Sunday 12th April A lesson with Freddie

I was nervous and excited about taking Xaile back to Susan's for a lesson with Freddie.  I was very excited to show him how well I thought he was going but I was also a bit worried that it wouldn't be good enough.

It didn't start well with Xaile being a bit reluctant to load, but we got him on eventually.  The drive went relatively smoothly till we got to the New Forest where everyone seemed to be out on a bicycle, and as the roads are very narrow this made the drive rather long!

When we got there Xaile was abnormally jumpy and when I got on he was reluctant to stand still and very spooky.  Given that he's probably only spooked 3 times since I've had him this was strange.

When the lesson (I'd decided to ride in the snaffle as I was planning to compete in it) started he was awful.  Giraffe like, and terribly spooky- I could scarcely get him up to the far end of the arena- he just went sideways across it.

Freddie very kindly gave me time to warm him up and I managed to get it a bit better, but not a lot.  Eventually I admitted that I couldn't do anything about it so Freddie started to help.  And we got him going a bit better, but still very tense.  We then discussed the fact that he hadn't been ridden the day before so maybe he had to much energy so Freddie lunged him.  He did have a lot of energy and flew round the school.  I got on again and it was not a lot better.  The whole time Freddie had been complaining about my riding him in a snaffle as he was used to a double or a pelham.  I said that he'd gone well in it on Friday..... Eventually Freddie convinced me to stop and change for a double.  

Well to my embarrassment the change was almost instant.  The giraffe disappeared and my Xaile came back and we were able to concentrate on our lesson.

Freddie had us do a lot of transitions within canter and it went wonderfully.  I hate admitting that I'm wrong, but I was here.