“Your dad’s rude and-” Burt stopped himself “That sentence wasn’t going where I wanted it to-” He muttered and rethought his words. I snorted as I watched from one of the jump standards.  

“You need to learn how to ride more difficult horses. You said you would like to get more serious with dressage and to do that you need to ‘graduate’ from little cobs and lesson ponies, and work with higher level horses. You have the talent for it, you just need the confident and Lou requires confidence to make her move.” Burt explained, his voice softening to explain the reasoning as he pet the mares muzzle. “She won’t go anywhere as long as you’re scared. But, unlike Dj, she’s not doing it to be nice. Take it as a challenge, yeah?” He said with a smile, handing her the reins. Julia was reluctant to take the reins as the notoriously grumpy mare snorted and stamped her foot.  

“Papa, can you convince Dad to let me ride a different horse?” Julia called over to me.  

“D’you think Papas going to change the horse, do you see the horses he rides? Lou is an easy one! She’s just got some personality to her,” Burt told her. Julia looked at me and squinted, all I could do was shrug. Burt sighed. “Julia, everything will be perfectly fine, Papa and I are in the arena, I won’t make you do anything you can’t do. It’s completely safe. We’re just gonna stay at the bottom of the ring, it’ll be a nice easy lesson,” He assured her. “Here, I’ll give ya a leg up,” Burt offered and put the reins over the bay mare’s head. Julia pursed her lips and crossed her arms for a brief moment whilst watching Burton pet on the mare. She got over her nerves and uncrossed her arms and let Burt give her a quick leg up on Lou. Her face curled in discomfort as she took note of how massive Lou was in comparison to her usual lesson horse. Unlike her brother, Will, she’d not have a consistent ride, and would switch between some of our boarder horses, her brother’s pony, or the cobs up at my family’s yard. Burt and I had come up with a little plan, but first, we needed to make sure our daughter was up for something new.  

“Different, right?” I asked aloud from the jump standard.  

“She’s huge!” She asked, gripping the leather of the reins tight.  

“You don’t fit too bad on her actually, but I think you’ll love her,” Burt said with a smile, stepping back from the two. “Stirrups alright?” Burt asked, tilting his head. Julia nodded. “Right then, go ahead and get her moving, she’s gonna feel pretty different than what you’re used too!” Julia took a deep breath and collected her reins and put on her heel. Lourmais gave a love rumbling nicker before she took a few small steps forward.  

“A bit more leg than that,” I said as Burt moved out of the way.  

“Yeah, Lou’s a very close contact, she likes constant contact,” Burt said, situating himself next to me. “Just stay down here, don’t go pass the judges stand,” He instructed. “Man, really should’ve just used the small ring,” he said to me with a quiet chuckle. I just shrugged and smiled.  

Julia squeezed on her leg and finally got Lou’s engine running as she took a big step forward, extending her head forward. Julia flinched and shifted back in the saddle for a moment before regaining her seat and leading Lou onto the rail. Julia’s eyes remained wide as Lou took big sweeping steps forward with a big snort.  

“She walks weird!” She pointed out.  

“Cus she’s a big horse with a big stride! Once you get used to it you’ll realise the bigger horses are a lot comfier than ponies n’ there choppy little gaits,” Burt explained. Julia nodded and continued to walk around the designated area with Lou.  

“Huh…” Julia said, adjusting her legs on the mare. We let her work on warming up Lou on her own, both Burt and I well aware of the fact she knew the basics of warming up a horse. However, she stayed in the walk, as we both expected. Burt stole my hot chocolate while we were waiting.  

“How’s she feeling?” I asked.  

“Long.” Julia stated flatly.  

“Fair assessment,” I said with a nod, holding back a laugh. Burt snickered.  

“Julia, can you start adding more contact to the mouth, try and get her into frame,” Burt said, quite loudly taking a sip of my hot chocolate that I made. Our daughter looked conflicted for a moment with a prominent cringe before she attempted to get the mare into frame. Lou knew her job and got herself into a proper frame with the littlest pull onto her mouth. We watch Julia’s cringe quickly turned into a surprised smile.  

“Easy, right? Lou knows what she’s doing, ey?” I asked. Julie nodded quickly, holding back a grin.  

“So keep that frame and do a half lap around tracking left then switch direction through the centre and do a half lap tracking right and I’d like you to pick up the trot,” Burt instructed, adjusted his hat with a small sniffle. The pair continued on, Julia was visibly holding back a proud smile the whole time as she worked with Lou. Lou had her usually pissed of mare expression on, but I think the sheer breeve that getting her into frame was gave her a considerable boost of confidence. Once she completed the two little laps, Burt encouraged her to bring her up into the trot.  

