15th September, 2008 So far, so good

Halfway through a busy fortnight we have had some good results. I've had to remind one lady that New Forest ponies are genetically designed to eat picnics and that sharing a sandwich with a pony that is lowest in the pecking order is likely to result in mutiny amongst the other ponies. On Saturday, Julie and I worked with a beautiful Thoroughbred who'd been napping towards home - clicker started to make some inroads into that. Later we saw a daughter of Fleetwood Opposition - once I'd asked her not to invade my space she settled to her work immediately and was fabulous to work with. Sadly we had a bit of a do at a clinic I ran on Friday. Sheila and I had worked our socks off all morning and everything had appeared hunkydory. During the afternoon one of the people at the course became really nasty and of course I can't address that with good old body language - so we left. It was all very odd. Hopefully the groundwork we did in the morning will have had some effect on the horses involved but we don't go where we are not wanted. I always think that how people are with other people is indicative of how they are with their horses.

Mark Rashid was the first person to get me onto the idea of horsemanship through life and certainly working in a rational and logical way around horses has affected all aspects of my life. I hope I am a better friend and wife; if I say I'll do something, I do it - I really struggle with people who are all talk and no action.