7am: up and about, clean boots and tack. 1st lesson 9:55am.
9:55am: Jesus Christ. Q is a bag of beans, a complete fart. Ok so it's been a while since we were out, but is that any reason to make such a fuss. Indubitably, yes.
10:05 (or thereabouts): ride E43. Jesus Christ. Completely messed it up by dint of the fact that Dan's arena, parallel to ours, has A at the far end, whereas we have C. Net result? Both leg yields messed up, in amongst other areas. Me bad. Pretty pleased with (a) the fact that I enjoyed it regardless, (b) the change rein in canter and counter canter, (c) the medium trot and (d) the free walk on a long rein.
10:20 or so: Back to the ranch. Need to remonstrate quite strongly with Q who was appalling at the sight of other horses on the yard: yelling, weaving and worst of all scant regard for mother's personal space. Rectified, and turned out.
10:30 onwards: went back to check out a bit of the clinic but was weighed down by the large amounts of things to do at home, so beat a path back to the ranch.
11:00am onwards: much poo picking and weeding. 5 barrows of poo; at least an hour's weeding. There are big piles of weeds strewn about the paddocks, like small green hillocks of wrongness. Am obsessed.
15:15 track Q down and administer a tube of Carl Hester's finest calmer. He stands looking askance at me, clearly thinking "what was that all about, that random syringe?"
15:30 Prepare for second ride of the day, lesson with Dan. Q is serenity itself, on a magnesium high.
16:00 ish go next door for lesson. Q much calmer. Ride with ear piece for first time. Really, really good lesson. It has made me realise how much we bumble and faff deep within our agreed comfort zone when left to our own devices and how much I have missed having someone to really kick our butts. Predominantly the work was on activation of hindlegs, evenness of contact, straightness, energy. There are fundamental things we really need to get to grips with and I thoroughly enjoyed it even though I was a red-faced sweaty bastard by the end of it :)
17:00 ish: bring in T and work him in hand. He was awesome and I could swear he enjoyed his session as much as I did. Must get on with it and ride him tomorrow.
18:00 ish: evening doings, shopping and walk the pooch. Dash back with steaks and salad to cook. Sid is unwell and therefore indisposed to be of practical assistance.
19:30 ish: just finish up cooking steaks when SMS comes in from Dan to say they're just starting to watch the test videos. Arrgghhh. Wolf steak down at record speed and hotfoot it next door.Very interesting evening - it's never as forward as it feels, for one thing, meaning that although the canter and change rein to counter canter wasn't at all bad, the other bits I thought were good weere not nearly impulsive enough (!), especially the medium canter which felt really good, in fact was a working canter. Net result, 56%. On the plus side it will be easy to do better if I can just stick to the test and not go off piste, although in fairness I feel I should have got a couple of "creative" bonus points for the leg yield zig zag to correct the second error. Q retains his sexpot demeanour notwithstanding. Need to get rid of that beer belly though.
Tomorrow: group polework lesson and in the afternoon a lesson on test riding, both of which I am looking forward to very much. Neither Q nor I will know what has hit us.
Legs: Ow
Q: Jesus!
Me: Yay!
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