Weekend Report

Saturday L kindly offered to be my eyes on the ground as i rode and gave me plenty more pointers to work on. Kika was under saddle for a good hour, L said while I've improved a lot, i have started twisting again in the saddle, my hands are too hard in canter which is why Kika can't always relax into the movement and I've to stop gripping with my knees...as always useful tips to work on when I attempt to school myself.
There was a complete disconnect between my brain's requests and what my legs were doing (or not as the case may be) towards the end so L hopped up for 15-20mins to help Kika finish on a good note as I was pretty useless at that stage and didn't want Kika to finish off confused with what was wanted from her.
Another lesson for me to work on is continued contact with my legs - so much of my poor riding revolves around my lack of leg use. I still rely too much on my hands, not to self - must strengthen my legs!

We then took Kika, O and L's two dogs for a hand-walk on one of the wood trails, then hand-grazed the beasties for 20-30mins in preparation for them going out full-time next month.

Sunday I had hoped to do pole work with Kika in the dressage saddle, however I'd slightly tweaked my back jumping on Wednesday and the lesson on Sat had kind of aggravated matters so I decided against riding yesterday and gave Kika a spin in the pessoa as we hadn't had a lunge session for a what seemed like ages but was probably 2 weeks tops.

I let the big dummy loose in the small arena for a roll while i sorted out her stable for the night, only to find the silly sod cast when I got back 10mins later to bring her in!
With help from bodies around the yard we managed to help her sort herself out and get back on her feet. I led her around for a little bit to see that all was in working order, brushed her off and popped her back in the stable.
Thankfully she remained calm and let us help her sort herself out!

I'll be heading out to the yard now at lunchtime to let O out and check that Miss Houdini is alright for the afternoon - she is now under Stable-Arrest as I can no longer trust her to stay in the field...Plan is to ride this evening, but this is pending how she moves today and how my back feels after the day's work. It's not great now, but hopefully the movement of dashing to the barn and back at lunchtime will help loosen things out - that and usually a quiet spin in the saddle helps me unwind in such situations - but shall take care of myself and Kika. We have all the time in the world as we are not aiming for anything specific so a few days to make sure we are both right won't hurt us as much as forcing things when we are wrong!