Storms and rainbows

This week was my fifth week here and just as exciting as the rest!

After last weeks relationship difficulties with Paris I was over the moon when we had a play session in the play ground. i just played online, dropped my plans and concentrated on having fun like we used to do, soon Paris was having such a great time and when i drew him in from the circle game he cantered almost all the way too me! i then rode him. my idea was to get the relaxed canter Marie-Claire had been helping me with by giving him a big follow the rail so he had space to find the answer. despite having played online all over the playground Paris did not want to move away from the gate when i was mounted so i trotted him to the far corner and rested there for ages, letting him eat grass. we did this as a corners game for a while and it wasn't long before Paris wanted to head for the corners. so when i wanted to follow the rail i just focused on the next corner and just before he would start preparing to stop in the corner i swiched focus to the next corner and within minutes we were cantering the follow the rail! it was brilliant and i really felt like i had caused my idea to be my horses idea!! they next day i returned to the playground and we had a fun warm up online - Paris even jumped the masive log pile that is not meant to be a jump - it is easily a 6 foot spread! he made it look easy like a cross country horse! when i rode him he was happy to go straight to the follow the rail pattern at a lovely canter but when we headed up the third side of the field, which was up hill, he put on a lick of speed and so i said "good idea go faster and for longer!" soon he was wanting to slow down and we did a while lap of the feild at a relaxed canter and then i focused on a corner and he came to a smooth halt from canter (through trot) with just my seat aids! i was so happy i leapt off him and did the silent victory dance! I have tried to keep our playfulness in the arena too. the other day i put the tarpaulin on him and he was so calm that i thought i'd see if he was calm with it when he was walking. he was so i took my savvy string and tied the tarm together in front of his chest so he wore it as a cape and then i played circling game in walk, trot, canter and even over a jump! it was so cool to see how well he coped with it. this is a million times improved from the horse that would freeze when you put a rug on and freak if you slid it off his hind quarters.

After all of my fun days playing with Paris as his usual extroverted self it was a bit of a bummer for me to play with him yesterday and find he was back to being introverted. i kept things slow and soft online and then saddled him and decided to not touch the reins as much as possible. i asked Paris for the rein isolations (direct and indirect rein) without using the reins and was so shocked when he did them! at one point i must have been slightly wrong when i asked for indirect rein near a pole as Paris sidepassed over it instead! i was so proud of him and decided to ride a bullseye pattern at the trot to see how much i could do wothout reins. Paris did need a couple of corrections with the reins at first but it was not long before he trotted a perfect circle and then turned in and halted all from my seat cues with no reins!

Today everything was not as it should normally be. last night we had a massive storm. i woke in the night as the lightning lit the room as if someone ad the light on and it stayed lit for ages. then a roaring roll of thunder started and build up like a low flying air craft except that it lasted a long time. i felt the urge to run out and check Paris but we had had storms here nd i knew there was nothing i could do so i went back to sleep. Soon there was a knock on the door. it was Marie-Claire, the storm had scared the youngsters and they had gone through some fences and two needed to go to the vet. we were meant to be on our sleeping morning however we all got up, dressed and quickly ate something before rushing out to check if our horses were ok and then head to the stables. Paris and Rox were a little nervous and jittery but i could see no sign of physical injury. it turns out that the youngsters ran through every fence, smashed 7 wooden post and pulled out miles of electric tape wire. I teamed up with Anna and we fed the horses and performed kaka force. after we had cleared out the forests we helped muck out the stables and cleaned th food buckets. Sanne and Elvira spent the day cleaning wounds and applying bandages. by the evening when it was time to play with our horses we were all feeling physically, mentally and emotionally drained. Anna, Elvira and I teamed up for a "Can You...?" game session which was a lot of fun. it gave me the idea to ask Paris to jump a single tiny barrel - which he did! we then made a kind of living round corale (we used a corner of the arena and used a block to mark the oppsite corner of our square round corale. Anna and Elvira each manned one side and i played with Paris at liberty. when he ran off the others put pressure on him so i became the sweet spot. it wasn't long before i went from abismally poor and no connection to having him engaged, connected, doing stick to me at walk trot canter halt back up! it was a lot of fun.

