The last ride of 2009

I didn't have a very good 2009 with one thing and another, so I'm just putting it behind me and looking forward to 2010.

Had a potter around in the manège. It was -4C and snowing heavily outside... I was pretty much frozen before I got on.

Pinto felt really well, and we were really striding along warming up. Once B and M joined us we concentrated on trot work, trying to instill calmness. Pinto is improving... he can now be all whizzy and silly without sticking his ears up my nose!

Then the YO brought the baby into the manege... Pintos eyes were on stalks! I don't think he has ever seen a baby before and he was practically bent in two trying to keep his eyes on her while we were moving around. At this time I was just asking Pinto to focus on me and what I was asking, rather than having *all* his attention on the baby pone.

We managed to calmly trot over the bar on the ground (achievement one for me - I haven't left the ground in a year, so I'm taking things slowly lol). Then the YO was able to lead the baby over the bar on the ground before taking her back to her box. She is going to be *big*! She is about 9 months old I think, and is already about 12/13hh! Her bum is about 4ins higher than her withers, bless her.

Once the baby was out of the manege B and M started jumping - I started practising my halts, or rather the immobility after a halt! Pinto will 9/10 stop nicely, but after half a second wiggle. We went from trot/walk/halt/walk/trot to trot/walk/halt/trot and finally trot/halt/trot. Direct transitions are a sure fire way of spicing things up, and after a couple halt/trot transitions I only have to ask very lightly and think *trot* and Pinto is leaping off like a springbok lol. I almost fell off the back of the saddle a time or two... probably not technically correct, but very enthusiastic transitions lol.

Of course once the jump went up to 90cm Pinto thought that was much more interesting than trotting and standing. He completely got his whizzy head on again, and I was left pinging around like an idiot... still we managed to avoid the jumping lane - though I did manage to suprise C who thought I was going to go for it... 90cm in a dressage saddle... roflmao! My next "jump" is going to be a raised pole!

At the end of the session I was really pleased with Pinto. Our direct transitions were really coming on, and he was staying soft and round most of the time, with only a teeny bit of yawning and champing occasionally.

By the time we came out of the manege we had 4ins of snow, which was very pretty, and meant that the temps had come up a bit which made life a little more comfortable!