Preparing for a lesson with R and her pony, Ollie, this morning. We familiarised Ollie with all of the obstacles on foot before she climbed on board and then used them for target practice!
Ollie wasn't too sure about the tinsel so I spent a little time getting him used to it before decorating him ready for Christmas.
R and I talked about how she can ask Ollie to do his best active walk and how to steer him around the corners.
Calling out an obstacles and a pace by which to get there helps to get riders to focus on where they want to go and how they want to get there rather than thinking about boring concepts like right and left.
After that we took Dylan out for his first walk outside the premises since he arrived with Dawn. He was excellent with all of the Panic Saturday traffic.
He was happy to walk by our sides and to leave all of the other horses behind although he did quite take to this donkey until it tried to kiss him.
Back through the woods and past the pathworks on the way home again. A motorbike has just gone by and Dylan was completely unfazed.
The hope is that in the future Dawn will be able to ride out with R on Ollie.
"A great session again I think! I was really pleased we had the chance to take Dylan out because it was something that I'd been wanting to do for a couple of weeks. He behaved as I thought (or hoped!) he would, but it was good to have you there for reassurance.
Ruby's lesson was great - so many things that are obvious when you know how! You've given us lots of ideas for obstacles etc, which will hopefully improve her steering, and also help with her processing skills." DB