this week i have also played with Riva and Tauria again. Tauria is so smart she worked out her first ever figure eight much quicker than Riva did.   they have both proven to so calm and left brained out on trail rides. Riva struggles to maintain gait on line so i am trying different techniques to make it a game as much as possible. yesterday i could not make my mind up whether to play with Riva or Tauria so i decided to go to the youngsters and see which one picked me first. Tauria came over straight away! i gave her a carrot and soon Riva was there also so i gave her some carrot too before taking Tauria for a play session. i gave them both a day off today after the storm disaster. Riva had actually jumped out onto the road and has nasty scratched all over her chest and shoulder. one nasty scrape is in her girth area so i will not be able to ride her for a while. i don't mind because her riding is better than he online which really needs to be imprived. i did spend some undemanding time with Tauria in the remains of the paddock paradise. i was looking up at the moody clouds when i spotted a rainbow. they always cheer me up and i took it as a sign that tomorrow will be a good day!

tomorrow we are planning to go on a 10 km trail ride with our own horses to a restaurant for lunch. i'm hoping it will be an uneventful ride!

Tauria!

Another amazing week has disappeared!

Marie-Claire returned from her surgery on Saturday and sha gave me and the other working students a lesson with our horses. she rode Origon, and was brilliant at spotting the holes in our playing. I used some Karen Rholf stretching excercises with Paris before i rode him to continue playing with the quality of our transitions. Paris was starting to fall asleep everytime we halted so i threw in a canter around the arena. i was so happy that my posture felt really good and my bum was glued to the saddle then Marie-Claire called me over. She said Paris was cantering "bad banana" and that the only way i could sit it was by pushing his back down more and so she wanted me to do a canter in the standing position. we took off around the arena and Marie-Claire got me to rub him whenever he started to lift his back and encourage him to relax. it was a very interesting excercise and she agreed that a theraflex pad is a very good idea for Paris.

i then played with Riva. we have made good progress, she is circling better and much more respectful. i trotted her around the arena and it was the most beautiful trot, like floating on air! on Monday we decided to take the big youngsters for a trail ride and Riva coped very well. at one point the other horses spooked but she just flicked her ears in the direction the others were looking! i played leap frog with Elvira who was riding Quasi. We took turns to trot past each other and then we would halt, back up and continue for a while before trotting past each other again. it was a brilliant game for keeping the horses tuned into us and not the hind end of the horse in front. Riva backed up from my seat aid and she really got her hind quarters underneath her and did the best backup i have ever ridden! it was amazing to me to feel how good it could be even with a young green horse! I was meant to play with Riva on Wednesday but the heavens opened up and we had an almighty storm. i was in the paddock paradise and Riva was pretending not to exist, hiding with her head under a haynet. i just mirrored her in the pouring rain until she showed interest and touche me then i walked off and left her. the next day i went into the paddock paradise to play with Tauria and Riva came straight over and followed me all the way to the gate. over 500m away! she has come to me everytime i have been near the youngsters ever since!

