So I haven't managed to pull myself together enough of an evening to post on here for ages. This is mostly because I've been back and forth across the channel with and without horses like a flipping yo yo.
AND before I left the first time I had a huge push to try and do as much local homework as possible,(local being a rather hazy term in France, up to 2 hrs away; which by standards over here would be a pretty decent trek).

The final push was the 'GRAND NATIONAL DE DRESSAGE' up at Auvers, not quite as grand as the name might imply but very beautifully presented nevertheless, scary enough to spook me anyhow. There were several posh ponies and riders prancing about and they made me feel very lowly. Lowly enough to freak out and ruin Rog's first test. I particularly wanted to take Rog so that he could a final whirl before his holiday, he was never scheduled to come back to England so holiday was the alternative; which surprisingly for such a fat' lazy lump he actually hates. He always wants to be in the action.
I digress, it seemed a long way to go for one test so I entered him in the tricky test which had lots of complicated movements included 'optional ' flying changes (or simple closed changes), shoulder in, volte and what turned out to be 'head to wall'  I skipped that bit but know for next time.(French to english movement translations aren't always so simple, especially when you don' t even know what the movements are in english!)
Being dull I decided to see if I could teach Rog changes in a week, Rog ever courageous rose to the challenge and grasped them fairly tidily within three days. Since I didn't really feel we had cemented their execution I opted for the closed change, only Rog didn't. So as soon as I gave the tiniest half halt for the walk he changed but I was in walk mode and it all got rather messy. The rest of the test was im a similar vein, some parts perfect, others disastrous, so we came a grateful last, grateful that we weren't trailing out of sight.
He rectified everything in the second more simple test by breaking us out of runner up zone to win! Thanks Rog!

Saturday provided us with a reprieve as there was a climbing festival at Mortain so we went down there to have a social climb, not really our thing but it was a lovely sunny day for it and Mick ran up a few and got a bit freaked out by the spectators. I didn't feel ready to climb, my shoulder just didn't seem up to the job, but it's such a beautiful spot you couldn't fail to enjoy yourself.

Sunday was back to it, Turnip and Charlie went up to Auvers for the first year cycle libre class.Turnip ws as an idiot outside but went into to do a very nice test, Charlie was a bit of a monkey and went into to  do a pleasant test.The judges didn't seem to see what I was feeling and they got very close marks despite Charlie's VERY greeness. They came 5th and 6th out 8 so it was a definite improvement on last and nearly last the previous time.I was pleased with both of them, you can see from all the photos posted on Turnip's page (taken by my personal photgrapher throughout) that he was looking quite nice for most of it. You can also see what a pretty spot it was by church and tower.