Ribbon Day and a lesson

I have been a bad Blogger of late. Trying to only write about positive things, sometimes is harder than it seems and Facebook is such an easy option.
But the Blog was originally started as my own personal record and it really should stay that way.

So, the news from the weekend. Juno came home on Friday. I had a lovely wander around Windsor Park Stud on her. She was totally unaware of the yearlings racing about with the big flappy covers, but the gateways were worthy of a second look. Horses are funny creatures sometimes.

Saturday morning, we had a brief and positive ride here at home and then the afternoon was spent preparing Shawnee for the ribbon day.
Somewhere along the way, I decided it would be good to take Juno, thinking that the experience of just standing around at an event would be good if nothing else.

Shawnee really did very well. She is only 2 yrs old and never been anywhere. She was fairly fed up with all the washing stuff and had never really trotted inhand so the whole day for her was about learning.
she ended up with a ribbon in each class.

There didn't appear to be many horses so I made the decision to ride Juno. I hadn't counted on all the late arrivals who came just for the ridden classes.
There are some really scary types of horses and riders and I am now remembering why I don't do this kind of thing.
I had my eyes on swivels trying to keep away from the ones that got stuck in revers, and the one who keep standing on it's hind legs but Juno just went round and tried her wee heart out.
We kept in the centre and told the judge we were not there to compete but still tried do do everything being asked. We opted not to canter at first as the random one's were leaping and bucking, but in a later class of less horses, we did canter.
She really tries her heart out.

Monday, I decided Twinkle needed some riding as we hope to go on a trek in 3 weeks time. She plodded away round the farm like an old pony clubber, and then we got 2 paddocks from home and all hell let loose. Twinkle has obviously been allowed to go home FAST and she made it quite clear that is what she was intending to do.
After trying to get her to settle for a while, I got off and led her as it was going from bad to worse. Charlie came along and gave me a ride up the house paddock on the bike with Twinkle going alongside. She is obviously full of spring grass as she was even trying to buck beside the bike!

Consequently, Twinkle has been behind the wire since then and today's ride was far more pleasant. Still some expectation when it came to being close to home, but a lot more manageable.

And also today (it's been a busy one) Juno and I had a riding lesson. Again she tried her heart out. She is such a lovely kind mare. We worked on straightness and rhythm.

Today I got to thinking, that I have only ridden Twinkle about 10 times now, so still getting to know her. And I am actually riding around the farm on my ow. Something that hasn't been done for about 18 mths now due to various things. It is so nice to be able to open gates again, and if I have to get off, I can. Getting off was an awful mission for a long time there.