Richard had quite a mixed bag of horses - although all the riders were very accomplished some were on new younger horses whilst others had had a long term partnership with their mount. The sessions focused on accuracy particularly before a fence rather than trying to 'sort out your knitting when it was too late'. Richard's motto of the day was 'we are here to make the horse not break the horse' and that they did with everyone agreeing they had come away having acquired valuable knowledge to take on to their competitions.

Several accomplished targets they had struggled with for a while, including Becky and her horse Molly who has an aversion to steps. Molly having insisted she simply could not even do a baby step at the beginning of the session was confidently jumping off of the bigger step into water by the end of it, the smile on Rebecca's face was priceless.

Special mention should go to Cydney for the 'good sport award' whose horse Lapwing jumped a little greenly into the water tipping Cydney out the side; Cydney was only 20 mins into the session but she remounted and carried on after a giggle and did not moan once despite the fact it was bitterly cold and those of us that were dry thought her very brave.

It was a lovely day and Richard was very complimentary about you all so you should all be very proud of yourselves. If any of you would like copies of your photos then please email me.

Nicki