busy busy

Had a friend from Italy who is doing Animal Communication turn up on Friday, was lovely to see her again! Daniela arrived in time to come to Smokey's lesson with Saskia on Saturday and share my birthday with me on Sunday (she gives GREAT Shiatsu massages!) She came to see Mac's Bowen session Sunday morning with us (his TMJ (jaw) session) and thankfully he is a LOT happier now in the paddock with being touched! YAY!!! We had dinner with a friend in town and then we put Daniela on Smokey for a quick ride before taking her to Kaikoura on Monday. Dear wee Smokey.... I had given Daniela instructions of what to do in the "worst case scenario" leave his head alone, don't try to stop him, just hold onto the saddle until he stops (lets face it, he's not dirty, but even he might think the other horses are appealing if a beginner rider doesn't enforce the way he should be going! He was a little worried when she first got on him but settled nicely, we took the lead off and Daniela even had a trot on her own!!! She then had an unplanned canter on her own too LOL, she was trotting nicely but not turning back towards me and hey presto he was aiming up the paddock! The very sensible lady did exactly what I said, didn't bother trying to pull him up (the sure fire way for a beginner to lose centre of gravity and topple off LOL) but just held onto the saddle till he stopped up by the fence.

When they finished Smokey was told he'd better apologise (for which he could really see no reason to!) and when he was not forthcoming I told him naughty boys do not get carrots and if he can't apologise he wouldn't get any. He was then told that apologies came complete with cuddles and he instantly stepped forward to give Daniela a cuddle (although he was intercepted by Marcus who grabbed a cuddle off him first hehehe)

So it was a lovely weekend, Smokey had a FANTASTIC lesson with Saskia, Mac seems to be on the mend, oh and I got a birthday message from the dogs!

Daniela was sitting in my chair on Saturday night and says "what do you want Zak?" I look around and she says to me "what does he want?" I ask him and he indicates he wants to talk to her so she gets out her notebook and starts having a chat with him.

The next day in the birthday card I got from her (which she felt compelled to buy in Italy before she came to NZ and didn't even know my birthday was coming up!) was a message from the dogs for my birthday that Zak had had to pass on because he was the eldest.... how sweet was that!?! :o)

So I'm still trying to butcher Smokey's lesson enough to get 1/2 an hour into 10 mins and then that will get linked up there, and need to get back and do some work!