First Week

Gosh, I've had such a busy few days that I've even got behind in blogging and I hardly ever do that! Look out for a major blog overload!

So... Erik has been at our yard for 1 whole week and he's loving it! I am really happy with his progress.

He has rounded off nicely after arriving with me after not being on grass for 3 weeks and not having done work in a while; we've been riding everyday and he's been such a good boy and really enjoying himself. From Friday to Monday I have been off work taking some annual leave and I rode him every morning at around 6.30am, often in the mist and fog and he never minded. He was a little looky rather than spooky but never once did anything silly. I've been working on getting him 'long and low' and that has been coming on well. As he is lacking back muscles he has found that a little tough at times but I can't expect that to come over night. 

'Abbott-David balance rein tool'
This week I am going to introduce an  to encourage the correct build up of muscles. I am also planning to slowly and loosely work him in the Pessoa lunging aid to again develop top line muscle and engage his bum! Obviously all of this will be done slowly and loosely as I do not want to over face him and make him sore at all. It's all about going slowly slowly gently gently. 

I had a school on his on Wednesday of last week and he was just such a good boy! He hadn't been in our school yet and had only been on the yard for 3 days but I, again, started slowly and let him have a good look around and adjust to his new surroundings. I did most of the schooling in walk to allow him to supple up and flex. That involved doing 10 and 20 meter circles, asking him for leg yield, walking him across the diagonals etc and lastly asking him to extend his walk over some poles on the floor, which he did beautifully. I then slowly 'gathered him up' and we had some small bouts of trot and once adjusted and warmed up I asked for lower neck and flexion which again he did beautifully but did find that he was raising his head. I cannot obviously blame him, he is basically doing a work out and using muscles that need building up again. 

I finished by asking him for a small canter to keep all 3 paces consistent and again he did this beautifully; I cannot wait to see how he is going to look and feel in a few weeks time when he's gaining muscle strength and flexibility. 

Obviously I've been photographing a lot of my rides, but when you get views like this, can you blame me?!

I have a 'soft goal' of doing a competition on him around August or September with a show in particular in mind so we shall see how we progress!

Obviously I will continue to up date as and when I have news but absolutely adore this big guy already! Plus he's already been treated to a fly mask and I've been 'virtually shopping' for saddles and bridles and all sorts, if only I had an infinite fund of money!

Sophie x