This week..

Oops not updated as much as I would have liked. Got a lot of uni work on. Bleurgh.

Tuesday..
We had our lesson in the morning. It was the hardest lesson yet. Cara wants me to get her working in an outline in walk now. Little ponio doesn't understand what I want her to do and I feel a bit useless. I need to relax more through my shoulders and arms whilst getting her more balanced with my legs. As soon as she drops I need to release the strong contact and take my legs off. I'm finding it really difficult but I know it should come with time. Thing is, Cara got on and within a few mins she had her going in an outline. Ok so it wasn't a constant one and didn't look very comfortable but she had it and maintained it. I can't seem to get her to that stage at the moment. It was great seeing someone who can actually ride ride her though. She looked so beautiful in an outline :) A proper horsey.

After the lesson we walked down to Ben's farm on our own. It was a lovely day and Saffy was foot perfect. She seemed to really enjoy our little trip :)

Wednesday...
I tried to practice what we'd done in our lesson but she was having none of it. She dropped down once in walk but she was getting really frustrated after a while so I moved on to practise the dressage tests. She was a very good girl, just need to make sure I keep the impulsion all the way round. I was disappointed I couldn't get her in an outline more in walk but she'd done it once so better than not at all.

After that I took her down the road towards the main road. I was going to try her on the main road on our own but she started to tense up when we got there so decided not to risk it. Glad I did in the end when I realised the playground by the road was full of screaming kids! Instead I took her back up to the farm, went past it and then went down Gorsey (very steep road..30% gradient in parts!) and back up again. It was the furthest we've been on our own and she was very good. It's a massive workout for her so when we got back she was soaked with sweat bless her. Will be very good for getting her fit and working her back though.

Thursday..
Day off for Saffy but not for mummy. Driving lesson, uni work, lecture, tutorial, work.

Friday..
I decided to lunge her because we hadn't had a lunging session for about 3 weeks now. I put elastic side reins on for the first time. I started with them very loose while she was warming up. Once she'd had a warm up in both directions I tightened them up a bit. They were attached low on the girth to encourage her to drop her head and they were loose enough so that she could drop her head as low as she wanted but not put it up too much. She walked on perfectly. Took her a minute to realise she was meant to be going forward and that the pressure on the bit didn't mean slow down. She then proceeded to walk around with her head in a lovely position :) I made sure she was working properly from behind and the whole picture was great. I'm going to do this more often now to get her used to working with her head in that position.

I got on her and did a little bit of canter. For some reason she was striking off on the wrong leg on the left rein. That hasn't been a problem of late so don't know what caused that. Hopefully it's just a one-off. I took her down the road to Ben's again to drop off my straw money and again she was great. She went past a tractor and roller making loads of noise without batting an eyelid but refused to go past a guy up some scaffolding. I got off and head her past no problem. She was fine on the way back. Daft pony.

Saturday..
I intended to jump but the weather's been miserable so I just did my jobs and gave her her tea. Will hopefully be able to jump tomorrow though. I'm going to set up a double to see how she is with those. Excited!