It’s still bloody raining. Every time I think it’s about to dry up a bit it fails to do so. I’m proper fucking fed up of it now and the schools are so wet that they aren’t draining quickly even if the rain does let up for a couple of days. This has made it really hard to ride much; Dino just hates the soft ground in the school. We have however been doing some great work on the lunge, with loads of transitions, with and without side reins and I feel like he’s beginning to build up so enthusiasm for moving a bit without a rider at least!

I would like to do some more liberty and free schooling work, but again I can’t do this until the ground dries out. I’m really hoping spring turns up soon! I have been building little bits of canter up, and even did some walk to canter on the lunge yesterday which was awesome! We’ll be building that up over the next couple of weeks.

I went to help my friend Virginia out at her first ever dressage competition on Saturday and it really made me want to get back in the ring. She won her class which is more than we will ever do, LOL.

Here they are after their winning round!

After the one perfect day of school surface, the rains return and we’re back to it being too squelchy underfoot for Dino’s comfort. Ah well. Sunday we had a couple of hours of hail and strong winds which was just delightful! Seems like someone accidentally got Dino with the electric fencing…he’s being super careful to avoid the gate which is funny in a way but I feel sorry for him as he’s clearly worried. Poor pony. He wouldn’t even come close to the gate for a treat yesterday!

We did do some loose schooling for the first time in ages last week which I am going to try and do more of. I think he enjoys it and it takes the pressure off a bit. I would like to get popping some fences again but the ground needs to be improved first. Here’s hoping the weather dries up a bit soon.

We had a great lesson with Katie this morning. We’ve really been struggling to feel like we’re making any progress with the school surface being really too soft for him the past few weeks and the weather being awful. The surface is perfect this morning though, as the temperature has dropped, and he was so much better. Katie said he looked happier and more confident and he was just able to give a bit more when asked which was great. Still just transitions but including more canter (but only a few strides) and half transitions from trot to almost walk. Need to play about a bit really and use the corners to start working on bend but not too worried about that at the moment.

I lunged him with side reins on on Monday which I think was helpful too just to get him used to moving into a contact a bit and beginning to find his own balance. So I feel like things are moving forward which is great!

Did I mention about how much I hate this rain? Really bored now. It’s really hard to get any consistent work done as the surface in the school is so squidgy and weather makes me feel sad and unmotivated. Ah well. Spring soon? Maybe?

Pony is still beautiful <3

We’ve had another slow week in many ways but there’s been a lot of routine stuff ticked off. He’s had his jabs for another year and his teeth checked. They seem ok, although as ever we fear we might have trouble in the future due to the uneven wear of the teeth around the gap. Nothing we can do about that so we’ll just have to keep on top of it but it might mean we lose teeth a bit down the line. He’s fine at the moment though.

David, the osteopath, was back out and he’s pleased with his progress! There is some stiffness in the left hip but only a bit that needed tweaking which is amazing compared to where we were!!! So that’s good news. And he’s had his feet trimmed. All good there too.

This week is supposed to be cold, but dry. I need to try and make this a decent riding week; Katie will out on Wednesday for our next lesson and I would like to have made some progress. I’m going to try lunging him with his saddle and bit on today before riding him to see if that helps get him moving at all. Watch this space?