I've been continuing with the lunge and in-hand stuff with Remy over the last week. It feels like it's starting to come together now. A good session this morning with stretching and relaxation, left rein looking much better balanced,right rein more difficult to stretch the outside, falling onto inside shoulder, but this is getting better in the walk with moments of good balance in the trot. The transitions from walk to trot are much cleaner with more energy.
Had a good day out in Limoges with Bev yesterday, lunch and some shopping, didn't buy a thing but Bev bought a new bag and a couple of plant pots. The sun came out in the afternoon and it was lovely to enjoy it over a couple of drinks.
The builders are coming next week to start on the unfinished rooms in the barn, so, no doubt we'll be back to Limoges very shortly for supplies.

Retail therapy

Had a much needed day out yesterday with Bev. A tasty lunch, lots of chat and some retail therapy! A good day, thanks Bev.
This morning started off overcast but fine, but by the time I was ready to do something with the horses it was miserable and raining - the horses had a day off and so did I, I hate the rain!

Giggling like kids

Had a good day out yesterday, lunch at Trudi's with Bev. We ate and chatted a lot - very enjoyable!
Today, same again with Remy and Bonbon, a good session with Remy, moving shoulders and then quarters, a little reinback and a short lungeing session on each rein. Bonbon continued with her lunge training and she's pretty much got it at walk and halt transitions.
Spent this afternoon at Ricky's playing, giggling like kids and drinking afternoon tea with dutch cookies.

Settling in

Woke up to a damp, miserable day this morning. Just putting the horses in the field when Bev arrived out of the blue. What a lovely surprise, we talked most of the day!
The horses have got to grips with the shelter,been up and down and in and out all day. With that, taking up the old fencing and pulling up the old gate posts, it hasn't done the field any favours. No doubt it will recover.

An afternoon at the pepiniere/jardinerie

I had a lovely afternoon out with Bev today. She came over for lunch, we had a giggly girly 10 minutes on the trampoline and then we went over to the  pepiniere, jardinerie (tree nursery/garden centre). It's a fantastic place, acres of land with a vast selection of trees and plants. We were very conservative this time, I bought only a couple of things. A lemon tree and a beautiful plant with white leaves that look like flowers, I can't remember what it's called as the label has fallen off, Bev would know. I saw some beautiful trees though that I've earmarked for our next visit!!

When I got home, Jim had just brought the washing in. I couldn't resist taking this pic of my little sweetheart, Inca.

Vide Grenier

I had a day off from the horses today, hehe, well , they had a day off from me!!
I went to to Brantome with Bev to the vide grenier (empty attic), think car boot/jumble sale, where the french try to sell all their old junk for ridiculous prices.
We had a great day, ahem, buying old junk, a truly french 2 hour leisurely lunch and a good natter. The scene was perfectly French, right down to the street singer/hurdy gurdy man who was great, albeit a little freaky!

How many trees........

........can you cram into one medium sized 4x4?
Well, I can tell you, it's 7, plus various shrubs, pot plants and grasses.
 I had a much needed afternoon out at a local Pépinière (garden centre, tree nursery) with Bev today, and somehow we managed to spend over 3 hours there (it is a rather big garden centre) buying quite a lot of stuff!!
I think Bev's going to be very busy planting over the next few days!!  It was fun, thanks Bev.

Le Printemps est arrivé?

Jour de leçon français, aujourd'hui. Une bonne leçon, nous avons causé de notre semaine et avons fait beaucoup d'exercices sur le passé composé.
Nous allions à Bevs pour l'après-midi pour aider avec les écuries, donc Jim est venu à la classe dans le camion et nous sommes allés directement après la leçon.
Heureusement pour nous ils avaient déjà été enlevés de la clôture quand nous sommes arrivés, donc nous avons passé un après-midi en causant et en cherchant des seaux d'eau à Gamme Vert.
Quand nous sommes revenus à la maison, nous avons apporté les chevaux du champ. Nous avons remarqué que Bonbon avait fait mal à son oeil. Il est un peu gonflé, donc je l'ai baigné et j'espère que ce sera mieux le matin.
Aujourd'hui a été si ensoleillé, je crois que le Printemps est arrivé!

A busy two days.

I had a lovely time yesterday over at Trudi's, good chat, tasty lunch and plenty of cuddles courtesy of Lydia, Trudi's daughter. Thanks guys for a good day.
Last night I went to the art class with Ricky, bloody hard when you're so tired you've the attention span of a goldfish. I managed to draw something very mediocre and totally unsatisfactory. The weather was awful, strong winds and heavy rain, lightning and even hail stones. On the way back the road was littered with branches off the trees, it looked like a tornado had gone through.
I awoke around 3.30 in the morning with the sound of the wind and rain on the skylight, to find the kittens on the bed. There's nothing unusual about that, they tend to sneak in after they've had their nocturnal adventures, but something made me reach down to stroke them. When I stroked J.C. she growled at me which cerainly isn't normal. She was rigid, holding herself in a really scary way.I switched the light on and there were a few spots of blood on the bedspread. I checked her out, trying to see where she was hurt but couldn't find anything obvious, so I watched her for about half an hour until she went off to sleep. Of course, I couldn't sleep properly after that and kept waking up to check on her. This morning she was very quiet and seemed a little stiff, but she came down and had some breakfast.. I don't know what happened to her, but she seems better tonight.
We had our monthly horse group meeting today, we had an equine vide grenier. I took some never worn long leather boots and about 5 pairs of jodhs, also never worn and unfortunately too small now for my fat, aging body. Huh, I only managed to sell one pair, so not enough to buy a new pair that actually fit me! Bev came over and it was great to see her and we had a good laugh.
Absolutely worn out tonight, but a good couple of days. Hopefully the weather might be ok tomorrow for some horsey time.

