A sunny day and two brilliant schooling sessions

I rode my horses in the sunshine today, it was lovely. I'd definitely be fooled into thinking spring was on its way, and I seem to have been given a reprieve from the lurgy, so all good!

I think Remy is slowly becoming the horse that I dreamed he'd be when we started our training. We've reached a place where I can feel improvement day by day.
He's staying soft in the hand and through his neck, and if he tenses it just takes a lift of the rein to get a release and relaxation again. I can feel his carriage improving and everything else along with it.

He did so much good stuff today, I don't know where to start, but I worked him around the school as usual, moving shoulders and quarters, lots of transitions with halt/walk/reinback  and keeping him relaxed with good bend on small circles. His shoulder-in was well balanced, and he's responding much easier when I ask for the travers. His reinbacks were smooth and he stayed rounder and softer infront.
Best of all, he's showing better balance and rhythm in his trotwork, and today he gave me some lovely steps, stretching down and out, but maintaining a slow, balanced rhythm and keeping his shoulders up.
He was so relaxed that I tried one or two canter transitions at the end of the session.
I want to try and train the canter from walk, so my first attempt was by riding a small loop back to the track in counter shoulder-in, asking for the transition as I joined the long side. This didn't work at all - we have done it with some success once before, but I tried twice and it wasn't happening today, so I tried once from reinback and asked for the transition as he went forwards to walk ,and, what a star, he gave me the transition. Rough and ready, but with lots of energy so we have a place to start.

I then had a session with Bonbon in the school. With all the bad weather we've had, it's been a few weeks since I took her in the school, but she was a good girl on the lunge and we did some walk and trot work before I had a sit-on.
We worked on stop, go and turning, with lots of walk/halt transitions and circles on both reins. I asked for a couple of steps of reinback and she responded really well and stayed soft in my hand. Can't say how pleased I am with her.

I wore my Hit Air vest for the first time and I'm pleased with that too. It's very light and not in the least bit restrictive, in fact I forgot I was wearing it and had to be reminded to release myself from the saddle before I got off!!

Moving quarters and shoulders

It's been warmer today, overcast, but very mild compared with recent weather.
Remy was very relaxed and attentive and I continued trying to keep the relaxation and softness through his neck and into the hand.
I worked as usual, moving him around the school, changes of rein and direction. I practiced some halt transitions, trying to sharpen them up a little, and some reinback, which he's giving from a much lighter aid now with a more definite step backwards. I've been working also at halt, asking him to move his quarters, first to one side and then the other. Just one step to try and clarify the aid as he gets a little confused when I ask for travers ( I'm sure a faulty ask!).
So this is what I did today, moved shoulders and quarters. Going in quite good balance at walk, down the long side, I asked him to move his quarters inside, walk one or two steps, then asked him to move his quarters back. The same with the shoulders, move them inside and then move them back, and hey, we had travers and shoulder-in. Early stages, but calm and relaxed, and more a feeling of having the whole horse under me if that makes sense.
I tend to want to micro-manage and this can really interfere with the relaxation, but this way I'm just moving him around trying to strengthen and gymnasticise him and in that process we're getting the lateral movements I've been aiming for.
For me, it's a much more helpful way of processing things than, saying, right, we're going to work on this movement now, or we're going to practice this movement.  Don't know if it makes sense, but it's working for us.
The trot is improving too, he's gaining a much better balance. The transitions are still hit and miss, but becoming more hit than miss, and even though he has a tendency to want to drop the inside shoulder on the right rein, we're managing to rebalance through that more than not. If he continues to fall-in or starts to rush off, I bring him back to walk or halt and ask again.
I've not asked him to canter yet, but he offers it me sometimes from the trot. The last couple of times, it's been quite well balanced and I really would like to start training it, but would prefer to train it from the walk. Not sure that he's ready for that yet. We'll have to think on it.

Had a nice grooming session with Bonbon and trimmed her feet. She was a sweetie. We have some decent weather planned so can start taking her up to the school, I'm looking forward to riding her.

Walk, Trot and Canter........

Another beautiful day today. I took Anky in the school with mixed results. She started off quite good, straight, forward and relaxed. I worked around the perimeter of the school on halt/walk transitions, leg yield, small circles. At one point she was straight and soft enough to ask for a trot transition which was quite good, but then the trot was rushed. As the walk improves, I will start to work more on the walk/trot transitions and work on achieving a slower more relaxed trot.
Meanwhile, the other horses had been turned out and soft lad Remy was calling for his mum, which really distracted her. Having had some nice work in the school, I walked her around the field. As we reached the far end and turned for home, I asked for a couple strides of leg yield and as she softened and relaxed I asked her to canter (couldn't resist it!). We were heading home, so she needed no encouragement, made a nice transition and we cantered up the field. Our first canter - it felt good!!