Which at the time sounded like a good idea, but after not getting back from Essex late the night before, I really wasn’t feeling the motivation to be on the yard at all. But it was actually one of those rare days where I didn’t have to be doing something else or more to the point I didn’t feel like I should be doing something else either.

Much like today: yesterday I got one of my major chores sorted and today I need too time it that I am on the yard for this afternoon, so while I’m typing this I am not thinking in the back of my head I should be outside – hang on though I better just go sort the washing out -. It’s such a nice feeling not feeling like I am being pulled in every direction.

So back to Friday, first we got spirit out and gave her a good brush over, and then the boy had a little ride. There is a winter woolly show in a couple of weeks he might be going to. She was as always a little diamond (and still up for sale). She is really lovely, and although I would like to keep her. The boy will definitely out grow her this summer.

It was then a toss-up who to do next, but Nas was beginning to be a bit of a pest in his stable. So I decided to turn him out with spirit. Normally this is a simple task but Nas was hyped and very excited to see a small cross pole in the school. I’m not sure if he was spooking at it or was raring to go jumping, once in the field though he did charge off full of life.

He then proceeded to run along the hedge line by the school and kept peeking his head around when we had Mo in the school -he had this look of hey mum why aren’t I in there-. Mo on the other hand wanted to be anywhere but there. She was very good though much better than I thought she would be. She does need fittening up and could do with some better tack. I did get a good feeling about her and the boy.

We then mucked all the stables out thoroughly with fresh bedding, and had a good tidy up on the yard. All the time Nas was running up and down the fence neighing at me, I finally got him in about half four. And brushed him off before spinning him on the lunge quickly, boy was he up for it. He was stepping out, tracking up and stretching down.

Now for the shocker, to cool him off (not that he was hot) however, I decided that rather than cool him off while on the circle I decided to walk him around the school, 3x in both directions. Yes I walked him round in both directions three times. This is a tip I got from my friend, she mentioned it to me last year.

It reminded me of another friend who said she liked to walk her horses off in a straight line. The other benefit to this is I don’t then have to keep chasing him up to walk out, and I can set the pace. Ok I did slow a couple of times, but equally it was motivation for me to step it up a notch. This will definitely be what I do in future.