Excellent lesson

With Becky Holden who's top notch and recently been training with Philippe Karl.  Pricey but worth it.

We were going to warm up in trit but we went trot spook  - there was a man on the stable roof he spotted before we did! So warm up in walk whilst he calmed down and the man did his thing mending holes

So working on bend without turning, counter shoulder in rather than shoulder in, don't let him get above the hand. 

Stirrups went up a hole fir trot and will stay up.  I was reaching too much so no wonder that wasn't working!

And was a shade too upright.

Betterby the end as were downward  transitions generally

All good

And we stayed dry which was amazing considering the rainstorm we'd had whilst I was waiting for Becky to arrive

Carrot stretches

The original thought had been in hand work but the feel temp caused by not a strong breeze was nithering. Wouldn't have been bad in daylight but after dark not good.

So I thought what can I do in stable.?

Answer - carrot stretches

He used not to be able to do these especially to the right without moving his body.

Now? Can do them bilaterally without moving the body. Three each way.

So whatever we're doing we're doing it right

:-)

a packed afternoon...

but not with horsey stuff, as it goes

Had a rotten cold all week, so yesterday, my weekend day, only did 5 minutes in hand before i started spluttering again

however, noticed that the big bale we got delivered thursday seemed to be going off.  got enough good off for last night but.....

when we went today (plan had been that we'd try and rescue what we could) it was unrescueable, really. didn't trust any of it, due to mould, so not worth the risk.

so, trip to shop other side of durham for a small bale

chap who brings the large will come tomorrow and replace

however, on trying to leave the yard on our single track road, i was polite and gave way to someone coming the other way in a 4 x 4 - i don't know why (she said, why did you do that?) save for politeness - but at that spot the passing place is on a slight incline, and it was wetter than normal - car gently slid down and to the left and i had to be towed out backwards by the 4 x 4 lady! doh!  happily she had a rope in the back of the truck....

then time we got back, G's hangover from last night was really catching up with her, so no work for M (this was after we'd wrapped the old rotten bale up with two lungelines)

course i was coughing well by this time, the spores really getting to me, so defo did the right thing not feeding to M.

leaky stable roof

reported last week, chased up today ... we can tell, due to the 3 barrow loads of wet that comes out after the overnight rain.  hopefully it gets looked at and mended soon.....

in the meantime, both G & I have some bug or other (probably different ones!) and it keeps raining ...happily not all the time, but enough to be tedious.

a sunny sunny day

but it was cold!

happily got well warmed up netting up all that remained of the big bale of haylage i bought just before christmas, new bale thursday, then bedding up etc.

then it took forever to get the mud off the boy!

good short ride; he was listening again, and we got lots of good stretching down - it is soooo disconcerting when he wants to do that in trot!  but it's was we want at the moment so part of the work is my getting myself brave enough for that, LOL.

only 20 minutes, but 20 minutes well spent - especialy when i consider the time i've wasted over the last year/18 months!

the weeks' a dud....

roll on the weekend!

supposed to stay dry, if cold (not as cold as the states, thank goodness!) so hopefully get something done tomorrow.

TBF i could have done something tonight, but it's friday, he was covered in mud (he's not now) and by friday in the dark i only want to be home again....

a ride between showers

was yesterday.  was amazed i managed to get a dry spell; when i got there it started raining, and i wasn't sure whether it was going to stop or get really heavy. happily, it stopped, so i got 1/2 hour in, nice work, with some trot.  and we can see it's starting to stay lighter longer, can almost look forward to it being light when i get there after work and light when i turn up first thing in the morning!

the year of the horse

is getting off to a slow start.

poor gaynor is poorly with a very bad cold, so yesterday, which was her day, ended up a washout - time i knew that she wasn't fit enough to ride (i'd already done morning turnout) it was pouring... and it poured, and poured, and poured.....

today, of course, back to work after the holiday, and it was raining again when i left the office. it continued raining whilst i got the mud off the boy, and fed him.. then stopped....

but, it is starting to be noticeably lighter in the morning, so that's a positive!