High drama and horsey doings

Sunday afternoon, Ted got wind of the fact that Binky was in the porch with her babies, showing a great deal of interest in getting in there. I had subsequently gone off down the field to poo pick, completely ignorantof the fact that he had somehow bludgeoned his way in there with her. Sid was in the house and heard a commotion, dashed in there to find him with one of the kittens in his mouth. He rescued the kitten and between them he and Binky saw Ted off. I got back to find Sid cradling the kitten, who appeared none the worse for his/her ordeal. As a result we have barricaded the cat flap with some handy bags of cement and installed a number of anti-Ted devices, who has now been banished to the yard. The kitten seems none the worse for the experience and Sid gets top marks for his Athena pose with the little one.

Rode Q and decided to work on transitions. He was in good form and ready to work, and I felt like it was a good seat day. Ever settle into the saddle and feel "ahhhhhhhh" where the two of you just fit? Well it was like that and I get the impression he is enjoying his work much more now too from the way he takes the bit. Of course, he doesn't particularly want to leave the mares but once he has he's ready for it. The benefit of not riding for a bit is always that sense of joy when you make back into the saddle.

We'd done an in hand warm up so went straight to it; usually I will spend time in walk but not that day; straight into the transitions first between walk and trot then bringing in halt to trot, trot to canter, canter to trot, canter to walk and for once I had a clearer sense of the degrees required for the more direct transitions with a bit more success than usual, feeling like I was connected to each hindleg in turn. Doubtless this contributed to a large degree to Q's availability and it was delightfully "touch and go".

Then the phenomenal thing; the arrival of the piaffe. I wasn't even planning it but suspect the prep work had caused us to arrive at that point and suddenly it was just there, so I rode it. WOW.

It felt so much more of a natural progression than it ever does setting out to ride it and the thing I took most to heart from the whole was how the session led us to that point with almost ridiculous ease, and there it was, bang. Awesome!

Decided to work T in hand; he'd had the week off because he was a little sore after the farrier but I could see straight away he was back to normal, so we had a good straightening session. I have been experimenting with tapping the belly for more engagement and it's been working like a charm. Good to be working him again and he was well up for it. We did some milling and I've started doing this first on a larger circle (say 10m) and then down to the smaller one (around me) to make it harder. We did some piaffe in hand and he's straight into it, well established in terms of the request and needing to get stronger and engage more. There's no danger of me overdoing it but I feel I could perhaps do more to assist said strengthening.

Was very much looking forward to riding T last night. He was as chilled as it is possible for a horse to be in the warm up and I was bursting for a waz so by necessity kept it short and clambered on.

He immediately presented with a lovely soft contact, very relaxed and feeling mighty fine. We worked on flexions on both reins and maintaining bend through corners, leg yield and SI on both reins before going up to trot. Preparing with bend and then the transition made for softness throughout and the most relaxed he has been yet in our first forays to the trot, softly blowing. Very very very very lovely and, I feel, significant progress from what's happened before which has been tension at first and only then settling. I believe this is a combination of the devil being in the detail and growing confidence in one another. Less easy to maintain the bend on the right rein than the left and I had to keep more than one brain cell on what my own body was doing and feeding back to him.

We did a small canter on the left rein just to say we did really, and this is a mirror of what was happening with the trot before - ie not best prepared, a bit tense etc, so I shall really know I am getting somewhere when we break through that barrier to the canter transition and what I will be setting my sights on as the next goal. But what joy to be able to have him soft and relaxed from the get go.

After the canter he was a bit jiggy so we worked on counter shoulder in and he settled then really quickly back to previous levels of relaxation. Did a couple of walk pirouettes and finished there.

Such a pleasure to be riding him on a warm spring evening :happy sigh:

Q and I did a lunge session and some milling.

Binky and I had our first chop rubbing session and she had some chicken :) Darling little cat she is and her babies are a glory. I'll get some more pics soon.