Saturday, December 27, 2014

Lighten up made a whole world of difference - and Muffin fills in the holes

Christmas Day we had the indoor arena to ourselves, so we used it to play a different version of indoor soccer:

Remy to Chambord: "I'll let you do the kick-off, it's Christmas!"

It was a lot of fun. I feel it's important for all of us to change the routine from time to time, and make things more interesting. Ever since I started to lighten up, riding Remy more forward, and putting more fun into our rides "Look, no reins!" (in the canter) he seems to trust me more. 

Case in point about the trust: The day after Christmas the arena was 'proppen-voll' (brimming with horses and their riders). Well, it seemed everyone had chosen exactly my lesson time to make up for time lost over the holidays; and neither Remy nor I do well with crowds. Actually, make that "did well" - because yesterday Remy filled in the holes for me.

I was a bit rattled in the beginning, our experiences in crowded warm-up arenas coming to mind. "S**t, there is no space!"; "Where to go?"; "Will he spook again if the other horses canter by too closely?" No worries: Remy (aka Muffin) set to work like a pro, ignoring the other horses, focusing just on me, strutting his stuff. I was sooo thrilled, what a good boy!! 

Another one of Glenda's 'Pearls of Wisdom' came to mind: "Don't worry about yourself, show off your horse proudly, show people how beautiful he his, and things will fall into place!" And sure enough, they did!

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