal. Which she done first time!! I then tried to get her to go sideways, but I applied too much pressure I think and she left.. So I left the arena and went upstairs to watch them, and I am glad I left them as it was really good to watch them. They had another really good gallop about and then Blossom loaded herself into the trailer and stood in there I for a few minutes, so this was really nice to see!! I then headed back down and Blossom caught me really well and we had another play at liberty and then stopped and I gave her a really good groom in the arena as she had rolled. While I was grooming Blossom would you believe, Smarty loaded himself into the trailer - I was really impressed!!

I then took Blossom back to her stable and went back to catch Smarty - I could have caught him the first time but he had a really snotty look on his face so I backed him away from me and he decided to go for another gallop. I approached and retreated from him a few times, but every time I got quite close he still had a snotty look so I would chase him away again. This carried on for about 15 minutes, then next time I approached I got his attention on me and walked backwards and he came walking to me. So I played friendly game at with the CS with him and then walked to were I had left his halter with him sticking to me at liberty, I was really happy with this as even when I stopped he stopped too!! I was so tempted to try a little bit of liberty work with him but didn’t think it was worth it today.

I then gave Smarty a groom and then saddled him and got Blossom out again - the plan today was to ride Smarty and play with Blossom at the same time..

So I warmed them both up again together playing with circles and yo yo game, they both went quite well considering it was my first time playing with two ponies at the same time and the fact Smarty is so new to playing the games.





I then mounted and we started with just walking round and I was playing friendly game with the CS with both of them while we were walking round, Smarty was still a little unsure of this but was ok with the whole idea. So we then moved up to trot and both ponies were really good and stayed together, I really expected Blossom to get impulsive but she stayed quite calm.

Seen as that was all going so well I decided to have a play with some of the games - starting with yo yo game with Blossom, this went really well and she went backwards to the end of the 12ft line and back no problem. And Smarty just stood there the whole time with a totally loose rein, so I was very impressed as he wasn’t worried and seemed to know I was communicating to Blossom and not him. I then tried to play circling game with Blossom circling around me and Smarty, but this didn’t really work as Smarty got worried about the rope being near his bum and back legs and would start running off when this happened, so I will need to work with this more on the ground to help him to become confident.

We then played squeeze game over a jump, well Blossom had to jump while me and Smarty stood there - this also went really well.

We then moved on and I asked Blossom to trailer load and me and Smarty just stood outside and then we moved on to the pedestal and I asked Blossom to stand up on it and then asked her to try and get a back foot on and today she managed all 4 feet. She only managed it for about 3 seconds, but she still done it!!!

We finished by walking round working on getting both ponies connected to my energy and stop and back up together. Blossom was really tuned into me and was stopped and backing sometimes before Smarty had even stopped!! So I had to be a little firmer with Smarty and then we got some really nice back up from him too and most of the time both ponies were backing at the same time.

Today’s session was really fun and I think I will try and do more of this with them as they seemed to really enjoy it too and it was great for Smarty confidence with the friendly games as there was always ropes hanging down or the carrot stick in the air or something and by the end of the session he wasn’t really bothered by it all. What really impressed me today with them was they seemed to know when I was communicating to each of them and both didn’t respond when I was correcting the other - it would have been so easy for Smarty to have responded every time I gave a signal to Blossom when we were playing some of the games but somehow he knew and just stood there! I was really happy with both of them today!!

Friday 19th December

Today I started with Smarty and after playing a few games with him I saddled and mounted. Today I worked on his lateral flexion he is still unsure about bending so we done lots of work on this and also worked on back up. We then played with trot and trying to get him to stay relaxed on a loose rein, I don’t think he has ever been ridden in this way before so he assumes as soon as I give him the reins he is to canter. So we really worked on this and I gradually would increase the amount of reins I gave him while we were trotting round - very quickly he was trotting round on a totally loose rein and he was really calm and done lots of blowing out! Seen as this was going so well I asked for canter and got some really nice circles from him, so we then finished on that.

Today with Blossom I started again with working with her confidence in zone 5,she was good today and appeared to be more confident.
We then played with sideways - which was lovely and soft so I was really happy with this!! I really need to think about asking her to trot sideways, this was my plan for today but we somehow didn’t get round to trying this..

I then played with circles, we started with transitions she was really good today and was really working from my energy levels to go up and down the transitions - Eddy even commented how good my transitions were, but then he wanted to see my change of direction..

The first change went ok, she did come into me but only in a walk - but it is still better than nothing. I carried on playing around with this and Eddy continued to watch, some changes were better and some worse. Eddy suggested that I try just walking backwards while Blossom was out in a circle, but without any pressure on her. I wasn’t to look at her or apply any pressure to the rope - the aim of this was just to get her attention on me and help improve my draw. This really worked and very soon as soon as I started going backwards, Blossom started coming in to me! So after this our changes of directions did improve by quite a bit, some were actually really good. Eddy suggested that I keep playing with this with her to make it more into a pattern to help her learn what I am asking.

We finished with playing with the pedestal, we nearly got three feet on!! But then she fell off, silly pony!! I felt really sorry for her as she was trying so hard to lift her back foot onto the pedestal and had moved her front feet forward to allow more room for her back feet. But as soon as she lifted her back foot high enough to place on the pedestal and then placed her back foot on it her front feet fell off!! So it was still a massive improvement that she is now trying this and I think very soon she will manage without falling off lol

Thursday 18th December

Today I wasn’t feeling well before lunch So I did consider just going home in the afternoon and not playing with Blossom, but I am so glad I decided to stay and play with her as we had a really good day!!

We started again today with working on Blossom’s confidence in zone 5 and played with backing into objects, we played with the pole, jumps, blocks, wall, the trailer, and the trailer ramp. She was very good and manages to get very close to all the objects now, still needs more work on loading into the trailer backwards. But I was so impressed with how well she done this!!






