Different day, different horse! But then I didn't wake up feeling at all anxious or worried either. Played in the playground with Sandra and Bert. B was soft and relaxed with no braciness at all. Lots of circle game, travelling circles, fig 8 without cones and z5 driving all the way across the field to the apple tree for an apple and back again.
Saddled up at liberty in B's stable! She stood still and relaxed totally with a very soft expression. Online over the road where I got on in the pub car park and with a huge local riding school ride gathered in the car park. No thresholds and we set off down the mile and 1/4 for the big squeeze game. B had a couple of shocks as golfers teed off. the noise sends a zap through her body but her feet stay still lol. Further on she needed to move her feet so we trotted but it wasn't very relaxed. I knew there must be someone coming up behind because B was tense and asking to look behind. Eventually they came past and B then took the lead for a long time which was lovely. Gives Bert a rest and we get to set the pace which is a little faster than Bert would go normally. Up the hill together in a very nice relaxed walk. At the top B felt the pressure of the big ride hoofing it up the hill behind us which made her need to move her feet. Lots of weave etc as we headed for home passing some girls from the yard. B has to stop and stare at them just to see who it is, then carry on lol.
Unsaddling was better than ever. Usually B's withers are so sensitive she hates the saddle being taken off and shivers really badly. Today she didn't flinch or step back and as we were by the shed she got to eat haylage fresh from the bale. Back in her stable we had a little conversation about brushing her sweat off and doing her feet. I interrupted the pattern of storming around the stable and she relaxed.
This week has been challenging but we had Terrific Tuesday and Super Sunday! I wonder if next week I can improve on two really good days?

Terrific Tuesday.

Some of the fencing is down in the arena in preparation for the makeover. I thought that might make things interesting today. Lots of gaps for a horse to exit from! I've been watching the latest Parelli dvd which is Mikey's Project. It has taken me weeks to find the time to see it and it was worth the wait. We were already halfway there and been following along the same ideas already but it's great to have a reminder of focus. One of the things I am good at is being provocative and interesting to B when we play. I get bored more easily than she does lol. So purpose has always been important for me. We have worked through her RBE terror and lack of focus, unconfidence and behavioral issues to a great degree of success so it's time to increase the savvy level. This is where I see us progressing out of level 2 and into 3 now and I am loving it. We are making words and short sentences now having got our ABC's pretty good.

B continues to be LB for which I am grateful but it does mean she is really trying to assert some dominance and be challenging in other ways. I am very happy to say my sense of humour and patience are limitless these days and knowing what exactly I am looking for from B helps. Expect a lot, accept a little and reward the slightest try.

This is a typical pose of B's at the moment. It says 'No! I don't want to!' Unlike a LBI she doesn't add 'make me'. Instead she will brace and try to back up then if the pressure isn't taken off explode and go RBE. She no longer sticks her head up as high as she can and I don't see much white of her eye. I have to really shut my energy down and focus on my draw and we start again after B has a rest and a scratch. It gets less extreme over time and we are continuing to play with 'going there' and then learning how to come back. We can actually play 'lets not go there' too these days. Like with extreme friendly which is coming on really well. Although she isn't totally calm about it some of the time she isn't going crazy any more.
We have been concentrating on playing some of the seven games a bit closer lately. This is in preparation for more liberty and it is paying off. Now that B is calmer and more confident she doesn't need so much drift. Today we played extreme friendly very close from z3 which initially B found very difficult. So we play the game of if you move please go back to where you were before you moved. I am learning to be very precise and persistent about this and actually I really enjoy it. B gets very annoyed with me sometimes and twice today she braced and wanted to run backwards. I have to be really, really careful not to brace and give her all the slack in the rope she needs. Interesting how she needs less and less rope each time. Sometimes she will paw the ground but pretty soon she stops moving and we can move on to the next thing.
Which today was saddling. I did think maybe we wouldn't ride as time just slips away when we are playing. But B only fidgeted a little and soon decided it was a better idea to stand still and give me permission to saddle her. Same with getting on. She didn't want to stand by my steps but after two or three circles she stood like a statue, watching me get on. She offered lateral flexion and we hung out and relaxed. I don't know who benefits from this more, me or B lol. Such a big issue for me. My butterflies can break formation and scatter in a nanosecond! We hung out, I checked my seat and relaxed some more and we set off for the nearest obstacle to play touch it. Then back again and rest. Did this a couple of times then B decided it was time to explore and leave the arena. Ok by me and we went for a mosey, passing by the mini goat who usually tries to headbutt B while she plays driving game with him.
We stopped off by my shed and B stepped in to eat a bit of haylage while I chatted to Steph. That gave us a chance to play with some back up and then go back to the arena. B didn't brace and seemed very happy to be a partner. I kept the session short and once we were back in the arena I got off. This gave B a chance to relax even more and eat some grass too.

I long for the days when we can progress some more and ride for longer. I have pushed us both too quickly in the recent past and we had to go back to the beginning again. These baby steps, which actually are giant leaps for us, are going really well. Both mine and B's confidence is building. I am so pleased and proud of how calm we are. A little bit astonished at how I can do this on my own. So nice to have that independence, although Pat, Linda and Claire are in my head lol.

Stoneleigh in my head.

I wanted to asses our broken relationship today after our challenging weekend. Sandra and I hired a horsebox for the weekend with a plan to go to a local park Saturday and then the sponsored charity ride Sunday. Bert and B loaded really nicely. We set off in the boiling heat to Trent Park only to discover a height restriction had been put in at the entrance and we couldn't get in! We drove to other entrances but no access could be found. After 2 hours of driving around in traffic we arrived back home and unloaded two hot and sweaty, bewildered horses.
Sunday I woke up feeling nervous and anxious. B must have picked up on that because she just point blank refused to load. I gave up after an hour. I was very upset and frustrated, more so about possibly having broken our relationship than anything else. Although spending all that money for what seems like nothing hurts! I took Sandra and Bert anyway. I had a nice rest under a tree and actually was glad \I missed a fraught hot ride.


Gave B the day off yesterday and noted she was very easy and polite with me. Somehow I expected her to be a bit off with me. She is more bracy than usual and I am having to be very observant and be particular about my leadership. She is constantly testing me in very tiny, subtle ways at the moment. I go to groom her she steps away, so I ask her to step back to where she was. This happens all the time now so I suspect our relationship is about to change again.
Had the opportunity to go and play in the field set aside for play/schooling for the first time today. Will have to give it a name, something amusing I think. I am just going to think about it as my field for now. My playground. My mini Stoneleigh lol. 
Anyway. Friendly and porcupine game a bit off. B was quite RB to begin with, not surprising as she has never been here before. She is very unconfident in new surroundings. Lovely to see her look to me for reassurance and comfort. We walked around for a while, she was snorting and blowing at the cross country jumps but she popped over all of them. I think moving her feet helped a lot at the start although it does bring her life up but RB switched to LB, eating grass and dominant. Lots of snaky head and change of direction on the circle game. I matched her energy which made me laugh and B look surprised. 

Very unrelaxed trot but lots of canter which wasn't emotional. Great time to work on B's emotional fitness. Lost the rope once and jumped on it to stop her leaving which resulted in her bracing and throwing her head up. Lots of trot to me to follow that and improve my draw. Lovely falling leaf in trot, travelling circles, rolling rock. So glad I didn't want to ride today. B was not ridable at any point. Marvelous to play in the huge field and be left alone. I could almost imagine being back at Stoneleigh and it made me feel very free. Refreshing to see the yard from a totally different view point. Four years of the same scenery can get stale. I liked the change of a view a lot. The weather was excellent, cloudy with a cooling breeze. Perfect!