Day 165: A full on day with sad news and various thoughts...

Star and Nigel

A good schoolmaster horse is for any trainer like the best partner on a mission to help the rider become the best they can be; like an old friend with whom words are not necessary because a small gesture, change of posture or even a longer sigh is enough to communicate a hundreds thoughts.

Teaching on a good schoolmaster horse who willingly sacrifices own comfort for a task it doesn't fully understand but applies to it all the effort and heart is like working with a teammate who works all the overtime with you and never lets you down.

Today, I lost one such teammate and Mondays will never be the same again. :( RIP super mare. One in a million doesn't even come close to describe this amazing horse. An absolute privilege to have her as a teaching partner who will be very much missed by myself and the rider.

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I worked today as due to yesterday's event we moved our usual Saturday's lessons to Sunday. I am experimenting with more feel exercises at the moment and everyone who falls into the net of those experiments so far very much enjoys them and notices improvements in awareness and perception. It makes me want to search for more ideas and will definitely be doing so.
The young riders are doing very well too, I am slowly increasing pressure with difficulty and complexity of exercises for their jumping training as and when possible whilst keeping it all as confidence building as possible. Hopefully, like this, they won't even notice when the questions become much harder...

Young Jasper showed some spectacular work today mixed with very baby mistakes and balance issues but once he is done with his current growth spurt I will push his workload on more. He has all of a sudden become bum high so we need to wait for his withers to catch up but when he moves, he floats. Wonder cob! Big plans for this chap!

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So many thoughts currently on my mind. Every two months I evaluate the direction in which I am going because three years ago I made a mistake of not doing so which was followed by hugely undesirable consequences. Tomorrow is my reflection day - and yes I do have to literally put it in my diary every couple of months otherwise my mind just wonders on a never-ending adventure.

An opportunity arose recently to create a second base for my coaching programmes. The London yard is great and I hope it continues to function well but I do need a second location with more scope...
It would mean building everything from scratch (except for the actual facilities which are already in place) from gathering suitable horses to finding riders close to/willing to travel to the location.

If I go ahead and this opportunity becomes a reality, I would be able to finally get my own little project horse or two...For a couple of years I have had no desire to take any horses on and I repeatedly turned away any riding jobs. There have been many reasons for that but slowly I accepted a few horses for schooling and addiction is kicking back in.
Financially it is impossible at the moment but then again, plans don't cost anything...

"Paperwork" day tomorrow.
Wx