Sunday, November 11, 2007

better day....

in that the kitchen floor got cleaned, Molly got ridden, and I'm cooking a home made moussaka; it's ages since I've done one of those so really looking forward to it.

I was pleased wtih Molly. I nearly didn't ride at all because of the cold, but braved it as I knew I'd warm up. She had to be held to be mounted (ggrrhh...) but when we went into the arena we were doing some nice trot, in that it was balanced, moving forwards, circles, diagonals, and she was wanting to move. almost, I thought, to th epoint of wanting to canter, but I don't think I'm up for that quite yet (still haven't cantered since last june!). I want to be much more sure that i'm getting walk/trot right and that we're more connected and balanced altogether before I do that. It's quite a small arena - not a full 20 x 40, keep meaning to measure it - so the horse (and rider) have to be quite balanced to canter it meaningfully.

Then did a lot of walk work just trying to get the contact right and keep the walk even and where i wanted to go. that was partly right and partly wrong, but when it was right it was excellent. we finished wihth a full circuit of the arena with her on the bit in walk. YAY.

Caroline, you're probably right about the fuel. wagon hasn't been anywhere since July or something. someone else suggested condensation in the fuel lines as well. either way, need to talk to vendor to see what plan we have. As it's still a decent wagon (partner not impressed, but as I said to her, new ones come in at £30K, not going there! unless i win the lottery, and if I do i think i'd rather have one of those canvan type ones.). If that's all it is, shouldn't be too bad, it's just a case of deciding whose paying to sort it out!

2 comments:

Jean said...

Hey, you had a good day! The moussaka sounds like the perfect ending.

Molly worked well, it seems. A pain about her not standing for you to get on, but the rest was pretty promising.

Won't offer a guess on the engine problems. If it's been standing around for a long time, moisture in the fuel certainly could be a problem. Also, sometimes the fuel itself gets stale. I have to put a stbilizer in the gasoline I use for my mowers and tractors here because when it sits in the can for too long, it gets stale. You might need to drain the fuel lines and the tank and put in fresh fuel to solve the problem.

cptrayes said...

It should only cost a few quid if that. The filter is easy to get out. If it's consensation it'll work through anyway. Good luck!