Friday 17th April

I did find my ancient drop nose band.  It was rather dry and crispy, but after a good clean was perfectly usable.  The part that goes across the front of the nose is a bit long but it'll do fine until I can afford to get Jeff to make him a nice one.

I arrived at the yard at about 11 only to discover that I hadn't read the board properly and the school was booked from 10-12.  I thought that would be ok as by the time I'd cleaned and oiled the old crusty bridle and groomed him it would be around 12.  It was.  But unfortunately they didn't finish in the school till 1.  The positive side to this was that I was able to let Xaile stand in the stable with his new bit in for about half an hour and then take it out to give him a break.

When we got into the school I spent about 10 mins working him inhand to get him further used to the bit.  Surprisingly he worked better in hand in this combination than any other so far.  He was softer and easier to steer.  I don't know whether it was that I found the reins easier to manage or if he found it easier to understand me.  Whatever it was it went very nicely.  So nicely that I foolishly decided to get on without lunging him.  He was exceptionally fresh and very spooky.  So after a few very tense circuits I got off and lunged him.  He had an awful lot of pent up energy and and flew round.  I let him canter till he wasn't tearing round then did a few circuits with lots of transitions on each rein.  Then I got on again.  Much better.

He was still quite spooky- I think it's the weird snaffle insecurity.  However he began to realise that he could take his security from my leg instead of the curb, I'm sure this is much better anyway.  So we spent our session mainly keeping him thinking forwards rather than sideways of backwards.  This made it quite hard for me to concentrate on getting him to slow his trot and use his back.  But I decided that just to get him to move forwards happily in the strange bit was probably enough of a challenge for the session.  However, there were moments when he relaxed when I could feel him begin to use his back better and lower and lengthen his neck.  Interestingly his head was a lot straighter than it is sometimes.

There was a lesson going on in the school at the same time that involved going through some dressage tests.  So I took the opportunity to get him to practice standing still.  He found it very easy! I suppose I'll have to take him to lots of competitions to get him used to standing still in that atmosphere.

Overall I think it was a good session and very productive.  Hopefully he'll be more relaxed tomorrow and so we can concentrate on slowing and lengthening his stride.  I think I might try to work him with a much looser rein and see if I can get him looking for the contact.  Today he seemed to need me there to keep him feeling safe.