Friday

I long-reined Echo yesterday, as she had had a couple of days off after being shod. She looked great, although she was very lively! The temperature dropped by about 10 degrees really suddenly and the wind got up, making the trees sway and creak at the far end of the field we long-rein in. I decided to do the trot work fairly early on in the session, to try and tire her out a bit (and tire me out too - trotting on long-reins is exhausting!) which worked well - she was surprisingly calm in trot. Except one time, as we trotted away from the scary Echo-eating trees, she decided she would rather canter. I can't run that fast! She was fine, and I think she had thought that was what she was meant to do, as she came back to trot very willingly!

I think part of what made her a bit wound up was that the section of field at the far end has been fenced off since it was fertilised and now it's open again, the grass is really long and inviting. I had to keep whacking her on the quarters with the long-reins, to make her stop eating and walk on! Greedy pony! She was making me laugh a lot though, which is good. There was a time a few months ago, where her behaving like that would have scared me a bit. But because she is back to her old self in her temperament, the odd silly moment now just seems quite funny.

She's having a day off today because I'm super busy and it's blowing a gale outside. Looking at the forecast, I think I will long-rein her again tomorrow, then ride on Sunday. I'm happier long-reining when it's really windy, as I don't like her getting too tense under saddle - not because I think she'll do anything, but because I don't want her to get sore in her back, which she is quite susceptible to doing.

As I don't really have any more to report, I thought I would take an idea from Twitter for today. I don't use Twitter in a horsey capacity, but I really like the idea of the Follow Friday - so thought I would just share a couple of my favourite blogs that I think you should follow, if you don't already.

One of them is Cat's blog called A Young Horse's Tale, and is all about her young horse Wolfie, who reminds me a lot of Echo. I really identify with how she is training Wolfie and it's great fun to see them progress.

The other blog I have been reading a lot recently is One Friesian Sporthorse, One Percheron and One Donkey. Achieve One Dream, as she is know in the blogging world is training her young horse Chrome  using clicker training. This isn't something I have ever tried, but I love the way she documents her journey with Chrome and I thoroughly recommend you pop over and take a look.