So Friday was our first day with Gabi and Thomas back.
In the morning it rained and then the mule (electic mini truck) ran out of battery so we didn't do the Kakka force in the paddock paradise. instead we scrubbed the feed buckets and made lunch for everyone.
after lunch Gabbi asked us to film a ten minute audition of us doing something with our horses. i decided to work on my yo-yo as it has been bothering me for some time and had the brain wave of backing him into the hula hoop. Paris went very introverted which i read as RBI. i had had a conversation with Sanna about her horse not asking questions and i realised i had the same issue. i was waiting for Paris to lick and chew but it wasn't really happening and we ended up with 12 minutes of me standing and paris standing and nothing much happening at all!
On Saturday we had to do two days worth of Kakka force and all of the Sunday tasks because we had asked to have a sleeping morning on sunday morning as we were going to a party saturday night. In the afternoon we filmed another audition and this time i chose to show my liberty. Paris went through the motions a bit then buggered off, headed in the wrong direction... it just all felt like a disaster!
Gabi then asked us to get a youngster each and begin playing online. i was feeling a bit rubbish after my session with Paris and doubting myself and second guessing everything i did. i played with Romeo, with a focus on building his coordination and canter leads. he was picking up the correct lead really well and even gave me a flying change but he was oddly lame in trot!!
after playing with the horses we watched the first set of auditions and it was interesting to see how LBI Paris was actually behaving and that he was asking questions but i was not noticing because he did it sooo quick! one it was pointed out it got me thinking about my liberty session and what i should have done differently!
it was clear from the auditions that many of us had difficulties with our draw and Gabi promised to show us an excercise to help.
After watching the auditions we rushed back to the house to get washed and changed ready to go out to a local french countryside party. I didn't really know what to expect so i wore the dress my sister bought me and some high heels.
When we got to the party it was more like a fun fair with fireworks, disco and singers! Everything was very french complete with giant chicken! we had a great time dancing and drinking wine and crawled home at 3 in the morning!
Sunday morning was the glorious long awaited sleeping morning! in the afternoon we had a lesson with Gabi who showed us three exercises, one for improving draw, one for improving front end yeilds and one for getting the horse to go into the bit. the first excercise entailed using belly button focus on a yoyo game along the fence (which i gloriously crashed into as i ran beckwards). Next we worked on driving th forequarter whilst standing in zone four building up to walk pirouettes. finally we played with applying bit pressure from the ground until the horse would push down onto it.
I have been practicing these exercises for the last few days and it is definately improving things. Paris has been rather bored previously and this is now much more interesting for him! today i also worked on my send and having a different cue for when i wanted him to leave in trot or canter. he has also been pushing the ball and building to him being able to bring the ball to me.
Yesterday i went on a trail ride with Anna. She rode Quasi, one of the youngsters and i rode Bogus, the amazing horse of 2* Parelli Professional. it was brilliant to ride a horse that i knew was able to be hacked out in nothing but a neck string!
I have also been riding Paris bareback from the arena to the paddock - and jumping on from a low log!
Tomorrow I'm up at 5 am to let the horses into their pastures!
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