Thursday 26th February

Today Eddy offered to come and have a look at myself and Corine play so he could help us point out any holes in our play that we can work on when we get home. After we had played a little indoors Eddy thought it would be a good idea to go outside and play at liberty in the round pen and he could watch and see what problems we were having. I was first and today nothing was working, so it was really difficult for Eddy really to help with specific problems I would normally have. But what we did find that Blossom seems to have real difficulty with is change of direction at liberty (which I have done with her before and it went really well) But anyway today she just couldn’t give me the other eye, so therefore the change didn’t happen as it should. Eddy helped me a little with this and gave me some strategies I can do to try and help her with this, but I just couldn’t get any of them to work. So Eddy then had a go at playing with her, and he had very similar problems. So it was interesting to watch what Eddy done to help her with her confidence and how he tried to make the right think easy and the wrong thing more difficult.
Corine then played and her liberty isn’t great, so it was really interesting listening to Eddy helping Corine and the different strategies he gave her for a different type of horse.

Eddy was then going to watch us ride, but we had spent so much time outside playing at liberty that we had totally run out of time for today, normally it wouldn’t have mattered and we could have played longer. But tonight we had promised Nadine we would be home early as she was cooking a meal for us tonight and a little leaving dinner for the three of us.

Wednesday 25th February

Last night we went out for a lovely meal to an Indian restaurant in Brugge for a leaving dinner for myself and Corine with Eddy and Marieke. We had a brilliant night, but it was later than we would normally be up.

So today I was really tired and I think it really showed in my play. Again today because of the course I was playing with the ponies through lunch - we had a little warm up online and everything went really well. I then mounted Smarty and lead Blossom and we started with following the rail and today from the start they were so calm and relaxed. We played with transitions in walk, trot, canter and stand, backup and I couldn’t fault anything. Corine was watching me ride and commented on how calm the ponies were and she thought it was due to my own energy levels being so low (the fact I didn’t stop yawning the whole ride, was a clue I was tired) So this was something to think about were they so calm and relaxed because my energy was low or was it because they have been doing this for the last few days and are now in a routine..

Tuesday 24th February

Today was also really busy, the weather was quite nice today so I could have played with the ponies outside. But because of the few problems I had with Smarty yesterday I decided it would be better to ride through lunch again in the arena to see if Smarty was better today.

I warmed them up online pretty much the same as yesterday and everything went well.

I then mounted Smarty and today from the moment I got on him he was really soft and relaxed, so I was really happy about this and pleased that what I done with him yesterday must have worked.

So today we had a really nice ride and both ponies were really good, today we played with transitions in walk, trot and canter and also stand and back up and everything went really well.

Monday 23rd February

Today the place was so busy, it was the busiest I have ever seen it - lots of people and there family and all the stables were full too!!

So any chance of playing with the ponies was going to have to be through lunch again so to make things easier for myself I decided to play with them both together and then ride Smarty and lead Blossom.

I started online with them both playing with friendly game and stick to me this went really well, so we moved on to playing with circling game. This was so much better than it was the last time I played with then both together, they were so calm and relaxed and even done a change of direction at trot. I was so impressed with this and today Smarty was happy to take the lead on the circle, whereas the last time Blossom always had to go in front.

Circling game over a jump didn’t go to good, Smarty was really good but Blossom just didn’t like the idea of jumping with Smarty so close to her.

Yo yo game was good and they both went backwards from phase one and also came back to me at trot. Sideways along the wall also was very good!!

I then mounted and we started with just following the rail in walk and then I started asking for some stop and back up transitions. Smarty was really leaning on the bit and wasn’t yielding to pressure very well so we done quite a lot of this and I was also having to use the CS to get him to yield. We the started adding trot into our transitions, but still Smarty was really leaning on the bit when I would ask for downward transitions. So I couldn’t let this go on for any longer, so I let Blossom loose in the arena and gave Smarty a really good canter as I wasn’t sure if he was leaning just because he had lots of energy. But even after the canter he still wasn’t much better so I spent quite a lot of time working with him to teach him to be soft.

I then got Blossom to catch us again and we had a lovely ride now that Smarty was so much softer and was more relaxed.

Sunday 22nd February

Today I stuck to my plan and played with Blossom during the lunch break of the course, we only had about an hour so we started online playing with:

1. Extreme friendly games in all zones
2. Porcupine games from tail, hind legs and chin - these are now all going really well
3. Yo yo over a pole - we haven’t played with this in a while and it showed!
4. Sideways over a barrel both directions - getting good!
5. Circling game with transitions, change of direction in trot and canter.
6. Figure of eight pattern and Weave Pattern.

I then mounted bareback and played with circling around a block and today was really good as I didn’t have to make many corrections. So this was a massive improvement for us, so I didn’t want to play with it for too long. So we played with the weave pattern so I could practise my steering from just the string, to start with it wasn’t very pretty. But she really got the idea very quickly and soon we were trotting through the pattern, she was so good. So there is hope still that one day she may be a games pony - If I can do the weave pattern which is the same as the bending in games in trot bareback and bridleless I think there is a really good chance!!

Saturday 21st February

Today there was a course on so this meant we couldn’t use the arena as there just wasn’t enough room for any more horses to come in.

So today I just really spent a lot of undemanding time with Blossom walking about outside letting her graze. We did go out to play in the 100ft round pen outside, but as it hasn’t been used since the summer so the surface wasn’t very good and Blossom seemed worried about going any faster than walk and even then preferred to come back to me. So I didn’t want to push her, so we just spent some time hanging out together and every now and then I would ask a little something of her maybe stick to me, circles, backwards by the tail, sideways and this really kept her attention on me even when she was grazing.

The course is on again tomorrow so I think me and Corine plan to have an early lunch so we can play with our horses while the students on the course have their lunch.

Friday 20th February

A week today and I will be loading the ponies into the trailer to go home, I can't believe how fast the last 3 months have went!!

Today I played with Blossom online and had a play with some of the tasks that didn‘t go so well for us yesterday or the ones I would like to improve.

So today everything went much better than it did yesterday, especially her porcupine games I really noticed an improvement everything was just so much softer and smother.

Well seen as everything was going well I decided it was better not to play online for to long and try and find problems.

So I saddled and started with checking my lateral flexion with the CS and then my back up from the SS and also turning left and right from the SS. This all went very well so we moved on to playing with follow the rail in walk and trot and this went very well, she still gets impulsive if we use all of the arena so we are still only using half.

We then played with transitions from walk, trot and canter and these went very well she is now really listening to me and going up and down the transitions from just the energy in my body. As everything was going so well I put the cradle bridle on her and started with a passenger lessons just to get her used to having the bit in and then gradually took up more of a contact on the reins.

We then played with circles and transitions and she was really good and stayed very calm and relaxed, so I was happy with this so decided to finish on this and not push her to do anymore for today.

Thursday 19th February

Today I decide to have a play with the new online level 3 self assessment tasks, so I could see what we could or could not do.

All the friendly tasks are good and we don’t have any problems there. It took her a few attempts to put all four feet on the pedestal, but once she was up there she was nice and relaxed. Throughout my session I would ask her to go back onto the pedestal with 4 feet and used this is a rest spot to help her gain more confidence.

Porcupine tasks are ok, I have only just started playing with them so they aren’t perfect yet and I would like her to yield from the pressure better as sometimes I am still having to use quite a lot to get a reaction from her. But the basics are there, so I am happy with that.

Driving tasks still needs quite a bit of work, stick to me is good but we are sill struggling a little with the canter stick to me. I just can’t run fast enough or she won’t canter slow enough - but she does try and stick to me and when I stop she does stop too. But sometimes she is already a couple of strides ahead of me by then, so we need to work on this and try and work out a way to get in harmony with each other better.
Driving from zone 5 on the 45ft line didn’t go so well today, she seemed to be rather confused as to what I was asking her to do. She was fine if we were next to the wall and we were able to do walk, trot, stand and back up. But as soon as we went away from the wall she thought I was asking for sideways… so I will need to work on this more and maybe get some help from Eddy on this.

Yo Yo game on the 45ft rope went better today, I was able to get her to back all the way on the 45ft line and draw to me at trot. So I was really happy as I have had problems getting her to back up for that distance before. We also played with jump towards me and then back to the jump, this went really well!!

Circling tasks were good and today we managed to do some lovely simple changes of direction, she even done a few flying changes. We also played with transitions, fallen leaf and S pattern and this all went well too.

Sideways was really good today - we played with all the sideways tasks and they all went really well. She done sideways over a barrel both ways as if we have been playing with it for months, she was so relaxed and confident about it. We also started playing with sideways towards me without the fence today and it went really well!

