Horse Stuff.

The sun has been with us on and off through the day as have some heavy showers. And all accompanied by strong but warm southerly winds.

I was fortunate enough to catch one of the dry spells for my quiet morning wake-up outside with a coffee as it's Friday. I love watching the grasses, especially the Stipa tenuissima blowing around in the wind. The local flock of jackdaws made an appearance. It was funny to see them as instead of their usual fairly tight formation they were being blown every which way and looked like burnt leaves rising above a bonfire. (It was only after looking at the photos that I noticed the heron has taken a tumble in the pond.) 

Getting to the stables this morning was interesting. Apart from having to wait at the entrance to the lane until the men working there moved a vehicle and trailer that was blocking the way the water in the many potholes made it impossible to know how deep each one was. There are so many potholes that that you can't avoid all of them. Today it was a matter of driving very, very slowly.

There were five of us in the lesson and today I rode Hazel, a large chestnut mare. She's got much better with her head shaking and didn't shake her head until right at the end. That might have been because she had just cantered off on the wrong leg and I had to bring her back to trot before cantering again. The main things I had to work on with her on my part was keeping my hands still and on her part getting her to bend her body. She's quite long and bending doesn't come naturally. I found it helped to rest the tip of my schooling whip beside my leg to reinforce the pressure from my leg which isn't that strong anyway. As a group we practiced turn on the forehand which Hazel did quite well and rein back which she was brilliant at. I'm sure she knows the voice command which I used as well as my legs and a light resistance with the reins. We got lots of 'excellents' today including for cantering, once she was on the right leg.

It poured with rain as I got to the supermarket but had dried up by the time I went into town. I only looked in one charity shop before going to Lidl as I was getting tired by that point.

Once I get home on a Friday, after I've thrown everything in the washing machine, I make a big mug of tea and put my feet up for half an hour (or more depending on the tv programme I'm watching.)

I also kept one eye on the wild sea outside and the few adventurous surfers trying to catch a wave. Then it was time to make some mushroom and onion sauce to go with the fish that we'll be having tonight, do my exercises and get to the pc.