Tuesday was my first play session with Tauria. she was originally started by Anna de Winter over a year ago but didn't get too far in her education. Gabi has been playing with her and put a few rides on her in the last couple of weeks and has offered her to me as my little youngster to put trail rides on. The plan was get to know the horse, play online, saddle, mount and do a "follow the rail trail ride". Tauria is a very smart left brained four year old and has managed to learn to pull against the halter. i played a lot with procupine game from her head, back up by the nose, wrapping the rope around her and getting her to start following the feel. She did really well but we hit a point where when i asked for canter on the right lead she would leap in the air bucking and bronking. i just ran with her, holding the rope and kept asking for forward until she game me some nice canter strides. i then made a game of putting a sweet spot for halting on the circle so when i asked for canter she was thinking about getting to the stopping place rather than taking off all over the arena! it went really well and i really got to practice persistence in the proper position! she has a lot of Riva's qualities although they are from very different mares. Riva is the daughter of Bahia the lead mare in Marie-Claire's breeding herd. Tauria is from Miss Blue who was the spookiest of the broodmares. Yesterday was my second play session with Tauria who was already much better with her porcupine game but did still test me. at one point i asked her for canter and she turned out bucking towards me with such vigour that she got her hind leg over the rope and scared herself, i went with her but had to drop the rope before the situation escalated ads she was going right brained. she immediately calmed back to left brain and i asked for the canter again. she didn't bronc again but i think it was a combination of she had scared herself and i had become firmer about her head was not going out of the circle. soon she was ready to tack up. i took time to saddle exactly as Pat teaches, wwarmed her up a little more - she was not bothered by the saddle, girth, stirrups, so i prepared to mount. we spent a long while at the mounting block because she would not stand still at first. finally i was able to mount and i gave her a few minutes of sitting still before testing the rein positions. she did really well. once we strarted walking around the arena i tested the steering - there's plenty of room for improvement but there's some steering! before i knew it we were trotting around the arena. she was much more introverted once i was on board than when i was on the ground. Gabi asked me to get her to trot from phase two, which i got quite quickly so Gabi asked me to get trot from phase one! we did! we maintained the trot for a whole circuit of "follow the rail" following Gabi who was riding Quimrahil. i am so over the moon with Tauria! she also gave me a full lap of canter on the 22 ft line, nicely and in balance! she is extremely talented!

Paris has been fascinating me although at times the line had blurred with fascination! after our leson with Marie-Claire i spent undemanding time with Paris in his pasture. our next lesson i was working on walk pirouettes online from zone 5. Marie-Claire gave me some pointers to really get it good from zone 3 and also to improve driving from zone 3. we were trying to get Paris interested in what we were doing but he would not ask me questions, or Marie-Claire. i'm having so much fun with Riva and Tauria who ask me questions constantly but Paris just seems to be there in body but not in spirit, just going through the motions! that felt horrible. the next day i spent some undemanding time with him. i was brushing him all over (found a new big bald patch on his withers and a small cut on his fetlock) then haltered him and took him for point to points btween shady patches of clover. i was really excited the next day to see whether there would be any difference in Paris and there was - he wouldn't come to me at all! Joke and I spent two hours trying to get into our hores brains in an advanced catching game but it didn't work, we still ended up resorting to the low level catching game where we went 95% of the way to the horses and they only closed the final 5% for some carrots. we have decided that we only feed them and spend UDT near the hayrack so we can make it into a sweet spot and get them to come when we whislte. When i turned up and whislted yesterday both Paris and Rox turned and walked the other way. i was devestated and almost burst into tears! later that evening i turned up with the feed buckets and whislted and they slowly came over. i ignored Paris until i was about to leave when i asked him for a "kiss" and gave him a peice of carrot turned and left. i'm happy to keep doing this until he starts to get more enthusiastic and in the mean time i can focus on Tauria and Riva.

Unfortunatly our little herd was starting to get bite marks and minor injuries again. Also Kalhua was blocking our horses from coming down the corridor. his behaviour is quite confusing swinging from dominance to fear and we don't know why the biting started again. my own theory is that Kalhua was not so confident in the new environment but now he is finding his feet he is testing to hierarchy again. unfortunatly we can't risk any more injuries! so we made the decision to put Kalhua back in the paddock next to our horses. Anna will be back on Monday and we'll be able to come up with a better, hopefully more savvy, approach to sort the situation.

It was Marie-Claire's birthday on Wednesday and we had a barbeque to celebrate. it was a lot of fun, we had a big table outside and Origan was walking around the table asking for scratches! it is such an wondeful place to be with horses freely roaming around at parties!

Riva!

The last week has flown by and so much has happened I probably won't remember it all so here goes...

