Terris workshop 26th June 2010

Well, here I am writing on 7th September!

Not a lot has happened, however, apart from the above weekend as I had to take a break from Duncs over the holidays due to my Philpots work, building work prep and having Ed around.

We took D over on the Friday evening - late! He loaded great - S talked me through as I'm still a bit wary loading. Felt good to do it myself. Funnily enough, I'm always fine loading to go home! I suppose it's general nerves/excitement over the activity to come.

Got there about 9ish on the Saturday and a day of fun ensued! I can't now remember everything we did but a few things stand out:

• D was a lot calmer than on previous excursions
• I got to ride!!!
• D was unconfident away from the other horses (e.g. in school when another horse left)
• He was unconfident about me mounting - until I put the bridle on (?!)
• I did not like riding with very long reins!!
• I don't know how to do zone 5 driving with only 1 line!

So, to comment on the above randomly; top - of course - was getting to ride which I did in one of the round pens after lunch. I even trotted round on a long rein (T threatened to take them off if I held them short which was definitely an effective phase 4 threat for me!)

What was very weird was, before lunch, I sat on D and he felt so tense and braced I didn't dare ask him to move!! Just sat and rubbed and chilled. After lunch I asked if I could put the bridle on and T agreed (but not without question, quite rightly). What a difference. D was so much more relaxed that I walked and trotted in the pen and even came out and rode round with all the others! Now, I figure the possible reasons for this are:

1. It is all in my mind. I'm the one who relaxes when the bridle is on!
2. D knows what is expected when the bridle is on
3. D is actually not that happy in the bridle & fiddles with it constantly which provides a distraction from what I'm doing!

I actually reckon that it's all three. You might think I was unhappy with this, particularly 1 & 3 above, and ought to persevere with the hackamore but, as safety is my absolute number one priority, I am going to carry on with the bridle until we're both relaxed enough to dispense with it! I've obviously got to watch my contact though!!

I had a great time and went back sun to pick D up. It was boiling hot and, although I'd planned to have a play, I didn't have the energy or inclination so back home we came.

I'm trying to think what I did after this clinic , nothing I think as, by the time the second workshop was coming round (26th July), I'd barely had time to touch D and was getting stressed about lack of prep. In the end I decided to cancel and felt a lot better for deciding to put D on the back burner until after the summer hols.