Hail, snow and now freezing rain.

Spring? What was I thinking of, even mentioning the word? Today Ace and I got hailed on and snowed on, in a strong wind with a temperature of 2 degrees. I am so fed up with this endless winter.

Ace was sharp, very. He saw a rabbit run away from the edge of the arena and he shot sideways, bucked and then stood half-rearing half a dozen times. When I asked for trot the first time he did the same thing at the other end of the arena.  I am fed up with this too, I don't want to go out each day feeling as if I might be going to hit the floor. I think it was just spring behaviour because he felt loose enough, but I could do without it.

I made him work away from the boards on figures of eight. He was trying constantly to set against me and to drop back on the changes of rein. I slowed everything right down and insisted that he stay forwards and light in front. It was a lot harder work for him to work slower, and it will build his strength up. He did end up doing some quite reasonable trot 8's with change through walk, and canter 8's with change through trot. He is backing up much better now, and for quite a few strides as well.

It's such a puzzle working out how to feed the pair of them. Yesterday it was much warmer, and sunny, and the grass will definitely have grown. So they ate that overnight. But today is cold and windy, so do they need extra food, or is the stuff that they ate overnight enough? Clearly this really matters. If I feed Ace too much I will be ending up on the floor!

C