Tactical withdrawal

Dad came at 10.30 and put Dibby out to graze. He tacked me up in my snaffle and we went in the school, which we had to ourselves at first. The morning was dry, quite sunny and breezy. It was good not to be troubled by the flies for once.

We worked for a long time in trot with lots of halt transitions, leg-yield and shoulder-in. Once I had softened we practiced some upwards transitions to trot and trotted large around the arena and tried a little canter. By this time Di ws teaching one of her external clients in the marked off section but today we were happy not to run through any tests. We aslo did quite a lot of work in walk and trot without stirrups.

Having re-read the result sheet for Prelim 1 last week, Dad decided to withdraw from the Prelim1 at Montgomery this Friday evening. He wasn't paticularly concerned with the 2 for the second canter but was worried regarding the 4's and 5's in the collectives and wanted to discuss this with Teacher Steve and consider what remedial work to undertake before venturing out again.

We came in and I was put out to graze after grooming. Dibby trotted over to me and started mutual grooming before I had got through the gate. It' s good to have him back in the field.

We came in at 4.45 and were groomed and given tea. Dad spoke to Teacher Steve on the 'phone and arranged to have our lesson at 3.30 on Friday in my snaffle and talk through the last Prelim 1. Dad told me he was pleased with our schooling work in the snaffle this week and reassured me that we were only withdrawing this time to marshall our forces and advance again. Fortunately, cobs have a grasp of elementary tactics.