Blue String Arrived!

On the 1st of November this arrived in the post!

Parelli Tumblr

I have had some of my photo put up on Parelli Tumblr! Check them out:


Me & Bella


Simmulation Day

Winter Workshop Series with 2* Terri Martinus

Over the winter I have been fortunate enough to be able to take part in a winter workshop series with Terri at Brinsbury College in Pulborough.  To enable me to learn better and not have to worry about emotions I borrowed a lovely mare called Kit that belongs to my friend Gill.  I have been riding and competing Kit on and off for the past 11 years so we know and trust each other well.  She was also Bella's 'nanny' when I first bought her.

Introducing Kit! 14.2hh Connemara x TB Mare 24 years young, RBI mainly, Still teaching us all a thing or two!

I had a few play session with Kit before the clinic to bring her up to speed (Gill has already got her through L1).

In the first Clinic we worked on doing the 7 Games but looking at them with 'Level 3 Eyes'.  Really working on refining and getting better quality in the movements.  We also did a lot of freestyle riding (which is why I brought Kit not Bella!).  It was great to be able to just get on and not have to think about her to much and focus on my body and getting things right so I can make them clearer to her.  We also got her first sideways when ridden which was really cool!

The second Clinic was all about focusing internally and being aware of out energy and how to control it to get the best out of our partners. I found this a challenge at first as Bella is a lot more 'tuned in' to my energy than Kit is but we soon got ourselves sorted and I found it was a great way to block out what was going on around me as I do tend to get distracted by spectators, what other horses are doing, saber tooth butterflies!

The third session was postponed due to snow but will be happening at the end of Jan so will blog about that separately.

Catch up .... opps been to long!

Ok Really SORRY! Just realized I haven't blogged since September!!! Bad bad me, but I have been busy so the next few blogs will be as a recap and then I will start again properly in 2011!

Were to start,

Horseless workshop - Run by me for the local Savvy Sussex Study Group.

In September I  held a horseless workshop for our small study group. The aim for the day was to be able to practice all those simulation that we have learnt over the past year in a fun and supportive environment where people can learn and not feel silly.  My field is quite isolated so it was the perfect venue. 

We started the day with some Carrot Stick Savvy!

For online:

·       Picking up the carrot stick (both hands):

1.     Using string ‘flick’ it up and toss it behind you

2.     ‘Flick’ it up and catch it  (can you get to the point where you can flick it up high enough that you can spin round and still catch it?)

3.     ‘Flick it up, catch it then hit a target WITH THE LEATHER POPPER!

4.     GAME of quick draw – Best of 3

·       Practicing an underhand flick, use a fence post

·       Pop a balloon – phase one then phase 4 =POP! Both over hand then underhand

·       Firm to friendly on a barrel – practice phase friendly and 4.  Then can you go to p4 and change it to a p1 mid way?

·       WACK A BARREL! P4 on a barrel then rub it – how quick does your energy come up and down?

For riding:

·       Tossing the carrot stick from hand to hand, can you do it walking, trotting, and cantering??

·       How to throw a carrot stick, in pairs throw it to each other … how far can you get from each other?

·       Throwing it on the move … figure of 8 every time you pass someone you have at swap carrot sticks, walk and trot!

Moving on to Online Skills

·       (halter and 12, 22 & 45 lines, working in pairs) how soon can you feel it and what does each phase ‘feel’ like on the different lengths of rope.  Blind folded – can you still tell now?

Conger Horses:

·       figure of 8

·       sideway with fence & with just a pole

·       circle – with change of direction

Then Parelli Puzzles!

5 tasks, 5 minutes!

Level 1/2 people: (Fran, Gill, Janie)

·       Squeeze between you and fence,

·        Z1 on pedestal,

·        figure of  8 – from 12’ft away

·       yo-yo over pole

·       sideway along the fence (1 gap distance)

Level 2/3 people: (Lynne, Jo & Liz)

·       Squeeze over a sml jump

·       Z1 & Z2 on pedestal THEN Z3 & Z4 on pedestal

·       Figure of 8 (from 12ft + away)

·       Sideways over a pole

·       Kick ball through two cones

Lunch !!!!!!!!!!

