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.

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.

I have a sand school!!

I can say that because today I rode in it! It hasn't got a fence yet but I couldn't wait.

Anky was a little unsettled at first but settled quite quickly. We worked on walk and halt transitions, she was rushing and crooked at first, but as she settled she straightened up and we got some nice transitions. The ridden flexions are coming a little better too. She tips slightly on the left flexion, but today I got one or two very good ones. So, I'm a happy bunny!! I will eventually get my fence, sometime in the next few months when we've treated all the wood!!

This is Anky checking out our new soil mountain.