I have ridden Sirius on the youngster trail rides a few more times and each time we are getting better as a partnership. This week I also went for a couple of trail rides with Paris - it was fantastic enjoying this beautiful scenery with the horse I know and love. I even went for a canter with him on a loose rein (never could without it being a gallop) and he was listening to my seat and slowing down when i asked!

I was just developing a plan to play with Romeo with a view to helping him with his coordination so he could reach level 4 (I had been asked to get him to level three but he's basically there! atleast online). I never got to ride Romeo or play with him again because... I was given a different project horse! Riva!! She is the most beautiful of Marie-Claire's youngsters. She was originally sold to a professional and put in foal. she had a very basic training and had been trail ridden but this was interrupted when her hooves became really bad with absesses. She came back to the Plessis whilst I was on my 10 day trial in January and her hooves have been rehabilitated to a point where she can now go back into her education.

I played with Riva on Tuesday and discovered she had forgotten everything except the yoyo game! her porcupine game was awful and her circle game basically not existant (she would run to the end of the rope hit it and turn and face).

i gave her the puzzle of straddling the pole lengthways and she worked it out quite quickly. i have played with her everyday and she has remembered her procupine and driving games and we are playing with her circle game - she seems mostly left brain extrovert and enjoys getting into a confrontation but she is sweet natured enough that i simply need to be more persistant and intent than she is. today was our fourth session and we got several laps of a calm trot on the circle game and a lap of canter without broncing! i then mounted her and we walked a follow the rail after testing her lateral flexion (which is excellent), her direct and indirect rein positions. she was so much better than my first ride on her yesterday when she kept turning around and felt like a coiled spring. today she was relaxed, following the rail and my aids beautifully and responsive to my slightest aids. i felt that i could ask her for a trot but as i had to cook i decided to end on the good note we were on rather than gamble for a trot and risk not ending on a good point.

we have had a busy week with going out for meals, and eating dinners together - wednesday night we went to a lakeside restaurant with Piet (Marie-Claire's husband) and after a beutiful meal i was presented with two prunes in a small galss of some kind of brandy. i really do not like alcohol like this and i don't like prunes but i managed to eat one (eventually) and much joy was had by the others when they watched the expresions i pulled as i ate it.

tonight we ate cow tongue and I actually enjoyed it but i probablt won't pick it for Christmas dinner!

Paris' back is healed so i can ride him again. as well as taking him for trail rides i have played a lot on my goals for the week - trailer loading from a distance, flying changes online, and freestyle transitions.

Gabi soon helped my identify that to get the flying changes i need a canter draw and gave me an exercise on the circle game where i draw him at the canter until he really gets it. with my transitions i started with my walk to halt transition and then Gabi asked me how my back up from my seat was. it was non-existent so she had me walk to a marker and ask Paris to halt with my seat first and then back up from my seat building to wiggling my "cheeks" knees then legs until he moved. Paris did get lighter but oddly he got lighter with the upward transition quicker than the downward - i guess to him it was holding him back so he wanted to go forward even more! Gabi told me i must go atleast three steps back every time i halt so he starts thinking od the back up which will improve his halt. today i didn't ride him but as i lead him to the arena i kept stopping and walking backwards so he could continue with the theme. today i also played with the trailer. i had Paris cantering circles and then i would point and focus on the trailer and if he ran between me and the trailer i tagged the space but if he paid any attention to the trailer i did nothing - zero pressure! soon he had loaded himself three times and on the final time i really felt him make the left brained decision that the trailer was the place for comfort!

it has been really hot for a couple of days this week so we took the horses for a swim in the lake. Paris had gone in online so i decided to ride him there bareback. Paris was the first horse into the water and waded in until the water was up above his belly and my legs were in the water. Paris started kicking the water all over the place and i got soaked!

