Yesterday was Gemma's day off - that means "horse therapy", company and gossip. In this case the gossip came first because it was foggy and we were hanging around the kitchen drinking coffee and wondering if it would go away. It's not that we mind riding in the fog as such - no, what we mind is being invisible to traffic. One big problem with riding here in England is that just about every outing involves roadwork in order to actually get to the bridlepaths. In our case we also have to cross a major road and we're on a bus route. So, on that note we wussed and drank coffee and gossiped and smoked and drank more coffee and finally decided that the fog was here to stay.
One good thing about the fog is that it ( and the addition of a second horse-wise person) meant that I could try out lunging Harvey. The lunging area is on a hill and has a wonderful panoramic view - and the last thing I wanted was Harvey being so distracted by the view that he fell over his own feet spooking at stuff that's 3 miles away.
Gemma took a turn at lunging Holly and then we got down to business. I have a spare Harvey-bridle, it's fitted with a dutch gag - didn't fancy the idea of trying to lunge in that so I investigated the collection of bits on the wall and came up with a cheltenham gag - basically an eggbutt snaffle with sliding cheekpieces - so the cheekpieces came off and the bit became, to all intents and purposes, an egbutt snaffle.
The cavesson doesn't fit - it only ever fit the pony so I now have "X-full lunge cavesson" on my wish-list. we're lunging using the lead around the poll method - not perfect but better than nothing. Harvey was dodgy about having this lead put behind his ears - it made him grow very tall and the walk up to the arena seemed very long. Gemma had the camera and settled back to watch.
Stunner ! He was extremely good ! I'm impressed - he was concentrating, listening and didn't trip once. Obviously I'll be doing more of this........
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