Emergency lockdown. No riding lessons allowed. I am “doing it alone.” And how is that going? Sometimes good, sometimes not so good. Monday I got on Biasini and started to walk around the arena. We got up to the far end and his head shot up in a Giraffe imitation and he began to snort. I gave him a rub on his withers and told him he was ok. I circled round and after a few circles he settled. But then we had an issue with something else on the wall . At that point I decided I was not going to continue. What Biasini needed was a good toot on the lunge line .
Once I had him set up for lunging we started on a big circle. I gave a flick of the lunging whip and a couple of clucks. BOOM! He leapt forward, bucked and took off at a very fast canter. Yup! Some cold weather energy. Biasini cantered around at a racing pace with few more leaps and bucks. I smiled to see that. The weather has been very cold with snow in all the turnout paddocks. Biasini needed to just let rip! Once he finally settled, I got on and walked him to cool him off. And my plan for the day? That went into the dustbin.
Most days I will plan some exercises from lessons we have done. Sometimes I think it is going pretty well. But I know that if I was in a lesson Belinda would be asking me to achieve more. The hard part is keeping my expectations high enough. If Belinda was watching me she would have the highest expectations. She would want excellent not just good.
We have no idea when the Emergency Covid restrictions will be lifted. Since we now have two of the new variants of Covid future plans are up in the air.
I remain optimistic . I am learning how to do it. Doing it alone.
- Thanks to Lexi Bradbury for taking these photos on a cold day.*
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