The student house is full at the moment. Jannick is nearing the end of her hree week stay and Jara is near the end of her second week. Elvira is here now too. The atmosphere is so friendly and full of banter and energy! tonight i was walking the horses back at 9 pm and i thought "technically this is part of the work but it doesn't feel like work!" what a lovely way to spend the evening - taking a lovely horse for a walk in beautiful scenery as the sun begins to set!

oh and i think i'm starting to lose a little weight and tone up - i'm certainly aching as my muscles have done more than they have ever done! and from tomorrow i should have a third horse - Tauria!

Integration and education!!

Joke was back to work with us on Tuesday. The two Dutch girls cleared out the student Forest, Jannick was on stable duties and I prepared the feed buckets and went on feeding tour with Sanne. At Lunch Gabi explained how they have set up some patterns and obstacles in one of the large farm fields that has been harvested already. she was on her sleeping day and so not planning to give structured lessons but would be in the field with her horse so we were welcome to join her if we wanted her to be around. i decided it was a good oppertunity to practice playing some more on my 45ft line and work on the sideways game and yoyo that had not gone so great at the Fast Track. i ended up not doing as much as i'd hoped because the flies were terrible - massive horseflies the size of bumblebees were attacking Paris even with fly repellant on. they didn't bite him but he was being very distracted by them and i felt that i could not be fair to him and get his attention so we spent quite a bit of time standing with me using the carrotstick and savvy string to try to swat the flies away from him - a great friendly game!

Wednesday was Gabi, Thomas and Jannick's sleeping day. We got our work done, plus and hour's weed picking in the morning and after lunch we got the youngsters for a trail ride. again i was to ride Sirius and learn what lessons he has to teach me. I warmed him up and also added some carrots because i have been feeling like it has been all "Respect, Respect, Respect!" with me and Sirius and I also want some rapport. he is so left brained after all. he was pretty interested and in tune when i was on the ground and when i mounted and rode him in the arena he was a little difficult to steer but he was not running off. once he was steering better we all headed out for the trail ride. As I had not wanted to canter on the homeward stretch on our previous ride Sanne suggested we get some more canter in earlier on the ride. We rode out into the open field and went for a long trot. Sirius was so chilled that he was lagging behind and at one point stopped to try to eat some grass. the gap between the other horses was getting bigger and bigger but i was happy for him to keep in trot. inevitably though he decided the gap was too big and went into a canter with his characteristic buck and then full throttle gallop. i had a hard time to stop him and he overshot the others before i could bend him to a halt. he cantered off like this again and i was trying to work out what i needed to do. Sanne asked whever he flet more like the first or second ride - i said the first! there was an argumentative quality to our riding again. Sanne was concerned and asked what i wanted to do "Ride in the lead!" i suddenly said! it had occured to me that when he was following the others, even though that's what i wanted him to do, he was not feeling my leadership. we went for a long walk through the forest with paths that were so overgrown they were barely paths anymore. we had a couple of long trots along the open stretches before heading home. we sang songs and had fun picking different disney songs and i would sing in English with Joke whilst Sanne sang the Dutch version! by the end of the ride i was so happy and relaxed and Sirius seemed the same! i realised that time to relax was something that i also needed ... hmm how interesting, i'm an RBI and I need TIME...

once back at the Plessis we unsaddled and let the horses loose for a roll. i fed Sirius and prepared some of the evening tasks before we took the youngsters back and fetched our own horses to play again in the large field. Joke showed me a quick way to the field but it meant that i could not pick up my longer ropes so i ended up in a massive field ona 12 ft line! we were in the field before the others and the mule with all the equipment so we spent undemanding time grazing. when the mule arrived i checked but no one had picked up my long ropes (it was a long shot) so i decided to test my progress since level one and see how a few simple exercises on the 12 ft would go. my porcupine and driving games were unrecognisable from the old days and i decided to test my figure eight. on the fast track Paris was trotting figure eights in the 22ft line with no more than me using my rope hand and eyes. i was very pleased when Paris offered me the same quality figure eight but even smaller with just the 12ft! i then moved the barels together to form a jump which Paris popped over as if jumping had never been a problem ( two years ago, when i first asked im to jump a barrel he had actually smashed into the fence in his attempts to avoid it, he had gotten so right brained!). so i took one of the barrels away and asked Paris to jump the single barrel, which he did! consistently! as if he jumps single barrles out in the open all the time! i was so pleased with him that i gave him a break and then decided to play with him being able to stretch by using some of the Karen Rohlf exercises i have watched the others use. i kept it simple and rewarded him as soon as he relaxed and stretched. Jannick had played with her horse already and so had come out to the field with her camera to take pictures and got some great shots of Paris jumping the single barrel.

