The penny drops..........

.....for me, that is. I had time for a short session in the stable with Anky this morning, but had to wait until this evening to take her up to the school.
We started in-hand, asking for the release and the stretch down, slight flexion inside and then transition to walk. 
 We were suddenly doing it, our first (albeit very basic) tension free, relaxed work in-hand. A light vibration on the inside rein to ask for the flexion and as she released, she also took the rein down. The more we did, the more she seemed to want to stretch. I felt a real connection, I imagined her sigh of relief that mum had finally 'got it'.
Of course, it was there all the time, I just had to find it.  It's a start.

Flexion of the Jaw

Well, Anky's had a few days off. She's had a little pain with her season this month, I'm putting it down to her Spring transitional seasons and hope she will improve over the summer.
I've had a little play with Remy with the bit which now has the reins attached and he's slowly getting used to the feeling.

Not had much to say really, but the other day I was trying to explain to someone what I meant by flexions and the whole thing regarding mobility of the jaw. Why I'm trying to train Anky this way and, of course, intend to train Remy the same way.
She actually said, "well, aren't you just messing with the mouth when you should be concentrating on the back end?"

Well, a few years ago, I might have said the same, but being quite a lot older and perhaps (hopefully) a little wiser, I've changed my opinion.

So, what is it?

Flexion (mobilisation, yielding, call it what you will) of the jaw is a flexion of the temporo-mandibular joint (TMJ), which is found about 2 inches behind the eye, under the base of the ear. Whilst the rider is concentrating on the bit and the mouth, the important thing happens in the head, far away from the bit.


Opening the jaw itself is not only what is looked for (although it's part of the process). The aim is to relax the TMJ, as the French say, 'decontracter', to prevent it from being contracted.

In the flexion of the jaw, the horse "lets go" of the bit. The tongue goes up and down, several times, and as Philippe Karl says "a behaviour similar to tasting a sugar, playing with the bit and swallowing, then salivating. Not chewing".
I really like his DVD's :-)



So she asked me how to get it. Well, I try to follow PK's method which I'll try to describe in my next post.

Work in the school

I had a very good ride out yesterday with a friend riding Corky. Anky was jumpy, but behaved very well. She was fairly forward and relatively straight. I enjoyed it.

This morning, taking Trudi's advice, I dug the camcorder out of the cupboard and headed off with Anky to the school.
Anky was, as usual, quite distracted, took some time to settle. We worked on walk- halt-walk transitions, some good, some not so good. We had two or three quite soft halts without shuffling and then she lost focus and started to hollow into the transition. I worked on small circles, turns on the forehand which settled her and we had better transitions to the halt. If she settles in the halt, the walk transition is good with quick response to the leg. Again, better results with more genuine flexion on the right rein. On the left rein we have the same resistance stated in last post, but slightly better today, glimpses of more genuine flexion, not as set against inside leg, quicker to yield. She is sticky on the turns on the forehand, which is obvious on the video showing a lack of suppleness in the crossing over. But, all in all a good session in that I am learning more about her each time.

This afternoon, I took Anky into the picadero (bottom of the garden :-)). I wanted to try some work in-hand. I started, holding the reins near to the bit and asking her for turn around the forehand, easy, slow steps not letting her rush and once she settled we got some nice relaxed crossing on both reins.
I then asked for flexions at halt. This is something I must work on , it is the key to all the work to follow. I was happy with one or two very good flexions on each rein, quite relaxed in the mouth with light froth.
I don't know how to post the vid as yet, I'll have to open an account on youtube, but Jim took one or two pics of todays session.

This was a fairly good halt transition, but she settled a little too much on my hands.

The crossing over doesn't look too bad on this pic.

Back on Track,......I hope.

Rode Anky out today with Jim riding Corky. We did the ride that Anky has done once before and she was in front all the way round. She was very well behaved, forward and alert.

Her job in our little herd is watcher and that is exactly what she does when I'm onboard. Its fascinating. She will hear/see something and she stands perfectly still, head cocked slightly on one side , concentrating intently. I'm sure it's not an evasion, she's just doing her job. If she hesitates, I ask her to walk on and more and more now, she does. I think she's really starting to trust me, if I say its OK, she accepts it.
I rode her with an open hand, reins held between thumb and index finger, asking for slight flexion with light movements of my fingers and she remained soft and light in her mouth throughout the ride. It was also a very beautiful, sunny morning!!! She is a good girl!!