I the played with trailer loading from a distance, not sure what the distance actually was but I do know it was more than 22ft as I had to run as she got closer to allow her enough rope to go in. She was brilliant and was even cantering the last few strides!! Eddy then asked if I could load her at liberty?? Well I didn’t know as I had never tried… So I took the halter off and played a little friendly then sent her to the trailer from about 20ft away and she trotted off and straight into the trailer - I was totally amazed and I think Eddy was a little too!!

So I then decided to play with liberty a little and played in walk, trot and back up some stick to me and she was really good and stayed with me and didn’t even think about leaving. I then decided to challenge ourselves even more and asked her to stand on the pedestal and she done it, first time!!

Sorry the photo isn’t great, but just couldn’t resist putting it up!!



I then put the bareback pad on her for the first time, I think I bought it in May oops! But I couldn’t get myself in a good position today as the leather straps are so bulky as I have to wrap them round the cinch so many times so I didn’t feel as if I was on my balance point all the time as my legs couldn’t really hang as I wanted them because of the straps. So I think this affected how Blossom went as she had loads of go - but I think this was a little because I was leaning more forward than I have been bareback.. Maybe not though..
So I tried to just walk as asking for anything faster resulted in us galloping around the arena, so the main focus of todays session was to get her bending really softly to a stop and also work on our backwards and a little work on sideways. This all went well once she calmed down and started listening to me again, so we finished on that.

Today with Smarty I couldn’t really play with him after his Equine Touch session yesterday, but I wanted to do a little something with him to stretch his legs. So we just went into the arena and I gave him a groom and then we played with stick to me. I haven’t really done this with him yet, so he was a little worried and confused to start with as I was having to correct him a lot to try and get him to stay with me. But after alap of the arena with lots of rest spots and friendly he got the idea of this new game and we even managed a little trot.
We finished our little session with him standing on the pedestal.

Wednesday 17th December

Today my new camera arrived so I got some lovely photos of the ponies!!

So today with Smarty we played friendly game with the CS and also played with just tossing the rope over his head and back. We then played with yo yo game and h was really good today and gave me some really nice backwards at a low phase. We then moved on to sideways and today I tried without a fence he was going sideways but there was still a lot of forward movement and I felt I was having to make to many corrections so we went back to playing at the fence.

Trailer loading was brilliant today and he loaded straight in first time!!



So I decided seen as he had managed the trailer loading so well, I would try him with the pedestal today.



After playing for around 15 minutes with lots of approach and retreat



We then played with circling over a jump and he had loads of energy and seemed to really enjoy this! We finished with loading into the trailer from trot!! Hopefully the video will work!!



Today with Blossom I decided to try and work on her confidence in zone 5 - we played with backwards over a pole, backwards towards the wall, backwards to a jump, and backwards towards with trailer ramp. She was really good, we did do lots of approach and retreat but not nearly as much as I thought we would have had to do.



We then played with sideways and Eddy commented how well she is doing and that I should start asking her to trot sideways..

So I will maybe give that a try in the next few days. We then finished on that as I wanted to do ET session on Smarty and as the arena was busy today so I didn’t think it was the best time to try and ride her. Smarty’s ET session went well, he had a few sore spots but nothing too bad and seemed to really enjoy his session.

Tuesday 16th December

Today with Blossom I started with trailer loading as I just couldn’t resist playing with the trailer seen as it was in the arena! I was so happy when Blossom loaded straight in first time, I didn’t expect this from her!!

We then moved on to playing with sideways over a pole, I started with asking for sideways with me in zone 1 as I found out yesterday that she found this easier so to help her understand what I wanted I started with this. She went really well and managed to go sideways in both directions at a very low phase so I decided to try from zone 3, she was a little hesitant to start with but I made sure I was clear to her with what I was asking and rewarded every step she took. So very quickly she got the idea and was able to go all the way along the pole with me in zone 3. It still needs more work, but I was so happy with her improvement in only a day!! I find it hard to believe how much our sideways has improved since we got here!!

We then played with Backwards over a pole and today she was so much better and was much more confident with the pole in zone 5 and crossing over the pole. So again today we still played a lot with approach and retreat to really help her confidence and by the end she was going straight back towards the pole and crossing it with confidence so I was really happy with this! I have only been using the 12ft line for the last couple of days for this task as I have found this is also helping her confidence approaching the pole from a shorter distance, so I hope to start gradually increasing this distance again to 22ft.

We the played with circles and I found I am able to do the change of direction when we are on the 12ft line, but the draw coming into me on the 22ft line still isn’t great but I think this is to do with my rope handling skills and I am not yet quick enough gathering in the line so this is what is causing her to be hesitant to come to me. So I will continue to work on this as I now think she is ready for the change as her confidence playing with this as really grown, I just now need to improve!

We then went back to the trailer and I asked her to load from trot, which she did really well - Eddy even commented on how well she loads. So that made me feel really good after all the work I have put in to get Blossom confident with the trailer. (1 year I think!!)

I then mounted bareback and started with playing with transitions and bending to a stop - today Blossom was really soft and was bending really well to a stop. Today I found I managed to do a few circles of trot and the bend to a stop before Blossom got impulsive, so this was brilliant. I even felt today she was calm enough to try a canter, it wasn’t that calm or collected but she wasn’t galloping off with me either. I think we done one circle and when I asked her to stop she did really quickly and relaxed again. So I was happy with this and feel I should start doing more canter with her as this is the only way we are going to improve this.

Today with Smarty I started with grooming him in the arena to teach him that every time we come in here doesn’t mean we have to work or play!

