Chook meets her Apollyon.

Head on and with gusto! The cantering has become a bit of a massive scarey thing at Chook's riding. It's a good six months since her first (unsuccessful) attempt at cantering on a lead rein. Small, snappy dogs and skittish ponies do not a good combination make. Add in three months missed due to teeth, snow and Christmas and then a lesson partner unwilling to participate and that's a looong time to stew over what is, admittedly, a bit of a scary new technique. But the longer she didn't do it, the bigger a monster it became.

She can't have her usual lesson on Saturday due to Scout camp and her instructor suggested having one tonight after school with a girl who is about the same age and riding stage. She also, crucially, is like Chook in that she has a have-a-go attitude. So, fifteen minutes in after seeing new lesson-mate canter, a "for fun" (heh) pony swap and an "accidental" (heh heh) too hard kick as instructed?



She is thrilled to bits and naturally we have switched to a Wednesday lesson! What a difference it made having someone not whining, complaining, refusing and generally being a brat to ride with. Nothing like a bit of healthy competition to get you to up your game, eh?

*edited* What a bummer, we've lost about 7 comments with the blogger downtime. Sorry, Chook!