Also, on Wednesday morning, whilst we were weedpicking the fields that our horses use Joke suggested we open the gate that seprated Kalhua from Paris and Rox. we opened the gate and Paris and Rox ran into Kalhua's field and they all cantered around. Paris ran straight to Kalhua who did playful rears and ran around with him. Paris and Rox suddenly felt the wind beneath their feet and turned and galloped falt out of the field and down the corridor around the resting middle field. Kalhua stopped where the gate had been as if he could not possibly get through. we continued weeding and watched Kalhua approach the gate and retreat, slowly retreating less and less.

Joke then suggested that if Kalhua was not through the gate before we had to go to lunch that we should close it as we wanted to supervise their initial interactions.

when i went to close the gate Kalhua walked through so i walked back and closed the gate to the corridor so we could re-open it when we got back.

that night, after returning from the play field we opened the gate. Paris and Rox grazed with Kalhua peacefully but when ever they went down the corridor he would not foollow. we decided to leave his field open so he could get water if he was too afraid to go down the corridor. by the following morning Kalhua was standing in the main yard, Paris was standing in the closed off middle field (he must have jumped the low fence!) and Rox was happily grazing at the other end of the fields.

Yesterday was Elvera's first day so she went shopping with Gabi. She is another Dutch person so I am currently the only person who doesn't speak dutch in the house until Anna comes back. Her pony looks like a Wesh section A crossed with an exmore pony! it is very cool but keeps ducking under the fences and escaping!! We had another play session with our horses out in the big field. this time i put a lot of fly repellant on Paris and used the 45ft line. he cantered a figure eight with a flying change! we did some more Karen Rohlf exercise and he jumped the single barrel again.

I am now enjoying my sleeping day - caught up on some much needed rest and giving my back a bit more healing time as it worked hard this week despite not having fully recovered from the fall! i'm thinking i might just hang out with Paris and not be too demanding with him today as he needs to have a rest occasionally. Sanne has been asked to do a theory lesson on the 8 responsibilities today and is using my PNH book. it should be an intersting session!

I'll probably be doing a youngser trail ride tomorrow with Sirius. I'm off to enjoy the rest of my relaxing morning!

herds, healing, hands and hooves!

Saturday I was back to work as usual but the first task of the day was moving the horses. fortunately i have healed well and was just getting twinges in my back but my left arm was still a bit weaker than usual.

Paris has been living in a forest pasture with Kaluwa but that was only ever meant to be temporary until Paris was intergrated into a herd. As Sanne and Anna have all only recently arrived with their horses, all the student horses are not yet settled into a steady herd.

So Saturday morning I went with Anna to fetch Paris and Kaluwa and we lead them both to Dino's Place. Sanne was there waiting with her mare, Tasha, who had been staying at Dino's Place (Dino works for Marie-Claire and lives in a house on the Plessis. the barn and paddocks near his house are known as Dino's Place) with Joke's horse Rox. Tasha and Rox had formed a strong attachment and would get upset whenever they were seperated so we did not want to leave one alone at all. Sanne took Tasha to the feild next to Marie-Claire's old brood mares to spend a few days with Killiwatch (MC's old school pony) whilst the herd got to know her. Rox immediately started pacing the fence and completely ignored Paris after their initial sniff. Anna took Kaluwa up to his pasture which is next to Paris' and Rox's field (Anna built the fence on Friday and i helped a bit). Paris simply started following Rox around so I started to open the gates of the corridor so that Paris and Rox could go into the field next to Kaluwa. Rox began running around and was too right braing to notice the new path to i haltered him and lead him up the path and then i took his halter off and drove him into the field. Paris followed.

