Karen and Brennan's 4th Lesson

I was so happy to be able to take Karen & Brennan to their lesson in the SUNSHINE today. Now if the weather Gods can put on a repeat performance for tomorrow, I will be ecstatic!

I am really looking forward to tomorrow now. It's going to be another great learning opportunity for the boy and I have a feeling that it is Karen's first competitive start in quite a few years. I hope she enjoys herself. I am sure Brennan will be a good boy and that is bound to help!

If anyone is coming to watch (and we hope you do!), please remember that this competition is being treated solely as a training exercise meaning that if the pony does not do as the pony is asked during his test, the pony will repeat the required move until pony gets it right! We're not after the ribbons or the high percentages, we're looking at this as a learning exercise for a pony stallion who has a whole lot of performing ahead - days like this are about building a solid foundation for Brennan's performance career to be built upon. I'm just super lucky to have such a fantastic rider with so much experience and 'feel' in Karen and a trainer like Becky to help them bring it all together. I am also pretty damned lucky to have a pony like Brennan to take out and show off!!

This weekend past

So it was the last weekend before Brennan and Karen make their partnership debut next weekend - exciting stuff. On Saturday we took Brennan down to Becky's arena for a work out. He was a bit grumpy and a little off his game. Didn't do anything wrong but just lacked some of his usual razzle dazzle and enthusiasm. I had my new video camera and have taken video which I will link on here, just be aware it's not his best work. I also took some photos.

Sunday Brennan, Karen and I went down to the Solway Showgrounds for Brennan to have a work session around other horses. He had a much better attitude on Sunday although I now have instructions to up his feed allowance so he has a bit more spark - Not sure who was more tired once they had finished, Brennan from having to focus and concentrate so much or Karen for having to keep Brennan going forward! I also have video of his first 8 or so minutes working in - again, it's not stunning footage but at least shows you how chilled out he is in company. He had a quick whizz around one of the arenas that had been set up and ran through 0.4 for the first time. I called the test so was not able to video him but, aside from losing concentration when a rider parked her horse between C and M (where he had to pick up his second canter lead) and a little loss of concentration coming up the centre line to halt, he did a nice, flowing, forward test with a nice contact - If they can repeat this next weekend, we will all be very happy.