A busy day

First thing at the hospital in Limoges for Jim to have his check-up. A bit of a waste of time as they should have arranged a dopler on the carotid artery to check that it was still open and working properly. They hadn't done this so what we got was a very brusque french doctor who gave him a quick once-over vascular wise and pronounced him 'pas de probleme'. We asked if they could do the dopler today and of course the answer was;
'c'est nécessaire d'arranger un rendez-vous et vous devez revenir un autre jour'!!

We were home just after lunch so brought the horses in as they were standing under the trees looking miserable. It was very hot, but I decided to take Remy into the school as he'd had a day off yesterday. We had a short session in-hand, moving him around the school, small circles, rein-back,working on the shoulder-in on the circle and also starting some steps along the side of the school. I then rode him for about 30 minutes, first of all asking for flexions at halt, moving on to shoulder-in on the circle, which he seemed to manage fairly easily, presumably because he knows it from the ground.  We worked for a short time on a rectangle in the top third of the school. Asking for walk on along the side of the school towards the corner, trying to keep him straight into the corner, not letting him anticipate and fall in before asking for the turn.
He moves off from my leg, but in usual Remy style it's not as sharp as I'd like. I finished by working on a large circle, I wanted a more forward walk and re-inforced my leg aid with a little tap of the whip and he popped into trot. Not the reaction I wanted, but welcome nevertheless and it did improve the walk afterwards.

I rode Anky at 6.30, it was a beautiful evening, pleasantly warm with very few flies. It was lovely in the school and I enjoyed the session. Anky's attitude has definitely changed, she's giving me more, both in attention and relaxation. The contact is better, still hit and miss, but much more consistent than it has been. She's trusting it much more, giving me genuine bend, and at times I'm getting a really nice, soft fullness in the rein. I'm not sure how to describe it, but that's how it feels to me. We finished with a short session of  trot work on both reins. The trot is very unbalanced ( 3 legged stool comes to mind), but she's not throwing her head and is starting to think about stretching and lowering her head and neck. We then get a few balanced strides and the trot becomes more rhythmic and more manageable. I hope that I'm finally getting into her head and managing to reassure her that she's nothing to fear from this riding lark.  I really do hope so!!