Squeeze tasks - Well I didn’t have a trailer or a hanging tarp in the arena so we didn’t play with these, but I know we can do the trailer loading tasks as we have already been playing with them while we have been here. So the only task on the sheet we played with was squeeze over a single barrel, she finds this really difficult so I have to use a lot of approach and retreat before she is confident to jump. So this is something we will really need to play with more to get her more confident.

So I was really happy with my play session and I found that we were able to do more of the tasks than I originally thought I could so I was really happy.

Wednesday 18th February

Today Eddy’s niece came to play with Smarty again and today she was struggling for ideas for her play session with him. So to make things interesting for her Marieke built an obstacle course and me and Daisy had to race each other!!

The course was: we had to start at a block, then weave through some cones, jump a jump with your horse, around a barrel and then back towards the jump, you then had to squeeze your horse backwards between your jump and another jump (about 3ft gap) and then you had to get your horse to go sideways from zone 1 along the jump and then it was a race to the pedestal and first one there was the winner!

I had a couple of practice runs, mainly just to show Daisy what she had to do as she found it difficult to imagine without seeing it. But then to make it more difficult for me I had to do it at liberty!!

I had never jumped with Blossom at liberty, but she done this without any problems. She did however find the backwards squeeze difficult so we had to do a little approach and retreat and then sideways went quite well - but because we spent extra time with the backwards meant Daisy won this time.

I then raced another girl who is here for the next month for horsemanship lessons (I think) and she won too. But again she was online and I was at liberty, so that’s my excuse lol.

But what I was really happy with was not once did Blossom think about leaving me and she done everything I asked her to do. It would have been so easy to try and race the others so I would win, but in doing that I wouldn’t have put my relationship with Blossom first and take the time she needed to do some of the tasks. So I was so proud of myself for not pushing me or Blossom and in the end we really had some fun!!

Tuesday 17th February

Today I had lots of new play ideas to play with, and I also wanted to play with a few new tasks. But when it actually came to playing with Blossom today I had absolutely no energy and Blossom seemed to be the same. I thought that if we started playing my energy levels would improve, but it didn’t help me very much. So I didn’t think it was really a good idea to try and keep playing just for the sake of playing and I knew I would just end up having problems. So today was really just spent sitting in the arena spending undemanding time with Blossom watching others play and this really does seem to make an impression on her as she does so much licking and chewing and yawning. I really should try and spend more time doing this with her as I think it is really helping to build a string relationship between us.

Monday 16th February

Today I played with Blossom online again with the 45f line, it went better today than it did the other day. I didn’t seem to get tangled as often, but I still need a lot of practice with it. I also made the 12ft line into reins and left them on her when we played to see if this will help her confidence about me riding her with reins..

So today we played with:

1. Lots of friendly games
2. Driving from zone 5 to objects - which went very well
3. Sideways towards obstacles and sometimes sideways over or around them
4. Circling game - very nice and soft today!
5. Change of direction at trot
6. Sideways along the wall with my feet still - she can go to about 20ft, but then she stops at turns and looks at me.
7. Sideways over a barrel - left side is great, but she still has problems with me on the right side
8.Circling over a jump - Blossom found this quite difficult as she always thought it was a squeeze game and would stop, turn and face after the jump and would then try and jump the opposite way. So it took about 4/5 jumps for her to get the idea that she was to keep circling - so this was quite interesting to see how difficult she found this.. Also after the first jump the reins went up in the air when she jumped and this really spooked her - so I think she really does have an issue with the reins or is this maybe normal for a horse to spook at this. So to try and avoid making the problem she seems to have with reins etc even worse, I put an elastic surcingle around her and loped the reins through this to stop them moving around and going up her head. I also thought this would be good for her as the reins were now in a more fixed position so it was like when I would ride her and had a light contact so this would be good for her.


I then played a little at liberty before mounting bareback, and today we worked on steering with the savvy string. As lately I have really noticed how much I rely on my CS to steer and ideally I would love to have more power steering using just the string. It actually went quite well and she was soon yielding from the string to turn and I therefore wasn’t having to use my CS so often, so this felt really good and I will continue to really work with this to get her really soft.

I then saddled and we started with playing friendly game with the SS in her mounth as Marieke had mentioned yesterday that I could try riding her with just the string. But before I can do that I need her to be confident with the string in her mouth and be able to hold the string herself instead of trying to spit it out all the time.
We the played with circling round the block and again today the main focus was getting her to circle with less corrections, and after our session bareback I found I was able to correct her with the string instead of always using the CS so this was nice. I then put the cradle bridle on her and done a little passenger lesson with this in and then just played some friendly games with the reins to try and help her become more confident. But what I did notice today is she does appear to be more confident with the bridle/bit than she is with just the halter, so that was quite interesting as I would have expected the opposite.

Sunday 15th February

Today with Blossom I played with:

1. Yo yo game improving the backwards
2. Sideways without a fence
3. Circling game, really good today she was very calm and relaxed.
4. Change of direction in trot and some simple changes in canter.
5. Shoulder in on the circle
6. Figure of eight pattern
7. Sideways over a barrel, with her left eye on me she is good but the other side she still has problems so I got Eddy to come and have a look to make sure I wasn’t doing anything wrong. But he said I was doing everything fine, but I have to remember that she isn’t made of china and I have to go through my phases and find an effective phase 4 if she isn’t making any effort to make a try. So I played around with this and she was managing to take a couple of steps but just didn’t seem to be able to go any further, so I cheated a little and placed the barrel half way under her. So if she wanted to get off she would have to jump, come sideways towards me or go sideways like I was asking her. But with the barrel half way under her it seemed to make much more sense to her what I was asking and she went sideways over on a very low phase. So I will continue to cheat a little this way until she is more confident and fully understands what I am asking as I know she does have problems with me in this eye sometimes.

I then went outside to play in the round pen, this is the first time we have ever played out here. So to start with I had to work really hard to get Blossom’s attention on me and away from the grass, but once I got it we had lots of fun. The plan was to play with all seven games but Blossom had far to much energy and play drive so I used it and we had some really nice changes of directions and an amazing draw!

We then went back into the indoor arena and I saddled and today I wanted to play with circling her around an object and try and reduce the amount of corrections I have to make to keep her on the circle. It went well, I still have to make a lot of corrections with the CS but I think if we keep playing with this and she really learns her responsibility things will really improve.

Saturday 14th February

Today was a lovely sunny day, so I started with spending some undemanding time with Blossom out in the field letting her graze.

We then headed back into the indoor school and today our main play session was on the 45ft rope and the whole aim of today was not to get ourselves tangled up! For my first time playing with the 45ft rope it actually went ok, but I really need to start playing with this more. Today we really just played with things we can do, just so I could practice my rope handling skills and have a nice play with Blossom without asking too much from her.

During our play today I also left the 12ft rope attached to the halter and made it into reins to try and get Blossom more used to this and see if just having them around her neck, without the risk of anyone pulling on them will help her with her confidence about being ridden with the halter and reins on..

I then mounted bareback and I left the halter and reins on and all I done to start with was a passenger lesson at walk, Blossom was very relaxed. As everything was going well, I then started asking for 9 step back up every now and then as she knows this and seems confident doing this I thought it was a good task to start playing with the reins.

I should also mention that I am still playing with Smarty, but as I now only have a couple of weeks left here I am mainly playing with Blossom to make sure I get the most out of my last 2 weeks and play with new tasks so I can get help from Eddy if I have any problems so I don’t go home and then try new tasks and run into lots of problems that I am unsure how to deal with.

Friday 13th February

Today online with Blossom I worked on pretty much the same as yesterday and today most things actually went better or improved, so this was really good. So I won’t bore you all writing it all down again.

So after playing online I then played a little at liberty and the mounted bareback and had a little play around. I have found I seem to get a better ride if I play at liberty and then ride bareback before I saddle, not sure why but if it works I am going to continue to do it.

I then saddled and we started with playing with transitions in walk, trot and canter and this went really well. I then played with sideways with two CS and this went really well, to start with there was still a little forward movement. So Eddy suggested to back her up after going sideways as this will encourage her to keep her weight on her HQ, so after doing this a few times my sideways really improved and felt really good.
We the played with Direct and Indirect reins with just the two CS, this went well but I need to try and improve my FQ yields as she wasn’t yielding as well as she should. But considering that this was the first time we have done this with CS, I think we actually done quite well.

I then got Eddy to show me what a single spin was as I was looking through the level 3 self assessments and saw this and just wasn’t quite sure what it was or how I would teach it to Blossom. So after Eddy showing me it a couple of times with his horse I then gave it a try with Blossom, and we were able to do it quite well. It is nowhere like the standard Eddy done his at, but the basics were correct and we were also trying this for the first time at liberty so I was really impressed that we were able to do anything similar to what Eddy had shown us.