After his groom we played friendly all over with the CS and then moved on to playing yo yo game. I had to go to phase 4 once, but then we got some really nice backwards which was good after the little problem we were having with this game yesterday.

We then played with sideways against the wall, but today I did wiggle the rope to stop zone 1 moving forward to stop him having his head as close to the wall as possible. This really helped and we got some really good sideways with slack in the line and he was really crossing his legs under. I think he is nearly ready for sideways without a fence..

I then decided to play with the trailer, I spoke to Eddy about what he thought about me trailer loading Smarty at this stage and seen no problem with it. So I thought I would give it a go..
Well the whole process to get him to load right in a stand in the trailer confidently took all of 10 minutes!! I was so impressed with him, we done a little approach and retreat - but I think what really helped was knowing when to apply more pressure and when to let him relax and think.. Blossom seems to have taught me a lot about trailer loading!! Eddy also commented on how well he loading and then asked if it was his first time loading in this way and I think was a little surprised to here it was except the little we had done yesterday!!

I then mounted bareback and today I work on getting him to stay relaxed in trot on a loose rein.. It went well today and he is now becoming more confident with this way of riding so hopefully we can start doing a little more everyday.

Monday 15th December

Today with Blossom we started with playing with stick to me to warm us both us a little and to get her connected to my energy levels.
We then moved on to playing with sideways, this was very good today so I moved on to trying sideways over a pole. I found today that she could or would only do this when I was in zone 1, when I tried to get sideways from zone 3 she just tried to go forwards and backwards over the pole so I will need to keep playing with this to try and improve this.

I then played with backwards over a pole, she still seems to have confidence issues when zone 5 gets close to the pole. So today I spent a lot of time playing with approach and retreat to try and help her confidence with this, and it really did seem to help a lot so I will continue to work with this and see how we get on.

We then played with circles and I think because she had a day off yesterday she was full of energy, so as soon as I asked for canter she totally exploded!! Galloping round and then she would stop and spin and the rear up and then take off in the other direction bucking - it was really good to watch!!
So normally when she does this I usually shut her down, but today I really matched her energy and this really seemed to worked for her and she soon relaxed and calmed down. So we the continued to play with circles and also added in a jump and a pole and a few other objects to really keep her focused.

To then calm everything down we played with the pedestal and today all 4 feet touched!! So we left it at that for the day as this was a big achievement for Blossom.

I then gave her a little break while I had a hot drink and then we played with change of direction which went really well on the 12ft rope but not quite as good on the 22ft, so I will work on this as I think my rope skills may be some of the problem here.. We then played with transitions and these were really nice and soft, especially the downward transitions so I was really happy with this!

I then mounted bareback and check my lateral flexion and then started with ride the rail of the arena, she was very calm and relaxed and today I main aim was to work with bending her to a stop as this will help her emotionally as well as stop her physically. This went really well today and she was really soft and stopping really well even from trot.

I then worked with sideways, this wasn’t as good as it was the other day but I am not quite sure why?? Eddy was in the arena and he said my position and focus was perfect, so that wasn’t the problem. So he suggested using point to point her help give her a focus instead of just going against the wall - this helped slightly but I still didn’t feel she was as soft as she had been the other day as was still a little bit resistant to what I was asking her to do. So I will try and work on this more.


Today with Smarty I started wit friendly game with the CS which wet really well. I then moved on to playin with yo yo game with him, but today we had a slight problem as after a few backwards steps he would then try and go off onto a circle, so I really had to be firm with him and say no just go backwards. So we spent quite a lot of time playing with this to get it good again before I becomes a bigger problem. We the played with squeeze game between me and the wall, which was good so we moved on to playing with squeeze over a pole and again he was really good at this too!

We then played with sideways and this is improving and he now understands that he is to move sideways but he is always really close to the wall and if he could move forward he would, so I will need to try and improved this a little more and then we can start playing without a wall.

Eddy had brought a trailer into the arena for us to play with so I thought I would see what Smart thought of loading Parelli style. We started with just playing circling game over the ramp, he was a little worried to start with as the ramp really made a lot of noise with him walking over it but he very quickly relaxed. So I moved on to asking him to squeeze into the trailer, he was really unsure of this and only managed his front feet on the ramp with his nose in the trailer. But I thought for a first attempt and seen as he is so knew to playing the seven games he done really well. And I think once he is more confident with the seven games, he will understand what I am asking him to do a lot better and will therefore be more confident with trailer loading this way.

Sunday 14th December

Today it was quite a nice day, it was still really cold but there was no wind or rain so we decided to go out a trail ride. I decided to take Smarty today to get him out and I thought it would be more enjoyable to take him rather than Blossom.
So today I saddled him for the first time in a couple of months and he was really good. I was a little worried that he might not be very happy about the girth as this was where his sores were, but they are now fully healed and the hair as grown back now. But I shouldn’t have bothered worrying as he stood perfect and allowed me to saddle him - I then girth him in 3 stages and made sure I gave him a really good warm up to get rid of any bucks or anything he might have done because of the saddle, but he was perfect.

I then mounted and gave him a little ridden warm up to check I was happy with how the saddle was set up as this is the first time I have used the theraflex pad on him. But everything felt fine and the saddle was well balanced.

Our trail ride went really well and Smarty was a little star and didn’t put a foot out of place, he took the lead most of the way as he seemed to be the most confident out of all the horses. But he was also happy to let other horses go in front of him or have them walking next to him. So this was really nice as it meant I was able to chat to people as we rode, as with Blossom I was always too far in front to talk to anyone. Everyone also commented on how well behaved Smarty was so this was really nice, so I hope to try and take him out again next week and maybe after that I could try and lead Blossom with me.

