Another "quick" update

Kika is being a dream, have been meaning to update. Work hasn't quietened down enough for me to update as much as i'd like, but I did get to take herself out for a spin Sat (woods), Sun (arena) and Monday (Pole work)!

I am so happy with her at the moment, Tuesday was her day off and i went to the cinema so haven't had seen her since monday evening, but she is being a very good girl and a big pet - affectionate even which she hasn't been for a while and i am not one bit unhappy about,
Saturday we went for a 2 hour hack in the woods with L and her dogs, we even trotted an cantered and went up and down hills which in Kika's bad time back in March led to tantrums at being asked to go down hills as back not up for it, but she is much more chilled out these days - fingers crossed it all continues to go smoothly! Every outing we do in the woods she relaxes sooner on each occasion, helps that we've been able to get out the last few weekends in a row with the same people so repitition definitely helps! Hoping to keep our weekend hacks as a fixture during autumn and winter so that we don't spend the whole time in arenas! The farrier is actually coming this evening and we'll get "special" shoes with tiny little stud type things to help prevent her slipping on the tarmac as she's to walk on "road" back and forth to access the field and to get to the woods. As the situation currently stands with the "normal" shoes she starts slipping after 2 weeks and then slips on and off, getting progressively worse for the next 4 weeks until she gets shod again.
When i say studs, these aren't the ones I have to put in and remove myself, they are little ones that are permanantly on the heels of her shoes and give her better grip when walking on road...or at least that is the plan, seeing as this will be my first time using them I'll have to see how they work!

Sunday we worked just the two of us in an arena, L opted to watch us as she was hanging around but said she'd leave us to it and try not to comment - she did give me some tips but bit her tongue mostly as I'm sure there was plenty more she could have pulled me up on! Mostly she kept correcting me as i've a terrible habit of being on the wrong diagonal when trotting and not realising!
There was another girl trying out a pony in the arena at the same time as we were riding and all the girls in and around her age (it seemed to me) were there to watch and see how she got on so to say there was a bit of a crowd would be a bit of an understatement, i reckon there was about 10 of them at one stage lol, and as they are like myself and horse-mad I am sure they couldn't help but watch/sneak a peak at myself and Kika (I don't mean to sound big headed here, it's just i know i can't help watching horses no matter who's riding them/owns them etc etc). So L was conscious of this and for fear of gossip and so as not to step on the on-site instructors toes we don't advertise the fact that she helps me out sometimes (*ahem* a lot of the time but we act like it's coincidental! )
What was nice actually was that after i finished up a few of the young ones (15-17/18yr olds) were nicely complimentary of Kika and how well she behaved - they have I'm sure been privy to some if not all of the info/gossip surrounding our difficulties over the last 12months - it's a big yard as in there are close to if not more than 100 liveries, but it's still a gossipy/smallish community, again not meaning to sound big headed but seeing as Kika initially started rearing and dumped instructors back in November I can only assume word spread about her antics.

Monday then I finally got back to some pole work with L, we had wanted to work in an indoor but they were all busy so ended up outside under the floodlights which wasn't ideal as some of the lights weren't working so light was a bit of an issue and the main reason why i opted to stick with pole work and not pop actual cross poles or straight bars as lack of light would lead to mistakes and worse case scenario - injuries!
I felt we did some nice work, even though i was a bit hesitent at first about cantering herself as i could feel her getting fizzy and new i didn't really have her full concentration so was worried about an explosion once we moved up a gear. The chicken that i am let L know that i wasn't feeling the canter straight away, I told her i want to do it/but don't want to do it - but that i would do it in my own time. Happy with that she said she knew what i meant, although i'm not sure i really knew what i meant so fair play to her if she could make sense of it, - and when i felt Kika settled to my liking we did a small circle in canter (bad rein) and L was happy and said to continue with our trotting pole work after that. I don't feel i can do justice in describing the excercices she had us doing but it amounted to lots of turning and circling before pole and after, all keeping Kika bending and supple - which when she is not warmed up sufficiently can still cause us problems. Slowly but surely i do feel like we are getting there - hopefully this does come across in my waffling posts!

Now that I've managed to write another novel length post and am later at work than i intended to be, best sign off! I honestly hadn't intended for this post to get this long!
I'd love to get some new pics or more videos as rewards to those who read my long-winded attempts at blogging, but will have to see when i can next find a pair of hands to do the necessary