Today
is the last day of a very sad and difficult year. I spent the first half of the year knowing I
couldn't put Chesney through another winter.
I thought long and hard about what was best for him and when would be
the best time. I spent the second half
of the year with this huge whole which he left and missing him every day.
I
has got easier .... it is true what they say .... and whilst I think about him
every day and everything reminds me of him I know that I made the right choice
at the right time for both of us.
Tomorrow
is the first day of 2019 and I have plans.
This will be a fantastic year, I will ride Basil lots, I will spend lots
of time with him and Tommy and it will be great.
I have just uploaded my latest video '2 Days
of Christmas' on my You Tube channel, Horse
Life and Love. Please check it out and SUBSCRIBE.
You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram
and Twitter for updates on Basil, Tommy and Daisy.
Until
next time!
Jo
November
was Basil's 'silly' month. He has been
feeling a bit loopy and all our hacks have been at a fast walk. The weather has been really changeable so it
has affected our riding a bit but we are fitting as much in as possible. I think he is settling a bit now, which is
good. He is in need of a clip but the
weather is not helping as he keeps coming in with wet mud in the wrong
places! Tommy is loving the mud and
really enjoying finding the muddiest puddles to roll in. He is mostly being good to come in at night
though :)
This
is how November looked:
2nd
- really lovely hack today, Basil is really enjoying himself, swinging along!
3rd
- windy today but I decided to lung and he was not bad considering.
4th
- too windy to get any sense out of him today.
6th
- hacked out again today, it was still a bit windy and Basil walked very fast.
More
windy days :(
10th
- lunged today, Basil was a bit tricky but could have been worse - still windy.
11th
- arena today, we managed to fit 20 minutes in between the rain. He was a bit jumpy but could have been worse
because it is STILL windy. Walk &
trot circles, serpentines and leg yield, today we just worked on staying calm
with as much balance as possible.
13th
- lunged - very good :)
14th
- short hack, a bit fast on the way home today.
16th
- abandoned my plan to lunge today as they were both galloping around the field
like hooligans.
17th
- rode in the arena today and Basil was very good. We did some lovely walk & trot leg yield
and serpentines. Our canter is
definitely improving too now that I have realised the problem.
18th -
lunged today, silly in the middle but started and ended well.
20th
- Rain all day :(
21st
- tried to hack out but there was a big blue bag outside the house up the road.
Basil would not go past and I have learnt from experience there is no point in
trying more than a few times as I won't win.
So we went in the arena instead.
He was a bit spooky but did some OK work today. Tried a canter and he bombed off like a
nutter - not a very successful day today.
23rd
- lunged and he was good today. He had a
few buck on the right canter but stayed on the circle.
24th
- out for a hack again today. Walked
really fast today that we went much further than I had planned in the time, he
was good though.
25th
- arena and better today, some really lovely trot work. Good leg yield too so pleased today. We got right canter just out of trot leg
yield and it was not bad, bit racy!
Settled into a fairly balanced canter (still a bit fast) before
returning to trot and then asking for canter again, the transition was OK. Too fast on other rein, Basil anticipated,
went all nappy and struck off on the wrong leg.
I managed to get a relatively steady trot before asking again, we got
the correct lead but Basil tried to race off - so I made him do a 20m circle. We are getting there, I am trying to sit
down, keep my legs on and not pull too much but we are just faster than I would
like!
Really
horrible weather all week.
30th
- hack today, again fast walk but he was generally good, although a bit
frightened of a big white bag of sand on the way back.
Have you seen my ' Welcome to December' video on my You Tube channel?
Horse Life and Love. Please check it out and
SUBSCRIBE.
You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram
and Twitter for updates on Basil, Tommy
and Daisy.
Until
next time!
Jo