Thursday 12th February

Today I had a really good day with Blossom, last night I had a look through the new self assessments and made a list of the things I couldn’t do or I would like to improve.

So today we played with:

1. Friendly games with CS, CS and plastic bag, ball and the tarp - all went very well
2. Lead by the tail - this could still be much better
3. Lead by the chin - lots of work needed she really doesn’t like this, I think we need lots more friendly in this area too.
4. Stick to me transitions in walk, trot and canter - canter still needs some work, I need to learn to run faster or Blossom needs to canter slower so this works better.
5. Transitions on a circle - today wasn’t to good as she was really leaning on the rope, so we went back to a shorter distance and just worked on getting the circles soft again.
6. Sideways without a fence
7. Sideways with a fence with me keeping my feet still - worked very well.
8. Sideways towards me - getting good, but still working on this against a wall
9. Sideways over a barrel - this took a lot of time as I would reward the slightest try as she found this really difficult. But she manage to go sideways all the way over by the end, so I was very proud of her as this as been a very challenging game for her since we started.
10. Squeeze game over a jump - very good in both directions
11. Squeeze over a single barrel - I positioned the barrel next to the wall to make it easier for her to see what it was she had to do. But she did find this really difficult and we had to do lots of approach and retreat to give her enough confidence to jump and even when she did jump she jumped it really high so I don’t think she was very confident so we will need to work more on this.

I then played a little stick to me at liberty and then mounted bareback and played with circles around the block. We then played with transitions in walk, trot and canter and everything was going really well so we done a little jumping and today it was a proper jump and we managed this fine.

I spoke with Eddy again about why we think she is better bareback and bridleless, rather than with a saddle and bridle/halter on. So to try and eliminate the problem I saddled her and rode her with just the string without anything on her head, and we were able to walk, trot and canter without any problems and she felt the same as she done bareback. So Eddy suggested trying her with the halter on and tie the rope into reins, but still just ride her from the string. So I done this, and to start with I felt she was maybe a little more impulsive, but thought it was maybe also just in my head.. But the test was when I came to jumping, it took three attempts to get her to jump the jump and even when she jumped it really wasn’t a nice jump. But as I didn’t jump her with the saddle and just the string, I didn’t know if having the halter on was the problem, well the only way to find out is to take the halter off again. So this is what I done, and guess what she jumped the jump first time without any hesitation and really jumped it well.
So I think I will need to work with all this again and find out id having something on her head is really the problem or was it just something today..

Wednesday 11th February

Today Eddy’s niece was coming to play with Smarty again so while I was waiting for her to arrive I decided to give played with both the ponies a go. Today this went much better than it ever has done when I have tried this before, we started with playing friendly game and they both stood realy well nice and relaxed. We the played yo yo game, they didn’t both go back at the same speed but they both went backwards and I was able to draw them both to me at trot! We then played circling game and this went better than the last tome we tried, I was able to have them both trotting on a circle and even over a jump. But what I did find was Smarty wouldn’t go first on the circle he had to be the one following, I found this out after we managed to do a lovely change of direction. Lastly we played with sideways, this went so well and Eddy even commented how well it went!

Daisy then arrived and took over playing with Smarty for me, so today with Blossom we played with:

1.Circling game still working on getting them really soft and her looking in onto the circle
2. Sideways to obstacles
3. Sideways towards me, this went much better today I am still playing with it against the wall but we are now able to do a few steps towards me from a very low phase.
4. Sideways over a block - I have tried to do this a few times with her before but I always thought she was unconfident so therefore didn’t push her and just left the task. But what I have found out in the last couple of weeks from what Eddy has done with her or what he has told me to do with her is she actually is being dominant more than scared so therefore I need to use more pressure to get the response I want. So today I decided to try using more pressure on her and go through my phases until she did yield sideways or even make a slight try as what she has done previously has either not moved or moved away from the block. So it took quite a lot of time today to do this task but in the end putting the extra pressure on her seemed to work and once she worked out all I wanted her to do was to go sideways over the block, she done it with ease. So I will continue to play with this to really make sure she is confident and then we can start playing with this with other objects.

I then mounted bareback and rode with just the string, today we played with circles and the figure of eight pattern. She was going really well today so I thought I would see if I was able to jump her like this, there was a very small jump set up so we decided to give that a go. It went so much better than I expected it too,!! She managed to stayed calm and relaxed and trotted nicely to the jump, done a lovely jump and once landed she done a few strides of canter but then stopped as soon as I asked her. I was so happy! So after doing this a few times in each direction I finished as I didn’t want to risk making her impulsive, so we finished by spending some undemanding time together.

Tuesday 10th February

Today it was really cold, wet and windy - so after lunch me and Corine went home for a few hours and watched a film as it was just too cold to be outside all day.

When we got back I turned the ponies loose in arena to get all their extra energy out of them but they didn’t really have that much today. Blossom then caught me well and I played a little with her to get her focus on me and her energy tuned in to mine. Then saddled her and we went and giot Smarty to catch us which he done quite well. I then mounted Blossom and led Smarty, but it really didn’t go very well. Smarty didn’t want to lead and when he did come up the side of Blossom, she would then try and bite him. We managed a few laps of the arena but it just wasn’t going very well, so I decided to swap and ride Smarty and lead Blossom.

This went so much better and we really had a nice session with two very LB relaxed ponies, so I think it was a good decision to change. So I think I will get Smarty more used to being lead from one of the ponies at home, and then I will try him again with Blossom.

Monday 9th February

Today I had to take my car to the garage as it has been making funny noises over the last couple of weeks and it got to the stage that even with the radio turned up I could still here the noises so I thought I should really get it checked. Well it turns out I have managed to brake three of the springs on my suspension and the garage said it was quite serious and wouldn’t have recommended me driving it from the garage before it was fixed!!

So today my play session was quite short but we did so some really nice things, we played with:

1. Circles working on transitions getting the stop and back up better
2. Change of direction, starting to ask for this in canter with a simple change
3. Sideways to obstacles
4. Sideways towards me, getting a few steps both sides now.
5. Backwards from her tail

I then mounted bareback and done a passenger lesson in walk around the arena and the moved onto following the rail in walk working on our lateral flexion getting her really soft. I finished with just spending some undemanding time sitting on her.

Sunday 8th February

Today was the second day of the level 3 course, this morning we went over everything we done yesterday and then moved on to talking about bits. We discussed what other Parelli instructors have been taught by dressage trainer Phillippe Karl, so this was very interesting as we also discussed which bit is better for the exercises we were going to use - the snaffle or the cradle??

The exercise we played with the bits were tio help the horses become more confident and relaxed with the bit. Blossom really seemed to like these exercises and done them really well, she is now really happy with a bit in her mouth. I have really noticed a difference with her attitude towards the bit over the last couple of weeks. The first time Eddy put the cradle bridle on her for me, she wouldn’t open her mouth for him. But now she is opening her mouth looking for the bit so it is really good to see such a positive change in her.

I then got Eddy to show me how to teach Blossom to come sideways towards me, so we played around with this and we were starting to get a couple of steps towards me (still using the wall) but I have so happy with this.

This afternoon I played with all the new stuff I have learnt over the last two days and then saddled her, but today she wasn’t as calm and relaxed as she has been lately. But the good thing was she was nothing compared to how she was when I first arrived here. So I spoke to Eddy about this and we worked out the only thing I had done different today than I have been doing with her over the last couple of weeks (well except the new stuff we have learnt) is I didn’t ride her bareback and brideless first… So was this the reason she was more impulsive? So Eddy suggested I try riding bareback and see if she was as impulsive with me bareback as she was with the saddle. But again this just didn’t feel as good as it normally does and I just didn’t feel that I was in harmony with her or being very fluid. So I told Eddy this and we thought maybe this was the reason then that the ride wasn’t going as well as it has done. So because of this I decided to finish riding, before everything really went bad, so I let her loose in the arena for a roll. After her roll she got up and started bucking and galloping around the arena for about 10 minutes, so maybe my riding wasn’t just the problem today I think Blossom also had a lot of extra energy she had to get out and that was why she was more impulsive to ride than normal.

Saturday 7th January

Today there was a level 3 course and I got to join in with Blossom - this morning was all about lateral moves. We started on line and played with shoulder in on the circle and shoulder in against the wall, Blossom was really good and worked out very quickly what I was asking her to do. So the morning was really spent playing with this.

The afternoon we played with what we learnt this morning and then we saddled and played with shoulder in while riding. To start with I had a few problems getting Blossom to do shoulder in while I was riding, so Eddy came and helped me and the main problem was I wasn’t putting enough pressure on her to cause her to move. So that was quite interesting as I am now finding I am having to use a lot more pressure on Blossom than I ever have done, I am still far to soft on her a lot of the time.

