Girlie lunch

Started with hill and pole work today with Rem to encourage him to bend his hocks and to strengthen and use his back-end more. Trudi and Lydia came over and we went for a girlie lunch out as a belated birthday pressy. Thanks, Trudi, I had a lovely time and thanks Lydia for making me feel like a kid again, although my aching bod is certainly reminding me of my age now!!

No horses today

We had a good night last night at the  market in Rochechouart, home late and up late this morning. It's our communes vide grenier and fete day today so we went down there to have a look around. Just the usual old tat, but some nice music and dancers made it worthwhile.
It was very hot so any plans to hack out with Anky went by the board. I'm hoping to take her down to a friends to hack out this week so gave my trailer the once over. Apart from our trailer training with Remy and Bonbon, it's been sitting in the yard, unused for the last 3 years and it was looking very grotty and tatty. I decided to give it a much needed clean. I'm happy with the result, it looks much better now! Jim took a couple of pics, he says it'll never be this clean again!!

We had a delicious curry tonight, made from a spice paste that Trudi's daughter Lydia made for us the last time she came over - clever girl!!
It's 11.30pm now and we've just put the horses out. We kept them in because of the feu d'artifice in the village. They were pretty much ok, although Remy got a little bit excited.

A weekend of ups and downs.

The Up.
I had a lovely morning on Friday when Trudi and her daughter Lydia came over. It was a lovely warm, fresh morning and we were able to work with Anky and Remy in the school.
Trudi did some in-hand work with Anky and then helped me as it's all pretty new to me. She made me realise that I have to find my own way with the in-hand work(thanks Trudi), find out what works for both me and the horse. In other words, "don't follow in the footsteps of the masters, search for what they sought." The quote is in my head, I'm not sure where I've read it, but it seems to sum it up.

Lydia, the video queen and budding film maker charmed both Jim and I. Before going off with Jim to oversee harvesting of produce in the garden she took this little vid, she's such a star.
Watch it with the sound on.

We took Remy up to the school and played, he's learning to walk on ahead now, he's quick to learn and apart from getting a little bit excited he was a good boy for his Auntie Trudi:-)



The Down.
We returned from an afternoon with friends yesterday to find Anky a little colicky in the field, she was stretching and lying down and rolling. My heart sank, I'm so emotionally tied to this horse now I can't be objective and it's really starting to get me down. We brought them in and she lay down in the stable, she wasn't rolling or pawing, just quiet. I kept a close eye on her and after about 30 minutes she stood up and whickered at me for her tea. By the time we put them out for the night she seemed fine. Jim did remind me that although she is still showing symptoms, she is much better than she was. Having started the Gastrogard treatment, we are now taking steps to try to heal any inflammation in the hind gut, which often goes hand in hand with gastric ulcers.

This morning she came in looking fine so I took her up to the school for some in-hand work. I concentrated on getting her focussed and motivated and we did some nice walk work, including a little shoulder in and leg yield down the long side of the school.

Another Up.
We've just spent a lovely afternoon with some friends, playing silly games in their pool and having a laugh. Like big kids we were - just what I needed.