Manu & the Inter II

This last weekend I once again hosted Manuela McLean from Melbourne. She arrived with some more tools up her sleeve and gave us plenty to work on – she needed to as she is not back for 3 months as she has a trip scheduled to the Equitation Symposium in Dublin and then a stop off at the Olympics on the way home – all right for some! Des got better and better as we worked on sharpening his responses to the aids and Gosh had his best lesson yet, helped in no small part by a tweak in my position that I will be working on studiously to programme into my muscle memory – both on the horses and off it with my Pilates instructor.

Yesterday Gosh had his first ever Inter II start, just at a local Training day. It was purely a ‘hack through’ on our part – just to find out how he coped with the additional pressure at this level and whether he would perform the movements one after the other and in the ring when it matters. Despite it being a low level show I still plaited and turned out to the best of my ability (even put the flash new saddle blanket on complete with sponsors logos!) although I did leave the top hat and tails at home… Gosh came through with flying colours – his piaffe and passage, extensions and half passes being the highlights. Plenty to go on with and I’m looking forward to riding the test again in a months time at a similar day.

The boys have today off, the weather is grey, I’ve got a million inside things to do and the fencers have been here all morning putting in the poles for a new arena mirror – can’t wait!