Saturday lesson

Liz came to the yard today and we had a private lesson in my snaffle in the school. It had been pouring with rain earlier in the morning, but it had mostly stopped by the time we started at 11.00.

We worked mainly in walk and focused on gaining softness and roundness. We concentrated on exercises to get my hind legs more under me and began with quarter turns on the forehand which I found difficult.

Dad had to get me to move my hind legs around without moving forward. We both found this hard. We combined this with shoulder in on the four sides of a square and then practised in the shape of a fifty pence piece and old threepenny bit before moving onto a circle itslf. We added halt transitions and did it on both reins.

We moved up into trot and tried to regulate pace and do half halts .Basically I was to get my hind legs under me more and Dad wasn't to hold me in with his hand. He had to concentrate on uprightness, heels down and to give me clearer aids, so as not to confuse me. He was to give more subtly (as in stopping a take) and never to have slack or flappy reins.

We did some work soft and round with good downwards transitions to walk and halt and both Dad and Liz were pleased with me.

When we came in I was groomed and put out to graze with Dibbs. It was quite wet and blustery but we stayed out until 4.00 when we came in to grooming and tea. I enjoyed my lesson and was pleased that Dad took note of what I said to Sara. Cobs have opinions and like it when they are taken into account.