Back To School

First lesson today in ages for Amy and I- new instructor, Sally Philips took us back to basics with ground work; stop and start when asked to. Amy can be bargey, expecially when there is open haylage, a haynet or a barrow full of juicy haylage on the yard, which we have to go past to and from her stable.

Sally showed me how to use the whip as a tool,rather than a punishment, tapping her with increasing pressure if she ignores the aid and quickly removing the "iritation" when she responds. We worked on using the bit pressure effectively for leading, again taking the pressure off as soon as she responds. Common sense, but boy can I get it wrong!

We moved on to walk forward, she has to take the step first, then stop as soon as asked, and moved up to big walk without breaking into trop. That made the stop harder!

Finally we did it all by the open haylage; that took a few attempts, going into the stable and coming out again.

Now I have to put it all into practice tomorrow morning! Plenty for me to work on over the next couple of weeks.