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.