At long last - the snow is beating a retreat! The weather report is forecasting a whole week of sunshine, and temperatures are slowly creeping up. I think, perhaps, that the end is nigh...

And not a moment too soon. Ella and Midge are going to a schooling show (an unrecognized competition, just for practice) next weekend for their first Brentina Cup and Prix St Georges tests respectively. And both of them, plus Fender, go to their first real show at the end of the month. They're all reasonably prepared for the show ring - we've been able to work in the arena every day - but none have done any work outside the arena. No hills, no conditioning, barely even any hacking. We dressage riders so often get accused of being ring-riders; well it's not the case here and it's been a very long, frustrating winter being forced into the indoor school every day.

The bad weather made one final play - the snowstorm that hit the upper East coast grounded Olympian Lendon Gray, who was supposed to give a clinic here last week. With all those shows on the horizon, and not having had a lesson since January, I skipped up to top trainer Scott Hassler's for a day of lessons. Ella was a superstar, and we worked on higher neck posture to help her balance. It made a very big difference in all her work, but particularly in the passage and piaffe.

Fender was a total prat, but it was his first outing. The leaping and plunging eventually settled, and once he calmed down he was quite amazing to ride - the extra chutzpah made him very sensitive and really zippy to my leg. I felt the future during my lesson, and I liked it! Of course, the day after he was so pooped he could barely walk-trot-canter around the ring, but we have nothing but time.

So it's onto the schooling shows, then a week off, then the big leagues. Today I’m going to trailer Ella over to one of my neighbours to school in her ring, because her insecurity off the farm is the only thing that’s holding her back!