Counter

Today I decided to follow my formula for Saturday's ride.  We did a lot of the same things in five minute intervals, but I also added five minutes of flying lead changes and counter canter.

Walker is pretty good at flying lead changes, but not because of anything I do.  He's a simple guy.  Canter a figure eight, and he will probably do a flying lead change to make life easier for himself.  Sometimes I get really nice changes, like the other day where it felt like a kickstart, and sometimes they are seamlessly smooth (or potentially nonexistent).

Sometimes Walker and I do this with his bridle

I'm ashamed to say that I have a hard time telling if Walker is on the wrong lead.  There's something about the quality of his canter that is really smooth whether he's on the wrong lead or not.  Sometimes it will feel choppy if he's on the wrong lead, but most times I simply have to look down to check.  This makes schooling the counter canter a challenge.

That being said, I'm pretty proud of him.  I just started simple.  I asked for the bend and counter canter along one long end of the arena and then let him go back to a trot before the corner.  He can barely bend when we're cantering on the correct lead, so I figured that asking him to counter canter a circle is presumptuous of me.

Not surprisingly, he was pretty good at picking up his good lead in the wrong direction, but in pure Walker fashion, he was outright appalled that I should dare ask him to pick up his bad lead in his good direction.  I mean, who do I think I am? He decided he should put me in my place with a few good bucks and then to show me the error of my ways, he would pick up the correct lead instead.

I managed to get a few strides out of him before he promptly did a flying lead change to correct me, and I decided to leave it at that.  We've never schooled them before so the fact that I got one good long end (twice!) of counter canter on his good lead and a few strides of his bad is good enough for our first time.

Then I cooled him off for longer than usual (because I was chatting with a fellow boarder), brought him in, gave me treats and kisses, and went on my merry way.  I plan to see him Tuesday unless the week falls apart... as it has a tendency to do.