I haven’t really wrote much about today as I think I am still processing a lot of the things we learned today as most of it was new to me.

Friday 6th February

Today with Blossom I started playing with her online, but I just didn’t have much imagination of what to do today. So instead I played with some stick to me and liberty and then mounted bareback, and started with a passenger lesson at walk around the arena. I then played with sideways with the two CS, and today it went very well. We then played with circling around blocks the I had placed around the arena and this went well, she was very calm and relaxed.

I then noticed her breathing was quite heavy and we hadn’t done that much work for her to be like that, so I took her outside and let her graze for about 15 minutes to see if her breathing would come back to normal. But it didn’t really improve very much so I decided just to let her rest for the rest of the afternoon.

I then rode Smarty and we started with working on getting him softer as he still leans and just has so much energy just now! We then started working on canter lead changes using the bow tie pattern and this was going quite well.

But then I had to stop as the vet was here for one of Eddy’s horses as he cut his leg and had time to micro chip the ponies while he was here. (As I need to have them micro chipped to get the export papers done to get home) But it turned out Blossom actually already has a chip (I was sure she did have) but there is no record of this is her passport, strange!! So while the vet was checking Blossom to see if she had a chip, I got him to check her breathing seen has he was here. He thinks she has a very mild case of COPD. But it could also be because of the dust in the hay, as this is the first time she has shown any signs.. So I am just to keep an eye on her over the next few days and see how she is and if she isn’t any better I can go and get some medication for her - but it is nothing serious or anything I should worry about so this made me feel better and I am glad I got her checked just to be on the safe side.

Eddy then said he would come and look at my lead changes to see if I was doing it ok, and he says I now have the idea and I am fine I just need to get Smarty to bend a little better and stop bracing against me. But by the end of playing with this Smarty was so much better and wasn’t fighting me and was much softer. So it will be interesting to see how I get on with playing with this with Blossom now that I understand what I am to do.

Thursday 5th February

Today I started with playing with Smarty, the sprinkler was still in the arena when I went in so I just turned Smarty loose while I put it away. So this then ended in us playing the catching game as he didn’t get any play yesterday he was full of energy today and was galloping from one end of the arena to the next! Once he was standing still I slowly approached him and just sat on a block a few metres from him as I could feel me getting any closer was too much pressure for him, and would you believe after about a minute he walked up to me and just stood with me. I then haltered him and then just sat back down and we just spent another few minutes spending some undemanding time together.

We started our play session with playing with the tarp, he was happy to walk over it in both directions and also to stand on it with all four feet - so I was really happy with him. But then I tried to rub him with the tarp and try and out it over his body. But what I found from doing this is I have to be very careful how I read how Smarty is feeling as to start with he let me rub him on the shoulders and withers and then put it over his back and he was standing there. So to start with I thought to myself well that was easy until I took a closer look at him and noticed he wasn’t LB and relaxed, he had went really introverted and was just frozen to the spot! Once I realised this I took the tarp of him and started again, this time using far more approach and retreat - but what was really interesting was this time he wasn’t keen to let me touch him anywhere with it. So we spent a lot of time just walking around the arena with me dragging the tarp and him following and this did seem to help his confidence. After a lot of play with the tarp I was able to rub him more easily with the tarp and also put it over his back and this time there was much more licking and chewing going on, so I must have done things better the second time round and read him a lot better.

The rest of our session we played with change of direction and also transitions, which went quite well. Still need a little more work t make everything softer, and to have him a little more relaxed.

Today with Blossom I started online and we played with:

1. Circles, getting them softer and her focus on me
2. Change of direction in trot and canter
3. Transitions
4. Sideways to obstacles
5. Trot sideways
6. Squeeze game over a jump
7. Jump towards me and then back up to the jump.

I then mounted her bareback and worked on some two CS riding, we started with riding circles around the blocks in walk and trot and then moved on to a figure of eight pattern again in walk and trot. I then played with sideways to one block to the other, I didn’t think I would have been able to do this with only two CS. But much to my surprise we were able to do this without any problems, I was really happy with this!!

I then saddled and today I used my own saddle which I haven’t used since Eddy rode Blossom as I was scared to use my own saddle again incase that was what was making her impulsive. Well I shouldn’t have bothered worrying as there is nothing wrong with my saddle and Blossom was just as good to ride as she is in the balance saddle and I also felt I was able to ride her just aswell in my own saddle as I do in the balance.

Today we started with playing with all the things we done bareback and everything went well. I then spoke to Eddy about my canter lead changes, only to find out the task isn’t really to do with the lead changes it is more to do with the bend, disengage and then how you position yourself for the horse to pick up the correct lead. So Eddy showed me what I had to do, so I spent the rest of the afternoon playing with this using the bow tie pattern. So I will continue to play with this and Eddy says he will film this for me in a few days so I can watch it.

Wednesday 4th February

Today we went to the beach!! W have been planning to go for a while but the weather has never been good enough, so today it was cold but it was dry so we decided to go. When we first thought about going to the beach I decided I would take Smarty as I know I would be able to ride him along the beach and have some fun with him, but today after talking to Eddy about which pony I should take he thought it would be better for me to take Blossom. As the way he sees it is Blossom is the one I need help with, so it would be good to take her somewhere new and if I had any problems he would be there to help me.

Well the start didn’t go to well as Blossom didn’t want to load, she will canter into the trailer when it is in the arena and sometimes I spend a lot of our play session trying to keep her out of the trailer. But as soon as you park it outside and she knows we are going somewhere she doesn’t want to go in, how strange!! Eddy ended up loading her for me and this was interesting to watch as he was very firm with her and really did go through his phases with her. I always feel now that if she doesn’t want to load it is because she is scared when Eddy says she is now being more dominant about not going in because she doesn’t want to leave her friends. Interesting, think I need to remember to always read the horse that shows up on the day, instead of just assuming she is scared/dominant because that is how she used to be

Our ride on the beach went really well, we all started with playing on line to get our horses warmed up and their focus on us and once we felt ready we could then mount up. Once mounted I started with riding circles as this is a pattern Blossom now knows and relaxes on, it was really good doing this on the beach as you could see where you have ridden so you could see if you were actually riding a circle and if you were able to stay on that circle without making it bigger or smaller. We played with this for quite a bit in walk, trot and canter, and she was really good and very relaxed.

Once everyone had been riding for a while and all the horses where safe and relaxed we all went for a walk along the beach. Blossom was calm and relaxed all the way along and we even went paddling in some water. But once we turned round and headed back she got a little more excited and to save me from having to fight her, I was to put her behind Eddy’s horse and all I was to do was to steer her so she stayed right behind and Eddy used is CS to keep Blossom out his horses space. It was interesting as doing this it then made it Blossom responsibility to stay behind or she was therefore running into the pressure of the CS herself.

Overall it was a really good day and Blossom getting a little impulsive at the end wasn’t really that bad, and was actually still quite controlled impulsiveness for Blossom. But what I did also find really interesting is that Eddy’s horse also became impulsive at points, I didn’t expect this as I have only ever see him in the arena and he is always so well behaved. So when Eddy’s horse did get impulsive I watched to see what Eddy done to relax him again and most of the time he used strategies he has already shown me to use on Blossom and he also put his horse behind Marieke’s horse and done the same exercise as I had done with him. So a really good day!!

Tuesday 3rd February

Today I started with Smarty and we had a quick warm up and then I mounted. Today’s session was mainly about getting him soft when I am riding as he still tends to lean on me and look out of the circle. So today I used the strategies Eddy used on Blossom to teach her to be soft, and these really worked well on Smarty too.
We actually had a really nice ride and he is now starting to become softer and more relaxed, so therefore listening to me a lot better.

Today with Blossom I played online to warm her up and get her focus on me, we mainly played with circles as we are still working on getting these softer but they are now getting so much better. We also played with backwards, backwards into the trailer and sideways - everything was going really well so we went into the round pen to play at liberty.

Today all seven games at liberty went really well and we even managed to do a change of direction, which I was very impressed about! I then mounted her and rode her in the round pen with just the string on, she was so good today! We were able to do walk, trot and canter, and today the canter was really calm and relaxed so I was really happy about this. With everything going so well I finished on that so I didn’t spoil it for the day!!

Monday 2nd February

Well today the weather was simply horrible, I think one of the worst days since I have been here!! It was well below freezing, snowing quite heavy and we had the dreaded wind. Because of the wind the snow was being blown into the arena and even into the stables, nowhere seem to be sheltered.
So I thought I would just give myself the afternoon at home and then I came back to finish of and settle the ponies for the night. So no play today as it just wouldn’t have been fun for me or the ponies, but hopefully the weather will improve tomorrow and we can have a good play session then.

