I had my lesson booked for 10am but was not feeling well (following several glasses of prosecco, white wine and a late night dancing in the garden with Chris and Zoë), so Patrik rode Finn today!
Just as well: Finn was in a feisty mood, playing up on the way down to the indoor school and then acting like she’d never been in there before…… He did quite a lot of work by the entrance to the indoor school, and asking her to submit by flexing her left and right. I looked round from my course building and Patrik was remounting, I’m not sure what happened but he had surface on his left side, he said she went up and she got him off. Not really sure how! He was ok and continued with schooling session. Finn was rather naughty as he was being quite demanding, but she soon got the idea and when she softened and relaxed she looked fab.
He started over trotting poles and then a cross pole. I had set out a small course with jumps on the diagonal across the school, across the short side and on the three quarter line, a mix of uprights and spreads – 5 jumps in total.
Patrik was very strict with Finn, but never rough – ensuring that she was soft and relaxed at all times, especially in the approach to the jumps. If she got rude or heavy he just made her stop (as long as she was more than 5 or 6 strides away) otherwise is “catastrophe!” But this only happened once in the session as he was checking, balancing and then giving before this point.
Finn went well, but was very tired and was dripping with sweat at the end of the session, it was hot (30° and quite humid) and she’d worked very hard. I walked her around for 10 minutes or so and then took her off to the wash box for a nice refresher! She was then able to rest in her stable until about 7pm when she was turned out for the night.