Well there's no end to the amount of stuff there is to do. Sid's had a couple of days off (meaning I have to get up on my own at 5.40am on school days, a complete hairy set of testicles of a task) and has been sanding down the bathroom, then emerging covered in bits and looking like a zombie.

We've been up and at it since before 8am this morning which on the one hand is very wrong for a Saturday, but also makes for getting lots of stuff done on the other. Always a juggle, that one. Nevertheless I'm not going to start writing about DIY, I'm just not.

Q was full of it today but it was good to have more energy to work with. More and more the piaffe steps float up to the surface when I prepare my own posture; love that. We played with reinback to canter for the first time in ages and some 6m voltes. He nearly shat himself when a horse went past on the road, but bend is your friend and he got some milling in trot for his trouble. Very good lad and lots of fun - the good thing about only being able to ride at the weekend is that you really, really enjoy it.

I decided to work T at liberty and was pleased I had because he was a wild man :O it's ages since he's been quite that nuts and it all kicked off because some people had the temerity to be walking along the road, TALKING. I know, it's an outrage. For my part I stood in the middle and watched the show which comprised but was not restricted to caprioles, big trots and a very interesting spin-buck-airborne change direction manouevre that I never, ever want to try to ride through. Put him through loads of changes of transition when there was some degree of attention but he still wasn't in a place to come and engage in any meaningful way, so threw in some directional changes and keeping him in corners for a time of my choosing, then slowly he was there and we were able to do some close work on either rein at liberty, which was all I wanted to achieve.

Finally got to sit down about 8.30 or so with what I hoped would be nice but turned out to be quite disappointing fillet steak and a pint of John Smiths.