When we got back we turn Smarty in the arena to play with Benji, so after standing watching them playing I didn’t have much time left so I decided t just give Blossom a day off as I knew as I was going to be under time pressure and this caused me problems the other day so I thought it would be better just to give her a day off and give her a groom instead.

Saturday 13th December

Today I went into Oostburg with Nadine shopping, so it was nice to see where I am living in daylight for a change!! My camera has died or is dying so we were going to take it and try and get it fixed - but the guy in the shop had a look and gave it a clean but said I had to send it back to the manufacturer to be fixed so that wasn’t good!! We then looked round a few other little shops and then headed back to the stables.

Because of my little shopping trip it meant I had less time to play with the ponies than normal, so I was just going to do a little bit with each of them. Just as I was about to take Blossom out to play Eddy came and offered to play with Smarty again, so of course I said yes to this!

Today Eddy used the 45ft line on Smarty he said because it can be nosier than the 22ft rope it is sometimes better for this type of friendly game as it will help him to become more confident and also because the 45ft line is thinner when playing the porcupine game with it will be less comfortable for Smarty to lean into the pressure and may help him to learn to yield more easily.
Eddy started with playing friendly all over with the rope and then moved on to playing with the rope around his bum and then gradually moving the rope further down nearer his hocks and then so it was touching his back legs. Today Smarty was much better he didn’t really explode today, he did have the occasional trot to try and get away but that was about it. He did however still stop a lot when he felt the pressure on him was too much to cope with. Eddy had let two of his horses loose in the arena while he was playing with Smarty and one of them was obviously trying to get Smarty to play while Eddy was playing with him. So I think this helped as Eddy was going through his phases to get Smarty to walk the other horse was also biting his bum and his legs so I think this helped encourage him to walk and it may have also helped his confidence to see that the other horse was not scared by the ropes and was very happy and confident trying to play with everything. It was really funny to watch!!
Once Smarty became a little more confident with the rope around his bum, Eddy moved on to just having the rope around one back leg at a time, Smarty really didn’t like this and stopped a lot and put a lot of effort into not moving again. Eddy ended up just moving his FQ round and around as this seemed to be the only way Smarty would move and even then it required quite a high phase to get such little movement. But this did improve and Smarty was able to do a few steps in walk with the rope on his leg, which is an improvement!! Eddy finished with just playing friendly game with his hands on Smarty’s legs and had to use a lot of approach and retreat to get Smarty confident enough to let him touch his back legs.. Smarty has worked out that if he just keeps moving in small circles or backwards it is really difficult for anybody to get close enough to touch his back legs, so this was interesting to watch how Eddy used approach and retreat to gain Smarty’s trust to allow him to get close enough to touch his legs. So again today it was a great learning experience for me to watch this and I think I really have picked up a lot of helpful tips that will help me with Smarty.

Well I think Eddy must have played with Smarty for over an over again, as I only had about 45minutes left to play with Blossom. But having Eddy play with Smarty was well worth it!
So I didn’t really do anything that exciting with Blossom - basically just played with things we have been working on the last few days. Most things went well, she wasn’t has soft as she has been the last couple of days but that might have been more my fault as I was rushing more as I knew I was against the clock! Today we also spent a little time playing with the pedestal, she now knows when she stands on it she has to have her back legs closer to it and not stretch as far away as she possibly can have them. So this in itself is a big improvement for her and today she also managed to walk over letting one back foot touch it and I would say today was the most relaxed she has managed to do this as there was no rushing to get over as quick as she could or resistance when I asked her to walk over. So I will continue to play with this and maybe she will gain enough confidence to let both back feet touch on the way over….

Friday 12th December

Today with Blossom I played on line with the same as I have been the last few days and again today everything went well. She wasn’t quite as soft as yesterday but still a lot better than she was before we arrived here.

I then saddled and mounted and started with checking my lateral flexion and then started riding the rail of the arena. We then played with back up, she was good today and very soft so we moved on to transitions and she was a little impulsive in trot. Mareike suggested bending her and disengaging her HQ until she softened as this will really help her to totally relax when I ask her to stop. So we played around with this just in walk and then finished as it was freezing!!

I spoke to Eddy about the problems I had yesterday with Smarty and today he offered to play with him and see what response he got from him.
He started with just some friendly and then moved on to playing with the rope around his bum, as soon as he done this Smarty stopped and didn’t want to go again so Eddy turned it into a porcupine game teaching him to yield from pressure. Eddy really had to use a lot of his strengh to get Smarty to yeild, so there is no way I would have managed this. Once Smarty realise Eddy wasn’t going to allow him to just stop and not go he decided he would gallop around to try and get the scary rope away from him. So again Eddy had to work hard to get him to slow down again, but once he managed to do this Smarty would then stop and freeze again. This continued for over half an hour and Eddy would change from using porcupine game to driving game to encourage Smarty to walk with the rope on him, but Smarty only seemed able to walk for about a minute the would gallop off again and then stop. At one point Smarty stopped and Eddy just couldn’t get him to move again, very similar to what I had yesterday - Eddy used porcupine game, driving game and noise to get him to move it took several minutes for him to get any response and to start with he was only able to get Smarty to move his front legs one at a time but this was with a lot of pressure - so know wonder I got no response yesterday!!

So after this reaction Eddy changed his plan and played with a flank rope with Smarty - Well he didn’t like this one little bit and really galloped round. Eventually he started to calm and Eddy was able to start moving the rope more over his bum, every time the rope moved place would cause Smarty to explode again! He just didn’t seem to be able to relax with the rope over his bum.. Eddy continued to play with this and moved the rope to around one of the back legs as this appears to be the real problem area for him. Well Smarty did not like this one little bit and several times Eddy had to let the rope go as Smarty was panicking so much!!

