Back to lungeing...

I've been working in the school for the last few days.
With Remy, I've been concentrating on trot transitions, making sure that there's enough energy to get a soft transition, but not too much that he hollows or rushes off. We seem to be getting there with the transitions, which give a balanced start to the trot, but he's not able to keep that balance for too long  before he tightens through the front end, and/or starts to rush. I'm finding it hard to determine his natural trot rhythm, so the last few days we've been having a short lunge session before riding.
It's been a revelation. Remy was always quite tense on the lunge, but having returned to it, it's great to see how much better balanced he is. He can maintain a nice, regular trot now, and it's been really useful to see him settle into his natural rhythm, which is quite slow, but once relaxed, becomes nicely energetic.
It's helping with the ridden work, and today, in one or two of the transitions,  I felt a real oomph from behind, while keeping the softness in front.

After a few days off, we had another session with Bonbon in the school. Starting with a lunge session - she's actually offering the trot now, and is much calmer. We now have to try and get some softness and relaxation in the trot. We followed that with a ridden session of the usual walk/halt transitions, with small circles and changes of rein. She's settling to it all so well.
I love getting on her, she's so biddable, a real little sweetie. I think she enjoys it.

A busy few days

We've had a busy few days.
The horse dentist came on wednesday for their 6 monthly check-up. All's well and not a lot of treatment necessary.
I had a lovely afternoon yesterday over at Trudi's, a good lunch and a good natter!
This morning I had two lovely sessions. First with Remy, who was as receptive and focussed as I've ever known him to be. He gave me some lovely steps of shoulder-in, both on the circle and on the straight line, plus the best trot transitions we've ever had. Just the transitions, basically one or two steps before I clicked him good boy. We did half a dozen transitions like this on each rein and he gave me a soft, round transition every time.
I then took Bonbon up to the school, and following a short lunge session, we continued the basics in ridden work of walk/halt transitions and lots of small circles and changes of rein. She was a little distracted, but after a few minutes she settled and started to listen.
Andrea came over this afternoon and we had a good chat while going over some admin for the group.

It's been a lovely sunny day and I've enjoyed it very much.

Soft, round trot transitions

Another week's gone by and the weather has turned back to cold and wet. We need the rain, but that short glimpse of spring led us into a false sense of security.
I've had a couple of nice long hacks on Remy, exploring new tracks and some trotting on the uphill tracks. He's certainly getting the hang of it!
I've ridden Bonbon a couple of times in the school and todays session was really enjoyable.
A Short lunge session to start, and the trot is improving nicely. She's listening and relaxing more, and we're starting to get better bend.
She was a little distracted when I got on, but after a few minutes she started to listen and gave me nice flexion and softness in the the hand. We worked on walk/halt/walk transitions and small circles with lots of changes of rein.
I rode Remy in the school today and it was a really encouraging session. He was very relaxed, gave me some lovely shoulder-in, and some of the best trot transitions we've had. Lately, we've been struggling to get a round transition, but today he was more active behind, and his walk was much better balanced. I've not ridden for a few days and it was good to get back to it.

Pas cet après-midi et pas même un "désolé"

It was my french lesson this morning so I didn't get to ride until this afternoon, and by then the chill had gone and it was pleasantly warm.
I took Remy into the school and started with lungeing, a short session, moving him about the school and finishing with work on the circle, lots of transitions, trying to get him to relax and stretch down. He did quite well on the left rein, not so good on the right where he has a habit of hanging on the rein and falling out through his shoulder. I varied the size of the circle and he did start to relax a little.
Before riding I did a little in-hand, working on the exercise that I did yesterday with Anky - Halt, rein-back, walk forward, turn on the forehand then repeat. He managed this well, so I then tried it onboard and I was really pleased at how well he responded and how well he listened.
I then rode Anky in the school, the same work as yesterday and finished with some trot transitions. She was very responsive in the walk with fluid changes of bend and the rein-back was a little better than yesterday.
Today, I prepared her for the trot transition on the circle, asking for flexion to the inside, allowing her to lengthen her neck a little and making sure that she was soft to my inside leg before asking for the transition. It worked really well on the right rein and she moved off nicely and stayed soft in the hand. On the left rein, although she gave me the flexion to the inside and was soft to my inside leg, when I asked for the transition she resisted on the outside rein and hollowed. I was really pleased with the session though, and overall an improvement on yesterday :-)
We ordered the tiles yesterday for our horse shelter and they actually had them in stock. They promised to deliver this afternoon so Jim's been hanging around waiting for them. At 5.45 they'd still not been, nor did they come. Now that's a surprise!!!