In the afternoon we did a bits & bridles simulation

Fluidity

Energy levels.  Walk , trot, canter then run as fast as you can then STOP!  How much energy did you put into it? What sort of walk trot canter did you do? How long did it take you to stop – no I mean stop! How quickly did you come of it?  

Balance point:

On a barrel with someone holding a SS, can they pull up of balance?

·       How you sit now (feet off the floor)

·       How you sit now (feet off the floor), but grip with your knees

·       On balance point

·       On BP but grip with your knees

·       On balance point and stick you chin out

·       On BP with arms bent

·       On BP with arms straight

·       On BP, chin normal, knees relaxed, arms bent = power position

·       Pedaling

·       Push passenger position

On a barrel on a slope, DOWN hill –

·       How you would expect to sit (trad taught)

·       Now on BP, weight back in seat, and pushing on hands (to simulate neck or saddle horn) – load the back end. 

·       Explain the ‘lockit and rockit’ concept

On a barrel on a slope, UP hill –

·       How you would expect to sit (trad taught)

·       Now on BP, weight back in seat, and pushing on hands (to simulate neck or saddle horn), but back almost upright so you load the back end

·       Bend their ribs to release a brace – go tight in your body, the bend your ribs until you CANT hold the brace anymore.

·       Stand on to blocks and try to pull each other off. Balance point

Freestyle Riding

Rein Positions:

·       Lateral flexion

·       Lateral flexion using CS

·       Indirect reins

·       Indirect  rein – backing up with CS on Z5!

·       Direct reins

·       9-step back-up

·       Sideways

·       pick up and drop reins with out looking

·       casual, bunny rabbit, butterfly, contact rein

·       suspension rein

·       California roll

In groups of 3 conga horses:

·       Stopping – just lift/pull back on both reins,  lift one rein, then one rein  but shift your weight onto your balance point 1^st – feel the difference.

·       Direct and indirect reins on the move

·       Cantering – correct leg (in pairs, focus)

·       Bowtie pattern

·       Sideways

Leadership

Blindfold in silence in pairs – follow my leader around an obstacle course, switch half way! 

Phew! What a day!! But loads learnt :)  Here are a few pics from Parelli Tumblr to give you a taste of the day

http://parellicentral.tumblr.com/post/1257402019/a-few-weeks-ago-our-local-savvy-sussex-group

Did it make a difference?

When I turned up at the field today I was intrigued to see whether or not my play session yesterday had made any impact on Bella.  Judging by the fact that she was at the field gate before I had even got the main gate open so I would say YES,  Good sign!

I started our session with a little online to get us both ready for our ridden session. Bella was doing great even if she was in a bit of a punkie mood (cheeky punk rather than the normal stroppy punk!).  

I started the freestyle session with a bit of circling round a barrel and touch it trying to use my body then backing up with my carrot stick.  The purpose of this was to try to get us in-tune a bit more.  Then I did a few halt, walk, trot transition and moved on to the 'Bowtie' pattern. 

My plan today was to work on the 'Bowtie' pattern with the aim to start cantering.  I started in walk just to get her established on the pattern, then started to ask for trot across the diaginal parts.  We have played with this pattern before so she soon remembered and was soon picking up the trot just from a slight shift in energy from me. 

Thing where going well so I up my energy and she shot forward into a few fast steps of trot, which was a nice offer, but next time I asked she got really stroppy, dropped her head a threatened to buck .... mmm, how interesting! I guess I over did it a bit so I backed off and she went back to happily offering a gentle trot so I left it there.

We stopped and had a graze for a bit then I asked her to do a few transitions. At first she was really grumpy so a went to point to point till I got a few nice transitions and quit there for the day.

