Today was my lesson with Maria, it had been very cold last night & some snow had fallen, only a tiny bit at my house but quite a bit on other parts of the island, so I had to make sure my lesson was on before we made our way to the venue. Luckily it was still on & it was only down the road from the farm, about a 15 minute ride away, so mum hacked Bernie down there for me, I don't like the thought of riding him down myself on my own, just inase he's naughty. We wouldn't have gone if we had to take the trailer as I don't think it would've been safe on the road. Bernie felt well conected from near the start of the lesson, he doesn't usually connect for me until at least 20minutes into work so I was really happy with him. We started with some walk & trot & then did a lap of the school in canter on both reins, without breaking & with a bit less effort on my part to keep him going, phew! We then did some three loop serpentines in trot, & then tried some four loop ones first in walk, then trot, to work on my accuracy & B's balance. I really enjoyed the lesson & was very pleased with the way Bernie went, he was ace. Maria said she noticed a difference in both me & Bernie, she thought B was a lot stronger than last time, so that's great progress in a month.
Last Monday Janet was over, I had a lesson with her after work, it was such a cold miserable night, I was glad to get in the indoor & get working to warm up. We worked on getting a more forward trot, which is beginning to get easier to get, not quite there yet as his first & fore most trot, but we're working on that. We also did some walk to canter transitions, trying to get Bernie's walk more active was hard work, but it was lovely when he did it, then into canter with a buck, I think we woke him up a bit, he did a nice connected canter, when I got on the right leg that is, Janet soon sorted that though by telling me it'd cost me an extra tenner every time he went on the wrong leg.
On the 10th I had a lesson with Clive, it's been all go, go, go lately, the lesson was great but mum & Bev didn't get to watch, we had a bit of drama with the trailer & they had to take it home without B in it ,& borrow another one whilst I was riding, otherwise he would've had to have been hacked home & it takes over an hour from where we were & we were worried it would get dark. So luckily my friend Lizzie lent us her trailer.
I organised a car boot sale yesterday to add some funds to my dressage account, sold a few tables & we had a cake stall, with lovely homemade cakes, lemon drizzle & swiss chocolate cakes, plus shortbread & flapjacks, we didn't get as many customers as we'd of liked because it was an icy day, & I don't think people fancied leaving their homes, but we still sold most of the cakes, so all those that did make it appreciated the delicious cakes & a nice hot cuppa. It was definately worthwhile & we enjoyed doing it, maybe next time we'll just have an afternoon tea or a coffee morning, everybody loves food.
Christmas is less than a week away & I have loads of wrapping to do, I got my tree last week, it's nearly as wide as my living room & we have to sit forward to watch the tv past it, but it smells all Christmasy & I love it, last year I had a sad looking twig of a tree, so I've gone from one extreme to the other, but there's plenty of room for prezzies under it, so Merry Christmas everyone who's celebrating, enjoy yourself, hopefully it'll be good weather so I can go for my Christmas morning ride, it's tradition!!
