Training, training and more training

So I've neglected the blog a little bit this week I admit but hey better late than never right??!!  Nico and I have a couple weeks break before our next show which is actually nice as we get some training time to really focus on the basics, this is the part of training that I find is a true love/hate relationship, I'm really a person who gets very hooked on those little details of the training process and I enjoy fine tuning the basics and can work away at them endlessly-sometimes so much so that I have to make sure I don't become totally obsessed with them and forget about the bigger picture as well, that being said this is the part of training that can also be so elusive as when there is one little piece missing you often feel like it's right there just beyond your grasp and yet you can't quite get it and that feeling can really make you insane at times too.  Nico has been going really really well this week and we've had a couple definite breakthroughs and he is feeling so much looser in his back and really stepping from behind into my right rein (getting him to step through and connect forward into the right rein without getting tight has always been our biggest challenge in training and it's also the big piece that when it's right everything else comes together which is very exciting!), so the training is on a definitely upswing right now and I'm very pleased with the results we are having, now if Nico can take his big boy bravery into the show ring we will really be talking!:)  We've also had some nice relaxing times in the evening, I like to watch the other rides in the day (try and get as much learning in as I can from the entire experience as there is something to be learned from watching every horse and rider) and then I've taken him out for a couple bareback hacks around the property later in the evening, it's always good to have those times occasionally to just chill out with your horse so that it's not all hard work all the time, I think that's important in keeping the horses healthy and happy and wanting to work:)