A busy morning

I took Anky up to the school and we worked in-hand, concentrating on relaxation. She was very tense and distracted but I used the massage to encourage her to relax and stretch down. It took a while but eventually she gave and almost immediately started to relax and stretch. We kept losing it as she raised her head in response to something she'd either seen or heard ,the muscles in her neck going completely rigid, but we continued with the massage and after each distraction she relaxed more quickly, to the point where I could move her around the school, keeping longer and longer periods of relaxation, using circles and a little leg yield. After this I had a little sit on and we worked in walk encouraging the stretch down, changing the rein as soon as I got some softness, eventually working figure of eights with nice changes of bend.
I was pleased with the right rein, which felt much improved as soon as I got on, with genuine bend and softness. The left rein is trickier, Anky has a tendency to want to twist her neck and tip her nose to the inside, but with a little massage onboard, she started to relax and give a little. Trudi's got it absolutely right, the tenseness is most definately in her neck and not in her mouth. A good session which was spoiled slightly by Anky stretching and looking uncomfortable once back in the stable. She'd shown no discomfort during our session, but back in the stable she lay down and didn't eat her dinner.After about 10 minutes she got up so I took her out and lunged her very gently at trot which perked her up and she started wanting to eat the grass, so was obviously feeling better. Phew.
I then took Remy up to the school and worked in-hand on keeping his attention, not letting him walk through my hand and getting a quicker reaction. He was distracted, but after a while he started to listen, we worked around the perimeter of the school with small circles off the track, halt/walk transitions and lots of changes of rein. We finished our session with a much more focussed and relaxed horse and got a lovely leg yield on both reins. Hee heee!