Things have been coming on well with Livvi. After our disaster monday we had a lovely ride tuesday, she was responsive and listening and we had a trot with my mum on Drummer, right round the paddock.
Wednesday we continued with loading practice and actually shut the back door of the lorry, she jumped 6 foot in the air when it slammed but was quite happy to load again and didn't jump so high 2nd time round! I am so pleased by this as I would really love to take her to Saras at some point to play in a school! And I have all sorts of plans to box out hacking and go to shows :-D
So somehow I got to Saturday without having done any more with Livvi and I had planned to lunge before I got on but Marie was riding and she said come for a walk, so I just got on!!! Well, a total non event, she took it all in her stride and we we went for a walk and a trot following Billy round the big field, she was as good as gold apart from when we were troting towards home and she decided this was definitely the way she wanted to go! lol! If I had let her she would have cantered! So we stopped and walked!
After that warm up I decided some serious schooling was in order and found that we had la la land pony, walking through the bridle and not listening at all.......I am beginning to find that this is the case for the first 10 minutes of every ride (it was masked at first by following Billy) and I just persisted and had to get quite firm a couple of times and suddenly she just clicks......I am trying to get her to halt from my seat but she is listening to my voice and a lift of the rein more but I will keep working on it. She is becoming very responsive to my leg which is fab and the trot transition only needs a quiet reminder. Steering is my biggest issue, if she wants to go a certain way, she is light and responsive, if she doesn't then she will set her neck and kind of locks up or just shoots out sideways through her shoulder but because she is not soft in front the outside rein is inaffective although she does listen to my outside leg and I can push her round the turn.....its a steep learning curve for me and hopefully I have a lesson this week as I am at the point where I desperately need it!
Sometimes I worry alot about getting it wrong but then I look at Drum and although it took me 5 years I do actually have a responsive pony. I forget that when he came he was overbent, napped, couldn't canter and only did straight lines, so not so different really!
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