once we had decided that they were getting along we got on with our work. Sanne was worried because Killiwatch was just standing at one end of the field near his freinds and Tasha was running up and down the other end of the field trying to work out how to get back to Rox. she did some online work to help Tasha find comfort in the shade near Killi but Tasha was pretty right brained for the whole day.

we had another Game of Contact lesson in the afternoon. this time I put a polypad, theraflex and bareback pad on Paris so that I could sit on Paris and start teaching stage one - reins mean go! it was a difficult excercise as my hands are conditioned to close slowly open quickly and release when he gives not when he takes! at the end of the session i felt that he had thought forward and moved a step forward from the pressure of the bit so i leapt off and gave him lots of carrots. before the riding session we had done lots of rein and contact simulations as well as seat building exercises.

I was about to help Anna clear the poop from the forest paddock our horses had been in when Thomas said Gabi was available to do Paris' hooves. We discussed his feet which were a little long in the horn causing them to flare and a little thin in the sole predisposing him to sensitivity. they did say he had good frogs though! his hoof balance wasn't bad, mainly his breakover needed to come back a bit. we brought the hoof wall down with a mustang roll and decided to use hoof boots whilst his sole adjusted to deal with the new workload. I put the boots on him and took him back to the paddock and then went and helped Anna do some poop picking for a little while.

On Sunday tension was high. Anna was preparing to leave for three weeks to work for her freinds in payment for her horse, Kalhua. Also two new girls arrived, Jarra and a name i keep forgetting. They are from Holland and speak basically only Dutch but understand a little English. We also had our final test of the new Kakka machine which was an interesting experience. basically we had to drive arround with a giant vaccum cleaner and suck up as much poop as possible!

Marie-Claire went away to have surgery and we worked on game of contact and finesse posture excersises using barrels. i was pleased that my posture is much better than it once would have been and that i really do have some core muscles however burried they may be!! we then got our horses and played with the game of contact again. Paris was not reponding and i was reminded to get the impulsion back at freestyle and then ask again - suddenly Paris had energy and he found it easy to offer "go" to the pressure of the bit. end of session!!

Today I learned how to grind linseed for the horse feeds and did the feeding tour. i was then paired with one of the dutch girls to make a team lunch. i used most of the remaining vegetables and cooked them mediteranean style and then cooked some chicken in chopped tomatos and some rice.

after lunch I visited Kalhua who was hot without shade and being plagued by flies. i used Joke's spare flymask to protect him and got Sanne who helped me hose him down all over to give him some repite from heat.

i then went on a youngster trail ride with Sanne - I rode Sirius again and took much more care to warm him up and get more respect and impulsion from him. i then mounted him and tested out his gaits and steering as well as lateral flexion, direct and indirect reins. I am happy to report that we had an uneventful ride, we walked trotted and cantered with not one buck. i did feel Sirius go a bit fast at some points but i realised that tension was creeping into my body so i worked really hard on relaxing! Sirius is so advanced and so sensitive that he responds more to the cues you don't know you are giving. it was really interesting for me to find more buttons and really work on maintaining focus and relaxation simultaneously!

Sanne then played with Zippy, Marie-Claires old quarterhorse gelding who has a lot of health issues. he lives in a small paddock with a shetland pony called Nac. i took Nac out for a play and he was rolling like mad and galloping about bucking. at one point he galloped so fast he pulled the rope clean out of my hand! i played a touch of liberty with Nac before having a fruit salad and fetching Paris for a trip to the Playground. Joke arrived and brought Rox to graze and we had fun playing on 45 ft lines jumping logs and banks.


As I cycled home I saw bats flying through the trees. it has been so hot here and there are loads of these gentle but very fast, sweet, little lizzards. everytime i see them it reminds me of my first family holiday to Greece.

i can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store!