A lovely horse is always an experience.... It is an emotional experience of the kind that is spoiled by words

...and Oliver really is a lovely horse.

Hello there reader,
Today is my last day of being alone in the house... well, to be honest yesterday was my last full day, the family come home in the next couple of hours I believe. I have loved being alone. As much as it can get strange and occassionally a teeny bit lonely, in general it's just not. Ok, correction, they've just arrived home.

I need to write about horse riding again because I find it helpful to write down how I think I'm doing because it means I can attempt to decide on what I need to work on. So here goes nothing...

Last week I made a few targets for my next lesson, they were:
Sit down more firmly
Keep hands more still and down
Look ahead over jumps
Be more definate in the jump position

And last lesson I felt that I improved on keeping my hands more still and keeping more relaxed in general. I have decided that I trust Oliver so much and have realised that I don't need to be tense about learning to jump even if there is a little bit of anxiety because really, we're doing it for fun. I love him to pieces, I love his temperament and his attitude, how he comes out of his stable looking all fed up but as soon as you mount him he perks right up and is always raring to go. He is an angel. A gorgeous gorgeous angel. Anyway, I felt I improved sitting down more firmly in the canter but have got a couple of things I want to try next lesson to improve that. And I felt that I was more definate in going into the jump position over jumps, although looking ahead is a bit more difficult to remember to do.

I'll leave it there because I did put some of this in my actual diary and I'm sure it doesn't really interest you to read about horse riding.


"There is no secret so close as that between a rider and his horse" ~Robert Smith Surtees