Well I'm going to ache in the morning!

Aww well the pony was a good boy today :) He neighed when I went to get him from the field, don't know if it was because he thought I had food but still quite a novelty hehe. Brought him in and gave him a nice brush, as you can probably tell by the background of the photo, he has a very muddy field, all to himself, to roll to his heart's content. Bless him.

I started riding as usual, just with my stirrups, though tbh I wanted to do something a bit more intense to really get me motivated to ride again, so after a couple of laps in walk took away my stirrups and did some of the old riding school exercises, as you do :P Worked as I had planned though, after a few laps my seat felt much more relaxed and less forwards, so hopefully the benefit will be worth the aches I'll undoubtedly have tomorrow :D

But yeah, did some little exercises getting him to come off my leg, like turning on the forehand then sending him away in trot and things like that, which after a while he did nicely; obviously right now he's still in half asleep old man mode a fair amount of the time :P But he was coming down onto the bit easily, though occasionally a tad overbent but right now at least he's giving to me rather than fighting the bit all the time, and with a bit of leg he usually comes back up into a nice outline anyway.
Canterwork was also a bit of a drama to begin with, he's got a horrible habit of leaning on my hands, especially round corners, which makes it very difficult to get him to carry himself nicely. Though I expect this is again, a lack of balance, something which hopefully will correct itself in time.
After that I took my stirrups back, and gave him another couple of canters, my leg and seat felt much more relaxed after this so the no-stirrups definitely helped him and me. So in the end I got some nice paces out of him, considering the amount of time he's had off I think we're coming back into it nicely, at least it's going well for the time being :)
After riding I did his bed; while he was waiting outside he had a lovely fat parsnip to sink his teeth into, which surprisingly does take Red quite a while to get through! And then made his dinner the way he likes it, with warm water and grated carrot in it, well at least no-one can say I neglect my pony :P a tad spoilt, but he seemed to enjoy it :)

So the plan right now is to see how we progress during the weeks up to half term, at which point I'm hoping to return to the 3/4 times a week riding pattern we had before, and I'm arranging a lesson during that week too. And then hopefully we'll see some jumps in March/April time. Woahhh will be 6 months since jumping by then :O How have I coped?! But yes, left a very cosy Red in his stable, the usual remains of his food round his mouth... he's like a toddler really, I think he needs a bib :P