Sorry for things being quiet lately.
I've been on holiday in Spain! My first time away for 2 years and first proper holiday in at least 5!
My childhood holidays consisted of camping. Often France and once we toured round Italy for a month (this was pre-horses!). Later, when my dad moved to work abroad, we visited him. The three weeks in Australia were much loved, but the week in Egypt was more..well it was nice but the blatant poverty wasn't my cup of tea.
So we went to an all inclusive hotel in Palma Nova (neighbours with Magaluf!) which was great fun. We spent a fair bit of time lying on the beach and also visited a water park, watched a show called Pirates which involved some of the world's best gymnasts, went horse riding/line dancing (rather amusing) and a few other bits and bobs. Would like to say I came home feeling refreshed but I hate flying so got home in a bit of a bad mood and rather stressed as we had a lot of turbulence!
Squirrel went to the yard I used to work at in Salisbury. I had a jumping lesson when I dropped him off, which was super. We briefly did some work on his lengthenings and then some polework, as he tends to change onto his right canter lead, even over a pole. I had to work very hard to keep him straight and on the correct leg!
Afterwards we jumped and Gubby seemed quite pleased at my new ability to almost always get a shot. The main comment was I need to be more disciplined on my turns and to ride straight after a fence rather than letting Squirrel drift.
I had a flat lesson when we came back. I was very impressed with the lovely, forwards horse I got on! We did more work with poles and I managed to keep him on the correct lead this time, as well as the canter. Gubby said he likes to trail his outside leg somewhat in canter so when I ask for the strike off, I need to imagine I'm pushing his outside hind leg underneath him, and also to ask that every few strides in order to maintain it. Besides that, he was picking up on the points Warren has been saying to me, so its good to know we're on the right track.
In other news, Lacey has been getting on very well with her new sharer - I think I mentioned her? And she is proving to be very capable and helpful which is fantastic.
My project, Nikki Drake's Hedgie who is a 4 year old Thoroughbred is coming along nicely. Despite serious lack of facilities and some inconsistent training with me being out and about, he is starting to work nicely and I convinced him to go over his first pole yesterday. He was convinced it would bite but after an initial hesitation he was happy to walk and trot over it several times. I don't think it'll be more than a couple of weeks before he's up for sale.
My work is changing a lot now and it might be time to get some new clients, although word of mouth is working nicely and I have a potential client to plait for which I love, and someone who is directly next to my yard needs a pony exercised.
I am sad to say, come Autumn, I may be leaving the yard in Upton. I really enjoy it there, but sadly the young eventer has been diagnosed with kissing spines and arthritus. They are looking at a long term plan to get him back into full work, but meanwhile will be buying another horse. This means they will need more work, which is fine for now as a few horses I ride are off the agenda with their owner's returning from university, but in winter it just won't happen. I don't want to give up the riding jobs for it so I may be looking to leave and hopefully get some more work riding. We'll see.
I'm still toying with the idea of buying a young horse but I do love just pouring my time into Squirrel. I need to have a think and a ponder about what I want from life and horses.
Tomorrow we're off to Tweseldown, then next Saturday some BS, then the following Monday is our novice debute at Borde Hill!
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