The Fourth Exercise of the Uberstreichens
Jan 22nd, 2010 by Carolyn Resnick Method
Hello. So sorry if you were expecting a blog post yesterday but it was one of those days and I didn’t get round to finishing this till late. Anyway, here is the fourth Uberstreichen Exercise for you to have a go at.
Before I get into it though, each time you practice the exercises, start them from the beginning and do them in order. Remember your horse needs to be willing and in a good mood before you start. Before I start training, I spend at least 15 minuets Sharing Territory with my horse in whatever place he is kept. This way the glue and the connection is always re-established. Stand in front of your horse on a dropped line when you begin each session. Pause for at least a minute and then walk around your horse. If your horse begins to walk off, take the rope and lead him back to the spot he was standing. Hold him for a moment and then release him the moment he is still and say “whoa”.
So, the fourth Uberstreichen Exercise is done like the third exercise with an addition of a halt when you are asking the horse to carry his head down.
Start by putting a marker down anywhere on the circle pattern that you have been walking him on. At this point you will have done the third exercise and for the fourth exercise you are going to try and stop your horse at the marker. When you get a few steps away from the marker ask your horse to slow down with his head held low like in the third exercise and then ask him to stop right over the marker. Bring his head all the way down to the ground, hold him there over the marked spot for a count of 7, then release to a non-influencing looped line, and repeat the whole exercise. Once he can do this, ask him to stop every 20 feet or so in this manner. You can also use a carrot as your marker once or twice if you like. When his head comes to the ground from your pull he gets to eat the carrot. What fun!!
Use the carrot treat only once or twice, not more. Treats can take away the horse’s work ethic, his focus off the goal and onto the carrot. We need to keep building the rhythm in connection between you and your horse.
It will take time for you to develop your skill, so again think of it as practice and discipline. You and your horse are developing team-working skills with one another. When your skill grows from the practice of the exercises your riding aids will improve.
How this exercise will help you is for example when you are riding in dressage as it will help the horse to stay supple while coming into a halt. Horses often confuse the halt request and the supplying aid. When this happens the rider begins to ride more aggressively by putting on more leg aids with stronger rein aids in an attempt to get the horse to respond properly. The horse then responds by bracing and becoming locked in the neck when he halts. Some horses will over-collect and run through the bridle. The horse has no idea that the rider is asking for halt. When riders can fix these problems with stronger aids, the rider then learns to be more aggressive and the philosophy of dressage flies out the window. I developed this exercise for the horse to being able to distinguish the halt request from the supplying request and to be able to respond to both coming into a halt.
A tip for you in using rein aids when you ride: When giving a request with the reins, they must be released after the request for the horse to be able to respond properly so the horse can be in self carriage. If you are coming to a halt, slow the horse first and then ask for halt. Think of it in two stages of request. Do not ask for halt until you have successfully slowed down the horse and the horse will stay slow in self-carriage.
A well-trained horse can perform only as well as the rider can ride. A good thing to give your horse is “no-fault insurance”. When things do not work out, it is usually from not asking the horse in a way he understands.
If you are doing well with the third exercise and your horse is responding, then the fourth exercise should flow on naturally from that. As always, please check in and let me know if you are experiencing any issues with this or any of the other exercises to date.
Enjoy your weekend and go easy on those carrots!
Carolyn
Related posts:
Hi Carolyn
just checking in.. I practised with all the horses, they are all on a different level from one to three. But due to the cold, I had to stop this week.
I’m looking forward to go on with the exercices again. Tine
Hi Carolyn,
Just checking in…a little late, but definitely still here and following along.
Michelle
Hi there – checking in.
I have been able to try the first exercise with my mare Dee. She is resisting a little. At first she kept nudging me with her nose, so I stood a little farther away from her. Then she started taking a step towards me. When she does this I ask her to step back to where she was. Eventually we get there and she lowers her head and holds. We’ll persevere. Our relationship is benefiting in other ways through (I think) my greater awareness from even reading about your exercises. When bringing Dee in from the field now I let her walk up with me rather than putting her headcollar on straight away and leading her up. We are both enjoying this. At this time of year she is keen to come in because she knows it will mean a feed and there is little grazing, so we shall see how it goes when the spring grass arrives.
Thank you again. Nor’dzin
horses are amazing creatures.. before i only viewed them as normal organisms but now that ive read this i know they’re something.. how often do you ride your horse?
