someone pinched me pone

It's somewhat of a mystery. Moralejo has either been stolen and replaced by a clone with a sensible head or he's had an overnight frontal lobotomy, lol.

Let's start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to....la la

Took Moo down to the school this morning and we both glanced over to the cheeky pone and Fugs (les voisins) who were contentedly munching, no problems there then. Started with some work in-hand and he was really *with me*, nice halts, reinback, shoulder-in and giravolta. Again used the reinback before asking for the leg yield across the school and he is finally stretching that left hind forwards and across. Finished the in-hand with some trot and he can now trot for 6-7 slow strides before breaking back to walk but most heartening is that he actually understands what I want in the upwards transition.
Got on board and he was calm, little tense when we were at the voisins end but nothing awful. At this point the voisins trotted over to say hi, still Moo remained calm. We worked, they watched. Shoulder-in, leg yield, release on a long rein. Lots of halt transitions (some with the hand raised to bring the bit into the corner of the lips because he was leaning or grabbing) and some reinback.
By the time we got into the trot work the cheeky pone (CP) was bored and had sauntered off but Fugs loitered, half hidden behind the hedge. Still Moo just got on with it. Got some nice stretchy trot after some rather manic moments of rushed trot where I think (were he better balanced) I would have preferred to canter. Just leg yielding across the school and CP galloped down the field to hide with Fugs behind the hedge. Still Moo is sane, OK a bit distracted but not awful, I suppose he had 25% concentration on them but the rest on me.
CP is bored again and as we trot round the corner he turns on his heels and pees off up the field, followed closely (never guess he had a poorly tendon) by Fugs. Still being a good boy I decided it was time to finish so after a stretch I got off to finish with some Spanish walk work in-hand (not done it for ages). Today was the first time that he really had any real *lift* through his shoulders, I think this is because we have been keeping his shoulders mobile with lots of leg raising exercises. Linked the jambette with one stride of walk ; stride/jambette/stride/jambette and he just clicked (literally!!) with it and was duly rewarded. I'm afraid I couldn't resist getting back on to try it mounted and YAY he repeated it with me on board.
Took him back up to the yard and got out the fly spray and masks. Now Moo hates sprays so I always spray my hand and wipe it on him, he doesn't really like it and wriggles around and generally gets very agitated but it's bearable. This morning he wasn't bothered one bit so I ventured nearer with the spray bottle, no reaction, sprayed, no reaction, sprayed lots more (all the delicate bits!!) and still he just stood there.
I really hope this calmness is here to stay but maybe, whoever pinched me pone last night will be putting him back tonight. The joy of horses.