A mixed bag!

Exactly what I got from Anky today.
I wasn't sure what to expect after her few days off, I was hoping she would be nice and relaxed, but I thought she might be jumpy. She was!
I did a few flexions in the barn before getting on and taking her up to the school, she was very jumpy on the lane going up there and then snorted at the posts laid out around the school for the fence.
I started working on halt-walk-halt transitions, but realized that wasn't going to work, she was too distracted, so we worked on small circles and figure of eights. This calmed her a little and we tried some shoulder in on the right rein which seems to be coming better. We had one or two nice turns around the forehand on the left rein. I was pleased as she has been quite resistant when I've asked for this. She is becoming straighter on the left rein with a much more uniform bend.
Having settled a little, the halts were better and we managed some reasonable halts with immobility so we then practiced the ridden flexions at halt which were quite good.
Having been quite settled, she then saw the neighbours dog in the little wood so, obviously, that was very frightening and every time she had her back to the wood, she tried to leg it up the school. I managed to settle her again by doing small figure of eights, achieving quite good change of bend. As a final exercise I walked her around the perimeter of the school on a longer rein allowing her to stretch (why did I do that???)but, just as we approached the little wood, a dove flew up out of the trees and we were back to jumping and snorting.
The walk back to the stable was done on tippy toes, but we managed some reasonable leg yield up the lane.

Beautiful Day and New Things Learned

It was a beautiful day today, sunny and warm. I felt very determined and optomistic.

Tacked Anky up and brought her on to the yard. She was restless and wouldn't stand for me to get on. After a few attempts, she did and we stayed at halt for a couple of minutes and I did a few light flexions ( her lips were very tight) until she relaxed a little. I asked for walk and she hesitated and didn't respond immediately, so I gave her a quick reminder, a very light touch of the whip. She set off at a trot up towards the gate. Out of the gate, I asked her to walk on, again hesitation, I immediately tapped lightly with the whip and she again went into trot, so off we went. We managed to balance the trot a little as she was rushing on, and she became much more relaxed in her mouth. It was quite a nice trot, a little too quick but it was forward. We trotted almost to the road, walked nicely up to the road and crossed it without any problems.

On the other side of the road, back onto country lanes and she started to back off, shaking her head, snorting, so every time I asked her to walk on and she refused I turned her on a very small circle, I didn't use the whip at all, just asked her to turn ( I discovered immediately that when she's resisting and refusing to go forwards, she sets herself on the right , coming back and up at me, and it's extremely difficult to turn her that way, but it was easy to turn her to the left) , she freaked and snorted at two shetlands in a field which she has seen several times on her rides out with Corky, after several circles and halts she went past them. We continued down the lane - we had a little forwards, circles, halts , sideways, but I did feel very much in control and relaxed, I spoke very little to her, except to praise her as she started to walk forward. To be honest, I enjoyed it. It was real and positive and I was calm and eventually Anky became calmer and less worried. We had some good halts, without shuffling and worrying and after one of these I walked her forward, and then I turned for home.

Of course she was in a hurry to get home, but she didn't jog, her walk was rushed, but she listened to me. I was able to slow the walk, raising my hands (not backwards) slightly and with my seat and body. I was able to flex her very lightly left and right just using my fingers, keeping a degree of softness and relaxation in her mouth. I let the rein out a little and she stretched into it very nicely. She was really quite responsive. We had some reasonable halts on the way home. On one successful halt, I said "good girl" and clicked quietly. It was really funny, I felt her settle in the halt and she looked round at me for her treat!

So we both arrived home tired (we'd been out for about 90mins) but in good spirits, I untacked Anky in the stable and then took her outside to wash her off. She hates water splashing around her but I asked her to stand, looped the rope loosely over the ring and she stood very quietly and calmly as I washed her off.

If it's not obvious in my report - I am very pleased with her.