long reining

It's been a good day. That is if you discount being up at 3am with vomitting child, bless her she is so mad at missing pony club.
But..aside from lack of sleep and having to be a proper mum (I'm so crap at that) I had a good day.
Bought myself some new long reins a short while back, lovely corded section to pass through the *D* rings on the surcingle, in preparation for starting Chapiro. So today I tried them out on Moo :-) It's a long time since I worked him in long reins and I was pleasantly surprised at how well he went. Worked on a circle, spiralling it in/out and then got *behind* him to do some lateral work. Counter shoulder-in and leg yield along the fence (to be fair the easiest of the lateral stuff) and he was very obliging. Then I had a *moment* and decided to take the outer rein off and work from the inside rein (we are only in a cavesson with the long reins attached to it) passed through the *D* ring on the surcingle. My goodness what a trot we had, I kept him out on the circle with the whip and my body but used the rein to ask him to bend. Asked him *down* with voice and he was happy to stretch down and use his back.
Probably just that I've been bereft of neddie work for two days but it felt so good.
Off to read some Sylvia Stanier and Dietz to refresh my aging memory on long reining, lol. After my back op 10 years ago I had hours of lessons in ground work, just need to spring clean the memory, I hope!!