Oh
The walk work is hard for me tbh and probably Alw in fact but I know that it will pay dividends. Up till now I haven't felt like including much schooling as such though we have been doing what is needed laterally for gates, rein back etc; in a slightly rough and ready fashion but hey ho!! I have, however, been eyeing up our drying paddock and was hoping to roll it so as to provide a basic surface for a tiny bit of schooling. It may not be ready this weekend sadly but I can feel it won't be long. I am going to think of some good hacking-schooling exercises for Alw for this weekend now and plan to do a 5 mile hill workout today with a bit more trot work and then 12 miles of hills and tracks with trot and canter over the weekend. Her feet are getting rather worn so I am also playing a bit of a waiting game to find out if I do need to shoe (I would so rather not and Alw has lovely feet which farrier doesn't think will need shoes) or just do what I can to avoid any additional abrasion. That means more work off road - yippeee!! I literally can't wait to be able to take her somewhere with a good surface for some flatwork and a lesson; fingers crossed that won't be too long 
but on the plus side we've got the all clear to have lessons at the yard again so I've booked Mum in for 2 flat lessons and her first jump lesson! I'm so excited, Mum is naturally a far better rider than me, she is just rusty and never really learnt how to ride technically, she just bombed around on her connie hacking!
Those with confidence issues jumping honestly little and often is what got me through my crisis. I'd even just put one small cross pole up in the middle of the arena, flat school around it and then every now and then just pop over it. If we went over it nicely then I didn't do it again - always end on a high note! I also incorporated it into my flat lessons so it didn't really feel like jumping, more like raised poles!
Also what my instructor is great at is building exercises that stretch us technically but without raising the height of the fences. So unknowingly I was getting more confident because we were doing skinnies, dog legs, grids etc but all at 50cm max. Then she popped up one fence on it's own to 85cm and I jumped it without even being too nervous.
Can you tell I miss it
Everyone that is having lessons/riding etc make sure you post videos so I can live vicariously through you please.
My main takeaway from your post is ooh what takeaway shall I have tonight so no judgement on lockdown belly from here...I did do a Pivo video last weekend but my main takeaway was that I need to lose the lockdown belly, so I'm not sharing
My main takeaway from your post is ooh what takeaway shall I have tonight so no judgement on lockdown belly from here...
My lockdown belly has it's own heart, brain and organs and there's only one way it's coming out and I've heard its akin to doing the splits on a crate of dynamite
That does help, I love Thai.
I really hope so, i'm still determined to do Shelford BE80 one day but it seems like every year it slips away from me!!