After over an hour of play Eddy manage to get Smarty to walk round with the rope around his bum, semi relaxed so he finished with him on that. When he came up to me he said yeah he is quite extreme isn’t he? He says he has had horses who have been worse, but didn’t expect Smarty to be so bad. So he is going to play with him again for me to try and get him more confident and to a level where I would be able to continue with him.

Thursday 11th December

Today was Julie’s last day, so it was quite sad to see her go, even though we have only known each other a couple of weeks we really did become friends! Tonight I will might Corine for the first time and for the rest of my time here I will be working with her.

Today with Blossom I started with back up again, this is now getting much better and a lot softer and now that I know what I am looking for it is making it so much easier! We then moved on to playing with the figure of eight pattern and I was so happy when Blossom done it first time without any of her little strops - I must have done something right yesterday!

We then went back to playing with back up and in between so not to bore her I was getting her to go sideways around me in a circle, she was really good at this today.

We then played with sideways using the point to point game, today I increased the distance she had to go sideways for until she got to rest. She was good and I only had to remind her not to go forwards a couple of times, so this was a big improvement.

Circles were so soft today, always lots of slack in the line even in canter the belly of the rope was still touching the ground. So this was massive as normally she is pulling all the time in canter and makes it very hard for me to just stand relaxed.
Transitions were extremely good today, I couldn’t fault them - she would go up and down the transitions from just phase one.
I still haven’t asked for a full change of direction yet as everything is going so well I don’t won’t to spoil all the hard work we have been putting in as preparation. So today we worked on getting her to come into to me from the circle in trot, it went quite well she would start with coming in in walk and then I would increase my energy and I would get a couple of strides of trot. So I accepted that and didn’t want to push her too much today.

Squeeze over a jump a jump was great - again with this she was really soft, and would stop turn and wait after a few strides after the jump. Normally she wouldn’t disengage until she was at the end of the 22ft line, so this was a real improvement for her today!!

I then jumped on bareback and we started with checking out lateral flexion which was very good and then moved on to our back up and this was really soft!! So we moved on to transitions from walk, trot, stand to back up - the first transition from trot to walk wasn’t great and it took her a few strides to listen to me and slow down, but the rest were really good!
We then played with sideways against the wall and the first couple of tries weren’t great, but they really improved and we managed to go sideways without the wall in both directions - so I was very happy with this.

Well today with Blossom was great, she was like a totally different pony to the one that has been challenging me so much the last few days. She was so soft and willing to try today so it was really good fun to play with her. Maybe she is saying the exact same about me…

Today with Smarty we started with friendly with the CS and then moved on to friendly with the CS and plastic bag. He jumped about a little when I first tried to touch him with it, but very quickly relaxed and allowed me to rub him all over, even on his head!

I decided not to play all seven games in order today as I feel he now has a good understanding off them and as he is so clever I don’t want to start boring him. So we started with playing with sideways as this I would say is still our worse game, today there was improvement and he was more relaxed when moving sideways and when we did stop he really licked and chewed. So I think he is now getting the idea!

We then played with circling game and he was great, his circles are really soft and he disengages really nicely, so we moved on to playing circling over the jump. He was really good and jumped the jump both ways without any problems. Today I was getting him to jump in canter and he is now learning he has to either do a flying lead change or come back to trot after the jumping or he is going to hit the wall or take the corner on the wrong lead. So it has been really interesting watching his progress with this as at the start he couldn’t work out what to do and would nearly hit the wall every time. But today only a stride or two after the jump he would pop in a flying change without any effort, so I was very impressed with how quickly he has picked this up.

I then finished with playing friendly game with the rope around his bum. He was really good with the rope over his saddle area or over his bum and would happily walk round really relaxed but as soon as the rope went around his bum or down by his back legs he would stop and didn’t want to go again. Luckily Eddy came round to see how we were getting on and I asked him what I should do when he stops and he suggested treating it like the driving game and go through my phases to get him to walk on again. So I done this and we managed maybe a lap of he arena in totally with lots of stops on route, but then he stopped and I couldn’t get him to go forward. I went through my phases as Eddy suggested and even using phase 4 I couldn’t get him to walk. I felt I was just standing hitting him, and wasn’t making any difference. So I stopped as I felt I was just going to make the situation much worse and I didn’t want to break what trust Smarty now has in me at this early stage. I will speak to Eddy again about this and see what he thinks the problem is.

Wednesday 10th December

Today I went out to play with Blossom with a much more positive attitude than I have had the last couple of days and I bet it isn’t a surprise but everything went much better.

We started today with working on her back up again, she messed around to start with and really tested my leadership but today I knew what to expect and how to handle the behaviour. She very quickly worked out that I wasn’t going to be letting her away with anything today and she then gave me some lovely backwards.

So we then moved on to playing with getting her to move sideways around me. To start with she was just trying to come in to me, so I was having to really defend my space otherwise she would have came over the top of me I think. We then got some lovely sideways steps and her legs were really crossing under, so we stopped and went back to playing with backwards which was much better this time round and then came back to play with sideways again.

We then played with circling game and I was really working on pushing her sideways on the circle to keep her focus on me and stop her just running in circles! This worked well so we moved on to playing with the figure of eight pattern. To start with it was dreadful as usual and Blossom would do anything she could to avoid doing the pattern, normally this really frustrates me as I don’t know what to do. But today she didn’t bother me and I seem to just work through all her little strops she was having. So if she stopped when I asked her to come into me and then started going backwards, I made her do a lap of the arena backwards. I made all her ideas of how not to do the pattern my idea and pretty soon she worked out my original idea was the easiest and she would just do that. And she done the figure of eight pattern beautiful, really relaxed and soft and in trot!! So I then left it on that as she had done so well and this is now the first time since the summer she has done this pattern so well!!

