Calmness and feel

I didn't ride them yesterday as the vet came to give them their annual vaccinations, but I rode Remy this afternoon in the school.
I had such an amazing session that I had to write it up while I still had the thoughts in my head.
It sounds corny, but I felt a real inner calm today that I don't think I've ever felt before. There was so little thought and so much feel, and it was wonderful to see how 'with' him I could  be and also how I could influence him and still be 'with' him.
We moved around the school, with shoulder-in, a little travers and lots of halt/reinback/walk on transitions. We did shoulder-in on the circle, and for the first time a few balanced steps of travers on the circle. This tells me that we're getting there.  'There' is a way away, but we're on the way to it.
His trot transitions from reinback were more together, softer and lighter, and I began to feel that a canter transition would be possible from that lightness.
I'm a lucky girl, and I love that boy so much!

Spicy Fruit Loaf

I started with Bonbon in the school today. We continued where we left off yesterday. Starting with a short lunge session, she was much improved, calmer, no squealing and more focussed. We then did a little in-hand, halt/walk transitions and then reinback to walk transitions. I then got on and did a few circles on each rein with a few halt transitions, and then asked for the halt/reinback/walk whilst ridden. Good girl.

I then took Remy up to the school and worked at walk, concentrating on getting the release and relaxation. He was great today, it feels like it's all falling into place. He was responsive, balanced and soft in the hand. We worked a little on travers on the long side, both reins. Shoulder-in to counter shoulder-in on the circle both reins and his reinbacks were fluid and straight.
We then tried some trot transitions, some from the walk and some from the reinback. He's starting to put more effort into the transition, but he can't handle it and tenses and then starts to run. It's something for us to work on,  he's really starting to relax into the walk work now and I think it's only a matter of time before he relaxes into the trot work.

We make our own bread, well we have a breadmaker that makes our bread, and after putting up with a rather unreliable one for 12 months we've bitten the bullet and bought a super-duper new panasonic one. I don't usually advertise products, but this really is a good machine. It makes brilliant bread and today I made a spicy fruit loaf which tastes delicious. I know we didn't make it by hand, but I'm still rather proud of it! We were sad enough to take a pic!