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!