Sunday 1st February

Today we had an hour in the morning to play with our horses as we had a couple of girls from the local school come for work experience and they helped us with the mucking out and all the other chores so we were finished a little earlier than normal.

So I decided to play with Smarty, I started with doing lots of driving from 3 and 4 to objects. This really seems to be building his self confidence up as at the start he was always really worried to walk first.
I then played with circling game and today I worked on getting the circles softer and also worked on change of direction again. Today the changes were much better than they were yesterday and he was more focused on me from the start, so this was really good.
We finished with him standing on the pedestal and today he offered to put one of his back feet on, I was very impressed and then he walked over letting both back feet touch!

Today with Blossom I started on line and started with just warming up and getting her focus on me, we then moved on to playing with circling game. To start with we played around with the send, to get this really good so when we come to do it at liberty it will be more clear to her what I expect from her. We then moved on to playing with change of direction, which went very well and we also got some changes in canter too! We then played with transitions and today I played with using the CS to ask for downward transitions, so it will be clearer to Blossom what I want when we play with this at liberty. Just now I am able to do upward transitions and then downward from canter to trot just by lowering my energy, but I can’t get her to come back to walk.. So I thought teaching her to do this with the CS is a good idea.

We then went into then round pen to play a little at liberty today we only played with circling, sideways and squeeze games. Today everything just went so well, we had no problems and she was totally stuck to me and didn’t even think about leaving! I was so impressed with her and I think all the preparation over the last couple of days playing with the string round her neck has really paid off.
I then jumped on her with the intention of riding circles round the block, but instead I ended up just sitting on her for about half and hour watching others playing. This was great for Blossom for me to get on her a just do nothing, but for me it wasn’t so good as it was freezing today!!

When I eventually managed to get myself of her I decided to saddle her and ride her to warm both of us up. Today we played with the same pattern as yesterday and everything went really well, and again she was calm and relaxed. Eddy even commented how nice the canter was!! So we finished with again me just sitting on her spending some undemanding time with her, during this she done lots of licking and chewing and even yawned a few times.

Saturday 31st January

Today with Blossom I played a little online to get her focus on me and then we moved on to playing at liberty in the round pen. But today there was a couple of men chopping down a tree just outside the arena and the noise of this was worrying Blossom a little, so I though it would be a good idea to have the string around her neck and the rope attached to this so I still had a little control over her if she got really worried.

Today I didn’t want to go through all seven games again with her as the first 4 are really good, so I don’t ant to bore her by doing them all every time we go in the round pen. So today we just worked on the send in the circling game, as again today she only wanted to go the the right and trying to get her to go to the left was sometimes difficult. So I tried to brake the game down by starting with just asking her to go backwards and then come back to me, the next time I might send her on a circle but then very quickly disengage her and bring her back. I played around with this for quite a while and this really got her attention on me as she never knew what I was going to do next and in the end I was able to end her in either direction without any problems at liberty. So I think I will continue to do this over the next few days and try and make a positive pattern from it. We also played with squeeze game and today was much better than yesterday, so I was really happy about that.

I then saddled, again with the balance saddle and today again she was lovely to ride!! Today we played with circling around blocks, moving from one block to the other by going sideways. We also played with the figure of eight pattern, doing circles around each block before going back to the other.

We then played with cantering in circles around the blocks and she was really good and very soft and relaxed. So seen as everything was going so well I decided to give my simple lead changes a go, I thought it would be better for me and Blossom if we done it on a figure of eight pattern as we both know this really well. So to prepare us for it I done the pattern again in trot and asked her to stop in the middle of the two blocks as this is where I would like to come back to trot before picking up the new canter lead. This went really well, so we done it in canter and this went much better than I expected it too and we were able to canter come back to trot and the pick up canter in the other direction without any problems and the most important part was she stayed calm through the whole thing. So I finished on that for the day, seen as she had done so well.

Today with Smarty my main focus was playing with change of direction on the circle, to start with he was really running through the pressure. So I put myself against the wall, so if he didn’t yield to the pressure he would hit the wall. He soon worked out what I was asking of him and really focused on me and was waiting for what he was going to be asked to do next.

I then decided to give liberty a go as we haven’t done any yet and I wasn’t sure if he would stay with me or leave - well only one way to find out!!

I went into the round pen and took his halter off and started playing friendly game to start with and then we played stick to me only in walk, stand and back up. This went well for our first time, and he didn’t think about leaving. So I thought I would give the seven games a go and see what happened. Well we only managed to do porcupine which went very well, but then the guys started chopping down the trees again and this really spooked Smarty and he left. But much to my surprise he came back to me very quickly, so I played some friendly game with him and then put his halter back on as with the noise of the trees fallen was really loud. So I didn’t think this would be the best time to test my liberty skills with him, but I was really happy with what I was able to do with him it was far more than I thought we would be able to do!!

Friday 30th January

Today I started with Smarty and today online we worked on pretty much the same as yesterday so I won‘t bother writing it all again, the only difference today was he did seem to be much more relaxed and focused on me.

I then saddled and mounted and the first few minutes he was a little impulsive, but today as soon as he started this I started moving him sideways and doing shoulder in to get his attention on me and help him calm himself down. This really worked today and he settled very quickly, so we moved on and were just playing with straight lines and circles. But I felt he was starting to get quite bored with all this, so I decided to play about with him using patterns in preparation for him being a games pony. We played to start with the pattern we have already done while we have been here, going up to the first block and stopping and then moving on to the second one and turning this and coming back to the first and stopping again. This went really well and his turns were really good, I was using the technique Eddy had showed me and it really seems to be working well for Smarty. We then moved on to a new pattern and this was to go straight to the second block and turn this and come back towards the first and then turn this and go back to the second and then back to the first and stop. He picked this up really well and I could feel him asking questions like are we stopping or are we going or are we turning? It was really nice to see this from him! Lastly I worked on getting him to run for me to vault on him, he is starting to get the idea that he has to run for me to get on. But at the moment I still have to run with him for the first few strides, but he is now totally ok with me jumping off him when he is moving which is really good!

Today with Blossom I started online to get her connected to my energy and her focus on me and then we went into the round pen to play at liberty. The first 4 games were to me perfect, the send on the circle still needs a little work as sometimes she decided to go the opposite way to where I am sending her. But I am now able to do transitions up and down with only my energy and the disengage and draw back to me is really good! Squeeze game in one direction was really good (me in her left eye) but the opposite side she found difficult and would rush through and run off, but then come back to me. This happened a couple of times, so I attached the line to the string around her neck to help her gain more confidence playing this game. This seemed to help and we were then able to go back and play with it at liberty. Sideways, nothing actually went wrong but I would still like this to be a little better.

I then mounted and had a little ride around the arena with just the string on and she was really good, we even had a nice canter round the top half of the arena!
I then thought I should saddle her and try riding her and see if I can get the same results that Eddy was getting from her without Eddy riding her first. Today I also used the balance saddle on her as I didn’t want to change anything as if things did go wrong I would blame the equipment as the reason, instead of it might be something I am doing. Plus I really like riding in the balance saddle, I really feel that I am on my balance point and feel really secure. Think I will need to look into getting one when I get home for her.

Today it was like I was riding a totally new pony, it was amazing!! Walk, trot and canter felt so soft and relaxed and she didn’t pull or even really think about getting impulsive, I think maybe three times there was a stride of her getting impulsive and I just had to say “don’t go there” and use the strategies I have learnt from Eddy to keep her calm her again. It just felt so good, don’t get me wrong I still had to ride her and work quite hard to keep her in this state of mind!! So I finished after quite a short session as it was so tempting to just keep riding as it was so nice, but I now know that this isn’t a good idea and it is better for Blossom at this stage to keep the sessions short.
What an amazing day with her, I can’t believe the change in her!!

Thursday 29th January

Today I started with Smarty and we played online with:

1. Stick to me at walk and trot
2. Sideways without a fence
3. Squeeze game between me and the wall
4. Trailer loading
5. Circling game, he had loads of energy and bucks!!
6. Change of direction in walk and trot, still needs work

I then saddled and mounted him, but right from the start he was full of energy and really leaning on me. So I done lots of trot and canter with him following the rail to try and get rid of some of this extra energy he had, as a few laps around the arena tend to settle him. But today it didn’t work and he was still very impulsive, so I decided to try some of the strategies Eddy has been using on Blossom to get her to relax - Shoulder in, Counter shoulder in, sideways on the circle and disengaging the HQ. He really didn’t like this very much and did fight to start with but instead of giving up I stayed with it and really didn’t give up until he yielded to the pressure. After an hour he really relaxed and we finished by having a lovely ride.

Today with Blossom I played with her with a string round her neck and the 22ft line attached to this, and it went much better than I thought it would have. We managed to played all seven games, even circling game which I didn’t expect to be able to do with her yet. I then ask her to go into the trailer backwards and also stand all four feet on the pedestal!!

