the champagne's flowing..............

to my devoted followers, well, ok, Louise, apologies for not having blogged for a whole month. in short, a negative 'tirade' at the end of a riding session/lesson left me feeling less than good, and i'm afraid i'm a little prone to feeling worthless and depressed on such occassions and things went to a little bit of a stand-still while i re-evaluated some things. But, the champagne bottle that's been sitting in my fridge waiting for something to celebrate, came out tonight!! In short, here is why:

• float loaded the little man all by myself this morning - woooohoooooo! (and i put the float on the car all on my lonesome, and got it right - yay)



• he was fantastic standing in the float at nicole's house while we put her gear in the car and Joe on the float (another tick in the box!)



• travelled well and stood nicely when we got to riding club (hadn't mentioned it was a riding club outing had i, oh well, you know now). unloaded like a bought one - go tal!



• tied up to the float with our new bungy rope (a motor cycle inner tube with a clip, purchased at our club comp down at elcho park 2 weeks ago). gave him his hay bag and left him to it. nicole got ready and went to her lesson, i went to the club rooms for a pee and a cup of tea, and watched him from there. he did need a couple of taps with the whip for pawing the ground, but, other than that, he was very good!



• checked on him occassionally, but he basically stood there very well (i had initially left his float boots on so he didn't rip his legs open pawing at the mud guard. when i took them off, i decided that had been a good move, cos the biting flies were being a pain)



• during lunch break, wayne's horse went for a gallop around the fields, but it was Joe who flung his bucket off the float and was beside himself! i wonder if he thought the bay horse going for a run was tallic??



• after lunch, nicole and joe had their flat lesson, so i decided to take tallic for a walk session in the fenced off grass area. it's about a 2 acre space. there was a lesson being conducted in there, so we worked mainly up around 3/4's of it. donna was working her 3yo pally in the round yard. we did lots of stops and goes, he really does pull me along a lot in the halter, but i discovered that tapping him on the chest with the whip makes him stop it. did some sideways stuff when he was worrying about things, and of course back ups.



• Jill Foley was leaving the area when we were going near the gate, and needed a hand out. we ended up chatting and decided to take the horses for a walk around the outside of the show jumping arena. Jill's new boy is an absoluted darling and worth his weight in gold. and so, might i add, iare Joe and Woody, who we met up with coming out of their lessons. so, we all went for a walk around the cross country course together! poor me was the only one on foot and i had the fastest walking horse - figures!! they were all really good and i was amazed at how well they all coped with looking at the new whangfangled cross country jumps. we couldn't even work out the line you'd take to get thru one lot of them we found ourselves in the middle of - we all agreed we didn't need to know, cos none of use would be doing them!



• the most amazing part is i then decided i was going to ride my boy! i saddled-up (took a swig of drink and some rescue remedy while i was at it) and me and my entourage went to the grass arena. i cannot begin to say how grateful i am to have such a wonderful group of friends acting as my massive hand holders (they offered to 'block him in' if he needed it!!) having people to talk to, support for me and my horse, was just what we needed. jill's husband even carried the mounting block into the paddock for me, and then took pictures (which i CAN'T WAIT to get and add in here!!!!!!)



• we did spend about 5 mins with me trying to squash the bot fly that was buzzing around. turned out there was 2 of them (i only got one, but it was time to get on with it). sue trainor was on the sidelines offering to be a person on the ground for me if i wanted it. i decided i'd be fine without, but again, i'm so grateful for the offer.



• i got on, and off we went (me and my buddies on a paddock trail ride - LOL) and he was a superstar. only thing i can say he did wrong the whole time was a sort of pigroot, which i think was him trying to get rid of a fly (they were TERRRRIBLE, even with repllent on). nicole went and gave some visitors a pat of Joe (tallic was a bit 'looky', but didn't do anything wrong). i did some test stops occassionally (which gave the quarter/stock horses a chance to catchy up (tal's got a good walk on him!) and he was fine with Audrey and Woody having a trot to catch up with us. tal was in the lead most of the time, and we spent time walking with Jasper (and Jill). IT WAS FABTABULOUS!

I have come home from my second time at rc with tallic a VERY happy camper. I'm so grateful for friends and riding club members who understand that it's worth taking the time to get a young horse accustomed to such a busy, and what could and can be, overwhelming environment.

i'm very proud of myself and my darling boy for what we achieved today. many might think it's a very small achievement, but to me, my friends and my family, it's HUGE.

small steps, big progress........

thanks guys!