Canter? Can we? Please?

Well, for some reason, Mac has decided that he loves to canter. Or wants to canter. Or something like that. The past few rides when we're trotting to the left, he wants to canter. I let him do so on Wednesday and Thursday and we used it as part of our warm-up. It was funny and fun to have him WANT to canter and jump into it so easily! It was cold outside so he was fresh and had a hump in his back, so in the beginning it felt like riding a dolphin!

I set up a couple of fun cavaletti exercises that he did well with. I'll see if I can type out the diagram. Imagine that C and A are at the top and bottom of the page and E and B are to the left and right.



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Ok, so . . . the three vertical lines represent cavaletti set at a walking distance. The four horizontal lines represent cavaletti set at a trotting distance. The distance between the sets of the two trot poles was two trot strides. Hmmmm, when I went to "preview" mode, the lines don't line up as they should - the walk poles are set at the end of the trot poles so I have to turn in between the opening of the trot poles to get to the walk poles. I hope that makes sense.

We figure-8-ed over the walk cavaletti to start, working on maintaining a nice, steady contact, making good turns, and going straight. Then we trotted over the poles while working on the same thing. Then I put it together as an exercise: walk over the poles (going from the right side of the screen to the left side of the screen); turn left, pick up the trot and trot over the poles; turn left and come back to the walk along the long side of the arena; turn left and walk across the poles (from the left side to right side of the screen); turn right and pick up the trot; go all the way down the long side of the arena on the left side of the screen (as the trot poles were set on the quarter line along the right side) and trot over the poles. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Mac did really well so we increased the difficulty to be a Big Boy exercise. After walking over the poles, we picked up the canter and cantered the long side, then came back to the trot and trotted over the poles. It was a double-edged sword. The exercise got him really energetic, so that's good. And the exercise got him really energetic, so he started running through my aids and not paying attention, so that's not good. So we went back to the 20-meter circle and worked on balance and rhythm and paying attention and we had some really lovely trot work!

Our schooling session was only 30 minutes, but he was so good that I called it a day and went for a short cool-down trail ride. I'm so proud of my buddy!