Two smooth operators today :-)

Both Ace and Jazz were a joy today.

Ace worked with me from start to finish, through some leg yield, some walk shoulder in, so faster/slower trot and some nice canter circles. He was less restistant in the mouth than he has been lately. For a couple of weeks i have been having to be careful not to let him raise his head to evade my contact. My instinct is to release when  a horse pulls, and I have had to hold firm and say, "no, you give to me, not the other way around". Today he was much more giving and in consequence also stayed a lot more relaxed in his body.

I have been making  a point of finishing off on a walk where he stretches right forwards and swings his back - free walk on a long rein, basically. Usually I can only get there by letting him curl under, which does stretch his back but is not what a dressage judge wants to see. What I have found is that if I hold the contact while he curls and don't eithr pull or give it away, that he will gradually uncurl and put his nose out in front of him. I've been rewarding that with a voice aid and it is definitely getting through to him. Today for the first time, he did not curl at all. 

It has taken Ace a long time to trust me, but I am beginning to feel it coming now. There is no doubt that he feels more confident if I take control. Lately I have been mounting by refusing to swing my leg over until he stands still. That sometimes means he is shuffling about while I stand with one foot in the stirrup, but eventually he stops and I sit on him. Then I make him stand still until I have done up the girth. If I start with that level of discipline, I get the impression that he has more confidence in me, and behaves more calmly.


Jazz was just in a delightful, light and bouncy mood. We had to work in walk on some lollipop trees until he relaxed his body, stayed forwards and gave me his mouth, but after that he was buzzing! He did some extended trot across the diagonals and then two flying changes on each long side. I had to do a loop in off the track to get the first change as we changed bend to go back to the track, and the result of that was that he was very short of time to get balanced for the change back for the corner. A couple of times he did not get it, but I felt him hear my aid, it just seemed like he couldn't get his body to respond. I acted as if he had got the change, and carried on and asked for a change back, even though he was still on that lead. On the third run he just about got it, and on the fourth he knew just what I wanted and did it. I changed rein and he did it on the other rein too. Best of all, his mouth was brilliant today, the best he  has ever been.

What a pair, if was a joy to be able to ride them.

C