Hello Carolyn,
Grettings to all! I haven’t progressed past the first exercise as my family and I are in the process of moving out to where the horses are. Hopefully it won’t be much longer and I can see my horses on a more consistant basis. I look forward to that time. In the meantime I will read, visualize the exercises and be inspired by what you and the class have written.
Hi Carolyn,
Interesting week.
Harlequin playing in the field somehow gave himself a puncture wound to his near hind hock – same leg that he seriously injured as a foal and is still cautious about having handled. Not too bad but he needed antibiotic injections and anti-tetanus, and daily cleaning… none of which he was agreeable to..
I have been working with him to accept injections, (something that would provoke striking and biting and sideswiping in self defence) and last vaccination was good.. so had my fingers crossed that it would be okay.
Spent half an hour getting him okay with the antibiotic injection, and he accepted it, without being tied, however, when I tried to give him the anti-tetanus shot there was NO WAy he was going to let me do it. My vet was great, waiting around for an hour while I attempted to convince H that it would be okay.. just a small sting and for his good. But in the end I had to quit for the day, and told him I didn’t want to force it and lose the trust built up. Vet understood but strongly suggested that the shot was essential and needed to be administered early rather than late.. So in the end, Harlequin was haltered, held and had to accept it despite protestation and a good go at physically stopping me.
I was really worried about what this would do to the progress we’ve been making with UE – Harlequin beginning to allow me to hold him his halter in a floating hold and manipulate his head. Not to mention his trust in me, and perception of need for self-defence.
So I spent a couple of midnight hours with him after my vet had left, trying to make up for the damage.
What a wonderful couple of hours it was.. non demanding, just standing with him, feeding him, allowing him to relax while I groomed him and scratched his favourite places.. and communicated a lot about what had happened and why. Finally, I haltered him and put my hands out, asking if he would put his head into my hands for the first UE. Yes he would. He let out a long sigh and went sleepy eyed while I gently asked for his head down, and then round.
Have had to continue to press at his trust issues this week as I’ve had to clean his wound every day. Luckily it was not too serious and I was able to keep my promise not to hurt him at all as I did it. And it’s turned out to be a blessing in disguise, with us going back into a lot of his old “stuff” and bringing it out into the open and looking at it in a new way. He’s become very much more soft and is losing that hint of defensive/aggression that he always carries. And the UE’s are coming along well!
We’ve ridden him a few times, continuing with his riding education, and noticing much more softness there too as he’s become beautifully responsive to rein aids on his noseband. Lovely stops!
Sunrise is finding the UE’s easy – it’s all stuff we’ve done before but without halter cues.. Except tucking her nose IN. She’ll do circles or infinity loops, but she wants to walk backwards when I use the pressure on the halter for a tuck. Have continued with it, using a give to simulate/stimulate her give.. but no breakthrough, until this week, when I decided to “cheat” a little.
I have a cue to ask her to create the arch in her neck, so I used this in combination with pressure on the halter. YAY! The lightbulb went off, and then I was able to gradually fade my other cue out, and even managed to get her to hold it, and “look” for the right place.
In our schooling rides, she’s offering this more and more often during walk and trot on a loose rein, and is starting to “follow” the feel of the float in the rein to experiment with head positions. She was already doing this before we started UE, but now, if I take up a little slack in the rein, she’ll experiment with dropping and tucking her nose to put the slack back in. Cool I think!
Thanks Carolyn!
Sue
am just enjoying the uniqueness of my mare. she teaches me new things every day. Never met a horse that was so serious! She makes me laugh when she focuses intently on me and tries so hard to figure out what it is I am asking. “What about this?” she says “oh, maybe you mean this” -
so we just try to figure out together what makes sense.
Kerrie – thank you so much, susan
thank you Carolyn.
Apologies all . . . A week of no work here . . . Home from travel and then down with the flu. Hope to catch up soon.
Nan
Susan Garvin, you have my limitless sympathy. May you see recovery you had not even imagined.
Hello to Carolyn and to my fellow classmates. I’m very late this week, it’s been a hard week with the death of the horse of a close friend and then my own boy tearing a tendon, no idea how, but there it was, torn. Two months box rest
BUT the waterhole and liberty dvd’s arrived so I have something to study and look forward to – I’ll have to stick to very simple things for a while now, certainly no ‘go trot’!
