Shedding Season and Sunny Sundays

Apologies who have seen some of these photos on instagram already, I had a wonderful day in the saddle and at the yard.
Sunshine definitely makes everything better - long may it last! In fact I hope winter & the cold we've had this year is gone for good - one can dream & live in delusional lalaland if not I guess. My mental state is not the topic of this post ... so time to get back on track.

Miss Kika brought her A* game today. I have been smiling & smirking to myself all day at the total joy she gave me during our spin. We didn't do anything remotely fancy, but the basics we covered i felt went pretty well considering she hadn't been ridden in two weeks and that previous spin had been pretty darn poor due to a teeny tiny radio that she thought was her undoing.
For whatever reason today everything just ticked over nicely and worked - well so far as I could tell in any case. I hopped straight up without lunging or even bringing the lunging paraphernalia with me as i figured worst come to worst I'd make things work & we'd duke it out if necessary.

When I hopped up today, I decided we were going to go straight to work at the walk - no swanning around on a loose rein for a couple of laps in each direction allowing the brain gremlins to discover something to take issue with. So we walked properly, or tried to - she was all about avoiding the contact by trying to lean one but I kept talking to her in a crazy sing-song voice while playing with the reins and applied leg to get her thinking along the lines i wanted to work on. I was prepared to spend a half an hour walking if that was what it was going to take to keep her calm - but that wasn't the Kika that turned up to work today so on to work we did going through lovely w/t transitions i really tried to work with her to help her keep everything together and get her back on track when she tried to hollow or evade the contact. We did lots of circles and changes of rein before eve tally moving up to some lovely balanced canter work on circles on each rein.

They be shedding like cray
Kika - left / Nancy - right

What impressed me most about Kika today, was just before our canter work, an adorable little grey welshie + tiny tot jockey (well not tiny tiny but between 5 & 7 years of age I'd guess) came in with who i think is the kids mum holding a lunge line. The kid wasn't riding in a saddle, but was on "bareback" with a saddle pad and surcingles for side reins on the pony because the kid is learning vaulting O.o
I thought Kika was going to flip out when the kid managed to stand on the adorable pint-sized pony,  but K impressed me no end and didn't even give them the googly eyes *swoon*
Are you feeling the love i had for this horse today?!

Bringing back the mirror selfie

Nancy was up next and had some big shoes to live up to...we'll that's not fair. I don't compare them as they are two totally different spins and are incomparable in my mind as they are such different personalities and training levels; admittedly my training level and indeed riding ability is pretty poor at best - so i am never in a position to judge...but I digress (again)
However Nancy would have been judged had she tried to dump me - has only happened once in the two years I've owned her and that was our first spin on the beach when the waves lapping the sand blew her mind bless her ♡

I'm sure you'd have been aghast had Nancy even considered seriously putting a toe out of line as it would be completely out of character, so rest assured she has not become a Total Diva like her big sis and N put in a good effort for having had even less arena time than Kika of late; due to my allowing myself off the arena hook to go for strolls in the woods with her if the weather is in anyway dry at the weekend and my inability to find my way into the saddle on weeknights of late. I am honestly hoping to remedy that failure of mine starting this week as it really and truly is not fair on either girl!

Nancy wants the blogosphere to know
she feels over-worked

Nancy would have had to do something nigh on spectacular to dislodge Kika from her pedestal today & N wasn't bothered being sucker into comparisons so we continued our struggles with fishtailing on the left rein (is that when my left hand is on the inside, yes? I have completely confused myself with this of late) - particularly in walk. For whatever reason, she does it less when trotting - but no biggie with more saddle time i hope to sort myself out to help her keep straighter.
I had quickly re-read my last lesson report before going to the yard this morning and remembered the trainers tip about widening my hands and using more leg to funnel Nancy forward and help keep her straight.
Due to her Friesian blood i find this tricky cos I think she curls too much under me and I can feel her coil like a spring at times in her confusion to what i am asking of her but patience and consistency and i am sure we will be right as rain in good time.

Woohoo - rug free turnout

I worked a lot more on w/t transitions than I have I'm recent times and they weren't pretty but baby steps and we will get there. Dressage Queens we are not...but maybe some day as she has nicer gaits than Kika and she finds it easier. So with practice and training with the professionals i am hopeful of having a dancing Diva of my own some day.

Canter was our best achievements today, for the couple of circles we did. Only once did we miss our lead and all others were balanced and controlled with no excited bucking or dolphining to start which means I managed to not sure her with the transition.
I was also super proud of our work into and out of the corners and to change rein across the diagonals. I often struggle with preparing her properly for turns and supporting her through them, so I paid particular attention to these today and am pretty happy with the results.

There is plenty for us still to work on but when I get my shiz together surprisingly things start to tick along a little smoother *spoiler-alert*

I also wanted to say a special thank you to all who read and kindly commented on my previous post. Just getting all that off my chest helped immensely as did owning up to the mind struggles i had towards yard time. The sunshine today undoubtedly helped a great deal too as did the girls good behaviour in welcoming me back to the tack - i feel like I have rediscovered my riding mojo and hope this time it sticks around so we can have some fun as the evenings start getting longer again and hopefully the weather continues to heat up.

Thank you all very much for sticking with me during the doom & gloom of some of my blogposts this winter. I let external stresses spill over into my equine time and affect how i felt about the yard. I am going to refocus my energy on the things i can control and not let my happiness slip away on things outside the remit of what i can control. It may be easier said then done...but if i don't try i will never know right?!