I hacked Kiwi in the morning before taking Bug off for another dressage to music lesson with Lizzie Murray. I tried out the adjusted music and we were very pleased with the result! Done! Yay! The trot music has been slightly slowed and shortened and seems to fit very well now! Lizzie helped me a bit more with my pirouettes and flying changes, the latter are so frustrating with Bug as he gets wound up as soon as I prepare for them so I usually end up having to almost catch him unawares, resulting in erratic changes! As I walked him back to the lorry I was a bit shocked to see him going lame on his right hind! He was trying to walk on his toe, but there were no signs of heat or swelling. Cardiff is getting quite close! Tying-up from canterwork yesterday crossed my mind, but it would have shown up before and not so one-sided. Afternoon vet visit revealed bruised foot that shouldn't set us back more than 2 or 3 days, fingers crossed!

In the evening I went to a friend's dinner party in London, I really enjoyed myself, as did Tiger who stretched out in the middle of the sitting room with everyone fussing over her! I guess dogs don't often turn up at London dinner parties, and as everyone came from the country they were delighted to have a dog visiting. I was particularly impressed that conversation barely touched on work related subjects all night, most refreshing in London! It got late far quicker than expected so driving back was quite a mission.

Drove down to the New Forest to teach the pony club, one boy had quite a nasty fall when his pony surprised him with a huge buck, but everyone else did very well and I felt several made big break-throughs! I couldn't resist sneakily photographing one girl's very fancy saddle cover!

I dashed back at lunchtime to load up Kiwi and Izzy's pony Josh (I teach them in the next door village) and set off for the clear-round jumping at an unaffiliated show. Izzy had to quickly get to grips with the video camera because I soon gave her the job of filming me and Kiwi for my Horse Hero video-diary! The practice ring can be unnerving at such shows.. ponies often out of control criss-crossing everywhere! Kiwi took it all in his stride and jumped pretty well for his first jumping outing. In our first round he surprised me by spooking at fence 2, but he still jumped it from a standstill. In our second round I got a much better rythm by keeping a stronger canter. Josh was a good boy too once he had settled, so a worthwhile trip for only £3 a round. Then my first night at home all week after my 6th tank of fuel! Going on strike next week!