I shall continue to follow the UEs, imagining more than doing but still….and it is very educative and inspiring reading everyone’s experiences week by week!
best to all
susan
Hi Carolyn,
Checking in for this week.
Still reading and learning.
Thanks,
Holly
Hello,
I’m so glad we can do the second and first UE the same time. The second, (and third) are so much easier for us! The first one is getting better, but really slowly getting better. Juno feels she just has to keep an eye all the time on our surroundings, so she will let herself go into relaxation for just a short time. I wonder if this is a lack of me being a good leader, doesn’t she trust me to stand guard so she can relax? Probably not enough… But when she relaxes, she does well, and stands perfectly still when I walk around her. Then she thinks she deserves a scratch, of course!
Holding her, however lightly and floating with two hands at the sides of her halter is still really not appreciated. She has no problem with me holding her at her rope under her chin, or touching her lightly on her nose. I think she has bad memories about pressure from reins on a bit. She has a difficult mouth, and shouldn’t have been ridden with a bit, as she has been before she was mine. I was wondering how necessary it is to hold her by the sides of her halter, considering I’m going to ride her with a dr Cook bitless bridle? Or does this make no difference?
The second UE she got right away, and didn’t mind at all. We have done a lot of walking and stopping on a loose rope already. Very soon, without me asking, she kept her head already low while walking. So she knew what UE3 was before I did!
I’m going to read the previous blogs and comments again, because I’m wondering why the first UE is the first, because this one is so much more difficult to me and others than 2 and 3 (and probably 4).
RE Andrea Schwiegel’s comment to my earlier post:
Andrea, I completely agree! That is what I meant when I wrote that some people have a natural gift for body-language with horses; they just have it (kept it) without effort, being naturally who they are in the moment. While most people, like myself, have to let go, let go, let go, and than let go and let go some more: all unnecessary stuff and ideas about how it should be and what you should do, to get to that state of mind (or better: non-mind)
I’ve experienced over and over again: it’s all about getting out of your head and into your body! I notice the switch in attention of my horse immediately when I start being, and stop doing.
best wishes!
checking in. but have very less of time to practise. To much to do last week so i still have to read four blog storys. My business takes a bit more time now due to some horse events.
i copy the UE blogs in a word doc so i have them on several pages, i print them out later so i can read it before i go to sleep
back to business again….
Hi Carolyn, I have been riding endurance horses and using the same way you suggest to use the reins. Even when you are out of a safe , enclosed place, in situations where you think you need more control on your horse, it is a good idea to give rein aids this way. It makes the horse pay more attention to you than to anything else and want to respond to you in a much better fashion.
Last weekend I rode a 4 year old mare at her second race and saw that she was more eager to cooperate if I released every time I made a request on the trail than she was when I tried to keep a more steady contact. I had to take a step that was quite difficult in doing so, given the fact that I have only ridden the mare the day before the race and without knowing her habits I took her on a 25 miles race.
There was 102 riders and we got in 26th, without me asking for anything other than what she offered. I am very thankful for all your tips and lessons, they come in handy in any situation I find myself with a horse at the side or under the saddle.
Hi Carolyn,
I wasn’t able to practice UE #3 much at all due to the bad weather we’ve had lately, so I’m afraid I’m getting a bit behind. I was making some progress with exercise #2 though, and now Banner is more comfortable keeping his head down for me–although not at the halt yet. What I don’t seem to get from him is a nice bend though. Should I be working on that more now, or will that come later? I’ll continue working on exercises 3 and 4 this week in between rains.
Thank you. –Carol
YES, the philosophy of dressage flew out the window for me a long time ago, now with the UEs, it can come back to me in a wonderful way.
and YES this morning all my horses go the “The no-fault insurance for lifetime.”
Thanks and many greetings to the class from the sunny and fresh Caribbean!
/Stina
Hello Carolyn,
Just checking in. I’m enjoying following along with the class’ questions and comments, always learning things from everyone. I just do what works for us and I know I have all the time we need ahead to progress beyond UB #1 & #2 when ready. Not able to tuck neck in even when just standing when head lowered…she wants to back up. (have your suggestions from other blog postings for this). Going for absolute miniscule indications of a tuck and then praising her.
