WRC Ribbon Day - 21st august

Took Scotty to the WRC ribbon day yesterday - his first competition since September 2009 and he was good. Took a little while to get onto the float - and over the course of the weekend he had to get on 3 times, so it was good to practise. As soon as we get the bum rope in place he generally goes on - but will keep working on it!

At the ribbon day Scotty started with Passage and snorting like a dragon! Was excited to be out and about again! Only a couple of bucks in the ring and we came home with three 2nds, one 3rd, two 4ths and three 5ths. I entered him in the afternoon with the jumping but only stayed for three classes as I felt he'd be a good boy and a whole day out might be too much, although he handled the whole day quite well. Will hopefully get a season calender some time soon so will be able to see what future events to enter him into.

Also got Scotty measured today for the season, he measured at 161.5cm's - roughly 16hh. A bit smaller then I thought he was (I always assumed 16.2hh) but good news, less far to fall!

Arena ride today & off for schooling soon

I hired the neighbours arena today and attempted to lunge scotty, he was all over the place, so gave up and got on him. He really lacks bend and gets quite tense when I ask him to leg yield, he's lost the basics so it was a challenging ride today. His reaction to tension is to buck, or throw his body around, not hugely, but gets quite off track.

I've asked some people if he could go to them for a month to be schooled later on (probably september) as I don't have the time (or is it patience?) to work through these issues at the moment, with having started a new full time job and continuing to ride other horses. I also think I am not consistent with my aids so I probably don't help his cause!