It's a Plessis Christmas!

We had a fantastic Christmas.

Here it is usual to have the big Christmas dinner on Christmas eve so we all assembled in Marie-Claire's kitchen and each made a few things of our own to bring to the festivities. I introduced them all to pigs in blankets and made the roast potatoes and parsnips - very yummy if i do say so myself! Marie-Claire roasted a goose, i had helped her stuff it earlier in the day with chicken liver, pork, apricots, chestnuts, raisins and spices and it was really delicious. Gabi made a delicious pumpkin, celery and potato mash. we had oysters and various appetisers. Cindy made a delicious apple and goat cheese stater in little filo pastry wraps and Rianne made a delicious marangue. by the end of the night we were all stuffed and managed to roll home to bed. We had an extra hour in bed on christmas day and then worked all morning. In the afternoon i spent some undemanding time with Paris and then baked mince pies. i never bake normally and i was very impressed that they worked and actually tasted good!


Paris rolled on boxing day, which was his present to me, letting me know he was healthy and ready to play. with the cold and the dark really rolling in now i have only been playing with one or two horses a day, which is rubish but i'm sure only temporary! This week has been very interesting with Paris. i filmed my audition for my progress report on monday. i thought i had time to do it in the morning and had him almost all the way to the stables when i realised i had to cook lunch! i was gutted. he was really giving me green lights that he was in a great mood for a play session after a week off! i put him in one of the main stables, next to Marie-Claire's horse Zippy so he was in a more secure box with company. i gave him hay and just hoped he would be ok and settle down. he was pretty emotional and when i came to get him he was sweated up and really tense. so i let him loose in the arena and he just cantered around, flitting between left brain and right brain extrovert, getting playful and then freaking out at his own adrenaline! he began playing his favourite game of running in to me and then dashing off in another direction. i sent him around until he had moved his feet enough to appreciate a break with me. i then popped the 45 ft line on so he could move out and go on a pattern to engage the left side of his brain more and to really release all the pent up tension and energy. he jumped a massive fence i had popped up, which i had put gymnastic balls under as crazy fillers, cantered a figure eight with flying changed and moved around like a dream. Elvira came in to film me for the audition and i decided to show the 45ft line work before the zone 5 driving as iknow once he came off of the adrenaline he would be tired after all his effort! he did a pretty amazing demonstration of how light, responsive and athletic he is on a 45 ft line. i then popped the 12 ft line on him and di some friendly game from zone 5. i was not happy with it because i could tell he was not 100% and he is usually a lot better but on this day he was just tolerating it and he was incapable of doing lead by the tail whilst i did helicopter from zone 5, something we can normally do! we managed to show our one rein figure eights from zone 5 at walk and trot with some transitions and eventually even a little back up. it was a shame we couldn't film our best but we did a good job to get him calm enough and connected enough to do as well as we did and he really tried his heart out!

The next time i went to play with him he was not so happy to come with me so i climbed into the hayrack where Anna was reading a book outloud to Kalhua. I listened as she translated it from German to English and we chilled together and soon Paris came to my side and was grazing near me. eventually i got up and went to look at a fence that had fallen down and he follwed me and looked ready to come wiht me. i felt our connexion was a tenuous one, and i did not want to ruin the trust i had built, but i did want to keep up our program and not fall into a fear trap of not doing anything for fear of losing what he had. so i haltered him and lead him on foot toward the stables. he took on the zombie look, glassy eyed and robotic, so i surprised him and put his rope on his neck and allowed him to be at liberty. he turned toward the youngster stable and i decided to experiment and see what happened if i just allowed him to go where he wanted. he walked over to the gate of the youngsters and watched them for a bit and then turned to me as if to say "ok, i'm ready now". we walked together toward the stable for a bit but the temptation to eat grass got too strong for him. i allowed a few bites before i decided to ammend the rules a little and picked up the very end of the rope so he could not get in too much trouble. we then headed toward the saddle horse pasture and played a sqeeze game under the wire that is supposed to stop Origan gong onto the main road. Paris met Origan there and then strolled happily wih me all the way to the outdoor arena. there he stopped a few times. each time he stopped i backed him a few steps and then walked on and he went quite a bit further. i brushed him at the arena rail, not wanting to put him in any boxes after his recent experiences, and then i took him in to the tack room where i saddled him before i played online. he did a cool stick to me and seemed connected enough so i mounted and played pushing passenger at walk then trot then canter. i started changing my passenger to where i kept him on the rail, only correcting him when he came off. it was my plan to do fluid rein to prepare him for the game of contact but he got racey in the canter, even taking me over the little jumps in the arena, so i put him on the bow tie pattern and was very particular about the disengagment part - he really sgame me a few nice simple changes! then i asked Elvira how she started out with fluid rein and she told me she started with game of contact principles at the halt. i did this and once Paris gave me a really positive "reins mean go" response i jumped off. i really think he will do great with this!

I only took Riva on a trail ride this week. in my progress report i was told i really need to work on my lateral balance but they can see i am trying. it is worst with Riva so I really tried, the whole time we were riding, to keep balanced.

I have worked with Gabi with Seth this week and i have been on him. it has been amazing, i have gotten much better at knowing what i'm looking for, feeling for him and improving my timing. when i'm on him Gabi has him online but i am doing more and more so he is really getting the chance to understand communication from a rider, rather than get freaked out by it. we have been doing walk trot and halt, direct and indirect rein, and even a few steps of back up. Gabi said he looks ready for canter but we won't go there yet!

I did more follow the leader with Touria, she got rather cranky when she had a herd member behind her but she kept her responsibility of following the horse in front. Marie-Claire has really helped me have more feel and timing in my send, yoyo and driving game online and she has such a sweet attitude now! we even managed to go for a trail ride and when she threated to buck when i asked for trot i just bent her and then asked her to trot on. she soon worked out i would just bend her and she stopped being so crabby and trotted nicely. she is a fascinating little horse and i'm looking forward to her really understanding what is going on and being able to go back to the halter!


goal planning and other preparations are underway for new years which is this weekend - it should be cool!

hope everyone had a great Christmas and i wish you all a Happy New Year!!