When I untacked I noticed that there where some rubbing marks in the hair on her shoulders where the saddle was sitting. Her muscles are building up where she is using her back more now so her saddle is not fitting as well.  Need to see if I can pad or shim it differently and get it off her shoulder more, maybe this is causing some of her crankiness in going forward ....

Not the best riding session ever, but one to give me a few things to think about!

 

Flying visit? ... Make it count

After yet another 11hr day at work today my visit with Bella was somewhat brief tonight but I wanted to make it count particularly as it is Friday and we haven't done anything most of the week due to work commitments.  I didn't want to just turn up tomorrow and go 'ok Bella I know I've barely seen you all week but today we are going to play then ride and start work on cantering Freestyle!'  Hardly seams fair or very partner like does it??

So what did I want to get out of my 10 minute session?  Well I decided I was going to try to be provocative but without making her work hard. Just enough to spark her interest then quit so that when I see her in the morning she is in a curious mood to see what I am going to do this time.


I started the session with a good scratch - always a winner in her books, then it was straight on with the 45ft line, no messing today.  Instead of doing more friendly and checking her 1st 3 games out as I normally do, I caught her off guard by going straight into the 'sliding rock' pattern, then on one of the sideway kept her going out till she was about 20ft away from me, then instead of yeilding her hind end I sent her forwards into trot and begin driving her from z5 to play touch it with the pedistall where I let her stop.  Now being a LB horse that bounces between In & Ex I knew I could do this without worrying her.  


I certainly got her attention but only to the point that she was watching me a doing what I asked but she was still being a bit snotty about it (being the dominant mare that she is if I don't play with her for even one day she is snotty till she decides i've earnt the right to be incharge again).  


Now that she knew I was there it was time to prove my leadership and I started to play stick to me with a 12ft distance between us and every time her ears went back or she gave a brace (mental or physical) she got a firm shut down and backup FAST.  It only took three times before she decided it wasn't going to work and droped her head and licked her lips and we were ready to begin!


I was flicking through the SC vault the other day when I saw the SC dvd lesson that Linda did with Allure on moving sideway to mount from a fence. This was something I stated with Bella a while ago but got put on the back burner whilst I concentrated on getting my L2 Freestyle done.  Anyway, this is what I had decided would be my provicitve task for the day as it would make her think but not use up to much energy! I knew we wouldn't complete it due to our time restriction but I just wanted one step tonight, that was the goal. 


So over to the pedistall we went.  After a slight hitch of me trying to convice Bella to get off the pedistal and stand next to it we got started.  At first she did what I knew she would do and moved into the pressure, but once I continued to keep the pressure she figured that was wrong and steped back to where she started so I stopped and rubbed her.  Then asked again. This time she went to move away and hesitatied and shifted her weight to the inside so I stopped and rubbed her again. The next time I asked she shifted her weight towards me a took one step towards me! Yes! So I stopped, rubbed her and we left the pedistall for a scratch and end of session.


I then fed her and once she was eating her hay I went back into her padock to do her water and she left her hay (LBI/E remember) and came to see if we were starting to play again! I rewarded her with a sratch under her tummy and left her for the night.  Cant wait to see what the effect of tonight has when I turn up in the morning :)

Getting closer to my dreams one step at a time

Do you remember what first made you want to be with horses? What made you take this path? What gets you through the tough times?

Well for me I have loved horses from before I could remember.  It's not the riding, I mean it blows me away that we are allowed by these amazing creatures to be carried on their back, let alone jump, do dressage (my personal passion) etc, that's all just a bonus it's way more than that, its about the way they move, their beauty, athleticism and the passion, pure natural raw love, forgiveness and peace that they represent which is something we all strive to reach in our lives.

I remember the first time I really saw what Parelli was.  It was just after I had bought Bella as a 5 month old foal and I knew I didn't want to train her the traditional way ... but how?  I was looking on Ebay for 'natural horsmanship' and it pulled up the normal selection which I know about but non of them was quite 'right'. Then I saw an 'introduction to Parelli' dvd for 99p! The best 99p I have ever spent!  This dvd was about 10mins long I think and it showed you all the things you could do with your horse using the program: trailer loading, riding bridleless, liberty, jumping big logs etc, which blew me a way. 

