All Change.

Never mind the eclipse, today was a case of 'where did the sun go?' Yesterday's sea fret was still here this morning resulting in a damp look to the terrace and my neighbour's plastic roof and I had to drink my morning coffee sitting just inside the open door. But 20 yds inland the mist had risen to form low clouds that hid the sun for most of the day. Much later in the afternoon there was an increase in temperature and a hint of blueness to the sky but only for a moment.

This morning I rode Betsi again. No surprise there. The stables were very busy with holidaymakers coming to ride so we had the boss teaching us. Once the horses were warmed up we went straight to doing shoulder-in in trot and Betsi aced it. Then we did some canter work and unlike when I first rode her we had a tidy canter and quite a long one too. Because we had May with us, she's relatively new, we cantered individually. May goes well on a hack but in the school she's a bit more of a handful. Not only did she keep racing off but as she went past the mirrors at the end of the school (she doesn't like her reflection) she kicked out at the 'other horse' in her space and put a hoof sized hole in the wall board about 3ft up. It was such a loud bang I wondered what had happened. The chap who rides her is very experienced and eventually got her cantering in a more collected fashion.

The final exercise was shoulder-in in walk down the centre line of the school and Betsi did it perfectly and was even pointed out as an example to the other riders. 

 

There were two newcomers at the stables this morning. A pair of farm kittens just big enough to leave home and oh so cute. I'll take some photos next time. They are called Halen and Pupur [pip ear] (salt and pepper). Halen is black and white and Pupur is a tabby. Being farm cats they are still a bit shy of people but I managed to stroke Halen and they both enjoyed pouncing on the tassel at the end on my schooling whip.

Afterwards I took a full car load of hedge trimmings to the dump and bought some bright blue paint for the garage door which at the moment is a boring brown.

It had been very humid in the morning so the first thing I did, after throwing my clothes in the washing machine, was to have a shower followed by a big mug of tea. I could have gone to sleep at that point but instead I baked a marble cake to go in the freezer and then brushed and scrubbed the garage door and frame in the hope that I will be able to start painting tomorrow.