No News

No real news to report - I'm still waiting on a farrier to be able to put the shoe back on Nancy, she is still not looking great - but better so long as the rain stays away.
I'm seriously thinking about calling my vet out to take bloodtests for both girls (1) to find out if Nancy's yo-yo'ing weight is something more sinister and (2) Kika's coat is not looking great again and I want to keep on top of her Selenium levels/liver this year so that she doesn't end up with a wiry coat like last summer.

Someone pinned this in one of the barns, found it funny - so I had to share!

Although funnily enough, a livery owner has a horse called Descartes on the yard and he spooks at nothing! As Alanis Morisette would say "Isn't it Ironic"

In more positive news I had another great spin on Kika last night, we shared the main arena with two others - so I got full use of the wall of mirrors which can only help!
We got some lovely w/t/c, lots of transitions between the three gaits, changes of rein & serpentines. Our large circles were good, but when I worked on a smaller spiralling-in circle, really focusing on using the aids correctly (namely outside hand/inside leg as opposed to my usual & incorerect inside hand/inside leg) we kind of bombed on the right rein - Kika's & my bad side...to be worked on, preferably with the Guru if we can before I go making a mess of things, ;-)
Although from my non-educated view I reckon where I am going wrong is my left (outside) rein is supposed to hold her on our line while my outside leg is supposed to hold her steady and prevent her from sneaking out into a larger circle than the course I am asking for...methinks my left side needs a lot of work to strengthen up and prevent this from occurring!
We worked a little on lateral movement towards the mirrors so that I could check we were doing it right, as K loves nothing more than an excuse to try and cheat & not use her backside whens he can get away with it - more often than I would like as I can't always feel when she is right/wrong - hence why i need the mirrors & eyes on the ground, ;-)
We did a fair bit of canter work, striking off correctly (including walk to canter transitions), large & small circles and really holding it all together to get her to use herself properly - well that was the thinking, whether I accomplished it correctly I am not sure as I didn't have anyone on the ground to tell me whether I was right or wrong.
We finished up with some lovely long & low swinging trot that felt so good to ride! One of my goals for next arena spin is to accomplish this trot a lot earlier then our cool down...something to work towards as she has a habit of being choppy & short in her early trot work which we are always trying to get her to relax more into and lengthen her stride to really use herself.

However plan for this evening is a break from arena work and go for a hack in the woods with the Guru (L), her mare O and the dogs! :D