Monday 12th January

Today with Blossom I started playing with back up with me in zone 3 as if I was riding her as I have noticed that her back up when I have been riding her hasn’t been very good. So as I expected when I asked her to back from me in zone 3 I also got the same brace and resistance as I have been when I have been riding. So today I was really firm with her and went to phase 4 several times to get a really nice soft back up - we played with this for quite a while until I felt she was really yielding well.

We then had a play with all the other tasks we have been playing with and all of them went well, so at the moment the main issue is getting a good back up . As I think if I get this really good it will also improve everything else.

I then saddled and worked on our back up while riding, I had to really go through my phases to start with so she worked out what it was I was asking and to realise I wasn’t going to except any brace and I wanted a good back up from her as I know she can do it. Once this improved I then started working on getting her to abck up from just the savvy string, she was a little unsure about this so I only asked for a couple of backwards steps to teach her the pattern.

Marieke then played with me online today and really helped me with my fluidity and it also seemed to help Blossom as we got a lovely canter in both directions today, without any impulsion it felt so good!!

Today with Smarty I with all seven games and everything went really well and he is now becoming more confident and relaxed while we are playing.

I then saddled and we played with transitions following the rail, he was really good and was really connected to my energy. To keep him interested we played with the pattern we played with before with the barrels, but today we used cones instead. He remembered the pattern and was starting to slow himself before the marker where he has to stop, he was so good and seems to really enjoy this type of work as it really keeps him thinking and makes it more interesting for him.