New trainer :)

REALLY like her. So does Wils: he let her hold the rein while I got on, and he let her give him a pat. He usually doesn't trust strangers enough to do either of those things.

Thank goodness I think she is the right person to take over from Paul. I was looking for somebody who was like him; Debbie Jones is, but she's as elusive as he is. This lady doesn't use the exact words that he and Debbie use but she talks about the same things, namely Wilson's left shoulder.

Of course she liked him and she also said some very nice things about my riding. I don't care what anybody says, the feelgood factor is important. It's perfectly possible to say nice things to your client and then set about changing what they do! I don't think you need to have the bad stuff rubbed in your face, and you like to feel that your efforts are at least being recognised, however off the mark they may be.

Anyway we worked on getting Wilson soft and supple, which is our absolute downfall and why we do fairly well but almost never very well. She reckons it isn't difficult to fix but it struck me that I have a lot of things to remember to do and I have to time them right as well, which kinda rates as difficult in my book.

We think we may have a crack at Elemental next Saturday. It's a fairly easy test so I'll go through it tomorrow and see how it feels, and then we'll run it past her on Wednesday. She said we'd be fine at Elem but I said No, we still don't really have a medium trot, and she pointed out that we wouldn't be alone there - but I told her that we don't want to be the types who compete at Elementary when we don't have the basics for it. We'll see; I may be seduced into giving it a go; it depends whether I can bear not to have the opportunity to rack up a mark or maybe two for the league, or whether ambition will get the better of me.

And we're going to affiliate. I was only thinking of Prelim, but she reckoned we'd be ok for Novice as well. Oh, she's a List 4 judge. SBN is "only" List 5.

I am so happy. I think we have a chance of really making some progress now.