Hmm, I'm not quite sure what to say.
I suppose I should start with why this blog is called, 'The 2 L's,' if you haven't already worked it out for yourself.
Well, one L obviously stands for 'Livvy' and the other for 'Laddie.' Well there you go, that was simple enough.
So what about Laddie?
While Alex was away in France, I went down pretty much everyday, which was nice, because it sort of felt like we were making up for the time when I was in Greece. It also gave me a chance to 'get to know him' a bit better, and for him to get used to me, as well as the other way around.
Well, when my friend Charley and I got down on the first Monday Alex was away, we found that he had a nasty cut on his back, and another on his leg. It turned out they had already been checked out and treated, so we just took him out to graze for a while which was nice for him.
Then, on the Tuesday, they told us that he was nearly back to his old self-the wounds were healing nicely, and that it would be absolutely fine to ride him, just not for too long. We did about twenty minutes flatwork, which was actually surprisingly tiring. He wasn't in any discomfort, but me, being my paranoid self, didn't want to risk making it worse, so we stopped after about twenty minutes.
On the Wednesday, my Grandma came down to watch me, so I felt a bit... under pressure? That's not really the right word, but I felt a bit nervous. She's very sort of, 'Oh my god!!!! Don't jump!! Oh my, he's walking, is he supposed to do that?! Don't fall off when I'm watching!!!' So yeah. We did flatwork again. About ten minutes before we finished, I took off his saddle and did a bit of bareback. Apparently nobody had really ridden him bareback before, so I didn't really know what to expect. It was quite different- I could actually feel him working, and his spine is the boniest thing on this planet, it wasn't nice to trot. I did canter a little, but not much as it was the most bizarre feeling (and quite uncomfortable when he went from canter to trot. Ouch!!)
On the Thursday, Charley accompanied me down to the yard again and they said that he was back to his normal self. I got lazy and actually couldn't be bothered with the saddle to start, so we went without. After warming up, and doing more flatwork, we decided to head in to the field where the jumps were set up. Charley shoved it down to the smallest cross pole and I went over it. It was quite uncomfy. Then, I did it again, at the same height, and he stopped as soon as he landed and sort of 'pranced' and went in to the fence. I just bounced right off the side. After that, we got the saddle out. He basically walked the cross poles, and stared at the middle jump as if we were taking the mickey out of him. When it got to tops, he absolutely flew. His owner said he loved jumping, and he actually does. One time, he did shove his head down right after and I fell off, again which was a bit gutting, and I didn't really have the motivation to continue.
After that, Alex was back.
The first time we went down together was yesterday, [30th August] and she decided to give me a flatwork lesson with no sirrups. I don't think my body has ever felt so much pain. Alex is actually a very good teacher. She's blunt, she tells me what I'm doing wrong [and right] and she isn't scared to yell at me, so it was all good really. We have established that I have a big hand problem, and need to sit back a bit more. After the flatwork 'lesson', in which we worked on outline, she took off the saddle [again] and told me to go over a jump, and that 'it would be funny if I fell off. :D' so off we went over a very, very, very, very small jump. When I say very small, I mean it. It actually went quite smoothly. I still can't understand how people can jump up to four ft without a saddle. Isn't is painful?
Today, [31st August], Alex wanted to work on jumping. She wanted to get my old [apparently 'good'] position back, and she wanted to stop me moving my hands. Which was easier said than done. She also wanted to do it in a double, which I hate because whenever I do them, I always end up over the handle bars. Considering, it went okay. Towards the end, he started taking the piss slightly and would try to duck out at the second jump. At this point, I was all ready to give up, but Alex just went, 'YOU ARE NOT FINISHING LIKE THAT. HE WILL JUMP IT.' So I didn't really have a say in the matter. ;)
In the end, we did jump it, so I am glad that she made me do it, because it meant we ended on a good note and not a bad one.
After that, Laddie was all nice and sweaty, so, because it was such a nice day, we decided to give him a bath. He had dried in under half an hour, so we sat in the sun and he had his food, then we turned him out for the night.
Tomorrow, we're going down and I'll be riding Barney, and we'll be going on a hack which should be really good because I've never been on a proper one, so I'm quite excited for that. :D
So, until then. X