My brilliant babies

I had an early start this morning to be over at Trudi's for 9am, we were picking Bev up to go to the first meeting of a local (hehe, for Trudi and Bev) newly formed horse group. It was more curiosity, for me at least, as I'm already a member of another group closer to me.  I knew it would be good fun if Trudi and Bev were going along and we had a good laugh. Wanna know the name of this group?  Blazing Saddles Horse Group - hmph.... nothing to do with me!!!!

I thought about riding when I got home but it was getting late so we decided to have a little trailer training session when we brought the horses in.
We've had 2 or 3 sessions now with Remy and Bonbon and it's been interesting and enjoyable, our last session was really positive. I brought Bonbon in first and went straight over to the trailer, we'd already lowered back and front ramps.I asked her to follow me and she came up the ramp to the top, put one back foot on then took it off and just stood sniffing around and looking in, stretching her neck as far as she could but not wanting to walk in. I asked her to back down the ramp and she did so nice and calmly. Corky was standing at the gate waiting to come in so I suggested that Jim walk Corky through and I would follow with Bonbon. So that's what we did and as Corky got to the top of the ramp I followed and asked Bonbon to walk on with me. She just walked through with me and down the front ramp as if she'd been doing it all her life. I'm sure she thought 'well, if it's ok for Corky, it's ok for me', but she was so calm about it I'm hoping it will give her the extra confidence to go through on her own next time. She'd not made a big deal of it and neither did I, I gave her a pat and told her she was a  good girl and  then took her straight into the stable. I was so proud of her though, I wanted to jump up and down with glee!!
Anky and Remy were still waiting at the gate so we brought them in together and tried the same thing. Anky walked through but Remy was distracted and walked out to the side. We tried a again, but the second time he just stopped at the bottom of the ramp. It's funny,it's like he doesn't know where his legs are, he picked one of his front legs up but caught his hoof on the bottom of the ramp so just put it back down again. Jim put Anky in the stable and came back and lifted one front leg  and then the other onto the ramp. I then asked him to walk forward and he stepped forward enough to place first one and then the other back leg onto the ramp, he looked really funny, if you can imagine a triangulated piaffe, back legs almost touching the front ones. He stood for a few seconds and I asked him to walk toward me into the trailer, he hesitated, but I just kept the tension on the rope for an extra few seconds and he started to walk toward me. It was like John Cleese's ministry of funny walks. If you've ever seen a horse with travelling boots on for the first time,high stepping, you'll have a very accurate picture of what he was doing. He came into  and through the trailer to the front ramp,he was pretty calm apart from the funny walk, he hesitated at the top and then high stepped down to the end of the ramp and hopped off. He then turned towards me as if to say 'ok then, where's my treat'!  What a good boy! I praised him and took him into the stable.  My brilliant babies, they bring me joy!!!

What, no rugs!!!

I did some groundwork with Remy this morning and he was calm and attentive. It was a short session but successful. We worked on walk halt transitions, me leading with a loose rein and then asking for halt and me moving to his shoulder and asking for walk on from this position. He kept the halt as I moved to his shoulder and walked off nicely on command. No confusion, no backing up as I moved over to his shoulder as he was doing before. When I asked for the backing he did it in a relaxed manner and from a very  light signal.
As I finished the session the sun was trying to fight its way through the clouds so I took off all their rugs, gave them all a grooming ( they're starting to lose their winter coats) and put them out naked!. They were happy bunnies and went galloping off to the bottom field ( not our top winter field, which is very dry, but our wettest field with the stream) and I swear I saw an evil glint in Corkys eye.  Well, anyone who's had horses will know what happened next.........
Bev called over for the afternoon and we had a good laugh and a good chat. Thanks mate.

Thur 10th Dec Christmas Do!

It was our horse group christmas do today. Well, I've had more fun putting the rubbish out! Apart from the fact that I had a laugh and a good natter with my friend Bev it was all a bit of a washout. Thanks Bev you do me the world of good!!

A little catch up. Saturday, hacked out with Jim. Anky was quite good, a little nappy a couple of times, but she went when asked. We discovered a new track and had a good ride.
Sunday, had a lovely day out in Perigueux with my friend Bev, the weather was glorious but very hot and tiring.

Today I took Anky in the school. I started with stretching on a long rein and she seemed better today. Then we worked on walk halt transitions and she seemed more steady in the hand and a little more relaxed. She seemed straighter on the left rein today. Practised a few turns on the haunches and then some walk trot transitions. She's still rushing into the transition,but it seemed a little better today.
We finished as we started with some stretching on a long rein.

I dismounted to clear some droppings from the school, so I put up the stirrups and tied the reins through the throat lash. I went to get the shovel leaving her standing at the gate. As I set off walking away from her she just followed me. As I moved, so did she, we ended up walking all around the arena, changing directions, halting , circling. She was very relaxed and very focussed on me, it was great.