More Counter Canter

It seems as though I didn't give the speedy pony as much credit as he deserves. The day after I wrote that post about counter canter exercises, I decided to continue the canter instead of going to trot after the counter canter half circle. Easy peasy.

Since I like to be successful however, I set up the exercise by doing lots of counter flexing beforehand. At the trot, I counter flexed him until he softened and then returned to the true bend. I did it both directions.

We did the same thing at canter. I counter flexed him in the canter until he softened. I also did some changes of lead through trot which didn't start out too well. Speedy was really ignoring my outside rein, so I worked on some pretty strong half halts.

From last month's Regional Adult Amateur Competition

Once he seemed malleable in his poll and was listening to the outside rein, I worked on the 20-meter half circle in counter canter. He held the lead every single time and was actually soft on the right lead. Instead of coming back to trot like we had done the on the first day, we continued in canter. I had him cross the diagonal, return to a true canter, and then continued on with the exercise, repeating the 10-meter half circle for the change of direction.

I am doing this work in a short court, so once or twice I circled at A to rebalance him and myself. Once he felt pulled back to together, I made the ten-meter half circle, which was more like 12-meters, pushed him back to the rail, and then did the 20-meter half circle in counter canter.

I think we'll do the change of lead through trot on the long side next time. I think Speedy's a little more capable than I give him credit for!