Winds of Change

Wow, what weather!! It still hasn't stopped raining, oh actually that's a lie, it stopped raining and snowed instead for an hour this afternoon. So the boys have stayed in for the first time this year.
Even more impressive then that Chapiro managed to be a real darling in the barn, working at liberty and even halting on a circle from voice and body language, he's a cute cookie!!
I am so happy to find that Moo is crooked. Ah yes, happy I said, hehe.... The thing is that up until now he has always been so locked in his jaw, poll and particularly his neck that proper bend was impossible and so he seemed fairly straight,lol. Well yesterday and today we worked on our halt transitions, halt from the fingers vibrating and then letting the reins go, absolutely zero in the hand , the rein laying on his wither. After a couple of goes he let himself stretch down and happily mouthed and swallowed...brilliant. Then he has to wait for the upwards transition, first breathing the leg away from his side and then applying the leg to ask forwards. First few times he was away on the leg coming off but after being corrected he got the whole idea and went off on the leg touching.
So then on to shoulder-in and the left rein is hard because he wants to give the correct bend but then throws his quarters out and this makes him curl back against the hand again....yuck. So, engage brain, use counter shoulder-in on the right rein to train the left shoulder-in. I also found that asking more angle to open the shoulder really freed his front end and then reduce the angle to engage that left hind that wants to throw itself out of works way.
Lots more but I need to ride it again to be able to put it into words but things are definitely happening :-)
Oh and an aside, we have found Lydia a super new riding club, good equitation and very well run...she seems very happy.