Still no broadband!!

Something very strange has happened top Ace, For four days in a row he has barely even
We still did a few good exercises, we just kept everything very soft and flexible. First I walked, trotted and cantered circuits with his head right down low. Then I brought him up a little, but not completely, and did trot spiralling in to 10m and back out again.  The right was much better than the left until I realised that for some reason I was failing to keep a consistent contact on the right rein in left trot. Then we did the same spiral exercise in canter. It's not uncommon for  him to get 'stuck' in a small canter circle to the left, and he bucks to get his back freed up. He did it today, but with nowhere near the power of kick-back that he used to. I can feel how much stronger these exercises are making him.

The walk/trot transitions to that point had not been brilliant - he had been trying to flick his head up and skip for the first stride, so we worked on them  until he understood that it must come from behind with the front end  staying soft and coming up and oout, not skipping upwards. The good ones were really lovely.

Capitalising on that, we then did a couple of lengthened trot strides on each side, then straight back to working trot again, staying relaxed the during the up and the down. It took a few attempts for him to stop bracing against the return to working trot. It's a very good exercise for him. It teaches him to listen, and to lengthen without running because he has to come back to working trot again so quickly.

Finally we did two attempts at trot to halt followed with 6 stepas of rein back, which is required in his next test. The first was ropey but the second was excellent and we finished with a walk on a long rein to the exit.

C

ps 5 crews working on restoring the area's broadband and we are still off after 8 days.