The Bourne Ultimatum review

My brother suggested a spontaneous trip to the cinema last night, after our afternoon at the Tower of London with Bear. The Bourne Ultimatum was the only thing both of us were quite keen to see, so that was what we went for.

I was hampered slightly by the fact that I couldn't remember anything at all about the first two films, and I was left with lots of questions unanswered at the end, but overall it was pretty good. Lots of excitement, some interesting character insights, and Julia Stiles being very cute.

I still don't understand the reasoning behind the directing style, though. How it is a good thing for the camera to be jiggling about the whole time (even during close-up dialogue shots) and for half the shots to be taken from behind things so the characters' faces are obscured, or so close to the action that you can't tell what's going on?

Herbie Rides Again!

I was on Herbie again for this week's riding lesson, and my goal was simply to do better than last time. I achieved this, so I am happy. It was a really hard lesson, though; we spent 40 minutes straight trotting without stirrups, while trying to do complicated maneouvres, and Kerry didn't let up the whole time. She's an excellent instructor, but she really makes us work hard. Today we were focusing on leg aids and getting inside flexion, making sure the horses were really listening to us and going where we wanted them to go. Herbie and I both find this quite difficult but I think we were doing pretty well by the end of the lesson, and Kerry said she could see a big improvement.

I still couldn't get a smooth canter transition out of Herbie, but Kerry had given me an extra whip for my outside hand at the start of the lesson, which really helped. I found out last week that Herbie bucks quite violently if you use a whip on him, but he kicks out and raises his hind quarters away from the side where you're using the whip. If you have two whips, one on either side, and just gently tap him with both at the same time, he doesn't know which side to buck on and he actually responds by moving forward with more energy. I also discovered that he needs a very strong contact, which is not how I like to ride and possibly explains why I had such trouble with him last week. Once I'd got him collected on a very short rein, he actually went forwards much more energectically and was easier to control. So, lots of things learned today!

I got extremely wet on the walk back home - but at least now my boots are clean!