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!

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.

Renvers/Travers

After riding Remy today, I really got thinking about this. We practiced the lateral movements as usual. On the circle, shoulder-in/counter shoulder-in, a little travers and a little renvers. I find the travers and renvers difficult on the circle, as much to do with spatial awareness as anything else. I tend to lose my place on the circle. I've started working around my mounting block as it helps keep me where I should be, and not drift off!
I find working the movements around the school on straight lines less confusing, awareness-wise. The fence gives me a good guide of where we are and also some support in the travers and renvers.
Thinking about the two movements, the travers is quite simple,it's quarters in from the track, but then you could say that renvers is the same identical movement just quarters out to the track. If you take the fence away though, I think this is where it gets tricky.
If you're going down the center line say,and keeping the shoulders on the centre line, moving the quarters to either side, you are doing travers left and right, and not renvers at all.
So, if I wanted to do renvers down the center line, I would keep the quarters on the centre line and move the shoulders.
It's how you initiate the movement that make them different. Renvers always starts by moving the shoulders, travers by moving the quarters. Once moving, I think they are the same, but for gymnasticising value, they are very different, and once you start to combine the lateral movements, how you initiate them is very important, interchanging moving the shoulders and quarters.
With Remy today, I asked for renvers from shoulder-in by changing the flexion, I know it's early days for us and we're only getting a few steps at a time, but that's how I see it and it seems to make sense.

Remy and Bonbon - Spooky and Calm

A good start with Remy today when I rode him up the lane to the school. We'd just turned out of the gate when a tractor and trailer appeared at the top of the lane about 20 yds behind us. I put my hand up, asking him to slow down and then asked Remy to trot on. It's only about 100 yds before the turn off to the school and he gave me the most wonderful, light, powerful trot. He hovered a little past the house with the scary geese, but kept going and really gave me a good feeling.
Once in the school, we started on a long rein, moving him around the school until he relaxed and then continued our work on circles, concentrating on the softness and relaxation. He was fine until he spied our neighbour in the distance, coming out of the wood. Normally it wouldn't bother him in the slightest, but today he really was more than a little worried by it,  so much so that he wouldn't settle and insisted on looking over until he disappeared into his garden. After that, it was difficult to keep his attention and he became increasingly jumpy and distracted. First the white cow down in the field next to ours, he's seen it every day for the last few months, but today it had some kind of horse-scaring vibe goin on. Then he spied Jypp (our wayward collie) jumping the fence into our top field and slithering accross the grass, herding imaginary sheep! So out of character for Rem, and I just wonder if, perhaps, we've been giving him too much alfalfa in his feed, I know it can affect some horses. It may have just been one of those days, we'll have to see.
I tried to keep his mind off things with lots of changes of bend and direction, but he wouldn't settle and when I accidently dropped my whip, I got off the retrieve it and walked him around for a while until he seemed to relax a little.
When I got back on, he was much better and settled into some nice work. Lightening the shoulders with reinback into walk and then some work on circles and then on squares, using the bottom 1/3 of the school. Shoulder-in, counter s/i on both reins, a little travers and then a few steps of renvers. We finished on a longer rein, allowing him to really extend his neck and he gave me some really relaxed circles on both reins.

A session with Bonbon next, starting with groundwork to relax, moving shoulders and quarters, small circles, and then extending the walk until she offered me trot. It's getting better, she's staying much calmer and listening, coming back to the walk and halt when I ask, and in a calm way.
I then had a short sit-on, asking for release and then halt/walk/halt transitions, a couple of reinbacks and some circles on each rein, asking for bend and softness. A friend stopped by as we were starting, and stayed to watch. After I came out of the school we chatted for a while and I was so pleased that Bonbon stayed relaxed and stood so quietly and calmly next to me.

A lovely, sunshiny, horsey day! :-)

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!