The last week has been quite busy for us, although that is nothing new. Last week we went to the William Mickland Coaching Day at Colraine and his talk at The Penventon. Both were very interesting and provided many new ideas and line of thought.
We took Lily to the Hunter Trial at Chyverton for a schooling round which was very successful. She did a lovely clear round and looked and felt very comfortable with it all.  We are really pleased with this as she hasn't done any cross country since Livvy had a fall at Aldon last October.  Hopefull, this will set them up for the ODE next weekend.
Livvy also rode Heather Child's Benji around the small course for his first full cross country course.  He was quite excitable in the collecting area but once he had set off on the course he soon settled after a  bit of dithering at the beginning. Owner and rider vey pleased with him and I think he was quite pleased with himself. A good day had by all.
On Monday we took Bethany, who has started riding Louis a bit, for their first Pony Club rally.  Louis behaved extremely well and they had a good lesson. They're off to another rally on Thursday and this will be the first one outdoors for them, so lets hope they have as much fun.
Rika is on a keep fit mission with Louis as despite all our efforts to keep his weight down he manages to live on thin air. Also working towards Lanhydrock in June, as she wants to try the Intro class this year after winning the Pre-Intro last year.
We have changed plans with Coco and have decided to work on him a bit more now rather than wait until the Autumn and try and back him before he goes away for the summer whilst we are eventing.  We thought we ought to put him on the lorry as it has been nearly a year since he was last loaded. He was really good and went straight up the ramp first time.
Zac also had his first look at the lorry and did go up after a bit of patience and gentle persuasion. Hopefully he will go up again tomorrow.
What a difference the good weather makes, you really feel like getting on with everything. It's so much easier than when its all wet and muddy.