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!
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