Sunday 16th March

Today I went out to play with Blossom, I saddled her straight away so we could play more with the saddle on. She was really good and the saddle didn’t seem to bother her much. Where as before she was less confident and more impulsive when I played with her with the saddle on.

We started with some yo yo’s she only went squint once on the first yo yo, but on the second she went straight back and went slightly quicker than she normally does which was good to see. We then played with the circling game and again didn’t try anything fancy, just worked on the draw after disengaging her, which was much better than it has been. She had less hesitation than she has done and came in with just a suggestion, which is lovely to see again!

We then played with sideways again at the fence. To the right was really good and we got nearly the full length of the fence, but to the left she was still not so sure but we did get a few nice steps. I then got her to go to the right a few steps back from the fence so she doesn’t rely on the fence to stop her going forward; we got a few nice steps. So quite an improvement today!

I then got on her and we went for a walk round the field she was nice and relaxed so I thought I would try and ask for a few strides of trot then stop her before she got impulsive. This worked a couple of times and I got some really nice trots, but most of the time after just one stride the impulsion kicked in and I had to bend her to a stop. But she is getting better and it takes less each time after bending her for her to relax again.