Ideas of his own

I didn't ride in the mullen today--I was worried that the one I have was starting to pinch his mouth a bit too much. I ordered a 6" one last Thur/Fri (when I finally found one) and it's supposed to arrive tomorrow. =)

Unfortunately, we were back to our same-old with the three-link KK. It wasn't until the end of the ride that we stopped "fighting" over the bit and came together. With the KK I feel like I have to ride every stride so much more than I should--he also leans on it more than he does with the mullen. It doesn't help that my spur strap broke the other day. I don't even use the spur much when I'm riding, but he knows exactly when I *can't* use it and takes advantage. Lazy, lazy.

Today we rehashed some straightening exercises, mostly extending the area width through the leg-yield. (Ride on the quarter line, then leg-yield to the rail.) It's very important to maintain straight, forward motion after the leg-yield if you're working on straightening. Toler was excellent at the trot for both directions, though going to the right was a bit stiffer at first. We'd still been fighting over the bit during this phase of the work-out, but he would settle down once we started the leg-yield. We haven't done leg-yields in a long time, so it definitely had that "new and shiny" attraction.

The canter was another story. Toler is a very thinking horse and likes to build associations. Sometimes he associates something we've never even done before. My asking him to canter down the quarter-line, for instance, evidently felt like I was asking for a flying lead change. You know, despite the fact that my legs, seat, and reins were quite clear about keeping the inside lead and slight flexion. He's been rather gung-ho about offering flying lead changes (and botching them) lately, but since I know he's not going at a nice, "true" canter, I don't want to even touch flying lead changes yet. He does them so nicely on the rail while free-lunging, though, so I know *he's* cantering true. There's just something going on while under saddle that brings out his crookedness.

After the first few attempts to keep the inside lead down the quarter-line, I would bring him back to the trot and do a 15m circle to the inside and ask for the canter again. As soon as he kept the lead for two quarter-lines, I gave him a pat and switched directions. The other way was much better. Toler had caught on that I wasn't looking for anything fancy, so after three good quarter-lines I asked for the leg-yield. He really came together for it. After each yield, he would collect, and I could really feel him thinking about keeping his shoulder off the rail.

Usually we do counter-bending to work on our straightening, which is fine at the trot because he's very comfortable and allows me to make little adjustments with his shoulder. But at the canter, he tends to bunch and tense through his back and neck. If I release for the rail (which always helped) he wouldn't come back well for the corner and we'd end up losing our frame for the following rail. In the end we'd come together, but I felt like the point of straightening always got lost when we counter-flexed at the canter. In that regards, I like the leg-yield much better.

We also tried some shallow loops (K-X-H) at the trot, but after the lead-confusion I wasn't going to tackle it at the canter today.

The rest of the ride was devoted to moving off from the haunches. I got him thinking about it with some walking pirouettes, which were *very* rusty. The initial ones really had no right to be called pirouettes. They probably offended pirouettes greatly. Anyway. From there came a few halt and rein-backs, then halt-trot & trot-halt transitions, and finally halt-canter & canter-halt transitions. Toler was a little all over the board for them but did get progressively better as we went. He gets very excited when we do halt-__ transitions to the right, which means he never wants to settle into a nice, medium canter, much less come back to a halt. I can also feel his weakness much more at the canter-halt (as is to be expected).

I hope we don't have to do a whole lot of transition from the 3-link to the new mullen mouth in terms of lateral work, but I know it'll definitely be a bit of a process. It'll make him really sit back and listen to my seat and legs, which will be excellent.

We need to hit some serpentines hardcore. And figure-eights (trot: 15m and less; canter: 20-15m).