40 Things for 40

Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.  Remembering times past and this album being absolutely  played to death at the place I worked at the time. Funnily enough I've just had to send them an email while it was on. Favourite songs include Hero Of The Day, For Whom The Bell Tolls and The Ecstasy Of Gold. 

At the beginning of this month I joined the Shaw Academy with the special lifetime membership offer they had. This means I can do as many of the courses they offer as I wish. Some have start dates, generally they roll out once a month and others are on demand. I have already signed up for two starting in March - Social Media Marketing and the follow on for the Digital Marketing one I did with them in November/ December. In addition, I have started one on Smartphone Photography, which is an on demand course. The Managing My Money course is in its final week. I am a bit behind, and will not be able to catch up until next week due to work, but the course is kept open so I do not have to stress. I have also signed up for another couple which start in May and July which look quite interesting. One is on Nutrition and one is Process Mining (I have no idea how to describe this, but it looked interesting). Facebook seems to be full of pages offering free webinars at the moment, so I hav...

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Long overdue write up of dressage last week! I had entered both of them, Amber in the Intro and Prelim, with Matti in the Prelim and Novice. However I decided on the day to just take Matti, as I thought it would be unfair on Amber as it would be a fairly intensive day for her and I did not want her to have a negative experience. Matti took about 15 minutes to load and traveled fine. As we were there quite early, we left him on board for a bit and he was fine. Unloaded and tacked him up, I must confess to not plaiting him up for this competition. Hopped on board for a longish but steady warm up. Canter leads were a bit of an issue to start, but then Matti sorted himself out and we got them. He then tried to canter on every corner by chucking his head up and rushing. When that didn't work, he dropped behind my leg so was barely trotting, then tried to shoot off in canter when I put my leg on. Sneaky pony! Went into the arena and we both promptly got stage fright and it was a ra...

Amber was better again today, managed some more trot transitions and even managed some on the bad side. I was not worried too much about the shapes she was contorting herself into at first, just getting her moving forward. I did note that her napping is worse on that rein, but also depended on where the gate was - the closer she was to the gate, her quarters swing out/ she pulls towards it, when on the further side, we fall in towards the gate. It's almost like there is a magnet there or something!. I also think she was worse today as I had left the gate open. Matti was better today, we even managed to practice a few test moves. Right canter lead was back, but left one was more reluctant to appear. Silly me forgot to set my timer so I think I rode him for longer than planned - he was a bit sweaty too bless him! from Solstice Dressage http://ift.tt/1dZceUn via IFTTT

Feeling a bit more positive today. Gave Amber her hot water bottle again before and after riding. She was still quite grumpy, but we managed several short trots! Lots and lots of praise when she did it (it's a bit like starting a freshly backed 4 year old). To make it easier, I just asked for it on the right rein, then did a change onto the left as this is her problem side. Rode Matti afterwards, struggled with the canter, apparently we cannot remember how to do the correct lead on either rein, then had a Matti meltdown. Just stuck to trot for the rest of the session, lots of rein changes, circles and shapes to get him to focus and by the end he was really seeking the contact and staying in a good tempo. from Solstice Dressage http://ift.tt/1dZceUn via IFTTT

Today Amber proved to me that she is quite good at lateral work, especially when she is wanting to avoid doing any trotting! Several perfect half passes across the school later, we managed around 5 strides. Feeling a bit despondent today, but tomorrow is another day and hopefully a better one. from Solstice Dressage http://ift.tt/1dZceUn via IFTTT

So today I was looking forward to taking Matti to the second Wobbleberry clinic at Thundry Farm, but due to transport issues we were unable to attend. Still, when life gives you lemons and all that, I've been looking at horseboxes again. I know that if I had my own transport, I would be out most weekends, which would be good for us all to get used to different venues, go hacking or to local gallops, even the beach! from Solstice Dressage http://ift.tt/1dZceUn via IFTTT

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