Week 1 ridden work complete

From Brazil to Austria

And so we complete week 1 of ridden work after the sudden surprise of being told we could ride last week Charlie goes from strength to strength. I didn't lunge in the Pessoa until Wednesday as we had been concentrating on sitting on the fiery beast and were lungeing in saddle and side reins. He hadn't forgotten and returned to clockwork mouse mode.

Yesterday was lesson day and Tori came armed with her modified Pessoa bits. Basically the ropes that go from the back strap to the bit ring etc were detached and a clip added. We now call these Vienna reins apparently. Interestingly when I googled Vienna reins it mentioned Bill Noble an instructor I had lessons with many years ago when I didn't know enough to absorb all I was taught.

We lunged Charlie in saddle bridle and Vienna reins and he started to work very well in them so the ridden work at the end of the lesson was in trot on the lunge whoo hoo. As ever better on the left than the right but there always has to be something to work on.

Tori ,she who must be obeyed, recommends I don't start hacking out too soon we have a lot of work to do strengthening him up and developing an understanding of contact and self carriage.

Today I had cannabilised my Pessoa with some clips from an old leg strap and set to work making my Vienna reins. Mission accomplished I tacked Charlie up and set to work in them. Couldn't decide how short they should be so I kept them long.

Again he worked quite well. We waited for a presence on the yard and popped on to do some ridden work. He was a good boy and Harriet popped in to watch us. With Tori's parting words about trot ringing in my ears I did a trot transition and 3 or 4 trot steps on each rein and I am happy to report the transitions were lush. And it's only 4th of January.