and days turn into weeks!

Dear me ive got out of the blogging *habit* lately well ive had two weeks holiday from work so i'll say it was a blogging holiday too.
Sorry Claire I kept meaning to reply to your email after Corbridge but kept forgetting..we are both fine anyway.

Im not even going to try and remember in any detail what's been going on in the past few weeks so a brief round-up will have to surfice:)
Ali has been worked most days. I try to give him a good variety of hacking mixed with school work and lessons.
Hacking has been great he loves to go in the fields and will try and turn into any gateway that leads into a field, even if its a field we havent got permission to ride in! He is still scared of cows but tries to be brave although likes a bit of distance between him and the offending beasts.
We've had a couple of lessons since the last posts. Things are getting a bit more complicated now as intially it was just getting him to go forward with some flexions to get him more flexible and bending. He is now getting the hang of leg yielding and has a pretty decent shoulder in in walk and trot, his work is becoming more consistant although he still like to exit the arena when the opportunity arises.
One of the lessons was absolutely brilliant he worked really solidly and tried his heart out, the lesson last weekend was tough which is usually the case after a good one. D is quite an intense instructor so just when you think you have something cracked she ups the game and suddenly im pants again!
My big issue at the minute is im relying on the inside rein to turn and bend particularly on the left rein so im blocking him ...very frustrating!
Last week Vic and I did the fan with the raised poles, Ali is very good at this, towards the end we set up a couple of jumps for him, he's definitely got a decent pop!
He was a bit hampered by the school being small and wings getting in the way but he did make a couple of cracking attempts and seems really keen.
The weather this week has been pretty horrible so today I basically fed them, yesterday he had a 20min lunge.
My plan is to wind him down a bit over the remainder of this week and next have another lesson then give him a couple of weeks off. My reasons are i want him fresh for the show in August and because he's been in pretty much solid work since we moved to this yard (not counting the odd times of bad weather) I reckon a couple of weeks off will go down well.
Also im planning on taking him hunting a couple of times early in the season so he'll have to be pretty fit August and September so a short rest now seems the ideal time.
Plus ive got a fair few dog shows coming up so weekends will be busy over the next month or two.
Ive got a Champ show with the dogs on Saturday, Buster's been stripped and got no coat and Ted could do with being stripped so has too much coat..im not expecting anything:)
To be honest after the recent brilliant placings and the boys qualifying for Crufts anything more would be a bonus.