Bring on 2018!

This is what it looks like at Dino’s house today, consequently I won’t be able to get there! Happily the yard staff were able to so he’ll be rugged up in his big coat and out to play in the snow!

He still seems stiff to me, although I think it’s improving a little. David will be back out on Thursday to get a proper assessment. Emma was supposed to be out today but that’s not happening as she’s snowed in so saddle check postponed to next Sunday. Hopefully the weather will be more amenable!

Yesterday though we had our first lesson with Katie Dartnell. I was a bit anxious about finding a new instructor but I think I need some help keeping this hip working correctly and Katie is a dressage coach who is based literally 2 mins down the road. After a bit of a rocky start (she was late due to car trouble!) we had a useful session. I think her outlook is pretty compatible with mine. We have some homework for the next two weeks and we’ll take it from there… We’re starting to work on good quality progressive transitions into a bit more of a contact than we’re used to. Not a very heavy rein but into something to begin to get him to step into a transition and bring his legs under himself a bit. 100 transitions a ride! We don’t need to worry too much about pace and impulsion at the moment; she seemed sympathetic to his internalised anxiety and so we’ll try to build his confidence into a contact and ask for incremental increases in stride until we get where we want. Was looking forward to practicing today…but I’m having a snow day!

We have been doing much better with the grooming/clicker stuff. Here’s some video from yesterday. Feet much more in contact with the floor!

Watch on YouTube