A Horsey Weekend

I have had a lovely horsey weekend with confidence boosts galore!  On Saturday we didn't get to the farm very early as Jasmine had had a night out on Friday and was somewhat hung-over.  So much so that she wasn't up for riding (!!!)  So, I thought I would take Santana in the school for a change.  I don't go in there often because he finds all kinds of unlikely things to spook at.  Lily was already in the school and I waited for a bit hoping they would finish.  Lily is fab and extremely well schooled, but she has her moments!  I decided to bite the bullet and go in with Lily.  We took one end of the school each and Santana didn't bat an eyelid.  We started just walking and then moved up to trot.  Our field gate is right beside the school and people came through with horses and dogs and still Santana didn't even glance at them.  He listened to me and kept on going, doing whatever I asked of him.  We changed pace from walk to trot and back again and trot to halt and he was just fabulous!  I even managed to canter a couple of times - we cantered two circles, back to trot for one circle and canter again for another - a lovely controlled, but active canter.  I was so pleased with him that I called it a day after that and walked him round the farm field to cool off.

We're still only cantering left handed because I don't want to get into an argument with him about which leg he should strike off on.  We can sort that out later when I have some more lessons.

Today (Sunday), we went to the farm intending to just have a walk around the farm fields, but some of the others were going on a hack to the pub and back.  We thought that sounded like a better option and tagged along with them.  On the way out a shotgun went off quite close to us which made Santana jump and then he tried to bomb off, but I got hold of him before he could go anywhere.  I'm getting much better at not clinging to him like a limpet when he does that - I can sit back and bring him back to me and it doesn't worry me now.

After our drinkie at the pub we went to get back on using the bench in the playing field behind the pub as a mounting block and a family started running about trying to launch a kite.   Not a very horse friendly activity, but they stopped when we asked them to whilst we got back on.  Santana couldn't wait to get off the field though and pranced his way out of the pub carpark!  

I have a day off tomorrow and I think a bit of tack cleaning might be needed as it hasn't been done for a while now.  I might even ride again too! :D

No new photos this weekend so thought I'd add a nice one from back in the summer.

Santana and Sonny