I have been mucking out and leading Rainbow, and she's started work again last week. She's looking really fat at the moment, so I am looking to reduce the amount of ad-hoc hay she gets and only give her a tiny evening feed to give her all vits and mins. But other than that, the three-week holiday hasn't really affected her stamina or fitness. So, I am also hopeful the paunch will disappear with regular exercise and nippy nights trying to keep warm.
I asked her to be lunged on Monday and she'd behaved impeccably. Then my friend Becca rode her on an hour's lesson on Tuesday and Rainbow was well behaved and forward going. Wednesday she got a little break and Thursday A took her out for a hack. Apparently she'd been really good, but looked at some dog walker in the fields, in the far distance, but hadn't batted an eyelid when confronted by a tractor doing the muck heap at the yard. So tiny little walkers in the distance: suspicious. Roaring farm machinery: 'whatevs'. :)
Friday, our old friend Claire Deuten came to teach at the yard and I'd arranged for Rainbow to be ridden by her. This is how it looks when someone who knows how to 'play' my horse and finds all the buttons which to press all at once:
I won't get disheartened. I understand that Claire is a professional rider who rides several horses a DAY. I only ride Rainbow, maybe once a day. I'll think of it this way; my horse knows what to do when you ask her in the right way. So it's all in there, I just need to develop my skills.
Claire said she has a tendency to lean on the right rein, when in right rein, and that seems her weaker rein. She says I need to ride R more with legs (less hand) and keep the inside rein (when in right rein) quite loose and push with the right leg into the outside rein to stop her from falling in, etc. It's good to let a pro occasionally to get on your horse and 'reset the settings'.
Rainbow was totally knackered after Claire's session. Quite sweaty too – poor sausage! The weather's been lovely this week, not particularly sunny but balmy, so, despite her being quite tired after Claire's session, I turned her out in the field with others until Sunday.
I wasn't meant to do anything horse-related on Saturday, but I suddenly decided – a kind of a now-or-never realisation – that if I didn't do that long-overdue washing of the stable this weekend, perhaps, I would not be able to do it all winter when the days get colder. The stable has never been cleaned in the time R's been in it and the yard don't clean or disinfect stables when they change horses around (not exactly textbook, I know). So, as far as I know, R's stable probably has an accumulation of muck in it since the day it was built... So I roped in T to help me and we went down there complete with a new pressure washer bought that morning and a can of Jeys Fluid. All I can say that you get s*it on head when you pressure wash a stable. I now know how it feels to be in the vicinity of s*it hitting the fan. Had enough of poo-related puns yet? I have one more: despite cleaning the stable thoroughly, and it doesn't smell stable-y anymore, so must be OK, we still had to agree that one can't polish a turd..! *ba-dam!*
Sunday my friend Becca took Rainbow for a little walk and trot. They even went through a stud farm and Becca opened gates while sitting on Rainbow. I wasn't sure how she'd react as I've never had to open gates while sitting on her, but it was fine apparently. So there IS a practical use for learning all those tricks like turning on the forehand and leg yielding.
We messed around afterwards with some photography. Turned out OK even though Rainbow wasn't up for posing with ears forward!
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