THANK GOD! For the .................

WEEKEND!!!!!
WOOHOO!!! I rode! Only hacking mind as the field was unsuitable for schooling, saturday to frozen and sunday too wet! Sounds like a line out of Goldilocks and the three bears! Im waiting for 'JUST RIGHT'
Went hacking with Amy and Barney on Saturday and had a play with dong a bit of lateral work along the lanes hehehehe!!! Trouble is I forgot exactly the combination of what we did in the lesson (hence the late post) so I ended up doing SI to travers and Counter shoulder in to Renvers lol!! Still, although not quite what we did, I actually had a lightbulb moment with Renvers out off Counter Shoulder In :-) I did actually find the positioning for renvers easier out of counter SI as I already had the bend and just had to change the angle. I did this by re-positioning my hips to face the 'inside', held the 1/4's in position with the inside leg behind the girth and then asked the forehand to come off the track. Does this sound OK? Im finding it hard to explain?!?!? Well, at least I have got it in my head the positioning of renver which I was having a bit of a mental block with! I actually tried some passade to Renvers succesfully! I tried doing this a while back but realised I was taking the passade round to far and doing counter SI instead!! Ive not tried since as my mind couldnt seeem to grasp renvers at all!

Antsje is in season :rolls eyes: and on Saturday she had her real obstinate head on, and was very resistant to putting her ‘HEAD DOWN’ This is always a BIG sign of her being ‘not with me’ both on the ground and ridden. I swear to god you could hang off her head and she still wouldn’t put it down if you tried!! What a madam! So I did some ‘Head Down’ Exercises which helped but she wasn’t really ‘with me’ 100% - as soon as I released the pressure within seconds up she popped again Grrrrrr!!

Anyhow, time being of the essence, I got on and off we went. One thing I noticed that without very much arguing or effort at all, the lateral suppling exercises softened her whole body and mind :-) In fact in the end, we were able to trot with left bend – then straight – then right bend with NO resistance and just from the seat. Was lovely :-) And when I got back, the head down was breeze – no resistance whatso-ever, I could just move her head wherever and she complied willingly. Isnt suppling work a wonderful thing?!?! Im hoping it will be just as effective when schooling proper!

On Sunday morning my friend Helen came to visit - was GREAT to see her (((HUGS)) In the afternoon I hacked out Antsje on my own – which I LOVED!! I haven’t done this now for months and it was just a lovely hour spent with my horse. Again we practised some of the lateral movements and used the stretching into the contact to make a nice transition into trot! We don’t seem to get quite so sticky out on hacks – whether this is because Antsje is naturally more forward on a hack or whether its because I’m more relaxed and care free about it (guess which one lol!) Im not sure, but we seem to flow better.

Again, the work had really relaxed her up mentally and she was nice and ‘soft’ when we got back home :-D

We have a new horse at the yard – a 16.2 TB, which I had a little, ride on Saturday. Does make me realise how BIG Antsje moves – although this horse is bigger than Antsje she was FAR easier to ride and to keep in balance with! Antsje will train me to ride ANY horse I think!