Winter Depression

Booo, i hate winter!!

All with Olivia is well, but motivation is sooo low when I can only see her twice a week, and both those times its grey and cold and rainy and miserable :( . And whats really awful, is that if I wish summer to come faster that means my stupid STUPID exams are coming faster !!!

WHAT WAS I THINKING thaking Chemistry and Biology ?!!!??

Obviously, my mood is affecting my sessions with Olivia. They aren't going badly at all, but they could be a lot better. One thing thats annoying, is the lack of ANYTHING to play with in the school. There are loads of poles, but they are really heavy to move around and to be honest, there is only so much you can do with a pole. And then there are the jump wings, but they are all soo tall that the rope gets caught on them, and then Olivia gets confused when she yields to the pressure of the rope (realllyy nicely,) but I wanted her to keep going forward, and its a bit of a mess!!!

On Saterday I will talk to the yard owner, and ask if we can buy some plastic barrels, but then theres the whole problem with buying them (suprisingly enough they aren't readily available in one of the biggest cities in the world). BOO HOO JO !!

So anyway, I've been doing a lot of driving from zone 5, and I've introduced trotting. Transitions are really nice, but when we begin backing up she always starts to swing her hind quaters away, but we are slowly working on it. Sideways is also coming on really nicely, although every session we have to *almost* start again. Not to worry, its coming slowly!

Last week I was reading an old thread about stick to me on the savvy club site, and after watching some you tube demonstations I've sort of improvised, and am teaching Olivia my version. Again, we are using LOTS of transitions to get her really listening and focused.

So even though everything is very slowly coming together, sometimes I watch youtube videos and just wonder WHYYYY haven't I got there yet !!!?? The problem with me is sometimes I am just waaayy too goal orientated, but then I never have a plan of action. I sort of expect it to happen.... I suppose I can just hope that in 6 months/a year I'll be looking back on this and be like, ACTUALLY, I can do some pretty amazing stuff :)


OHHH one thing, at the stables I had just bought Olivia in from the fields, and was chatting to some of the girls, and Olivia had her head down and stepped on the ropes. One girl goes 'OMG WATCH OUT!' and by the time I'd turned around to see what happened, Olivia had just felt the pressure and stepped off the rope. The response? 'Woooww, thats soo cool! My horse would have freaked!!'

How proud am I??

Over and out, after that ridicuoulosly long post!
Jo & Olivia x