Good times

I'm having a good time with Rainbow at the moment and I'm also feeling a bit more confident about riding and working with her in general. For me, it really does go in waves, so I have decided to take advantage of the good wind and do lots of things that I can draw strength from in the moments I'm not so confident.

Rainbow has also shown me signs of being a bit more 'interested' in me, like, for example, following me around in her paddock when she could have just ignored me and grazed. But instead, as I went to say hello to her, she came straight over and kept following me around as I re-fixed some of the temporary poles in the paddock. (Awww!)

This gives me belief that I matter to her a little bit and, perhaps, she is beginning to see us as a team... Here's to hoping! But she is of course a mare, so we have our good days and not-so-good days... Two temperamental ladies...

The other small breakthrough I've had is with lunging. One fairly new friend has helped me for the past couple of weeks to get going with lunging. She learned her lunging skills when living in Italy, from some well-known trainer (I think!), and she's now been passing her wisdom to me. It has borne fruit even in just two weeks: the first week she had to get R going and negotiate with her a bit as R was giving her usual turning tricks. Last week I took R into the arena and just casually began lunging her, before my friend managed to join us in there, and Rainbow played ball the whole time. A really good girl.

My friend has basically taught me to position myself by Rainbow's side, near saddle area, when I ask her to halt and am changing reins, etc. This relaxes her, whereas, previously, I would go near her head. She must have had fights with people who lunging her, as that makes her turn towards you - she's expecting a hit or someone yanking the rope and her head goes up. But now, I just had to ask her to halt and go towards her side, giving her a pat and she was totally happy.

The change has been remarkable, although my friend will continue to 'supervise' me for a few more sessions, as I am not under illusions that it will be as easy every time. So the more I have support and someone giving a bit of advice in a sticky situation, the better I will be prepared when I'm being tested on my own. Learning to lunge is like learning to ride; it's another skill. And I have never lunged a horse before I had Rainbow.


We had a lovely lesson yesterday. Just a group lesson but R went really nicely and listened to me. I was trying to remember all the advice my dressage teacher has given me, so I can persist with R also on other lessons and when riding her on my own. Annika gave me really nice feedback and said we're looking better each time she sees us now. This gave me such a boost that I decided to enter another Dressage Test this Sunday. My dressage teacher says I should just do a Prelim (one up from walk and trot tests, which includes cantering too), but I'm determined to get slightly better score in Walk and Trot before we move onto Prelim. It's not about getting placed or beating others, but simply about exceeding our previous score.