Monumental

I'm so sorry for the lack of updates, life has been completely tied up with moving my elderly and disabled mum from her home of 25 years in London into a warden assisted retirement flat closer to us.

Long time coming and it's taken months of preparation, there have been some seriously upsetting moments and scary bits along the way - particularly this week!!!! But she's in, she's settling there and seems reasonably happy which is a better result than I dared dream of. Huge thanks must go to Superhubby who has supported me above and beyond the call of duty..much love!!

So on to the star of the show, the wonderful, amazing, lovely Little B..what have we been up to???

Well we've still kept up with our inhand work in the school and had a few lunging, loose and long lining sessions. Usually short ones due to the rather waterlogged state of the school *rolleyes*
Bally has been working beautifully, we're now geting half halts on voice command, no lary behaviour..work is work and play is play, so rewarding!!
I'd also had Bessie Horsebus serviced and MOT'd so when I had the opportunity I'd actually been able to practice loading and standing on with the engine running which was almost an anticlimax as B paid no attention at all and just loaded and stood on no differently to normal lol!

But today was a special day in all sorts of ways!

Firstly we had our first Becky Holden lesson - I wasn't 100% sure I was getting the close inhand work 100% correct as B found this the hardest part of out training to do, so as she was coming down to do a clinic locally I snaffled her for a lesson ;-)

Becky is brilliant, a true master at classical in hand work, but so lovely to be around too - She stayed over last night and together with my dressage instructor and friend Becky Ewart we had a great evening talking dressage, horses and dogs!

I knew that she used to work for Peggy Litton at Asoka Classical stud...who bred Bally's Mum Maravilha!!..and yes she not only knew her well, but her grand dam also!!! It was fascinating to hear about the history of her lineage.

So onto the lesson - Becky wanted to see how I was working her and what we could do, so I showed her our inhand stuff...great news is I just needed a few gaps filling in - my body positioning and contact are spot on (chuffed!!) I needed a little help on correction work - so that if B becomes at all heavy I give a lift with my inside hand to raise her poll and at the same time take the outside rein and give a "leg" aid with the whip. I'd tended to give her a little too much leeway as I was concerned about being heavy on her mouth, but with a clear "up" aid the pressure is actually taken off her bars and tongue and works only on the corners of her mouth..lightbulb moment!

We had some amazingly soft work - just like riding when you get the correct flow of energy from back to front on a soft relaxed contact it just flows and feels great. Lots of lovely stretches interspersed with good work and quickly feeling when to correct her if she was silly or tried to lean and make me support her meant a very worthwhile session - made all the more amazing by the fact that B had never worked first thing in the morning before and was having to concentrate when she could hear all the horses being turned out. Clever B!

I then drove over to Becky E's yard where Becky H helped her with Ambar & George - fabulous to watch and so very, very useful!

Back home and I roped Gi in to take the last small but all important step in the box training of Little B.....going for a journey!!

She loaded as she always does, slowly, carefully and at her own pace, then with the box running Gi did the gates and popped the ramp up. I stayed on with Bally for reassurance and to keep a close eye on her reaction....and there wasn't one!!! She had a little wobble and moved her feet to balance as we set off around the farm, but she kept completely calm throughout the five minute journey, alert and looking around her but no hint of panic, or tap dancing.

Once we'd stopped she unloaded (still backwards) and when I asked her to step back on the ramp did so!

I was almost in tears I was so happy - all that patience and calm methodical training paid off :-)

Happy Day!