Diane Paine
Dear Carolyn,
Checking in. For the most part, Roscoe and I are doing well with the exercises. We companion walk in sync, Roscoe lowers his head with a soft request, walks with his head lowered, and slows and stops and lowers his head to the ground. We continue, however, to have difficulty with the head tuck. A lot of resistance there. But I will keep in mind all you have said about resistance and approach it in a relaxed fashion.
I’m so glad that you encouraged me to continue with the exercises when I thought it best to discontinue because we were having such a hard time with the first exercise. It really did get easier.
Karin
ckecking in, playing with the waterhole rituals , haven’t really started the UE excersise though I’ve read all your e-mails . just waiting for the northeast to warms up and my guy loves the give and take of the waterhole rituals and we both warm up doing them!
Hullo Carolyn,
Checking in. Love all this information unfortunately there is an obstacle at present as my horse Andre is very lame in front. Maybe he fell anyway chiropractor has checked him out and the vet will do so today. I am going to give him treatments and light therapy so hopefuly he will come good soon.
Rikki is looking fabulous and Ransom started companion walking. Enjoying the Blog Collection and Liberty Training DVD.
Take care and time to restore your energies.
Best
Farah DeJohnette checking in.
I am still working with 1,2, and 3. I should get to play with 4 thins week a bit. We’ll see…
Hello,
Just checking in.
Andrea
Thank you Carolyn. I’m behind due to weather among other things. I am storing every bit of information so I can work with them later. I think my younger boy really isn’t quite ready anyway. I plan to do the WHR with him come spring.
Regina
Hi Carolyn and everyone, just checking in. Still mainly on the first exercise, touched briefly on the second today – very much enjoying ourselves. Thank You!
Checking in for this week Carolyn, after a few bitterly cold weeks it is now so mild we are getting melting and freezing rain:( Very slippery at the barn…am going to buy some ice cleats so I can safely get my horses out of their pens.
Will let you know next week how lesson 3 and 4 are doing. So far 3 is good but I have been moving onto this one sometimes before the first 2 UE are completely well done. Is this OK? The 3rd UE is much easier and both horses respond well to it. My guess is that in time all the UE’s including the first 2 will improve.
This whole process continues to be fun, even in all this crazy weather we have been having.
Hi Carolyn,
Checking in. I have been finding the 2nd and 3rd exercises much easier with Ben than the first. I could not work with Ben for about a week and when I returned to the first – he had started to get it! He was completely relaxed with my hands on either side of his halter, he brought his head down, left it there in a floating hold and started to allow me to move his head round in small circles. It seemed that it had all sunk in during this short time off and has taught me a lot about patience and quiet persistence.
I have other questions linked to what I am learning about and from Ben but my husband has very kindly offered me a birthday present of a telephone consultation with you (very exciting) so I will e-mail you separately.
Thanks so much again for all of this.
Máire
” “Light” may not always be what happens before “heavy,” or of seeing how little pressure I can use, but from beginning to end keeping an attitude and focus on float. “
Thankyou Hannah, that’s so true
!
Hi Ms. Resnick!
Thank you for the information! I love seeing the big picture of where the UE’s are going and how they tie in to single lining and then into riding. It’s really exciting to see the progression, and when I see that progression, it definitely gets clearer how these exercises clarify to the horse what is “suppling” and what is “stopping.”
Without a car, I’ve only seen Maia very sporadically, but am doing UE #1. Even in the bit we’ve done that, it’s been so helpful.
First, it’s teaching me true lightness. The necessity of staying in absolute float, of releasing to teach — even before the horse “responds” — has given me an entirely new dimension to what “light” can mean. “Light” may not always be what happens before “heavy,” or of seeing how little pressure I can use, but from beginning to end keeping an attitude and focus on float. Even when I would use higher energy, I am learning to keep “float” and Maia feels so much more free.
Also, I saw Maia start getting that “sleepy/drugged” look in the UE #1, as she released herself into the softness and lightness. She was so lovely and happy. It seemed that she was truly loving the exercise for its own sake, not just because she would get rewarded externally (like with a treat) for doing it.
I started thinking about that, about trying to make exercises intrinsically rewarding. I have been practicing bringing that into other areas of my training — seeking to get that same “sleepy” happiness in the floaty lightness. I was doing it with leading from behind, keeping my arm over her back in physical contact with her and developing a lot of float in our transitions and turns, trying to develop the same “UE” connection. She really seemed to connect with that and it helped relax her a lot.
