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!