But you know what? It wasn't all these fancy things that made me want to do Parelli.  It was this one lady playing a liberty with her horse in a huge field and she asked the horse to canter a circle around her so close that it was almost touching her and the horse was doing it willingly with its ears forward and looking at the lady with a look that still to this day blows me away.  I knew then, in that moment that this was the program for me.  I wanted THAT relationship with Bella.

Well, that was 5 years ago and to this day I still have that DVD and 4 days ago Bella offered me a taste of that dream.  We were having fun playing at liberty after a brilliant online session when I asked her to circle me. Now normally she would go a few steps then stop or just leave with a grumpy look on her face! But this day she put her ears forwards and walked a complete circle around me so close I could almost feel her breath as she went behind me, then she stopped back in the same place she started from still with her ears forward.  I was almost in bouncing up and down in excitement by this point! Ok, so it wasn't a canter but it was a taste of my dream and proof that I will get it one day.

So my question is to you, do you notice every baby step or only the big leaps?

Mind your head!

You know when you are having one of those days when everything is going perfect then BAM ... your in A&E and wondering what happened?  Well last Saturday that very thing happened to me. Here's what happened;

Lynne, my good friend and fellow L2 Parelli Student, came over for a playday as we haven't gotten together in ages.  We started the morning playing with our horses online with the plan in mind that we where going to ride after lunch.  The horses where all in great moods and offered us loads, including tackling the very scary Tyre Jump ... 

After a quick lunch and a chat (not quite so quick ;) ) we tacked up and began going though our pre-flight checks.  Bella was being amazing. She was so switched into me it reminded me of the film "AVATAR" when they plug into their dragons and they do everything just from a thought ... now of course i'm not saying that Bella is a dragon ... well not these days anyway, but it was the feeling of that kind of connection.  Every breath, thought, step was in harmony.  


That where is all when wrong!  I was letting Bella graze next to me as a reward for a big try she had just made when something made her jump and she stood on her rope, pulled back sharply and her head collided with mine! 


It was a accident pure and simple. But Owww it hurt! I leant up against a handy barrel and the world started to spin.  After a quick examination of my head and finding a large dent and sharp pain starting to spread in my head I handed Bella, who was standing where I had left her just watching me, to Lynne and mum wizzed me of to A&E. 


I ended up with concussion for a week and a dent that a week and a half on is fading slowly, but will probably always remain as a reminder to keep my head away from hers!

Now, I wanted to share something that blew me away about the partner my horse was that day.  After I was rushed off to the hospital Lynne and my dad put her horse and mums horse away, packed up all the toy, jumps etc and Bella just stood there, stock still where I had left her for a good half hour! It was only when dad decided she wasn't planning on moving and went to 'collect her' did she move.  She wasn't worried or introverted, she was just 'waiting' for me to come back for her!  I have been doing alot of 'leaving' her and going to the tack room, or to move a cone and having her 'stay put' as part of the training for things like Horseagility and it hadn't even crossed my mind to think that as she was tacked up she would think she was meant to wait there!  


Needless to say when I got out of A&E I insisted my fiancee drive me to see her and check that she was ok and tell her what a good partner she was. 

The other thing that was annoying and HUGE breakthrough was that I REALLY wanted to ride that day! If you read my blog on my Ride out course with Terri you will understand why this is so huge!  I put this completely down to that course so thank you again Terri! 

2nd Sept 2010 - It's the small changes that make the big differences

The last few session I have noticed that the back-up part of our Yo-Yo has been getting a bit 'wiggly' and as I was starting to play with Bella tonight I remembered the saying 'slow and right beats fast and wrong', so I decided to abandon the canter circles exercise I was going to work on and get the back-up fixed.  

