Today was mine and Andys first session with Arran, out natural horsemanship instructor. I was sooooooooo incredibley nervous it was all i could do to not throw up :S!!!!!!!!! Andy bless him, was able to keep it together for the both of us :)

Arran started by helping us to sort our sideway problem, before today me and Andy didnt have a sideway gear lol!!! Arran pointed out then my driving game on the front end was brooken an i wasnt using my phasing correctly :) I handed Andy over and Arran showed me exactly how to fix it :) I dont think Andy was very impressed that this human was trying to teach him new things lol and unlike me Arran's able to be firm and effective with out getting me or mad, im much more like "ahh shall we just have cuddles instead!" lol
Before long Andy was even offering us sidways :D

Next, i showed Arran mine and Andy's circle game- a game we've struggled with for what seems like forever and only this week Andy's been able to circle me confidently :) Me and Andy circled and changed direction flawlessly, Arran seemed quite impressed :) He asked if i there was anything i thought could have gome better and ponited out then when i got to tag Andy with the CS and SS he shys away from it and then speeds up which is when Arran mentioned about playing the firendly game on the move- this is where the fun really began lol

Standing still Andy was fine with me tossing the SS over him but when i sent him on the circle and tried the same thing Andy was nutts. He shot of nearly taking the rope clean out of my hands :S Needless to say i handed Andy straight over to Arran :D It took a while for Andy to chill out and be happy about us tossing the rope over him out on the circle, but we got there :D

Arran then asked if we had ever done the falling leaf pattern, then laugh when i replyed with "I looked at it and it scared me so no :S!" lol It was actually a lot easier than i thought and me and Andy were doing it in trott in no time- I have pretty awsome timing according to Arran :D- Finaly something im good at lol!!!!!!!!!

Our ground skills being good enough Arran suggested i hopped on him and we try some riding :) i had never Andy in the natural halter so Arran suggested we start with bending to a stop. Well it felt as if Andy had swallowed a piece of 2x4 lol it took ages to get him to bend him head round to touch my feet and even then we ony maneged it once or twice :)
Next we tried going sidways and this is when Andy had the "Great Mother of ALL Tantrums!" lol

Andy was getting a little bit confused which was then closley followed with aggitation and then tantrums lol Andy was going every direction but sideways we had forwards and very good back up, and even a buck and rear- just to say, i ride bareback lol and thankgod for Linda teaching all about our balance point because thanks to that i was anchored down deep in my seat and wasnt thrown off balance, not even by a milimeter- it was at this point i started laughing lol!!!!!!!
Many tantrums later we were going sideways with ease in both directions :D

Over all i think the session went pretty well, i have loads of things to work on with Andy i hope, Arrans looking forward to our next session just as much as i am :D:D:D
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