Lips, lunch and video games..

A lull in the horrid weather this morning so I took Remy up to the school for a ridden session.
It was a bit of a strange session as he seemed perfectly fine, in fact he gave me some of the best shoulder-in at walk that I've ever had. He generally felt soft in the hand, relaxed through the neck and active behind, but, half way through the session he started flapping his lips. He does this if he's a little apprehensive about something, but he has done it before when he's really given his mouth and completely relaxed through his neck, so I don't know, but I'm hoping it's the latter as he was working so nicely.  I'm careful to give him lots of stretch breaks and today was no exception, so I don't think I was asking too much of him. We carried on for a short time, including some trot work, which also felt ok and finished on a good note, moving him around with lots of changes of direction stretching to a fairly long rein.
We had a lovely lunch out with my mum and dad who are here for a week and spent the afternoon playing video games - oh how childish!! :-))

Success and departures

We've had a good week with my mum and dad. The weather's been ok, we've had some good times with friends and the gite was a complete success.
They're going home today and we're just hanging around now before we go to the airport.
I want them to stay, I always do, but, of course, they have their own busy lives to get back to.
Things will get back to normal, which is ok, and I am looking forward to getting going again with the horses after our couple of weeks off.

Au revoir

Up early this morning to take Mum, Dad and Thomas to the airport.  I returned home with a heavy heart. The house is empty and I miss them already.
I feel I should return to doing something with the horses, but I'm very reluctant to do so. It's a worry - I can't seem to find any fun in it these days. When did it stop being fun?
Horses fill my life, I love them, but it has to be fun.  Perhaps it really is time to stop.

:-(

Mum and Dad have gone home today. It always leaves me feeling a little lost. They were here for a week and it's gone so quickly. I'm going to the UK in 10 days though so I'll see them then.
Had a short session with Anky on the lunge this morning, much looser again. We finished with a short session in-hand and her walk was much more purposeful and the lateral work ( shoulder-in and leg yield ) was much more fluid.
Here's a pic taken by my Dad just before our hack on Monday.

Brantome

We had a good day out yesterday with Mum and Dad, we went to Brantome, a beautiful town surrounded by the river Dronne.
It was market day and there was a lovely atmosphere

We had lunch out at a lovely cafe by the river, it was a really lovely day.


The horses had a day off and were all well when we returned. Anky seems to have renewed appetite and I hate to tempt fate but she really does seem to be improving. As we put them out in the field last night, she did an almost normal poo ( not the kind of thing that makes good blogging, I know, but it made my day!) and set off with Remy down the bottom field. I may be wrong, but I swear she had a swing in her step!

Today we hacked out, she seemed less distant, more involved somehow and she certainly was more relaxed through her body.