With this in mind I started to think 'what is causing it to go wiggly?' Is it confidence? I don't want to? Is she preempting the send? I was pretty sure it wasn't 'don't want to' as she had a soft look on her face and was backing from a phase one, so that voided that option.   So was she preempting? I remembered seeing Pat on one of the DVD's, I think it might have been on one of the LHB ones but can't remember, backing his horse out then turn his back to the horse for a while then turn back and when the horse asks a question he asked it in, then he repeated this exercise, sometimes sending on a circle, sometimes not.  I tried this with Bella but after a few tries there was no change. 

So this left me with confidence which lead me to thinking about thresholds.  This time as I backed her out I asked her to go S-L-O-W, almost one foot at a time, and if she started to wiggle I would ask her to stop, draw to me a step or two, stop then slowly back again.  This was when I found the 1st threshold.  At about 8ft she hesitated, just for a second, so I stopped her, drew her in then re-asked her back just 1 step and she lowered her head, snorted and yawned over and over again! Wow!  I left her there till she started to graze then asked her back to me for a rub and a release.  Then I repeated this over and over every time I saw a hesitation, her head lift a bit, an ear flick, even her weight shift wrong, and every time she made a huge sigh and yawned.  

After about 30 mins she was backing straight and rhythmically to about 15ft with no wiggling or hesitation so I decided to leave it there on a good note while she was feeling successful and brought her in for a good scratch followed by some UDT while she grazed. 

I will now make this a pattern for the next 7 sessions with the aim to get her all the way on the 45ft CONFIDENTLY then I will start it again at liberty.

Sat 28th - Sun 29th August - 2* Terri Martinus - Ride out: Open areas and trails

Sat 28th - Sun 29th August - 2* Terri Martinus - Ride out: Open areas and trails
Focus: Preparing on the ground, obstacles, trail riding savvy, open spaces. A fun workshop building to a trail ride out on the South Downs.


This weekend was all about trail riding ….. or should that be ‘it’s not about the trail ride?’

My goals for the weekend:
• More trust and confidence in Bella whilst riding
• Get on sooner than 30/40 mins into the ride (I always walk the 1st bit and eventually want to get it so I can ride out from the yard, but bit by bit)
• Have fun on the trail !


Our adventure actually started months ago leading up to this weekend. I have been spectating Terri’s impulsion clinics and working on them at home with Bella to help prepare her, and for me I have been using them as a form of approach and retreat so that the journey, new environment etc have a 0-level emotional level for me so that we aren’t both out of our comfort zone. This is one of my personal challenges … new places … so by using this allowed me to be a calm leader for her on the day.

The weekend started on Friday evening when we loaded Bella and made the hours drive to Terri’s. This in itself is a big achievement for us as I have been working on her confidence in a trailer after she lost it traveling in the lorry. Over the course of the summer we have gone from a 45 min Plus loading time to just 5 mins and all LB!!! YAY. On arrival we were made to feel welcome as always by Terri & Beth (Barling). Bella was so relaxed she even wanted to roll, but couldn’t quite keep her feet still long enough to do it, but still this is a HUGH change to the horse that I use to ‘kite fly’ for an hour or so when unloading in a new place. With Bella settled in and the trailer parked, I headed home for an early night ready for the 6am start I had the next day.

Saturday kicked off with a theory session and a Carrot Stick Challenge to which I came 2nd to the ever skilled Beth, then a bit more theory then off to play with the horses over obstacles in preparation for riding out. Bella was relatively calm considering a new place and tackled all the obstacles calmly which was great considering she was in a LBE mood this morning and running on adrenalin. As the morning when on she settled more and put in lots of try. We ended the morning session with a 20 min follow the rail to get us in the right place for the afternoon.

This is where I struggled. Bella was doing great, if a little distracted as you would expect. But my emotions where all over the place! I was sinking, no other word for it, and that really annoyed me as we can do it fine at home … by why was it so different here? I was about ready to quit and go home at that point as I obviously couldn’t do it so why bother staying right??? After a good talk and a small cry with Beth over lunch, who as always, came to my rescue and talked with me about comfort zones and not pushing myself to hard (as is my habit), I felt better and was feeling more positive for the afternoon.

