It's been far too hot to subject the pair of us to a three mile round walk, plus schooling time but it was much nicer and breezier yesterday afternoon so we trundled off up the road for a session.
B was in a lovely mood and nicely marched out with me as we made our way up the lane (on foot at this stage) I'd gone back bridle and headcollar with reins attached to both for stability and B was happy with this arrangement.
Met Gi on his bicycle and B was happy to walk along with the bike at her side which bodes well for bigger hacks out.
Got to the school and she had a bit of a hissy at the mounting block. Odd as she stands pefectly happily next to fences and gates for me to plonk myself on from. She was a bit rude at one point and kicked out at the whip as I asked her move her quarters over from the ground as she'd swung away from the block as I stepped on it, so she got growled at!
After a bit of groundwork I got her where she should be and she stood nicely so I could get on :-D
Interesting session, I rode for about 20 minutes in all doing nice big shapes to change direction and bend and getting transitions on markers. We still had some banana issues, but had more success asking for a little flexion, then straight and repeating.
There was little issue at the top end of the school with birds flapping in the hedge and initially B was a bit tense and spooky up there, but I worked on ignoring it completely and B was able to take a lead from that
Bally was super in her mouth, no signs of irritability or discomfort at all so I do think it's a support issue and that a drop is going to the best place to start, then try a different bit if that doesn't suit.
She was also very nicely off my leg with good crisp transitions. One halt was a bit of a disaster and was down to me not being straight...I sat up and closed my legs on and suddenly found myself leg yielding across the school :-o
I wasn't 100% happy with her trot work, we seemed to veer between a rushed choppy trot and a slug impression as Bally struggled to find her balance within the pace. So I worked on getting her forward, then introducing the idea of using my seat to slow and lengthen and gave her a longer rein to reach forward to. Had a couple of nice circles with a much better rythmn.
Stopped there as pleased with how well Bally had worked and hacked her back all the way down to the field with Gi following on the bike to keep an eye on us
Had one moment of uh-oh as she took a bit of an exception to a driveway and crabbed sideways bum out into the lane. I turned her around and walked her back to it where she had a bit of a dither and I just sat until she relaxed then asked her to walk on and she did YAY!!
I felt her tense right up as we approached the big house as they were having a rather noisy game of tennis behind the hedge, but again just gave B a scratch and vocal reassurance and she walked past no bother, clever girly!!
Best bit of all, we had a little trot on the big raised verge on the little lane, I gave her an extra nudge and we had our first canter :-D
It was as lovely as I thought it would be, only a few strides, but she came back immediately when asked and she was beautifully light and balanced which bodes well for the future!!
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