A bit of this and that

Wowsers Little B was in an odd mood last night, she came in completely wired, very jumpy and tense to the point where I quickly abandondened all thoughts of taking her out down the lane for a walk.

In the stable she was very unsettled and as Button was taken out for a ride she became pretty agitated. So I just worked on calming her and asking her to stand still where I put her...just quietly and repeatedly putting her back in the position she was when I tied her up if she jumped about or tried to swing round.
There is absolutely no force involved in this - I keep my own energy levels very low, I don't speak, no waving of arms or telling off just keep everything I do slow, steady and pretty monotonous. It seems to work like a charm with her

Once she had a slightly more sensible head on I gave her a good brush and conditioned her mane, then plaited her up - such a pretty girl!

I took her out to the mounting block and we spent a nice 15 minutes there, I'd lead her up and ask her to stand and once she was get up on it and stroke her ears, neck and sides, lean over her to stroke the other side - once again if she moved I just turned her and put her back and started again so a nice easy continuation of the work in the stable.
I worked up to rattling and flapping the side reins on her roller and actually putting a bit of weight into my lean and after a couple of goes where there was movement backwards or a fidget she quite happily stood and let me get on with it...loads of praise and scratches. Oh forgot to mention...whilst this was going on there was a farmhand whizzing about the car park on a quad with two of the yard dogs running after it barking and a big red van stopped next to us and and asked me for directions to one of the units.......all good stuff lol!!

Then we toodled into the school for a quick five minute lunge practise. Just in walk, I wanted to have nice crisp transitions up and down and get her really watching my body language and whip for instructions (big circle, small circle, go large)
She was super tried a half hearted nap to the gate a couple of times but was easily corrected..and every halt was a lovely square one too, what a bonus!

Finished off with a wander up to the hay field for a trot in hand where she can really open up and worked on trot / halt / trot, again she was really nice and receptive..and she completely ignored all the lads out at the top end of the field haring around on the quads and mini motos :-)

Back in the yard and I put her back in her stable as Button went back out to the paddock but once she heard me sorting out her evening feed she forgot any thoughts of being worried because her pal had gone..funny girl