Another packed day at the Flex Track

I got up early (sorry Jane) and headed to the coffee place, got there just as it was opening, and got one for Leigh too. It was 6.50am when I got there and I asked Leigh if she wanted go for a ride over to the honeycomb. She said yes, of course. I was dying to try the saddle out.



I had a little play with Heart while we were saddling, and preparing to ride. She was much better behaved than Garbo would have been if I had taken him away from his ration of hay for the morning.

I really have been concentrating on what I am focussing on at all times, when leading, and playing and also while riding. Surprisingly enough I am not really an unconfident rider compared to quite a few, so I think heeding Linda's advice to the tee, has paid off.



We rode over to the honeycomb - it's so nice over there - oh - I am in love with the saddle. !!! And those stirrup irons! Heart seems relaxed and blowing out too.

We did a couple of laps of the honeycomb on the outside and then headed back, what a fantastic way to start the day.

8am we had a highlights meeting and then knot savvy, I did the stockmans bowline with my eyes shut!

Then it was focus stations - travelling circles, trailer loading, and lateral flexion. I went to travelling circles for the whole time because it was in the honeycomb field which has loads of space and I also worked on maintain gait at canter on the 45ft - woohoo! At the end I had canter travelling circles on the 45ft, I am so pleased. I learned what to do while doing a travelling circle, if your horse changes gait. If you come off your railway track there are consequences.



Then we had bit savvy which was quite interesting, all about different bridles, what they are for, and when to use them.

Had a quick lunch, ham or turkey sandwiches or Salad was the choice. I had salad and a boiled egg. I had forgotten my protein bars, so while saddling up in the afternoon I got a bit dizzy. So tomorrow I can't forget my bars, gonna pack them now.

I caught up on a couple of emails since I finished lunch quickly, I sat in the shade for a bit too.

At 2pm I started to saddle and prepare for riding - I got some nice questions and a nice back up between poles.











At 3pm we had bow ties. I had not tried these before, simple changes. I had fun doing the canter ones, she was better in the left lead than the right, so Maddy gave me some ideas on how to improve that, she was getting emotional in the canter so I slowed down the indirect rein on the turn, and also I needed to go more to the rail, then come along and off it. There were only three of us so we got lots of one on one. Fab!

Next we had cloverleaf, something else I hadn't done much of, maybe once! I rode over to the honeycomb - are you counting, that's the third time now. Grady was taking it. We started at walk, then trot. It was awesome fun. Awesome to have a honeycomb to do it in.



We got to see the cows go past.



Rode back to the 100ft round pen (and opened a gate along the way), for 9 step back up. The others were getting the concept, I was able to work on getting vertical flexion and only releasing when her mouth was quiet.

Then it was 6pm. 4 hours roughly on the saddle today - how awesome is that! In between workshops while the others arrived and sorted themselves out I would practice trotting round the outside of the round pens. Need to practice my canter doing the same thing.


Dinner was lasagne, vegetarian pasta with cheese, beans fried in butter, bread and Salad. I had a baked potato with olive oil on and went home for some food I can eat lol.

I'm sleepy now, need an early night, had more sun today so I can hardly keep my eyes open.

Nite zzzzzzzz