Lots of fun things, and I’m just on UE #1! I can’t wait to get to the others!
Have a great weekend,
Hannah
Hi Carolyn,
– thank you so very much ! ! !
Checking in – am excited to have received both your “Blog Collection Book” and the DVD “Liberty Training” – wonderful ! !
You could be looking me right in the eye with a wink when you wrote “go easy on those carrots!”
I think, quite possibly, that my Cookie is the lead mare, in my little herd of the two of us, when it comes to carrots and her charming way of asking for them
Hope your energy is returning – I’m lovin’ all this good horse karma and I am excited and happy that you are planning to keep us in your fold by offering another free course next winter
Beth and Cookie,
in Virginia
Dear Hannah,
The horse is learning to respond to suppling aids for collection and lengthing while standing, while traveling at the same pace and while slowing and moving in to halt. The next one with be on increaseing the speed from halt. In the next exercise you horse learns to go though a heald rein increasing his speed and then decreaseing his speed. This helps with the gas pedal.
After the next exercise we repeat the same exercies focuses on walk trot transitions. Then we start all over and do the same exercise with the neck bent to the inside of the cirecle. after that we do it all over again on the far side of the horse. From there we move to single lining. After that we are riding. I will not be covering single lining at this time. Maybe next winter. Every winter I want to off a free course to help use stay together and grow out working conntion with your horse.
What benifits have you experaiced for this work so far?
Checking in – no UE last week.. only time for the basics (food, care and scritchies)
Thanks for latest!
Hi Carolyn and fellow students, checking in!
Hi Ms. Resnick — checking in.
You mentioned that horses often confuse the suppling aid with the halt aid. I definitely see that, and have felt it in my own riding: I ask for suppling but the horse slows so I add leg and the contact increases and… not good.
When teaching a horse to halt in float and suppleness through this UE, how do I transfer/use that to help my horse separate/distinguish between the halt and the suppling aids?
Or, are UEs #1 and #3 about suppling, UE #2 about stopping, and UE #4 about stopping while supple — and so when all the UEs are used in conjunction, the horse has learned separate aids for stopping, for suppling, and for stopping while supple, and thus the aforementioned problem (confusion between the aids) is solved?
Thanks!
Hannah Rivard
Hello Carolyn,
I can’t wait to practice with my Arabian the 4th UE in the round pen. I don’t think I’ll put a carrot on the ground at the marker for head lowering. My buddy is so focused on treats that his attention leaves me competely when he sees any carrots, cookies or apples. I hope the weather improves for us next week to work on our UE displicine, and of course have time to share terriority and just enjoy each other.
Be Well and Safe….
Barbara and Monie
me also, weather been too hot to do much, here in South Australia, ex 1 is improving, havnt really tried any of the others, waiting until I have better rapport with Sasha. We are gettting a better halt though and she will let me hold her head now in a floating hold.
Mary
Hi, I’m checking in. Sorry been away for a while, just had too much going on and weather. But hopefully back on course and looking forward to catching up with everything. UE are looking really interesting.
hello carolyn,
just checking in. as i said i have a lot of catching up coming late to your class. doing first and second lesson with my 2 PRE and enjoying the space we are sharing. i read the newer lessons and lookl forward to the day we can start them. a new filly comes next week, a 3 year old Spanish/Quarter horse who i know well and think will really respond to the work. loooking forward to the waterhole ritual cd arriving as i am sure it will give us all a great start.
today first really nice weather since 20th december and we rode out all day off to the ermita for a picnic, wonderful!
HEllo,
Checking in, ditto the weather challenges
Hi Carolyn, checking in. I’m also just starting since the weather has improved enough. I found a lot of resistance when I practiced the first UE, although with a carrot it became a lot easier. But I’ll stop with the carrots since the are not in the UE and see if I can improve it by starting with the WHR and some ground work. I don’t have much time to practise, unfortunately, so we’ll be moving slowly.
Checking in. As I already posted under the third UE topic, the weather has gone back to normal here in Holland. Due to the long vacation of my horses I decided to get the WHR back into place first, before I will start the UE with my mares Kría and Saegola. I described my WHR session with Kría in the other post.
!
