June 2017

After writing about such a dry April, the very start of June is threatening to catch up on the water front.

Unfortunately this has delayed the start of the dressage arena so we have some ginormous machines alongside the hedge waiting to start work and just a few marks on the ground and pegs to show where it is going to end up. Not that the rain would stop the machines themselves, but apparently the laser (for sorting out the levelness) doesn’t work so well in the rain. Although Diva has become quite competent at working on a slope, it might be hard to practice tests if bits of the arena end up on different levels!

Diva has been to her first dressage day and did an impressive series of sequence flying changes and medium canter. Unfortunately none of these were required in a Prelim test and she wasn’t given bonus marks for effort. However, except for getting a bit excited in the canter during the tests, she behaved very well and settled quickly. A very sensible cob kept us company in the warm-up arena, which was handy when Diva heard donkeys for the first time. She pricked her ears and stared in that direction but didn’t get upset, so either she has heard donkeys before or the influence of her new ‘best friend’ was a good influence. It’s hard to tell which with Diva as she is very brave and barely batted an eye at a strange indoor school, just having one hesitation when she was cantering directly toward another horse (herself in the mirror at the end of the long side).

I think Lady will also turn out to be very brave as she was keen to investigate the JCB in the field, although was frustrated by the electric fence we put round to stop them getting into mischief and chewing the wiring/rubber. She is still a bit suspicious of being handled round the rear end though and although she now likes having her tail brushed she is not sure that people should be allowed to actually hold onto her dock! However she is very sweet and just tucks it tightly and looks at us rather than threatening to kick. It is so important at this stage that she gradually learns to accept everything so that she doesn’t have issues in the future.

As I am writing this it is sad that the shadow of terrorism has touched the country. One can’t but help feeling that if these people developed a love for horses, cats, dogs etc. when they were young then they would not have gone on to want to hurt people when they are older. I find it a lot easier to understand the motivations of animals than humans, and if an animal behaved abnormally and became dangerous then it would be put to sleep. Perhaps in the future there will be a medical cure for terrorism, just as there are for other illnesses.

On a lighter note, everyone seems to be enjoying their horses with days out and hopefully a safe and pleasurable summer.

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