I then mounted her with just the string and we started with the figure of eight pattern and we were able to do this in walk and trot. Eddy suggested that I play with sideways like this, but I still had some forward movement so I went to the wall and we played with sideways until she was yielding softly to both sides. I then got her to circle the block in walk and trot (pattern Eddy used on her) She was so nice and relaxed it felt amazing!! I done a few circles both directions and I was tempted to try canter, but I decided it would be better to stop at such a good point.

I then saddled Blossom for Eddy to ride again today he worked on the same patteren as yesterday (circling around a block) and today was even so much better than yesterday. It was really quite amazing to see how calm she was and she really didn’t try and fight at all. I have also filmed this session so it will be great to look at it over and over again until I see all the small things Eddy is doing to get such a good response from her.

Wednesday 28th January

Today Eddy’s niece came to play with Smarty again and Nadine came to teach her, as I struggled last week as I couldn’t speak to her as my Dutch still sucks!!
I watched them playing with him to start with and they were just having so much fun both playing friendly games with him, at one point both of them were running and dancing round him and he was just standing there really relaxed. It was really nice to see how much fun they were having and how good an imagination Daisy has, plus it was all so good for Smarty to have all these friendly games played with him.

I was still quite sore today after my treatment yesterday, so Eddy offered to ride Blossom again for me! So I played a little with her online to get her warmed up and saddled ready for Eddy to ride her. Today she was so much better and stayed much more relaxed for him and did fight less than she did the other day. Today again Eddy changed his strategy for riding her and today mainly played with circles around a block and making her yield sideways to the block. It was really good to watch and I even filmed him riding her on my camera so I could watch it all again and try and really work out what he is doing and most important when he is doing it.

Once Eddy finished I did have a little ride on her and she was so much softer than normal, so it was really nice to feel how it could be like with her and now it is just up to me to keep this work up with her so she stays like this.

Tuesday 27th January

Today I had an appointment with the Osteopath as my back and neck have been really sore. So after the treatment I was quite sore and very sleepy so both the ponies got the day off.

Monday 26th January

Today Eddy had another lady coming for the next two days for horsemanship lessons and he said me and Corine could join in too.

We all had a chat to start with about what we would like to work on, I said with Smarty I would like to work more on his confidence as over the last week he had appeared a little nervous again, and with Blossom I wanted Eddy to have a look at my seven games at liberty. We also discussed when to use a phase 4 and also when to use treats. So it was a really interesting discussion and I feel I actually learnt quite a lot from it.

So this morning I decided to start with Smarty and typical he was really good and relaxed, so Eddy couldn’t really help me with any of the problems I have been experiencing with him as he couldn’t see them! But to help me improve his confidence even more he suggested that I work on the S pattern with him to help him become more confident about giving me two eyes and this should also help improve my draw. H also helped my with moving him sideways on the circle, similar to what we have been working on with Blossom as he also looks out of the circle but nothing as extreme as Blossom is.

So it was a really good session and Smarty stayed relaxed and connected to me most of the time, Eddy said that maybe the problems I have had are nothing to do with anything I am doing wrong when we are playing. It might be actually Smarty has had a bad nights sleep or maybe he just isn’t in the mood to play, these are more just examples but something like this could be the cause…

This afternoon I played with Blossom and started with a little bit of online stuff to get her connected to me and then I let her go at liberty just in the arena. We started with playing with some stick to me around the arena and this went very well in walk, trot and back up. I then trailer loaded her at liberty, she had never seen the trailer that was in the arena and she still went straight in! But I did have a little problem getting her to come back out, I could get her to back a couple of steps by using the stick outside the trailer moving it up and down. But I couldn’t get her to come all the way out (she likes the trailer) Eddy suggested I use her tail, but that didn’t really work as I haven’t done enough of this on line for her to understand what I am asking. So in the end I had to go into the trailer with her and back her out this way.

I then spoke to Eddy about my seven games at liberty saying the main problem was my squeeze game, as soon as I send her she takes off and won’t disengage. Seen as there was someone in the round pen he suggested I have a play with it against the wall in the arena and see how it goes there. So I did, some of it was good, but she did leave a couple of times but the problem with this was she then went over to try and attack the horse in the round pen. So I decided that it wasn’t fair on the other lady trying to work at liberty, so I put a string round her neck and attached the rope to that and played some more with squeeze game and sideways and this went very well.

I then went into the round pen and asked Eddy if he could watch so if I had any problems he could help me with them or see what I was doing wrong that may be causing the problem. But all the games went very well, typical I get Eddy to watch so he can help me and there is no problems!!

I then rode her in the round pen with just the string in walk, trot and canter and she was really good and relaxed. So I then decided to saddle her and ride her with the cradle bit again, and she was really good and we managed to do some really nice transitions from walk, trot and canter. I then managed to convince Eddy to ride her, as he has a quarter horse in at the moment to start and it really isn’t that much bigger than Blossom so he really couldn’t use her height as an excuse.

Well I had to change the saddle for him as there was no way he would have been able to ride in mine, so he choose to ride her in the balance saddle. Surprisingly he really didn’t look that bad on her, I expected him to look massive on her but he actually got away with it!

I really don’t know how to explain what he all done with her as I think he used every strategy he knew for impulsive horses to see which one he thought worked best one her. What he did tell me at the once he finished riding was he found doing lots of shoulder in and lots of counter shoulder in seemed to work well for her especially counter shoulder in as this is more difficult for her and makes her think more. He also really pushed a lot of buttons on her and really took her right to the edge and Blossom tried everything to fight Eddy. But after over an hour of Blossom fighting she eventually relaxed and really started listening to what Eddy was asking her to do and she looked like a much better pony. O it will be interesting if I notice a difference in her the next time I ride her.

Sunday 25th January

Today I wasn’t feeling so good, my neck and back is starting to get really sore and is also giving me headaches so today I wasn’t really feeling up to a big play session.

So this afternoon me and Corine were going to watch some videos of an Parelli course Eddy attended as a student with an Australian instructor, but we couldn’t get the sound to work on it very well so we couldn’t really hear much. So instead we watched the Karen Rolf dvd instead.

I felt I should really do something with the ponies, so to make things easy for me I decided to play with them both at the same time. It went ok online, we managed to do some nice circles and yo yo game but that was about it. Smarty really wasn’t sure about what I wanted and got worried sometimes, so I thought it would be easier to ride Smarty and lead Blossom.

This went very well, I had to work quite hard at the start to get them both focused on my energy as I hadn’t done as much as normal with them online first. But they soon settled and were very good. Today I did work them hard, with lots of trot work as I have felt the last few days they have had a lot of energy especially Smarty! What I noticed was that at the start of the session he had his body bent the wrong way and was leaning on me when I would ask him to turn. But nearer the end of the session he was much softer and relaxed and overall much nicer to ride. So I think I maybe need to give him harder work (well lots of trot) when I first start my ridden session to let him get out all his extra energy before I actually start asking him to do anything more challenging as this is where he then starts fighting me. So it might be interesting to see if this theory works, I will try it the next time I ride him..

Saturday 24th January

Well today it was much better weather than yesterday, it was dry without any wind but still quite cold. So I thought I should make the most of this nice weather and take Smarty out a trail ride, we started in the arena first as he has been quite bad to ride the last few times I thought it would be safer to check everything first.

I gave him a quick warm up on line and then saddle and then played with him again and he really did have quite a lot of energy!! But once he was calm and focused on me I mounted and checked lateral flexion and back up, this was better than yesterday but still needs to improve quite a bit. I then followed the rail in walk, trot and canter and this all went very well and he didn’t try to d his little sideways thing once. So maybe what I done with him yesterday worked and he has learnt that doing that with me isn’t going to work… We then set out on our trail ride and it was so nice and relaxing for both of us, so it was really nice and we both enjoyed it.

When I got back the horsemanship lessons were still going on, at the moment there are three ladies here all with young horses so I watched some of this for a while. I then went and got Blossom and went into the arena, it was still quite busy so we started with my just giving Blossom a groom (she had so much sand on her!!) to let her relaxe before we started our play session as I have found that she does worry a little if there are lots of horses in the arena and they come into her space.

Once she was settled and focused on me we played with:

1. Backwards
2. Trailer loading
3. Backwards into the trailer
4. Sideways without a fence
5. Sideways over a pole
6. Sideways over a block, but this is still too much for her
7. Circling - getting the circles soft.

Julie the girl I was working with when I first arrived was here today to spectate as she thought it was a level 2/3 course.. Which I think it was meant to be originally, oops. Anyway she commented on the difference in Blossom and said there really was a massive difference to her circles and her trot looked so much more calm and relaxed. So I was really happy to hear this and it made me feel really good!

