I've had my doubts about my owner's sanity for a while now but today I decided that she has really lost her marbles. We went down to the indoor school at lunchtime with Harry and his owner, Pat. As she got into the saddle, I moved away from the mounting block and started walking along the side of the school. After a few seconds, I realised that there was no movement from up above so I did a quick check in the mirror to make sure she had not fallen off. But no, there she was doing absolutely nothing. What was I supposed to do? I tweaked my ear back in her direction but still no response. Was she still alive? I think so, she hadn't gone stiff.

Well, being a firm believer in expending as little energy unless made to, I decided to stop in the middle of the school to see what would happen. Now comes the dig in the ribs, wait for it! Still no response and what was even better, no grumbling either. In fact, she seemed positively pleased with my successful imitation of a statue, so I wasn't going to rock the boat by moving off.

A much better idea was to snatch forty winks and wait for this strange mood of hers to pass.

As I stood dozing, I caught snatches of conversation. Pat was going on about Parelli ideas as usual and I picked up that this was one of them, something called a 'Passenger' lesson. Harry winked at me and whispered that he thought we were onto a good thing. I must say that it was one of the best schooling sessions I've ever had. I'm certainly looking forward to the next one!