more on the 's' word

I guess I should mention Moo, oops, I haven't forgotten him. We've been working on the norty 's' word, whether ridden, lunged, in-hand it is the buzz word. Reward him for waiting for my signals so that he gets the idea and being rather pedantic and fussy about his accuracy (eg expecting transitions on the aid not 3 strides later). His work is much improved because of this attention to detail and it reinforced my belief if one could only do all this stuff correctly at the beginning then the more tricky stuff that follows would run smoothly.
Today was half in-hand half lunge, focussing on stretching over his back and using himself properly behind. In hand we are once again working on the trot (after warming up in walk and lateral work) and today he was brill with his reinback to trot.
On to lunging and he was very calm and listened well, especially since there was a hell of a wind and Patrick was banging about at the edge of the school. A really pleasing session. Drat though, I've got leaves already raining down into the school; better find the leaf blower out of the barn.
Oh well, off to pick Missy up from school and think of another use for Di's gorgeous pumpkin; we've had soup and risotto (both delicious thanks Di) and I'm thinking I could just bake some slices with butter and black pepper. Any ideas?