Well its June and we have managed our first outing of the year, the lorry finally passed its plating, my saddle is fixed and even more importantly I have horses to ride!
At the beginning of June the Showjumpingshire had a super time at the Unicorn trust on the Senior Instructors Clinic, Picnic was however slightly confused on entering the indoor arena to find not one single jump in there! Yes much to her disappointment she was away for two days to work on her flatwork, we managed to work on her suppleness and contact both of which cause her to lose concentration and become a little opinionated so we spent time setting the boundaries which took a little convincing but by the end she had much more power to her paces and also softer and easier to ride. By day two I even got tanked off with in trot as Picnic found she could use her hind legs in a way she thought she couldn't and showed off how far underneath her she could get them!
After the first outing of the year we couldn't wait for another and so hunted around but I just wanted something quiet to attend and everywhere has qualifiers at the moment so decided instead to hire out the fabulous Rectory Farm Arena nearby to get some jump practise in. We were working on popping round a course keeping our rhythm and power in the canter. After warming up I was surprised to find Picnic a little spooky and sticky at the first few fillers, then I realised its been nearly 8 months since she's seen a full set of show jumps! It didn't take long before she was back full of confidence and we were both thoroughly enjoying ourselves, she's definately back on form and made the bigger jumps and combinations effortless.