I then mounted bareback and started with working on my back up from the ridden position, she was quite bracey to start with and I really had to go up my phases to get her to go backwards and also use the CS on her chest. Once we got the backup really soft again, we started working on one of the patterns Eddy had showed me the other day. Again I really had to go up my phases to get her to move her FQ over and put her weight in her HQ, but once she realised I was going up m phases and was being firm with her today she very quickly started to soften and yield from pressure really well.
We finished with playing with sideways as this is now better on the ground I feel she is now ready to start doing it ridden. She was much better than I expected and we got some really good sideways along each side of the arena, so I decided to finish on that good note.

Today with Smarty I started with playing friendly game with the CS and paying special attention to the areas I would touch him if I was riding him as yesterday I noticed he was a little worried about this.
It was really cold this afternoon so I decided to play friendly game on him to try and warn myself up a little. I started with jumping up and down next to him and once I was happy he was ok with this I vaulted on and gave him a rub for this and then started with swinging my legs back and forward to get him used to my legs touching him all over.
I then jumped of and then on again and played about with bending down and touching his legs and his belly - he was a little worried by this so to retreat I would just slide off as I was down touching his legs and then remount again and start playing again. This seemed to work well for him and he soon started to relax and just stand and let me hang off him.

We the done a little ridden work, walk, trot, walk, stand and backup - again today he was really good and very responsive to m energy. I was still really cold so I decided to start preparing him to run for a vault for me as he can’t really do this. Basically I need him to gallop with me in zone 3. I started with just getting him to walk with me in zone 3 and I would jump up and down as we were walking along to get him used to it, we then moved up to trot and played the same friendly games as we were going along and next I brought up my energy and he went into canter. So we managed to canter down the long side of the arena with me in zone 3, I was really happy with this and a lot warmer!! So I played lots of friendly and spent a little undemanding time with him watching the others ride and finished for the night.

Tuesday 9th December

Today I wasn’t going to play with Blossom as I really didn’t feel I had the energy or the savvy to deal with her. So instead I decided I would give her a ET session, I had just finished grooming her and just about to start the ET when Eddy came out and offered to play with her for me. I spoke to him last night about the problems I had had, so I think he knew how bad I was feeling.

Eddy worked on her back up as this was what I was trying to work on yesterday when everything seemed to go wrong. But interestingly Eddy got exactly the same response as I did.. It actually made me feel much better as it then wasn’t something I was doing wrong that was causing this behaviour to occur. But the difference was Eddy had the strength to stop her pulling him all over the school like she was doing with me, at the start he really was having to use a lot of his strength to stop her running off !! She eventually worked out what he was trying to do with her and started to soften slightly, but every now and then she would still fight him.

He moved on to playing with circles with her and one of the things he did mention was she jumps her HQ round when she disengages instead of crossing her back legs. I did know she did this but I didn’t think anything off it really a couple of other instructers have commented on this but never said I should be doing anything to stop her doing it.. Eddy said that if I can get her to stop this and start yielding and crossing her legs, this should also improve her back up as at the moment her HQ seem to do something totally different from the rest of her body.

Eddy then played with getting her to go sideways around him in a circle as he says this will help her learn to flex her body and also learn to cross her back legs - which will the help with the disengage and also then her backup!

So it was really great for me to watch Eddy playing with Blossom as it showed me that I have to learn to be firmer with her and use phase 4 if this is what is required, as Eddy really did use this on her a lot in the beginning and it worked. I also need to be more precise on what I am asking for and only quit when she really puts effort in, I think I have been letting her off with far too much and this is what as then caused these bad behaviours she has started to show. I think the next couple of weeks are really going to be a challenge but I think they will really help me to become a stronger person and improve my horsemanship skills.

With Smarty today I started with playing friendly game in the stable mainly with his legs as I wanted to wash the cream off his legs so first I thought it was better to get him more confident. This went quite well and I managed to get his legs all washed and fresh cream applied without much hassle.

We then went into the arena and started with playing friendly game with the CS which went really well so I moved on to playing with the CS with a plastic bag on the end. This required a little approach and retreat but was much better than the other day and within a few minutes I was able to rub him all over with it.
All other game also went well today, his sideways really has improved and today we got several lovely steps without any brace and as soon as I asked him to stop he was really licking and chewing so I think he is starting to get the idea!!
Today we also played with circling game over a jump and he was really good and stayed really calm and jumped the jump three times each way.

I then played stick to me to get him really connected to my energy and get his back up really good. I then mounted bareback and started with ride the rail in walk and the started asking for a 9 step back up to start with I had to reinforce what I was asking with the CS on his chest, but after only a few times he got the idea and was able to go backwards from just the pressure on his halter. So we started adding in trot and we were soon trotting around then walk, stand and back up and this was mainly only from my energy and very little pressure on the reins. So I was really happy with this and stop for the night.

Monday 8th December

Today I started with playing with Smarty. All seven games are getting really good now, it is hard to believe he has only been doing this for over a week. I would now say all his games are at least at a level one standard, except sideways as we still need to do a little more work on this game.

We then played again with getting him more connected to my energy levels in preparation for riding again. He was much better today and seemed a lot more focused on me and my energy.

I then mounted and rode bareback, and started with just walking round and asking him to stand and then asking him for back up. Again today he didn’t understand what I was asking when I applied pressure so instead of getting into a fight I got a CS and played lots of friendly with this and then when I asked for back up again I would apply the pressure on the halter and then added in rhythmic pressure on his chest with the CS and this helped him and he managed to back for a couple of steps. So we carried on working on this and by the end we were able to trot, walk, stand and then back up, he was really connected to my energy and I only had to apply pressure to ask for the back up and only a little pressure from the CS so I was really happy with this!! So I will continue to work on this every time I ride him as imagine what a good games pony I am going to have if I can have him to go and woa of only my own energy!!

