My time has been taken up with the horses and the sax - it's a great life!
The big news is that we now have 4 horses.
Bentley has come to live with us from a friend (thank you Gail), as, after an injury he can no longer compete as an eventer, which, unfortunately is what he was bought to do.
He's a lovely big chap (hehe, he's very big - makes my quite large horses look like ponies), very kind, genuine and reliable and, I'm sure, will be a wonderful influence on Remy and Bonbon when we're riding out.
It's taken time for him to recover after his injury, and he's spent a while in the field so we're working on stretching and suppling exercises and building him up slowly.
Jim has agreed to ride with me, and we have had 3 or 4 short rides, and I have to say, up to now, it's going very well.
Here's a picture of Bentley the day after he arrived, out in the field with Remy, Corky and Bonbon.
Remy has done very little recently as I've been concentrating more on Bonbon and Bentley. I have ridden him out a few times, and he's been fine, and taken him in the school a few times, but not his usual work routine.
I took him in the school today, and he was pretty good. He was a little reluctant to flex right, but he started to loosen up as we went on. His walk work was good, better on the left rein, with good shoulder in, travers and renvers. His reinback was good too, and we got good carriage after reinback/walk-on transitions.
We did a little work on walk/canter transitions, and I was pleased with his balance. He got a little spooky as the session went on, so we had to work through it slowly, as he was wanting to rush, especially in the trot. I asked for lots of walk/trot transitions and he started to rebalance himself nicely. We finished with walk on a long rein and he was bending and flexing nicely on each rein. A good session.
I've been spending a lot of time with Bonbon, grooming and massaging, and groundwork in the school. She's more or less back to herself. The sensitivity has gone and we've come to the conclusion that her seasons played a very big part in her behaviour this summer. It's something that we'll have to investigate and be prepared for before spring next year.
It was quite extreme behaviour, and it has certainly highlighted her lack of confidence in general, and her lack of trust in me. I feel bad that I've missed something so important and that I should have known that she wasn't as confident as she appeared.
We've been working on her confidence issues, and it's a slow process, but It seems to be working.
I feel that our relationship is improving and she's starting to look to me for confidence and support. I realise that I'm only now starting to know and understand her, and , obviously, it's an ongoing process, but I already notice a difference in the way she is with me. I know that I feel different, I have more confidence in her, and I look forward to working with her every day. I hope that I'm starting to gain her trust, and we can begin to form a partnership based on mutual trust.