“Now, when you move up to the trot, really stick your heels down. You’ll have to hold yourself more when she trots because she’s got a big gait, you’ll be posting much slower on her. She’ll go slow unless you really kick ‘er on,” Burt explained. Julia nodded and clung her legs on tight, jabbing her heels down better than I could. Lou flicked her tail angrily and lifted her head, keeping on the vertical, before lifting herself up through the backend into a slow and rhythmic trot.  

“She’s so fast!” Julia squeaked, trying her hardest to rise along with her gait but was bounced off her rising a few times but fixed herself beautifully without the need to look down at Lou’s shoulder, she simply had the feel for it.  

“Not fast, just big! She’s covering more ground than you’re used too. What do you think? You two look fantastic together,” Burt told her with a wide smile. Julie was reluctant to give an answer as she continued to adjust to the big horse.  

“It’s fun,” Julie mumbled as she passed us on her. Julia was doing the typical over rising that kids tend to do, but Burt and I could care less, seeing she was enjoying the new horse. Lou looked pissed off and didn’t appear to be having quite as much fun, but that’s expected. Lou usually hates everyone, but we knew she was unmotivated enough to not bolt or buck. 

“Great! Let’s see what else we can do with trotting,” Burt said happily.  

“Is she just doing trotting?” I whispered to Burt, raising an eyebrow at him. He gave a subtle shake of the head.  

“I brought the lunge line for a reason, Mark, Julia is fully capable of cantering of course she’s going to canter. I don’t want her to stress about it though!” He whispered back.  

“Ahhh clever,” I said, wagging my fingers at him and fixed my posture.  

The lesson continued on with walking and trotting. A few circles her, maybe a couple poles, an attempt at a sitting trot (didn’t go too well.) changing directions, and of course waks breaks. That went on for the next fifteen minutes, Lou staying at the same “barely working” trot, but it was the most we were going to ask for that afternoon. Burt was quite positive that Julia would be capable of controlling Lou’s extensions, but that wasn’t the point of his lesson. It was all about discovering a new kind of horse. At least that was all she was to do on her own. At this point Julia was all smiles as she was allowed a walk break while Burt picked up the black lunge line from the stairs of the judge’s booth.  

“So, Julia, let’s try something. I think you’ve got the hang of her on your own, but let’s see what we can do on the lunge line,” Burt explained, raising his naturally quiet voice to reach her at the other side of the ring as he wrestled with the tangled lead.  

“Like what?” Julia called, redirecting Lou into the centre of our made-up ring.  

“Just seeing if I can get Loulou to extend and collect so you can get a feel for her movements,” Burt explained, stopping in the centre as Julia made her way over. “What do you think of her so far?” He asked with a polite smile.  

“She’s really fun, I like her,” Julia said with a giddy chuckle.  

“Oh really? I thought she was one of the hard horses,” Burt teased, clipping the lead line onto Lou.  

“She's pretty easy actually! I don’t have to keep kicking her like I have to do with James,” She explained.  

“James is like 20 years old, of course he’s gonna be lazy,” Burt said. “Go ahead and start her on a circle,” He instructed, taking a step back. 

“But Lou just keeps on moving,” She said, doing as instructed.  

“I know! It’s fantastic isn’t it?” Burt said. Julia nodded as Burt adjusted himself. “Now, once we’ve got her on a circle and you’re ready I’m gonna have her pick up a collected trot. All I need you to do is to keep her in frame and take note of the difference in movements. Sounds good?” He asked. 

“Yeah, I can do that,” Julia said confidently. 

“Fantastic, like I said before, keep your heels down and shoulders up to keep your balance- but I think you’ll be just fine,” Burt said and once Julia and Lou were ready, Burt asked Lou to pick up a trot. He continued on tracking right, talking Julia through the trot as they worked on a bouncy collected trot and eventually and forward and lengthy trot. Julia wasn’t a huge fan of the extended trot, but once they went back to the walk she had a toothy grin back on her face once again.  

“Alright! So, last thing is we’re gonna canter!” Burt said cheerfully. The smile on our daughters instantly turned into a surprised stare.  

“What? No!” Julia hissed.  

“Nah, we’re cantering, you’ll be fine. All you have to do is sit, I’m doing all the controls,” Burt assured her with a shrug. “Trust me, you’ll be alright, I’ll keep Lou nice and steady. She’s not gonna do anything mean, she does fine on the lunge line,” Burt said, softening his tone. Julia cringed and raised an eyebrow at him. “Oh don’t look at me like that, you’ll be fine, you know how to ride horses, just do what you always do,” Burt said. Julia took a moment to think it over before grumbling to herself and adjusting her seat. “Ready?” Burt asked Julia nodded and shortened her reins. Burt swung the end of the lead line and gave a wimpy little growl to try and get Lou moving, but was only able to make her bob her head and speed up her walk. Burt tried again to no avail, so to help out I did a harsh growl from the jump standard and Lou bounced into an easy canter.  

“Thanks for that Mark,” Burt scoffed.