We were all in the canteen having a warm drink and Julie had a question for Eddy to do with Shoulder in. So Eddy then gave us a really good chat on this and also drew some diagrams on the board to help us understand the movement and also were our bodys should be and also where the most of the horses weight will be - So that was really interesting to hear about.

The other lady also had some questions about how her horse behaved on the trail yesterday, he is a lazy left brain horse. And it was interesting to hear what Eddy said about him.. It is good to hear about problems and questions to do with these types of horses as I learn a lot from this.

I then went out to play with Blossom and things just went from bad to worse!! Everything I would ask her to do she would do the opposite, so in the end I just sat on the jump and spent some undemanding time with her as I didn’t know what else to do, I had totally run out of Savvy arrows!!

Marieke then commented that it was very cold day to spend undemanding time with her, and as I explained to her Blossom was a nightmare today and I didn’t know what else to do so this was all I knew what to do..
Eddy then came and helped me and we worked on backwards, but it was a challenge as she didn’t want to go backwards and was doing everything she could to avoid going back. So instead of disengaging the HQ I was to work on moving zone one. But using the rope to move zone1 and using the CS on her chest at phase 4 most of the time to get her to go back was hard work! The plan was as soon as she took a few steps backwards nicely without fighting or if she gave me a nice look I would stop. But this didn’t work!! Blossom had different ideas and in the end was leaping and bucking and trying to run. So I ended up just leaving it for the day as if I carried in any longer we would have just ended up having a fight and my guess is she would have won. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day!

Sunday 7th December

Today I made us all a full Scottish breakfast, it was really nice and everyone enjoyed it!!

I played with Smarty first today as later on I was going to be taking Bossom on a trail ride. We started with friendly with the CS and again today he was really good. Porcupine the FQ and zone one is really good at phase one, but the HQ requires a little higher higher phase.

Driving game was good, what is very interesting is he yeilds his HQ better than his FQ better in this game… Totally opposite from the porcupine game!

Yo yo game was good, he can now back up from phase 1 to aout 9ft away from me then he stops and seems to loose his confidence a little so I am giving him lots of rest and friendly until he seems confident and then I ask him back to me. I don’t want to push him out to the end of the 12ft line, as I want to give him the time he needs so he becomes more confident.

Circling game was good today I am able to ask him to walk and trot and he can then disengage really well, today we also played with circling over the tarp. To start with he had to canter over this but after a few laps he was soon able to trot quite calmly over it so I left it at that for today.

Squeeze game was very good today we started with playing with this against the wall to start with just him confident with the game. We then moved on to playing with squeeze over a jump, so I was really happy with this.

Sideways today was good, he isn’t briliant at this game yet. He still tends to pull and go foreward or turn and face me - so we are working slowly with this game to try and help him understand what I am asking and help him with his confidence.

I then played with driving from zone 3 to try and get him more connected to my energy. We played around with walk, trot and back up. He was unsure of what I wanted when I asked for back up, so we spent a lot of time on this and by the end he was going backwards from a light phase on the rope.

I then mounted bareback and played around with walk and trot and also tried to get him to back up. But he didn’t understand what I was asking and wouldn’t yield backwards from the pressure on the halter. So I decided to not push him today and just left the back up for today and tomorrow I hope to work on this again from the ground and then try it again ridden.

Our trail ride today started off really well, Blossom took lead very quickly as she prefers to be in the front. She was very calm and relaxed until about half way and then she was a nightmare!! No idea what caused her to become like this and I don’t know if it was a left or right brained behaviour… She would be jogging and every time I applied pressure to slow her down she would pull her head down and pull against me!! I attempted to try and get her to stop and back up but this was only possible if I had her facing the opposite way. I also tried weaving and circling round some trees but nothing seemed to help. The strange thing was she was licking and chewing and blowing out most of the time during all this. That is the reason why I wasn’t sure if she was left or right brained…

When we got back I went straight into the indoor school as I didn’t think it would be a good idea to leave her for the day as she still wasn’t able to stop and back up. Eddy was in the school and after talking to him about the problems I had, he thinks it was possibly more left brained dominant behaviour as even back in the school she was still pulling and wouldn’t back up. Eddy helped with using his CS as I applied pressure to the reins, this did help as she wasn’t able to push into the pressure as easily. Eddy thinks it will be a good idea for just the two of us to go out one day and keep Blossom behind his horse to tech her to stay behind and keep calm. And by keeping her behind Eddy’s horse he will defend his horses space with his CS and keep Blossom behind without me applying too much pressure. So it should make life easier for me, it will be interesting too see how this goes when we try it. But I think she needs a lot more work in the school before we try going out on a trail again.

Saturday 6th December

Today with Blossom our session started with Blossom having a roll as soon as we got into the indoor school! Once she had finished we played a little friendly with the plastic bag on the end of the CS, she was a little unsure about this to start with but soon worked out it was just friendly game she stood relaxed and let me rub her all over with it.
We then played with games 2 and 3 and today was much better and she was more responsive to the pressure and also there was less foreword movement. We then played with yo yo game, again spending a lot of time on this to keep her two eyes on me, this is now getting a lot better and we now have less rest spots where she becomes unconfident. We then moved on to playing with yo yo over a pole, she is still unconfident about the pole behind her so we done lots of approach and retreat and lots of rest spots and she got closer to the pole. Today I didn’t get her to go over the pole as her confidnce with objects being in zone 5 is just starting to improve so I didn’t want to spoil it and make it about the pole and make her go over it when she isn’t ready for this.

