Quick update

Well, haven't done much in the past week but I did take Rafiki to Claire's. She was such a good girl (and so was Claire!) - loaded and travelled perfectly. We had a play over there and she was quiet and calm so I hopped on and had a quick ride. Funny, Claire has her future arena marked out in the paddock with cones, and as we have been doing some weaving in and out of cones online, Rafiki thought 'follow the rail' meant weave in and out - very logical!!

tonight I had a quick ride on Cam - my first since a fabulous bareback ride last Friday which I forgot to blog. Then I only had half an hour, so after 2 minutes checking out she was fine I hopped on, and we practiced carrot stick riding and bending to a halt from walk. Then I felt like a bit of a trot to see how my seat was developing and OMG for the first time ever I could sit a fast trot along the long side comfortably!! I've only ever done a few strides before - it is a bit unseating as she usually (but not so much recently..) hops into trot, then accelerates! Just sat back and went with it - it was amazing!! It felt comfy and such fun, so we trotted mostly for about 20 minutes. This is what it is all about - riding is so much easier when your horse is relaxed....
I was interested to see how it felt in a saddle, so popped that on tonight, did more carrot stick riding. Bending and lateral flexion using a c'stick is not good yet - we need a lot of practice. But I was keen to trot and leave the reins alone so we did some follow the rail at a trot with some attempted bending to a walk. She was very LB so it was safe and I had my rein just incase. We did get there but it took a few strides. BUT I didn't touch the rein once - I was that confident, she didn't speed off like she used to, and she offered a soft canter. I know we have a LONG way to go but I can just see that green string glinting in the distance, kind of around November. Thats the first time I have felt that bridleless is really achieveable - and we might not go bridleless, we just won't use the reins...

Love this programme..

The other new thing I taught tonight was sideways towards from Z4 with a string around the hq only - very cool!! Cam is such a clever girl. Then we did sideways towards and turned it into backwards from Z 5 into her pen! Maybe my imagination is slowly developing...