I then saddle and again decided to ride again in the cradle bit, and today everything went very well. Canter is much more in control now and with this bit she no longer leans on me or pulls, so this in itself is really helping us as this was one of the biggest problems. So it will be interesting to see how it goes over the next few days and then I hope to ride her in the halter again and see if I notice a difference or not.

Friday 23rd January

Today it was really windy and the direction in which the wind was coming from meant it was coming straight in the indoor school, so it made it very cold and also very noisy!!

So today Blossom was very uptight about things as she really doesn’t like the wind. So today I didn’t do very much with her, I started with lots of friendly game and we then played stick to me around the arena so she could see all the scary corners as they were really noisy.

We then played with circling game and really just worked on getting her to bend the correct way on the circle and to keep her focus on me.

Today with Smarty I decided to ride him as he is now fully recovered, today I also decided to try him in my myler bit as I haven’t found a bit that I think he likes yet so thought it was worth a try.

Once we played I then saddled and mounted and started with ride the rail in walk and trot and also added in some stop and back up transitions. He was really leaning on the bit today, so we worked on getting him to be softer and to basically stop leaning as this is quite a bad habit he has. He isn’t trying to run off with me or anything, but if I apply pressure he leans into it instead of yielding. So today was mostly working on this.

We then had a little canter and again today he done his little run sideways off the circle with me and as soon as he done it I bent him to a stop, I think he done it another couple of times and I done the same thing and I think this must have worked as he stopped doing it after this. So my original thought that he might have been in pain could still be right of course, but I think this is more a learn behaviour he has learnt over the yeas.

I spoke to Eddy about this just after it happened and he suggested that I also attach the side of the halter to the bit using the reins and when I use the reins it will also apply pressure on the halter so will help me teach him not to lean on the pressure and to yield instead. In a way it is actually working very similar to how the cradle bridles work.. So it will be interesting to see how this goes over the next couple of days..

Thursday 22nd January

Today with Blossom I started on line, but she really wanted to have a roll and today for whatever reason she just couldn’t decided where she wanted to roll. So I decided it was easier just to let her loose to have a roll, and as soon as took the halter off she rolled nearly straight away!

Well seen as she was now at liberty I thought I would just play like this, we mainly just played with stick to me around obstacles and following the rail and she was really good.
I then tied the SS round her neck and jumped on and started with riding the rail of the arena and checking I could stop with just the string. We then played with moving the FQ and HQ and it was better today, so I must have got it right yesterday!! We then played with the figure of eight pattern in walk and trot and she was really good and stayed pretty relaxed.

I then saddled and Eddy had suggested that I try her in a cradle bridle to see if this will help with my lateral flexion and help her to bend the correct way. Well we tried to just use one of Eddy’s cradle bridles, but it was far too big for her and even if we had punched holes it wouldn’t have helped. So instead I just attached the bit to one of my own bridles so that I could try it on her and see what she thought of it before I buy one. Well she seemed to really like it.. I only rode her in it for about 10 minutes, but everything did go really well and she was very soft and didn’t pull into the pressure like she does in the halter. So I will ride her again in this and see how it goes.

We then played the property game at liberty in the arena, there was Myself, Corine, Sophie, Barbara, Marieke and Eddy. It was a little bit crazy at the start as all the horses were leaving there owners, except Blossom she stayed with me the whole time. The scary bit was all the horses wanted to come on to my property as I was next to the gate, so it was sometimes quite a challenge to get Blossom to stick to me and chase the other horses. But it was really good fun for all of us and it really tested my relationship with Blossom which turns out to be better than I expected!!

I then played with Smarty and today I decided to just do a little and mainly just play in walk to let him fully recover from his injury, he is now 100% but I prefer to give them a little longer just to make sure everything is fully healed.

We played with:
1. Friendly game with the CS
2. Extreme friendly with the CS in all zones
3. Friendly game with the ball - bouncing it around him and also up onto his back and HQ
4. Yo Yo game, trying to get the back up a little better and he draw to me with both eyes
5. Circling game in walk, but today I really worked on getting him to look into the circle and focus on me as like Blossom he tends to look out of the circle and also sometimes leans on the halter.
6. Sideways without a fence, still needs some work but better than I expected it to be.
7. Stick to me in walk, trot and back up - which went well.

Eddy also offered to film me playing with Smarty, but as I didn’t want to do very much with him I decided it wasn’t really worth it today, but maybe we will film him another day when I can do more with him.

Wednesday 21st January

Well today Smarty was so much better, if I wasn’t looking for something to be wrong with him I wouldn’t have noticed anything so I was so happy to see there was nothing wrong with him. I am sure he was maybe a little sore still and maybe stiff, but it is nothing serious and he wasn’t lame in walk or trot so that was the main thing.

Today it was planned for Eddy’s niece to come and play and ride Smarty and I did think about not letting her because of his injury yesterday, but then I thought it might actually be good for him to get out and walk about and if his muscles were stiff the light exercise would help.



Daisy and Smarty


Circling game


Extreme Friendly, with Smarty standing on the pedestal


Extreme Friendly


Eddy and Daisy playing circling game with Smarty and Salo

Daisy then did have a little ride on Smarty but there was a lot of shooting going on today, so we didn’t think it was very safe for Daisy to be riding just incase Smarty did get a fright .

So as she couldn’t do much riding with Smarty I let her play with Blossom for a bit on line and she played all seven games and also with Blossom lots of extreme friendly game and really seemed to enjoy it.


Daisy and Blossom

Once Daisy left I played with Blossom at liberty around the arena and she was really focused on me and really connected to my energy. So I decided to ride her bareback with just the Savvy string around her neck and she was so calm and relaxed. I started with ride the rail and made sure I was able to stop her with just the string and also to check my back up, all that went really well so we played with the figure of eight pattern in walk and trot.

Eddy then came into the arena and was totally amazed to see me riding her like this considering how badly the first ridden session had went yesterday. He then helped me work on moving the FQ and the HQ, to start with it was worse than normal as I only had the SS and the CS instead of the halter so this made things a lot more difficult. But I worked away with it and very quickly I was able to move the FQ and the HQ. In a way I think it was actually good for me to do it like this as I had to be more careful with my aids and were I positioned my body and by the end it seemed to make a lot more sense to me.

Well as everything was going so well I decided to try cantering like this, nobody else was in the arena so I knew if it all went wrong at least I wasn’t going to run into another horse or person! But it went really good I was so surprised by this, we only cantered a few strides as Blossom offered to stop so of course I took this from her. I played with this a few times in each direction and it all went really well, so I was so happy!!

Tuesday 20th January

Well what a day I have had!!

During lunch I spoke to Eddy about my impulsion problems with Blossom yesterday and what things I should do to help her. As we have tried the backwards, sideways, move the front end, bend her etc and this really doesn’t help that much. He suggested that I ride Blossom and lead Smarty of her, this way my focus would mainly be on Smarty and it would then just be Blossom’s responsibility to stay in walk or trot. The other suggestion was to try dragging an object from her as again my focus wouldn’t all be on her. But as I haven’t tried dragging anything from the ground yet, I thought today leading Smarty would be the better option.

So to get Blossom warmed up and focused on me I played with her online first with the same things as we have been doing lately so I won’t bore you all with writing it all again. But everything went very well and again today we got all four feet on the pedestal.



I then saddled and started with walking round and I was able to stop and back up just using my energy and the SS. But as soon as I asked for trot things got bad again with lots of impulsion so I tried going with her and just making the circles smaller and smaller until she relaxed but as soon as we went again she was back to trying to canter off with me. I must have been riding for over half an hour and nothing seemed to be improving and I just got so upset and frustrated and ended up leaving the arena in tears as I just didn’t know what to do with her and really felt like just giving up on her! Why does she go nice one day and then horrible the next…

Well as I was feeling so down, I went and sat with her outside and let her eat some grass and just spent some undemanding time with her until I felt better.

I then went and got Smarty and went into the arena and gave him and good groom, and just as I was about to start playing with him Eddy offered to film me play as he suggested I do this so I can see where the problems are as sometimes when you are actually playing you don’t see what the problems are or what you can do to improve things. But I really wanted to see myself with Blossom rather than Smarty, so I put Smarty out in a paddock with Benji so they could have a play and went and got Blossom again.

We started with filming yo yo’s, sideways and transitions on a circle and change of direction - it didn’t go as well as it normally does but nothing on the other hand went wrong either. I just know that we can do all of these tasks better, but I think because I was being filmed I was a little nervous and didn’t ask as much from Blossom as I normally would.

