The weather has been quite warm and dry so it has made everyone seem happy which is always nice. We have been lucky enough to have some university students come and help us,some have been with us last year,so it's always nice to see them again,most of them ride with the university riding club,so it's nice that they are prepared to help and see how much pleasure and therapy the riders get out of their riding.
The riders have all been working very hard, they have been practicing steering through the cones and stopping at the letters around the arena, I have been getting them to think about keeping a distance between their horse that they are riding and the horse in front of them, they are just starting to get this really well.
I have three riders in the 12.30pm ride that are really doing well with their steering and so I have been getting the leaders to hold the lead rein in their hand furthest from the horse, letting the hand and arm closest the the horse just hang down, so that the lead rein will only be used if necessary, so the riders could do all their own steering down through the cones, they did this a number of times changing direction as well. I then suggested that perhaps they could try and go down the cones off the lead rein with the leader walking beside them. They agreed to do it although it was visible that even though nothing much had changed and they had happily gone down the cones pretty much on their own already,they were worried, they attempted it and all three of them did it first time through the cones, their faces changed completely and they were chuffed with themselves.
To a lot of my able-bodied riders that wouldn't have seemed very much walking through a line of 5 cones like that, to these riders it is a great achievement. Saying this one of the rider travels on her own by bus to the riding session each week,so she not only learns how to ride a horse, she learns other life skills in a way which is enjoyable to her.
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