last fine day??

Today we enjoyed sun again ...I'm wondering if it will be the last though.

We had focus stations this morning on rope tying, backwards and sideways online and ad liberty, circles and riding circles. I didn't really get as far as riding circles but didn't think it did Pierson any harm for me to get on and then walk away from the arena.

We had another 2 great trailer loading sessions today - he just got straight on and said ' where's my treat.'... also he went quite happily into the pond.

Late morning we markd out the precision pen again - took us over an hour yesterday, took us 14 minutes today - tomorrow we will try and do it in 8 minutes. wow my body is unco-operative in trying to contort into the various finesse postures for half pass, renvers. travers and leg yield. My hq just won't go one way and my ribs the other yet..... because none of our horses (or riders?? - certainly not me and Pierson..) are ready for real finesse (have to be able to comfortable go backwards forwards and sideways with arms folded) we have done a lot of simulations. We need to get really good in our bodies with doing these positions before subjecting our horses to it..

This afternoon we had a very small play with finesse at a standstill. Just getting a soft feel then moving the shoulders over as in turn on hq. Went quite well.
I'm still struggking a bit with basic sideways freestyle although our online and liberty is better. I asked John for some help and he pointed out my leg wasn't really making contact with Pierson...Duhh!!!!! It went quite a lot better after that!

We finished a bit early to give the horses a break (and us!!).