Eddy then asked if I would be up for riding again, he knew how bad things had went earlier for me. But I thought it would be worth another go and if everything went really bad again at least I would be able to watch and maybe see if I was doing something to cause the problem or if I could see something that would maybe help.. Eddy suggested I ride her in the bareback pad as I had already ridden her today with a saddle and it didn’t go well, so he thought it would be worth seeing if riding bareback would maybe help her as the problem may be with the saddle or even how I ride in the saddle. Sophie had just set up a round pen so I decided to ride the rail of this, Eddy then said whenever I was ready to trot and then canter if I felt I could. So I managed to walk, trot and canter in both directions totally in control with a very relaxed pony. Well as everything went so well bareback Eddy said to try her doing the same with the saddle on and see if I got a different reaction. So I did and again everything went so well, calm and relaxed. We the filmed sideways and back up ridden and this went quite well and we also filmed moving the HQ and then the FQ, but this didn’t go so well. This wasn’t really Blossom fault, the problem is still more I still get confused where my legs, hands and stick should be so I then get Blossom confused and that’s why the moves don’t quite work as well as they should. But with practise this should come good quite easy.

I then went to get Smarty back in and he was really lame, it appears him and Benji had a little fight at one point during there play session and Smarty seems to have come of worse. There wasn’t any sign of a cut or a certain area that was really sore from a kick. So I think he has maybe just pulled/strained a muscle kicking out at Benji so hopefully it isn’t anything too serious and tomorrow he will be much better.

After dinner tonight I also watched the video Eddy made of me playing and riding, it was actually really nice to see as it is the first time I have ever seen myself play. Eddy said my online tasks we filmed were good enough to pass level two, but suggested I really work hard on making her look into the circle and bend her body in the correct way as this will really help her and also help us both as we progress through the programme.

My riding in walk, trot and canter he couldn’t fault as Blossom was calm and relaxed and I was also in the correct position. So this was really nice to hear!!

My sideways and backup are good, but I need to still work on moving the FQ and HQ, Eddy suggested trying this on the seat builder to see if this will help me understand what I need to do to get the different zones to move.


So a very emotional day with lots of bad parts, but also some really good bits too.

Monday 19th January

Today with Blossom I played with:

1. Backwards - really getting good
2. Back up and then move the FQ
3. Yo Yo
4. Circles - much better today
5. Change of direction
6. Sideways with out a fence
7. Sideways over a pole and cones
8. Trot sideways
9. All FOUR feet on the pedestal and she stayed there for a few minutes!!


I then decided to have a break before riding her and used this time to watch some of the others playing on line and ridden. Even though none of the other horses are like Blossom I still feel I learn a lot from watching and really learn a lot about different horses.


I then saddled and played a little to get her focus on me, I then mounted and checked my lateral flexion and back up and all was good so we set of to ride the rail of the arena. But today we had major impulsion problems and Blossom only seemed to be able to walk or canter and she decided when we would canter. At the start I decided to go with her and do a passenger lesson and thought she would then calm down, but I was so wrong. I then changed strategy and every time she would go off into canter I would bend her to a stop and hold her until she relaxed, I also done lots of back up especially at the points where she would want to canter. But this really didn’t seem to help, the only good thing I suppose was the transitions were actually quite good and the canter wasn’t that un controllable and I was able to stop her quite easily or keep her cantering on small circle but for whatever reason she just wouldn’t trot or stay in walk!! So I was rather frustrated by the end of this session as lately everything has been going so well.

Sunday 18th January

Today I spoke to Eddy about the problems I had with Smarty and also showed him the video we had made of him. His thoughts were that Smarty as learnt that he can just push through pressure by doing this and this is what he thinks he is doing. So he advised doing clover leaf patterns, questions box and point to point to really get Smarty focused on me and be more balanced turning left and right and also when I want him to do it.

So today I started with Smarty as I knew Eddy would be more likely to be around as he had horsemanship lessons, so if the problem started again Eddy would be able to see it and also help me. But as I was grooming Smarty I decided to do a little ET on his saddle area and girth area before I saddled to loosen his back before we done anything. But from doing this I really got the feeling that he was quite sore as I was really getting big moves and ripples through his body from one move. So I decided today it maybe wasn’t a good idea to play with him or ride him just incase he is really sore. So instead I done a full body balance on him, so he will also have tomorrow off and we will see then if there is an improvement.

Today with Blossom we started with playing with stick to me and then moved on to working on our back up, which was much better today. We then moved on to playing with circles and today again I was quite firm with her about where she was looking and used moving her sideways to help me get her looking in on the circle.

I then put the bareback pad on her and mounted and we started with ride the rail in walk, but today Blossom just didn’t seem settled. There was a lot of horses in the arena and everyone was doing there own thing and sometimes other horses just got a little too close to Blossom for her liking so I think this could have been the problem. So I decided there was no point fighting her and pushing her as I knew I would just make things worse, so finished for the day.

So as I had finished early I done a ET session on Marieke’s pony benji as she has been at me for weeks to do it one him. I then watched a little of Eddy playing with the new horse he has in to start, nothing to exciting today as the horse responded well to the seven games so it was nice to see that.

Saturday 17th January

Well this morning we had a lady arrive with her horse for 2 days of horsemanship lessons with Eddy, but I didn’t watch very much of her as it really wasn’t that interesting! (That sounds terrible, oops)

This afternoon I started playing with Blossom and we started with having a little play with some of the games to get her focus on me and then we moved on to playing with circles. The main focus today was getting her to look where she was going and not to lean on the rope, as Eddy now thinks it is time that I ask for a little more from her and this would be a massive change for her if she is able to do this. So to get her to do this I worked with small circles to start with and would move her sideways on the circle to get her focus more on me and where she is going, once it was better at a short distance I would allow the circles to get bigger. But if she started pulling or looking out I would make the circles smaller again as this way I can use the CS and string to move her sideways as if she is out on a bigger circle I can’t touch her and she just ignores me!

We then played with all the other tasks we have been playing with lately and everything went really well today. The best bit was she managed to get all 4 feet on the pedestal, I was so happy for her and she has been trying so hard to work out what she has to do to get all her feet up there and today she got it!! She only managed to stay there for about 4 seconds, before she fell off so it wasn’t long enough for me to get a photo. But now that she has done it once I am sure she will be able to do it again and maybe next time I will be able to get a photo for you all to see!!

I then saddled and today again she was lovely to ride, strange!! Today I was able to do transitions from walk, trot, stand and back up only using the savvy string - Marieke was watching and I think she was shocked to see me being able to do this with Blossom!! Today I decided to give cantering a go and use my new position to see if it made a difference to Blossom.. Well the first few canters were really good and I think the new position really helped as the transition was really smooth and there wasn’t her usual really fast trot before canter, so I think this also helped me to really stay back and on my balance point and therefore also helped her keep her weight more on her HQ. So I was really happy, but on our last canter she was more impulsive. But we think this could have been caused by something spooking her as a lot of the horses were quite jumpy today, especially on the side where I was riding…
Eddy asked if I had ever tried cantering bareback and if that made a difference to Blossom because my seat might also be different. I am sure I have cantered her bareback, but at the time I didn’t really think about is she better or worse than normal. So I decided to give it a go today and see what the result would be.. But I think for safety reasons for me and everyone else in the arena Eddy put me on line and played with Blossom with me riding bareback. But I am not sure it really made much difference to Blossom as she was I would say faster on line with me bareback in canter than she was before.. But I think I will continue to try and ride bareback more often as I do feel I need to improve me seat more as a few times bareback I did loose my balance, nothing too serious but to Blossom I think if I can really stay with her it will really help her to stay calm!

Today with Smarty we had lots of fun playing on line and everything is just getting so much better, today we were playing with change of direction and it is really quite good!!

I then saddled and girthed in stages and then played with transitions in walk, trot, stand and back up - his back up wasn’t great today as I have now put a bit back on him he still has a tendency to lean on the bit rather the yield from the pressure. So we played around teaching him to be soft and not to lean on the bit and everything was going really well.
So I decided to canter and this is where the problems started, the transitions were good but the problem was when I went to turn him to do a half circle around the arena he just lifted his head and sort of ran sideways… During this I had no control over him whatsoever!! I done another couple of circles and every time he done it and there didn’t seem to be anything I could do, I tried to turn him using the reins and also using my body to try and turn him but nothing worked!!

Corine was in the arena, so I asked her to watch and see what she thought - but she had no idea and thought it was quite an extreme behaviour for no reason, well of course there is a reason but it wasn’t an obvious one and I wasn’t asking any new or challenging things from him. So I got Corine to film it for me on my camera so I could watch it and also so I could show Eddy to see what he thought the problem was.

This afternoon we also had a lady arrive with a quarter horse and a Shetland pony and she will be staying for a week for horsemanship lessons. We also had another horse arrive that is here for about a month for Eddy to do a restart on. So this will be really interesting to watch!!