The weather was looking rather grim on Saturday morning, with rain forecast throughout the day but I didn't care - we look forward to our lessons with Manu so much that I wasn't about to let the threat of a bit of the wet stuff dampen our spirits! Faith and Kate met me at the paddock early Saturday morning to give Tech a bath to make him presentable for our lesson. He'd been naked through the hot, muggy, rainy weather we'd had all week, and had been pretty dirty all week. When Faith text me to say "He's GREY!" on my way to the paddock, I knew he'd had a lovely time wallowing in the mud pits he'd made himself the night before! Thankfully Faith and Kate made short work of getting him clean again (much to Tech's disgust - thanks heaps you guys!) and soon Mum was loading him onto the float and we were on our way.

We got to watch a couple of lessons before mine which as always, was a great way to learn some more tips, and then it was our turn. Becky rode the first half of my lesson to catch up on the poll work she'd missed last time, and then I was up. Manu was really pleased with the way my new saddle has freed up Tech's shoulders, and also how it puts me in a much more secure position. It also gives me the ability to use my legs a bit more effectively so we decided to put that to the test with a bit of leg yielding work. I've wanted to do leg yielding work with Tech before but have never been able to get my legs to work in the right way until now. Off my left leg he was pretty good considering it was his first real time trying. But off my right leg he just ran away from it, and didn't move sideways at all. So back to basics with Manu on the ground and me in the saddle to install my aids. After a while Tech began to grasp it (you could almost hear the cogs turning in his brain!), and after a few goes on the move with Manu backing up my aids off the ground, I finally managed to get a small but definite leg yield to the left off my right leg woo hoo!!! I had the BIGGEST smile on my face and Tech knew he'd done something right with big scratches I was giving him on his wither :) So now we're practising hard out to get our new party trick perfected :)

With the fab day on Saturday under our belts, I was looking forward to our first test back the next day. Becky had Tech all bathed (yes, again!), plaited to perfection and ready to go nice and early, so it was a very relaxed morning for the rest of us - Thanks Bex! Tech was lovely and chilled when we arrived at the racecourse which was a pleasant surprise for all of us. His cruisey attitude continued for Becky when she got on and warmed him up for me, even with him being alone in the big sand arena for most of the time as it was the lunch break. Good boy Techy! :) I got on and had a quick warm up, then we were all go! Tech felt fantastic - very responsive, light in my hand and nice and forward too. The only down-side was he'd started snorting and blowing a lot, due to the dust in the air I think. He even managed to whip my left rein out of my hand just before we were about to enter the arena after the judges bell! Luckily Becky was only a few steps away and managed to grab him for me before we got to the arena gate so I could gather up my reins and re-start my approach. Phew that was a close call! We rode a nice steady test with his walk dramatically improved on our last competition, so despite the snorting and head throwing, I was very pleased with my boy, particularly with his awesome cruisey attitude. There was no sign of the fire-breathing dragon who I've had to content with before at the racecourse, so hopefully he's turned a corner and has realised the place isn't so scary after all! Thanks so much to my fab crew for the day - you guys are awesome and I couldn't do it without you!

We had some lovely comments from the judges and it felt SO GOOD to be back on my boy in the competition arena again. I've missed competing the last couple of months, but we're back now and ready to go yahoo! Bring on Horse of the Year in a few weeks time... I can't wait!