Thats 6 weeks of Ridden Work Whoo Hoo!

Where to start its hard to say. It's been busy for Charlie with a lesson and a Physio session this week.

Today I decided to start off tacked up for lunging and riding but use the Thera Band supplied by Grace on Wednesday for the first 5 minutes in walk. This is the elasticated band I referred to previously.

I tied it to the girth strap on both sides and managed to arrange it so that it stayed as a wide band around his bottom rather than rolling up as it had when Grace used it. I popped the lunge line on the cavesson and wandered around the Arena with my faithful giant Labrador Charlie by my side.

He seemed very comfortable with it so I popped him onto a circle and walked him around. Nothing ventured nothing gained he seemed very content so I asked for trot no problem popped him onto the other rein same again.

I connected the Vienna reins and worked him on both reins in trot what a little hero. I hadn't noticed until Grace mentioned it,she hadn't seen him for 3 weeks ,that he doesn't fall in on the lunge like he used to.

I wanted to work on a couple of canter transitions so I removed the rubber band as that seemed a bit too big of an ask.

We have had problems requesting canter as he didn't understand the last few times and I had to resist the temptation to run around shouting like a banshee and waving the lunge whip in the air as apparently 'the horse is your mirror, never get annoyed with your mirror'.

Today he was wonderful a clear concise can....TER was all I needed. A nice transition or two on his left rein then we changed to the right rein which can be tricky as he leaps forward with both front feet. One slightly explosive transition and back to trot but right on the button when I used the can...TER word and second transition on the button and nice.

You would have thought this was enough for one session but we were having fun and he was being super.

A little ridden work was next but before we started that I put down 3 trot poles and just asked him to trot over on both reins. He can do these in his sleep now and was very tidy.

The master plan was invoked we did some ridden work including, tada ,the trotting poles he was such a lovely boy went over them really nicely.

I found some of my seatbone and pelvis and at last on the right rein sat correctly and golly apparently if you sit with your weight in the correct place you have a nice soft balanced horse trotting on a circle and going into his corners. Unfortunately I couldnt maintain it all the time but when it was good it was very good.
 We even pushed our luck and did some leg yield to trot and then, a fanfare of trumpets, a little bit of reverse shoulder in on both reins. I did note with this on one rein he was curling up too much and overbending bit I am sure Tori will fix that.

That seems such a lot to have done in one session but Charlie is turning into a sponge when it comes to learning and is so rewarding to work with.

Such a clever boy and as they say on Miranda 'such fun'. The only problem now is the rest of the girls on the yard run for cover when I come out and tell them how good he is.

And dear reader ( ooh a Charlotte Bronte moment) 95% of the ridden work was without a single head toss and a nice feel on the end of the reins!