Back again

Last week I had an awful week with Tarmo passing away, Nelli kicking me in the leg and knocking heads with Rama that gave me a bit of a mild concussion! Once I started recovering from those, I caught an absolutely awful summer flu that has lasted for 8 days, which has had me without a voice for several days, a cough that the entire neighborhood can hear and a bit of a fever. We also had the warmest week of the year, with temperatures consistenly reaching +30c, and I can tell you that it was hard hard work riding two horses a day in that heat and my state of health. Luckily now I'm starting to feel better and hopefully start working the ponies properly once again!

Nelli has come back to us and risen like phoenix from the ashes once again! She had 3 weeks off after getting a really bad allergic reaction to something (she was sweating and I was riding her without a saddle but with a sheepskin and she had fly spray on) Then once her skin had started to heal enough for me to ride her, then she became lame from shoeing and from going a little bit crazy on the arena when mum let her go free. But, she recovered from that as well, and we are now working towards brining her back to her full fitness level. Since Nelli is already 19 years old, I'm taking it slow with her, working her every other day so that she gets to recover well and so that it doesn't become too hard for her.

Vallu has been super star recently. I've been having lessons with Sanna for the last three weeks and we have come on so much, it's nearly unbelievable. Although we're starting right from the beginning again, in a few weeks we've gone from finding the best rhythm for us to getting a better contact and more impulsion. 

Sanna is having a month off from work (such a shame for me and Vallu!) but luckily I have learnt so much recently that I really feel like I now know what direction to us towards, and what Vallu feels like when he is at his best and so I'm going to try and push us on in the next month, working towards being able to focus on collection.

Rama has been a total sweetheart and working with him is a joy that I get to experience everyday. There hasn't been a single day where we would have had a bad day, and that is all thanks to him trying so hard that you just have to enjoy. 

 Unfortunately last night he managed to twist his left hind shoe so badly that we needed to pull it off, and it left a huge mess of his hoof. Luckily our farrier came to the rescue once again and managed to fix it really quickly. Because it's his leg is pretty sore today Rama will get lunged to see how he moves and then if he doesn't become uneven, we will continue with our training.

A big butt and a red toe