Next we played with circling game, today I got lovely soft circles from Blossom the best I think we have ever had. Lots of slack in the rope and she also seemed very connected to me as even just a little look towards her HQ and she would quickly disengage and come into me. Seen as everything was going so well I started walking backwards and asking her to come into me in preparation for change of direction - she done this perfect in both directions giving me two eyes so she got to stop at me for a rest and lots of friendly. It would have then been so easy to then go the full way and ask for the full change of direction but I knew the chances were that this would spoil all the effort we have put in over the last week to help her confidence coming into me. So I was good and left circles on a good note.

We then played with the pedestal and twice today she was able to walk over it, and let one back foot touch it on the way over so this was a massive improvement too! Her confidence in zone 4 and 5 is really growing and she now seems more willing to try and put her back feet on objects or put them close to something. So I am really happy with this improvement and I think it is really going to help us a lot with other things now too.

I then saddled and today there was shooting going on close by and all the horses were very right brained because of the noise and I think whatever the were shooting was sometimes landing on the roof of the arena. I’m not really sure what was going on and Blossom was a little bit worried about all this, so I gave her a really good warm up in between girthing to make sure I got rid of all her extra energy before I got on.

We started with ride the rail and then moved on to a figure of eight pattern, today Blossom was very bracey and had loads of go. She is still really heavily in season so I think this does a part to play in the problem. After walking the pattern for about 20 minutes I decided to try some trot, but she was a nightmare. Trying to turn her was really difficult she just put all her effort into bracing against me, so I tried also using a CS to help get her to turn and stay on the circle. This did help, but I found that I was having to use the CS a lot to get the turns and because she wasn’t getting to go her way she would become more impulsive and canter most of the time - so we did end up with a few flying lead changes in there too!

Eddy came in as he seen I was having problems and gave me a few exercises I could do with Blossom to try and get her to yield better from the pressure on the halter and from the CS and also to encourage her to put her weight in her HQ and not in on her FQ as she normally does.

Well today I think I was having a blonde day, I just couldn’t get it into my head around what it was I was suppose to be doing. Look here, steer there, left leg there, right leg there, don’t look down, hands up - my poor little brain just couldn’t cope and couldn’t remember everything I had to all do to get the moves and Blossom didn’t have any idea what I was asking off her and wasn’t in the most co - operative moods anyway. So Eddy mounted his horse and showed me what it all should look like, but as Blossom wasn’t really doing as I was asking and I really wasn’t giving the correct signals I had no idea when we were doing it right or not as I didn’t know what it should feel like..

Marieke then allowed me to ride her pony Benji, she likes watching other people riding him!! So on Benji with the help of Eddy and Marieke I managed to get the movements I was trying to get with Blossom. It still wasn’t a easy task as Benji would only do the move if I done everything I should do correctly, so that was a challenge. To help me to start with Eddy got Benji to do the move from the ground while I was on him so I could get a feel for what it was I was trying to achieve. So with the help from Eddy and Marieke and of course Benji my little brain managed to get all the info I required together and we got some lovely moves! It was quite funny as Eddy would be shouting the commands as to where my hands, legs, eyes and body should be and Marieke would be shouting yes, yes if I was getting it right!! I think we spent around 40 minutes getting me do to this and it really isn’t a difficult move, so it was so good of them to spend this much time with me!

I then had a little play around with Benji trotting and cantering around the school (bareback) He is such a fun pony and was an amazing teacher for me today and helped me loads.

Because of me little blonde moment that lasted quite a long time I didn’t have time to do anything really with Smarty, so I just took him into the school and played a little friendly game with the CS which he was totally fine with. Usually he jumps a little the first time I try and touch him with the CS but today he was quite happy and relaxed, so I was really happy about this. We then just played a little circling game in each direction to let him stretch is legs and get rid of any extra energy he had and that was all we had time for so finished on that.

Tomorrow we are hoping to go on a trail ride as the weather forecast is to be nice, so hopefully Blossom will be in a better mood! I still want to try and leave Smarty another week or so before I saddle him again otherwise I would be taking him!

Friday 5th December

The last week I have been working on getting the ponies to give me happy faces before I feed them in the morning and it night. It has been quite a challenge as both ponies are quite dominant when it comes to feeding time, so it usually takes a good few minutes at each feed for them to put their ears foreword, but tonight as soon as I opened the stable doors their ears were straight foreword it was such a good feeling.

Today with Blossom I didn’t really do very much as she is just came into season and is being a typical mare and today my energy levels were low and I knew if I expected much from Blossom in the mood she was in I was going to have to be a strong leader.
So to start with I worked on porcupine and driving games, to get them really good as I have noticed I have been having to go up my phases recently to get her to yield from pressure and I have also found there is a lot of foreword movement instead of just yielding. So I spent quite a lot of time on this, and it really seemed to pay off as she was yielding really well from just a small phase 1 with lots of licking and chewing!

We then worked on yo yo game to work on her confidence going backwards straight and giving me two eyes, she still has some issues so I give her lots of time to rest and think about it and I feel her confidence is getting much better and I am now able to read her better.. I know feel I know when she is losing her confidence so I can stop and let her rest before she gets really worried and this really seems to be working well for her.
The second yo yo we done, Blossom stopped after a couple of steps backwards and decided to have a roll - she has never done this on line before so it was nice to see and then done a lovely back up all the way to the end of the 22ft line.

We then played with squeeze game over a jump - this went really well today so we only done a couple of jumps and left it at that for the day.

Today with Smarty we played friendly game with a plastic bag on the end of the CS. Smarty thought this was the scariest thing ever!! So it took over and hour of approach and retreat to get him confident enough to let me touch him with it. But once he realised it wasn’t going to kill him and it was ok to let it touch him, I was able to rub him all over with it so we finished with that for the day.