Growing Up

I think that's what Olivia is doing. She's beginning to mature and grow out of her silly ways a little.. She still throws tantrums but they aren't temper tantrums, and she's much more willing to cooperate than she has been. This weekend has been an absalote pleasure to spend with her, and shes really made my days !!

We can begin a session now and straight away she finds her comfy trot AND canter. Both online and freestyle. So I began to play with monkey riding at the canter, which so far she won't relax into it, but I'm just waiting for her to stop fiddling with her tongue so much when she feels the concentrated rein. I'm going to re-emphasize the monkey riding at a trot a lot as well, so that she remembers the feeling and will find it easier to transfer into the canter.

Yesterday my brother had a little ride, and I was really impressed with how she responded. He has ridden before, but just jumping on his friends horse in Poland, going for a bomb round the country side and coming home, so position, relaxation and calmness isn't very important for him. He picked up fairly quickly, and I think he was pretty impressed when I told him to 'stop his body and sit deep' and wooaah, Olivia came to a halt :) I'm so proud of my pony!

Today she was in a bit of a sluggish mood, so we played with our porcupine game and some transitions online. Her hindend yields are very ball-like, she just flows straight away from my fingers, every now and again breaking contact. But her front end yield and sideways yield is a bit rubbish. Something to do with being a LBI, she likes having that neck to porcupine/drive ME away, so she ain't to impressed when I play the same game with her. Transitions were beautiful, and I had a few circles around me at the walk without a single attempt to change direction or gait, which is a big thing for us because she finds walking aimlessly (as it kind of is in a circle) quite boring. What a star!

I have loads of photos from Saterday, here are some I picked out:

excuse the sun, I just love the way she looks in this photo. Totally loose and relaxed




very few corrections on the bullseye




my brother riding


standing on top of a horse, and yet he still must pose for the picture!


so i decided I want a posed picture too :)

Photos

Larissa sent me some photos from the Bissell Wood course today, which is awesome! I put some up on my facebook page, so if you would like to see just add me as a friend

I would add them on here, but I'm so busy at the mintue I barely have time to write this :P

sadly, the follow on course at Bissell Wood next year is at the end of May, which is smack bang in the middle of my exams meaning there is absalotely no way I can go. It sucks, but sometimes life chucks these things at you and I'm sure its because theres something much better around the corner which will benefit me and Olivia even more :) Positive thinking, aye!

Don't be shy of adding me though :) xx

And so it begins...

The beginning of the end. My god it's scary, daunting, fullfilling and exciting at the same time. We are well into the school term now and teachers are feeling confident to give us ridiculous amounts of homework. I have actually forgotten what my horse looks like since I haven't seen her in so long :(

Last Sunday she was a little star when I just did about 15minutes of online with her, just warming up to ride. By the time I got round to riding her, the horses had been bought in from the fields and we were alone at the school. That freaked her out quite a bit. I spent the whole session practising our lateral flexion until she relaxed, and she eventually did chill out. Her tongue was going crazy with its silly licking thing though, so I know she wasn't confident, its something I've got to work on, but it's hard because I don't know when other people will be using the school, so it's just luck (or unluck) if one day we turn out to be on our own.

If we had a graph of our progress, I reckon that we are a stable line going across, so increase or decrease at the moment. I wouldn't except anything else since we have so little time together, but its so frustrating because after a massive 'up' in our savvy over summer I really don't want to be pottering about at the same level. It's important for us to do this though, get our feet on the ground and heads out of the clouds before we shoot for the stars again :)

Hopefully pictures soon xx

What happened to time ?!

I can't actually believe I haven't posted since I got back from Turkey. It's like every single second has been jam packed.

I had a brilliant holiday, got nice and tanned, and am safely back in chilly UK. Olivia is fantastic, she really couldn't be better. I'm gutted I have so little time to work with her because just before school started we really started to accelerate our learning.

But now its my final year of school, which means from now until October is packed full of university applications, personal statement etc. And then its packing everything in for the a levels at the end of the year. So literally all I got at the minute is weekends. And even then its not great because 8 - 2 I'm working and really tierd by the time I can do work with her. But oh well.

Good news, we went to see a car the other day and we've put a deposit on it and its coming home next week YAYYY!! Its a 2006 little black polo, super cute. I've got lessons planned and hopefully I'll find a minute to book my theory. My goal is to pass before christmas, and then I can go to Olivia every day.

So theres a super rushed update on my life, its 9:20 pm and I'm shattered and rushing this.

Hopefully I'll be able to get someone to take some photos soon, and hope you're all progressing well !

Jo and Olivia xx