Bless ma horsie!

However frustrated I may get with this horse-ownership lark at times, I love it how Bonnie can cheer me up. :) I was in such a terrible mood today, but going to see her this afternoon well and truly brightened my day. My last lesson got cancelled cos the teacher was ill, so I got to the yard about an hour earlier than I usually do. This meant it was still properly light, so I thought ahh, I shall take Bonnie out of the arena and go on a little mini-hack for a warm up.

The first difficulty we faced was the fact a huge herd of deer was kind of on the track to get out onto the bridleway. Poor Bonzo got a bit scared, and I don't really blame her! She seems a bit more spooky in general these days, I suppose it's because she's just been going round and round in circles in the school for weeks. She's forgotten what the world looks like!

So then we got onto the little track, and I just let her mosey along on a long rein for a bit. But as soon as we got trotting, we were off! I wish she would do such amazing medium trot in the school! She seemed to be pretty excited to be out and about, making lots of noise and splashing through puddles. When we turned round, I made her walk for a bit, just so she doesn't get into the habit of tearing off as soon as we are homeward bound! But then all I had to do was click at her she was in zoom mode, snorting and doing a few little bucks. It makes me smile when she's enjoying herself. :)

So after we'd got that out of our system I took her in the school for 10 minutes or so, to concentrate on her exercises. It makes me laugh how she stretches out and starts making funny noises when I go into 'forward seat' trot! She seems to have properly got the hang of the 'slow trot' on the short sides exercise too, all I have to do is slow my rising and lift my hands and she'll do much shorter slower strides, before really powering forward when I ask her to extend along the long sides. She is also getting better at her spiralling and bending, she's still somewhat reluctant to bend properly to the right, but she's still so much more willing to flex than she used to be.

To finish off, I whacked out my polos and we did some stretches and some yielding and backing up. I was pleased to see that she had actually broken a sweat for once! I finally feel like we're starting to do proper work again. :)