renvers

for two strides! i was so gobsmacked I lost it of course. that was when we were going really well, right at the end, finally relaxed (we'd had a lot of stress and tenseness for about an hour, for assorted reasons good and bad) and changed the bit to a new (bought this morning, reduced as previously tried) myler hangning cheek dressage legal mouthpiece.

that latter was as a result of a lot of thought about bits and the way the combi works, what she likes about thinner bits, the way she goes, de dah, and concluded worth a try; assisted by shop saying that they had one the right side, that had previously been tried that i could have for £40 and take back if no good.

it was really good, and once i have the video edited i will upload it so you can see...

in the meantime, we were trying to video a session and were handicapped by

1. napping away from the arena with a set jaw before we started, resulting in me tensing


2. starting to relax a shade from that when jackie turned up to move her trailer which is backed up to the arena fence.. that was SCARY.....

3. when that was done, new livery owner turned up with friend and child to get pony in from field.... which since it immediately followed the trailer being moved and much calling for new pony (normally not a problem) was scary.

noneo fhte scariness involved spooking etc, but did involve tense, jaw set ... listening a bit but all over - and then the vicious circle of tenseness and stress.

the trot was awful - did improve somewhat with less contact - but no room!

with new bit in we both relaxed (especially when we got the cheekpieces short enough, it was slighly difficult to tell at first!) and got some WONDERFUL walk with, as I said before, 2 steps or so of renvers.

that came about because of the lightbulb moment yesterday re moving the body t get SI etc.....was trying that (the SI didn't work, BTB) but that did ....

so despite the general disasters of teh day, we ended on a really good note!

and then we gave her an hour off and did some more (with the moulded panels, not the suberpanel) just to see what woud happen.

i'll continue with teh suberpanel, is what.

I'm still reflecting on the clinic yesterday....

but really lots more walk for me, and that's one of the things i got out of it - how much you can do in walk (which i think i'd pretty much got anyway but seeing it in practice, and consequential improvements, is another thing!)

and must move to somewhere with a larger and better surfaced arena, really ...