Today I did some WHR with Saegola. I have been clicker-training her for a long time, but I decided to stop clickering her because of your thoughts about this, which made a lot of sense to me. Indeed I had come to the point that I worried if she would do what I requested without me being a ‘treat machine’. Clicker training has proved its great value for Saegola in the beginning, but now I have to change to another view on training her. Today I put a small pile of hay in the arena and a bucket with pieces of bread outside the fence, for an occasional treat. Saegola decided – after some nice ‘sharing territory’, ‘saying hello’, ‘eye contact’ and ‘leading from behind’, with one or two treats from the bucket – to start guarding this bucket without focusing on me anymore. So I decided to do some ‘taking territory’, in which I caught her completely off-guard three times before she got back to her senses and focused on me again. After that we shared some very good moments with companion walking and sharing territory. Great session
Hey Carolyn, and thank you for a new, great post about the UE! Have tried checking in your last posts too about the UE, but these viruses still keeps popping up..(?)
We`re moving slowly and are still on the first exercise. My arabian mare is only 2 (3 after the new year, but to me she`s still 2..:), and struggles a bit to get even with this exercise. I don`t know if she think it`s boring?
She stands still when I ask her, maybe moving away a couple if times, but then she stands still. We do connect, and she lowers her head, but then she sometimes jerks her head, and tries to get away. We doesn`t do the UE for a long time, and usually quits when we have done the lowering, connecting and walking around successfully a couple of times. I often do the exercise after a walk, is that okey? I`m taking your advice about Sharing Terriotory before doing the UE, maybe I`ll see a change? I know it`s me, and me not doing it right! Today I found out that I maybe is too consentrated about getting everything right, and not focusing about relaxing, breathing and connecting with my horse. It`s hard though, because she is so young, and I try doing everything fun for her; and she always wants to come along! But then, when I get ready doing these UE, it`s like she`s going: “Aah, that again?! Aren`t we done with that already?” She`s kinda fun..
Anyone with young horses, with other experiences? How can I be better?
Checking in in the midst of miserable weather.
Hi!
This is a little outside of the subject, but it might be interesting to think about for a second… I suddenly remembered an incident that happened about half a year ago, and just now I realized what it ment!
It was a warm summer day, and I was out in the field to get “my” arabian Cham. Just for the sake of training I was planning to ride him to the gate. I stood on a boulder and was about to mount, but he wouldn’t stand still. So I moved him back to the boulder and tried again, and the same thing happened. And I tried again and again.
Obviously, this ended with him bucking me off, me landing hard on a rock with my behind and smacking my head on another rock (luckily I was wearing a helmet…)
At the time I didn’t get this message, but it dawned on me because I was thinking about reflexes. I have pretty good reflexes, and usually I land on my feet if a horse decides to buck me off. The reason I have good reflexes is because I’m in tune with my surroundings. What happened this time was that Cham didn’t buck me off just for fun, it was because my focus was all in the wrong place! I was only thinking about mounting him, because my plan was to ride him to the gate. Therefore I didn’t listen when he said he didn’t want me to, and he gave me a lesson. I’m glad I understood it, better late than never… Had I been in tune with my surroundings, I would have gotten the message, and there wouldn’t be any need for landing on my feet (or behind).
I hope this story can be helpful. Don’t set your mind to hard, listen to your surroundings, especially to your horse:)
Dear Carolyn,
Checking in and letting you know that I am still on the first excersize. I am getting less and less resistance from my horses and they come to me to ‘play this new game’. Especially my mustang, who is very playful.
I can see a difference in their softness, and they let me know if I forget to walk around them and if I concentrate too much on the ‘task at hand’. I’ve been taking your advice in your blog and spending time with them before the UE. They are much more curious and have much more draw. I am enjoying your method and also the comments of the other students.
Toni
Dear Carolyn,
checking in. I look forward to move on to the fourth exercise. The second and third one have been without problems. The first one was, indeed, the hardest one.
My best,
Christian
Carolyn — just checking in. Have a bit of catching up to do — computer broken and weather ugly. Today the sun is shining and the snow sparkling, will be playing with horses this afternoon! L.
Hi Carolyn and all: I am checking in. I thought today was Thursday anyway!
Thanks.
Dear Carolyn,
Thank you for the fourth exercise, I can see it in my head! Will enjoy practising the exercises over the weekend as no rain or snow is forecast. The blog book arrived in the post last week and i have been pouring over it since! I am so grateful you decided to put it together.
Regards,
Joanna