Half halts

Grace and I have been for our third lesson with Jo Graham. I did not think Grace would travel very well because she was quite stressed out loading as there were some horses in the field and others going out on a hack. I loaded her five times until she loaded and unloaded quietly, which seemed to work quite well.

I unloaded her at Croft and she had not sweated up at all. While tacking up and putting her boots on, Grace can sometimes figgit as she knows something is happening, but today she stood still and was relaxed.

Once we got into the school, Grace had a few shies at things but then put her head down and worked. We worked on the full transitions for a while and then Jo started to incorporated half halts into the work, which Grace picked up on quite quickly. Jo thinks she is an intelligent horse, so because of this I have to keep her schooling varied and keep her constantly guessing otherwise she starts pre-empting things you are doing. For example, she was walking around on a long rein, then I picked up the rein and she started trotting. Jo asked me to put her back on a long rein a few times so that she doesn't think shortening the reins means 'go'. Although she did add that it was not a bad thing because she is constantly looking for what you want her to do next!

We had a really good lesson, and Jo said she is a completely different horse than the one she first met. She thinks we are working well together now, and that Grace is a forwards thinking mare that has a lot of potential!