Blue Skies

A few days ago it was perfect weather to take some photos so my Mum kindly took some of me riding! I have just written a post on Laura Bechtolsheimer for this Sunday's GB Rider post. Then I came to edit the photos of me riding for this post and somehow they didn't look as good as I thought they did before! I have got a fluorescent thing on my hat because I went round the roads afterwards (more photos to follow!)

 

I have recently started schooling him a bit more than I was because his tendon seems to be doing really well.  I was riding shallow loops in trot and picking up true canter in the corner and making him stay in canter for a full lap of the arena. I thought he wasn't very fit but after I had done it a few times I walked him and he wasn't out of breath.

I have also been riding 20 metre circles in walk and trot and getting him to bend to the outside then back to the inside again. This has been helping him to soften.

Yesterday I also started doing some leg yielding in walk. I started just off the track just doing a few steps until he was back onto the track again. He was also fine doing this so I think he can start building up to a bit

He does seem much calmer to ride after coming back into work after his injury. I think this is because we are not putting too much pressure onto him. He still needs to be a bit more collected but I am very happy with the way he is going at the moment. Definitely not bad for a 23 year old horse!

Trooper has been going out in the field during the day without a rug on as he hasn't been clipped. It was raining yesterday during the morning so I put a rug on him. It then stopped raining and was a nice day so I wished I hadn't put it on. However, he came in with a big, bald, swollen kick mark on his shoulder and it even had ripped the rug! It doesn't look too bad but I think it would have been much worse without the rug on.

Trooper always "snarles" when we stand still, he used to do it when I was riding a lot too when he was getting stressed. We used to ride him in a flash noseband but he just stretched the flash and still did it. I don't really know why he does it, he just always has!

I have got a big list of posts I want to write but I am really busy at the moment as I have assignments and exams are approaching! I really enjoyed the Ben Maher show jumping clinic and want to write a post on that. I also want to make a time-line of Trooper's tendon injury linking to all the different posts along the way!

Love Laura
xxxx