Saturday 24th November

Today Myself, Kris and Hazel booked drummohr indoor school for a couple of hours as the weather wasn't great.
I started with warming Blossom up using the seven games on a 12ft rope, she was really good and listening to me more than I thought she would have with the distraction of the other ponies. Hazel then set us a challenge, I had to stand in a hula hoop with Blossom in front of me then back her a way from me then send her around the cones doing a figure of eight. I had never done this before so I found it quite difficult - it took a few attempts going round the cones until we both got the idea. It was good fun though. The next challenge I set, I've not got a great imagination yet so my task was to get your horse to put a foot in the hula hoop. Again I had never done this before, so it was going to be a challenge for us. Blossom didn't really understand what it was she was to do for this task, she would be standing in front of it and then look at me then try and come to me so I would just drive her away from me in zone 1 until she was back in front on the hula hoop. I didn't know what to do to help her so I cheated - I put the rope around her leg and lifted her leg into the hula hoop. Well I set the task so I guess I get to make the rules too.. Hazel went next and backed Bruce into the hula hoop, I never thought about doing it like that so that gave me an idea to try that with Blossom another day. Kris set the next task, you had to stand in the hula hoop and get your horse to back through the cones so they finished on the opposite side than they started then bring them back to you. For this task I had to put Blossom on the 22ft rope so she could go far enough back to do the task - this was going to be a challenge in itself. It went better than I expected it too, instead of backing through the cones we kind of went back straight then sideways through the cones so we were on the other side. I was really happy that we managed to even to do that, it didn't look as good as Kris and Hazel's but for my level I was really happy that we could do that!!

We then moved on to riding, Kris let me try her bareback pad on Blossom. It was really good and I felt more secure riding with that on than I do bareback. I started with just walking round and then asking for lateral flexion, she was really good and stayed calm so I would ask for a few strides of trot then back to walk again. I then done a little work on my 9 step back up, she was good and would give me a couple of steps backwards. Once she gets more confident doing this I will start asking for a little more. Kris then got me to do a a bit of carrot stick riding, working on direct and indirect reins - Poor Kris was trying to help me with this but I was getting myself all confused!! By the end I got the idea direct was moving the front end and indirect was moving the back end - I bet I have got it mixed up again!! Hazel then tried to help me get Blossom moving sideways with me on her. I had to turn my foot where I wanted to go, look were I wanted to go and apply some pressure with the other leg. Hazel and Kris were great helping me with this.. Hazel had Bruce on my right the direction we were trying to go and moved him sideways and Kirs was on the other side with Iona moving her sideways towards Blossom to encourage her to go sideways. She managed a few steps, which I was so proud of her. Hazel then offered to work on sideways on the ground with Blossom and give me a go of riding Bruce. He was so light and easy to ride, and moved sideways with me just looking in the direction I wanted to go. It was great to feel what it is meant to be like and gave me a fell for what I want Blossom to be like.

Overall it was a great day out and I learnt loads!! It gave me so many new ideas to try with Blossom and let me know what areas need more work and what we can do now.
Thanks Kris and Hazel for all your help!!