Overdue Update!!

Sorry to everyone that I haven't posted anything recently but as the saying goes time does fly when you're having fun and I have to say this winter has been great so far.  I'm super happy with how all the horses are doing.  Nico is doing fantastic, he is really trying very hard in all of his work and I feel he is using himself in a better way all the time, consequently he also feels this more in his muscles and then gets tired but now when he gets tired it's a good tired because he is using himself in a better way, he's always been a tense horse and often carried himself on adrenaline but now he is letting me more into his body and staying more relaxed through his brain (and consequently his topline as well!) and really using his bigger muscle groups so it's a nice feeling at the end when he gives a bit of a sigh and his body feels like it's really worked in a good way.  This has been such a big hurdle for him in his career so I'm super happy with how he is going and plan to continue on as we have been, as I mentioned in the last post my main goal down here for him is not the showing (maybe a couple here and there) but to really confirm the GP work with him and get things solid and then I plan to show him back in Canada over the May-October months more, so all in all very positive work from Nico.  Landino is also progressing right along and doing amazing, he has such an fantastic work ethic and is just willing to try his heart out, I haven't done any showing with Landino up to this point so decided to take him out on a schooling adventure last weekend to get him out and about so we went down to the Jim Brandon centre, it was great because on the warmup day I was able to take him in the big indoor and school with all the sights and sounds (scoreboard etc. all the things he'll need to get used to seeing) and though he was a bit tense and 'up' he was very well behaved, the second day we had a lesson and just worked in the warmup again just getting him used to things and the third day I entered him in a third level test just to get him around the actual show ring once so we could see how that went, he was a really good boy earning a 70.7% even with a couple of bobbles (nothing too major just a couple mis-cues between us, still have to get to know each other in the show ring a bit more but we'll go out again in a couple weeks for another tour) but generally speaking extremely happy with that for our first show together.  We also did a session with Juan Matute (who is great with the in hand piaffe/passage work) today, we did this with Nico the first year to help him with the piaffe/passage work and it was really good and a little bit last year with Rozzie as well so thought this would be a good time to introduce Landino to it as he is starting to play with those bits as well.  Ocita is also doing really well earning some life experience and mileage, have taken her out on the track a bit and schooled in the outside dressage ring today so getting her used to seeing different things, working still on the basics for her, starting to introduce her to the idea of closing more from behind and learning to step more into the contact, more suppleness through the ribcage all those good things that she has to learn about at this stage of training but she likes to get out and about and seems to be enjoying herself very much.  Anyhow that's all the news for now, hoping everyone back home is doing well, missing everyone and still looking forward to seeing you all again in a couple months:)