The afternoon session started of with Terri doing a really useful simulation with barrels on a slope and using them to learn how to stay on our balance point going up and down hills. Then she talked about understanding and finding ‘edges’ in our confidence levels (Mmm, How interesting as Linda would say). Then she set us a challenge. Could we climb up onto an upright barrel and walk along the top of the round pen?!?! As always with Parelli …. it wasn’t about the task! It was about finding and respecting our edges and seeing what we needed to do to change them. For me this wasn’t a major deal as I used to be a gymnast, but interesting enough I felt I needed a hand to step of the barrel onto the beam (more for balance than fear) but once up there I could walk along with no help and even bow at the end! But it did make me stop and think about how I could take that to my riding in the afternoon.

                         
Whilst everyone else got there horses out, Terri and I went off for a chat about what happened this morning. Terri helped me pin down what EXCATLY was causing my fear and helped me see what I needed to do. Interestingly it was when she said ‘ you have to decided, not now, but at some point, if the goal of riding is worth battling with the fear?’ And it sparked something in me. I am on the whole a RBI by nature, by when challenged by saying I can’t or shouldn’t do something I get very LBI about it and make dam sure that I’m going to do it! NOT of course that Terri’s was suggesting I can’t but she was helping me to see that I could take the pressure off and not if I didn’t want to, which made me want to do it more, funny that isn’t it ;) She also said: “if it was Bella would you punish her for being afraid” – Me “No “, Terri “What about if you where the teacher and it was a student” – Me “Defiantly not” Terri “Then why are you doing it to yourself?“

For the rest of the course we made the plan that we would prepare Bella as best a we could on the ground where I was confident and if and when I wanted to ride I would and if I didn’t I wouldn’t – no pressure.

We went out and joined the others and prepared the horses for the trail ride. Including ‘controlled catastrophe’ with umbrella and raincoats, up and down hills, muddy gates, loose horses, follow-my-leader and walking over a small log, and yes, I even did some of it ridden!!!

We then headed out on a small trail ride. At this point I decided to stay on foot, Bella was doing well but got quite extroverted again when heading out so I decided to keep the confidence I had gained intact. However once we reached the woods she settled down again and I rode her home. She did have a couple of small spooks but on the whole was brilliant and it is hard to believe this is the same horse I have had all my problems with in the past.

We ended the day on that good note and after tucking her up for the night I headed home tired and in need of time to lick and chew a bit.

Sunday - Unfortunately we were 3 riders short today for various personal and horse health reasons but the remaining 4 of us spent about and hour refreshing on preparing the horses and checking what side of the corral they have woken up on that morning.

Bella was in a better mood today and more connected although I did have to push her quite hard online to get rid of some of her emotions so that we could start riding. Terri then had me put her on a figure of 8 pattern around the outside of the pound pens to get us both relaxed and connected in the saddle. One by one the others joined me on the pattern and the horses all soon fell into line and started riding as a herd. Then we headed out.

I had decided with Terri that I would ride to the drive then get off and lead Bella till both of our emotions on the trail where in line. After about 15 mins I felt happy and hopped on and rode the remaining 1hr 40 min ride!!!

We had an amazing ride and Bella acted like a partner the whole way round, even whilst tackling obstacles such as steep hills (up and down), fields of cows, gates, dogs, hikers and a very cute Shetland pony! The only incident we had was when she decided to roll in the long grass whilst I was on her! But she did lay down then waited while I got off before she started to roll! I got her up quick though before any harm could come to my Parelli Western Saddle!!! But at least it shows that she was nice and relaxed!!!!!

By the time we came back we where all smiling and happy, somewhat tired, but everyone had reached their own personal goals and most importantly HAD FUN!!

Remember it's not about the .....  (circled in blue are all the things we meet/covered!)

