Activating the hind legs

We put the horses out this morning in the drizzle. Corky was back at the gate less than 2 hours later, so I brought them in for the afternoon.
Mid afternoon I went to the stables to spend a bit of time with Remy. Just intending to groom him, but the  drizzle had stopped and it was much brighter so I took him up to the school.
We started off with a short lunge session, walk and trot on each rein and then in-hand, sharpening up his hind legs. We get good movement, but in his own time, which is not quick enough.
After this, I got on and I gave him a long rein and let him stretch down and out. He felt soft and receptive and we did lots of changes of rein using small circles. I took the rein up a little and he remained soft and I concentrated on asking him to move his quarters while keeping the softness. It was good. I asked him to halt and then asked him to move his quarters first one way then the other, requiring a quick reaction.
I then moved him around the arena moving shoulders and quarters. He remained soft throughout this work, so I asked for a few trot transitions, again requiring a quick reaction. I'm in the habit of trying to trot for him, in my head at least, so today I took a step back mentally and let him make the effort. Some good, some not so good, but after a few attempts we were getting soft, quick transitions. I need to get a balance between too little and too much effort, but when it's right, we get a lovely rhythmic, balanced trot. Now we have more consistent softness in the mouth, it really is about activating those hind legs.
A pic of Rem in the snow, just because he's such a cutie!

End of my tether

I've not had much to blog about recently as we've been immersed in sub-zero temperatures for more than a week. Not much to moan about if you're scandinavian, but if I'd wanted this kind of weather I'd have moved to sweden!
I finally reached the end of my tether this morning.
I don't know what the temperature is - the app on my laptop says minus 10 in Limoges, but it feels like the coldest day we've had. The horses are pretty fed up now, Remy is bored to tears and when he's bored he's a real nuisance - not to me, but Corky and Bonbon are getting the full force of it, pulling at rugs and headcollars, waving branches at them in a cack handed attempt at play. Of course, they don't have the same mentality and are not too keen on participating!
Everythings frozen of course and I fill buckets in the shower room - it's a complete pain in the arse, and this morning I soaked myself through after dropping the shower head. I couldn't pick it up quickly enough and it was spouting everywhere, so not only did I soak myself through, but everything else too. It was warm water, but I couldn't go out in the cold, my legs would turn to icicles, so I had to get changed.
After getting changed, I took the water out to the barn, slipped on the ice and soaked myself through once again.
Aaaaghhhh.
Second change of clothes, I'm mucking out and rationale starts to kick in.
Mucking out can be quite therapeutic.
Things aren't so bad, a thaw is predicted. I'm pretty healthy, my animals are healthy.
Drugs claimed another life today, a well known life, just one amongst the very many every year. I'm not addicted to anything (well, perhaps the internet ;-)  ) I've got everything I need, and I've got freedom of choice.
How ridiculous to get worked up over carting buckets.
I'm now off for my hot buttered toast and a nice cup of tea!

It's snowing.................

We were told yesterday that it was coming and it came!  We have lots of it. I'm not too keen on snow now, but there was still that little moment of excitement this morning when I wished we had a sledge!
The horses and dogs enjoyed it though.

Wintry walks....

...with Obi.
Over the last week or so I've been taking Obi for walks around the tracks. I'm not much of a walker, but I thought it may help to get me fit and Obi needs controlled exercise to strengthen his back legs - he's a heavy dog and not getting any younger  (like the rest of us). It's lovely countryside around our place and I find that I really enjoy it (whatever happened to the girl who used to drive to the corner shop!). This is our walk today.
Down the track through our fields

 towards the lakes

 I don't think our neighbour is going to freeze this winter

 the largest of the three lakes

heading back towards home, a place to rest

 and another

 nearly home

 time for a hot brew

  A lovely morning, nice lunch with a couple of 'winter warmers' (hot cherry liqueur and red wine), just the way to tackle the weather.

In the bleak...

A real wintry day today, nothing doing with the horses. I dashed out with the camera as they were playing in the snow. As usual, I missed the best of it and they decided they'd had enough and wanted to come in!!

Aaaaaaaaagh!!!!!!!!!

Yes, you got it ...........SNOW!!!

