and another catch up:

well Elms farm didnt go to plan, and in the end pony got a bit of a telling off whilst in the ring.....which i think ended up being a good thing. although we didnt go to Addington PL in the end, he has since come out the other side of the terrible teens and................qualified for the open novice regionals,woo woo!!!!

did two fanstastic tests at vale view and won the qual on 67.5%, in fact must go and tot up his points .....not that it matters because next weekend we are doing our first elem (E50)!!! nothing like chucking us both in at the deep end!
will be aiming for the open elem area festivals rather than regionals as i dont think he would be mature enough to be a serious contender at open elem level yet.

pics here

so, can now breathe a big sigh of relief and concentrate on the training.have really worked this week on him staying 100% in front of the leg in the collection,esp in canter, so have been bringing him back off the seat and the doing a bit of *legs away* and really rewarding him when that quickens the hind leg.if no respone he is sent forward immediately in to an extension so he learns to stay taking me forward in the collection.

this really got the canter pinging so took advantage of that and did some changes-across the diagonal they are pretty much bang on now so have upped this work to include doing them on the serpentine, which he seems to find a piece of cake.vastly tempted to try for 2 x4's but chewed my own legs off at the knee and resisted temptation! its all there, i must not rush it......

harry tomorrow :)