Terri and her husband presented each of us with a printed out photo at the end of the day, which is a wonderful memento and memory of an emotional but amazing weekend. Thank you Terri ☺

August 2010

12^th - Proof it works ... I was playing with Bella tonight when a stranger walks past the field, stops,  then turns to the person with him and says 'don't they look like their having fun! And that horse clearly loves her, just look at the way it's looking at her!' :) 

 

To top that off I had a fantastic Bareback ride on Bella. For a horse who was refusing to move a month or so ago to one that was offering trot and canter! HUGE!! Yiiippeeeeeee!

14th

 - Terri Martinus Clinic - Level 3: Freestyle patterns - Spectating

Focus: Introducing/building on Level 3 patterns, riding with two carrot sticks, obstacles.

21st – 1^st time stick to me in canter!

16th – I’ve Passed my l2 Freestyle!

Hear back today that we have passed our Level 2 freestyle!


This means I now get my Blue string!!!! YES!!!!

JULY 2010

4^th July – Play day Di’s -  So proud of Bella today. Lots of 1^st,  Here are some pic’s of just a few of them

 

11th July - Festival of the Horse (Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire).  Will expand this but WOW!!!!!!!!!!!

17^th -  Another great online and Liberty session with Bella  

19^th  Filmed my L2 Freestyle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H-52ZKsK_Y

24th Terri Martinus workshop -  Advancing Level 2 freestyle: Impulsions and patterns - Spectating

Focus: Level 2 freestyle, advancing the patterns, larger areas, carrot stick riding, obstacles.

JUNE 2010

10th June – Lesson with Terri – Worked on ridden and online impulsion and dealing with Bella’s Crabbiness and dominance when asked to trot. Will expand this later.

12th June - INTRODUCING PRINCE
Prince Is My mums new (1st !!!) horse. He is a 14.3hh 6 year old Black heavy weight Irish Cob Gelding. Will do a proper post on him later.

15th – Rode Dougal Bare Back in round pen – was amazed with how long it took him to relax. And stop. No I mean really STOP! It made me realize how long I was keeping my energy focused and not REALLY stopping when I asked him to stop.

19th – Rode Bella, she was really good, worked on clover leaf pattern walk and trot. Had to shut her down twice, she has learnt to try and bite my foot when I do it to try and out focus me! Cheeky pony!

20th – Lynne and Liqurish came over to play. We had another go at filming her L2 online.

21st – Claire Hollywell is back again for a while – confidence lesson on Dougal, walk only

232nd – Rode Bella in bareback pad for the 1st time. She was really good. 2nd lesson with Claire, she almost fell off when Dougal half fell over but didn’t! AND SHE STAYED ON!!! And continued walking! Sooooo proud of her ☺

23rd – Helped Clare with Dougal – made her be a little bit more ‘focused and not let Dougal out focus her and stop or wonder off the rail. I then rode Dougal barefoot(me not him)! Great for realizing how often my feet touch his sides, whether I mean them to or not!

24th - Claire rode Dougal in the lane!!!!!!! I did Figures of 8 on 45ft line with Bella, love watching her think her way through the puzzle and all the different things she tries. It took her 15 mins to finishing processing!! Wow


26th – Workshop at Terri’s – spectating

Yet again Terri provided an interesting and thought provoking workshop – as if there was ever any doubt! This one was lucky enough to be blessed with hot sunshine, which made a nice change from the rain, snow and cold winds of the winter ones. But enough about the weather, lets get to the important stuff – the horses!

Todays clinic was working around the concept of Level 2 freestyle: Impulsions and patterns - Level 2 patterns in the arena and larger areas, building go=whoa, carrot stick riding. The morning was spent mainly in the classroom and doing simulation, followed by an online session. The afternoon started again with a simulation, a little online to prepare the horses to be ridden ad the onto riding patterns


27th - Rode on the beach with Claire!!! ! Had an amazing ride on the beach with Bella, who was a star and is Soooo proud of Claire for riding Dougal on the beach.