Releasing Tension.

Today I had the pleasure of meeting Mia and her beautiful mare Angel in Battle, East Sussex, along with Jo and Roxanne.
Angel is an elegant 17hh warmblood who can carry quite a bit of tension through her jaw and neck when ridden, she also has a very slight head shake when asked to soften her jaw and neck, she can also come above the bit with rein aids. Angel has regular physio and she has been treated for tension in this area.
The usual bit she was in didn’t give much comfort or reward for responding to rein aids, so we changed her into something more anatomically shaped, and thinner that would relieve some pressure on her rather thick tongue. The change was more or less instant. Mia learned about neck flexion and how this can help teach Angel to chew and lick her lips to release tension and soften the jaw so she can accept the contact rather than raising above the bit and going hollow.
This would usually take Mia and Angel 40 minutes to achieve, and by then Mia is rather tired. Today we got this lovely reaction within ten minutes. Angel learnt about stretching her neck to seek the contact and how to respond softly to Mia’s hands, (except for when she wanted to chase the bird out of the school!). You can see the underside of Angels neck and ears becoming soft, she was then more relaxed and happy to be corrected without overreacting. Suppleness in Angels whole body increased and she didn’t exhibit and head shaking reaction. Super result!