Building on the previous rides - and a dose of wormer at the wrong place

Two satisfying rides: Remy started where we left off the day before. Once I established a nice forward trot he (mostly) kept his balance and stayed in a nice rhythm. We practised our trot-canter-trot transitions. It's harder going to the right, the balancing outside rein is really important. My focus needs to be on being STILL, and not throwing my upper body 'over the fence'. I have a tendency to do that when the transition into the canter is sticky. As Sandy reminded me: It's the set up (as with almost everything!): At this stage we can only get smoothly into a correct canter from a forward trot. At the end of our session I let Remy stretch on a long rein, and he developed a nice, swinging walk with an excellent overtrack.

The work with Saumur also focused on the canter, albeit on a different level. It required me to really focus on what my body is doing: 10m canter circle, haunches in - shoulder-in - haunches in. To break it up we decreased and increased the circle, always trying to keep the canter rhythm even and to make him jump 'up' as opposed to 'out'. Saumur always proves that he can 'go all out', now the challenge is to channel this energy into 'up'. In an effort to get the difficult stuff right I am working too hard, which leads to stiffness on my part and in return on Saumur. Sandy pointed out that I need to let Saumur show me what he knows. What a difference: My project became my schoolmaster!!

The boys must think I am nuts - as a 'reward' for all their efforts I was doling out wormer afterwards. Chased by apples and carrots, but still... We worm based on fecal egg counts, and although Remy and Saumur's results were clean, Chambord had some Strongyles. The vet recommended treating everybody turned out together as a precaution. Remy deserved a gold star: He even left his yummy alfalfa hay and obediently swallowed the orange stuff. Saumur was no problem, either. But the one that really needed it -Chambord- of course had to throw a fit. I just had finally finished getting it into his mouth when Jim, the farrier, showed up to replace the lost shoe. Grumbling about "don't you people watch the Superbowl?" he worked on the shoe while I was holding Chambord. Chambord was rubbing my neck with his nose, which I took as a sign of affection. A look in the bathroom mirror taught me otherwise: I was sporting orange wormer all over my neck!