Snow!   Snow!!   and Snow!!!  3 more days of Snow!!!!

As it was snowing yesterday and it was so bloody cooooold  and we were inside, we decided to do something constructive and have a painting day. Not the relaxing, fulfilling kind which produces something worth looking at, just the mind numbing, trying to keep everything looking ok kind. I painted the toilet/ shower room, (bodge up crummy space that previous owners (french!!) decided to erect in the corner of the living room!!!!) The only reasonable thing to be done with it is to pull it down, but as it's the only one we have, that's not going to happen. The OH rubbed down all the flaking paint off the kitchen ceiling in preparation and is now attempting to paint the kitchen ceiling which is bloody useless as it's all cracked and uneven , so I can't see the point. Any discussion of trying to smooth it out, line it etc have been waved aside as ridiculous..............

This is what snow does to you......... it sends you completely batty!! I know you can get snow blindness, how about snow madness!

SNOW!!!!!!..................

Winner - 2 Sets to 1

In the time it's taken me to watch the Australian Womens Single Final we have had 3 inches of snow. Up until a few weeks ago I'd not thought of this as a hard winter, but it's starting to weigh heavily now.
I've nothing against Serena Williams, in fact I think she's a nice girl, but I'm not over keen on her game. Justine Henin, well she's a different prospect. She's small for a tennis player, but she's quick and agile, she plays smart and she has a one-handed backhand! She's made a great comeback, but, unfortunately, not great enough to beat Serena.
Horses all out in the field, huddled around a pile of hay, all except Anky  who's determinedly searching for grass.

I'm loathe to tempt fate and put it into words, but Anky has been quite well the last few weeks. She's back on her diet of  Baileys  Lo- Cal Feed balancer, we've replaced the Dengie Alfa A (for all our horses - too much molasses) with Hi-Fi Lite which is a mixture of Alfalfa and Chopped Straw , has a 40% Fibre content, very low sugar content, is great as a hay replacer and Anky loves it. Added to this she has a supplement of mint, fennel, psyllium , brewers yeast and corn oil, all of which aid digestion and are good for a gassy gut.

As expected...

....parents are still here. We checked on the website at 8am and all flights from Liverpool airport were on schedule. We've had very little or no snow overnight so we were optimistic that Limoges airport would be open. Hmmm, wrong on that one. After a careful drive to the airport, we arrived to find a very long queue of people trying to rebook or get refunds after an announcement that the flight had been cancelled. It had apparently left Liverpool hoping to land, but was diverted to Bordeaux.  So a careful drive home to rebook the flight, the only available one being next Sunday. Hopefully the weather will pick up and we can perhaps do something nice next week.

Serious snow today...........

.... and I think my parents may be staying a little longer than expected. Some flights have been cancelled today so we'll just have to wait and see. Their flight is scheduled for 9.25am tomorrow, so an early start.
The horses seemed to quite like the snow today, we spent a quiet afternoon warming ourselves with home made hot cherry liqueur, yummy!

Strenuous Exercise

We had snow fall overnight and any plans for today were subdued by the grey, heavy weather. In the spirit of getting on with things we put all our energy into something energetic....... a KIR sampling and domino tournament. Jim, not wishing to exert all his energy into something so worthwhile spent the afternoon reading, so it was down to me and Mum and Dad. It was difficult, often very tense, the pressure was immense but at the end of a tiring afternoon my tenacity and wit brought about a win!!! As you can tell by this post it took a very strong will to down several large Kirs and still keep my wits about me to win the very important domino tournament.

The horses have had a very peaceful day picking at any grass they could find in the snow.

We are back........................

.....to This!!!

.......

I thought I may be able to do a little in-hand today, but any chance of that dissolved with my resolve when I went outside!!
The snow is now starting to get quite deep......

It is bleak, very, very cold and the ground is rock hard. Aaaaaaagh.

On a positive note, we have lots of food and wood for the fire.........

Jack Frost nipping at your nose...........

Despite all the drawbacks that adults (me???? lol) are supposed to be concerned about, the first snow of the year never ceases to thrill me. The horses were funny this morning, they've seen it before, but like me, they were still wide eyed and enthralled by it.