A good couple of sessions.

I woke to snow on the ground and minus three temperatures in a strong, sleety wind today. It won't take Inspector Morse for you to realise that I rode indoors :-)

Zippy was slightly less cold-backed than he has been. This is the way it went last year, that initially he reacted to the cold saddle, but as the winter progressed he learned to ignore it. He's a sensitive soul! He did some good work, and was a little less argumentative than he has been. When he baulks at going forward into the contact I am able to flick him up with the whip now. Last week that would have earned me some nasty sharp bucks, but he seems to be beginning to understand that his job is to work with me, not to argue when it gets a bit difficult. I'm quite relieved because I was a bit worried that things were escalating with him and I wondered where it would stop.

Jazz was super and did some really up-in-front trot that was very difficult for him, but he applied himself wholeheartedly to the task. In consequence he got some good trot/halt/trot work too, and we both finished after 20 minutes really pleased with ourselves.

I've been to teach M and George this afternoon, again indoors thankfully! I am teaching her about focus (a very weak point with her!) and feel (which she is good at if she gets focus first!). She was thrilled to learn how to turn from a seat aid without using her hands. That's completely new to her and it turned a lightbulb on in her head about what "real" riding is. I also taught her shoulder in and turn on the forehand to give her some stuff to work at until next time. We did some canter transitions using a pole on the ground and they are are improving steadily - she's actually much better if she stays out of the saddle and absorbs the movement in her knees. George is happier because his back is free, and she is more balanced and therefore more confident.

We finished on a small jump because she was dead keen to jump a bit more and no-one was knocking at the door to come in. We're making big progress there too, and for the first time M actually set the pace and balance coming into the fence instead of being a passenger. The resulting jump was absolutely super, so we finished on that and went for a coffee. Over coffee we wrote our short and long term objectives and a set of exercises to use for schooling for the next week in the George notebook :-) I couldn't teach for a job but I quite enjoy this pair at the moment.

C