Resistances

I had the dentist to Anky on Friday. He said that she had quite a few sharp edges and that she would be much more comfortable after the treatment.
I have no expectations that she will suddenly be wonderfully responsive and active in her mouth, but at least I now know that her teeth are in good order.

I took her into the school today, walk halt transitions, flexions, and straightness.

She started very well , with responsive walk/halt - halt/walk transitions, light closing of the fingers and seat aids to the halt and nice reaction to the legs in the walk transition.

After only a short time she started to get impatient and lost the straightness, became more resistant to the hand into the halt transition, swinging her quarters, shuffling, anticipating the walk transition.

She has the attention span of a small child, to be expected, we are very early on in her education.
I moved her around in walk, small circles, loops and serpentines. A reasonably genuine feel on right bend, being careful not to lose the outside shoulder, nice feel on the outside rein.

On the left rein, real reluctance to bend, against my inside leg , reluctance to yield, planting the inside shoulder and tipping her nose, resistance in the outside hand. It was like she had a little tick list, placing these obstacles in my way one by one.
I concentrated on keeping a good contact on the outside rein, keeping the neck straight, asking for a slight flexion to the inside and asking her to yield to to my inside leg with small nudges. We had some success with this on small circles getting moments of relaxation and genuine bend, so finished on a good note.

I feel that more work in-hand is needed for a more active mouth and relaxation of the jaw.