"He's like a rocket on steroids on a sugar high!"

I'm sorry this entry is slightly late... things have been rather hectic recently!!

So on Saturday I went to Blenheim horse trials for the day, which meant no Laddie. :(

However, on Sunday, Alex and I got dropped off at the yard my my Dad. You have to go down a series of country road to get there, and my Dad sped. Me and Alex were literally sitting in the bakc seats fearing for our lives! Anyway, we got there in one piece and I suppose that's all that matters.

We caught him in without any trouble. When he was all groomed and ready to go, we made our way down to the field.

Flat work he was absolutely fine.

Alex was teaching me again, and she set up some trotting poles. We were trying to get him to pick his feet up, so Alex turned them in to raised trotting poles. The first few times he knocked the last one very slightly, but then, he did them perfectly so that was all good.

When the jump went up to a small cross pole Alex wanted to work on getting him steady. Which is easier said than done!! He always wanted to break in to canter before the pole, even though the jump was less than a foot off the ground. Once he goes, it is quite hard to stop him. As Alex says, he, 'is like a rocket on steroids on a sugar high!'

So we worked on getting him steady. Once or twice after the jump, he shoved his head down and bucked and Alex was just screeching, 'SIT UP!!!! SIT UP!!' Fortunately, nobody got reunited with the floor so that was fine really.

We often find that he is a lot stronger in the field. I'm not really happy with the way I rode to be perfectly honest. It just didn't feel very 'in control,' and I know we could do better, so hopefully we'll just keep improving.

ANYWAY.

We were all packed up and ready to go when we realised we had another two hours or so until Alex's dad was coming.

Barney was in so we started to make a big fuss of him with his owner (who is absolutely lovely!)

She was telling us how he was being a bit grumpy and then offered me a ride on him! :*

So we tacked him up and headed off in to the field again. I did some flatwork on him and his canter is gorgeous. He really goes with the 'rythm' and its lovely. It's nice to sit to. :)

After flatwork, she put up a small jump. I was expecting him

to be really nice and easy going but ooohhhh no, he goes a bit crazy. He sort

of goes sideways and then throws his head in the air and does all these little prancey steps. His actual jump is nice; but if you fold normally, he then sort of extends in the air, catching you off guard! Then you get left behind anyway. But he's super. :)

Anyway, that's all for this week. :D x