Scary Trail

Cupid and I have still been having trouble picking up our left lead canter.  In fact I felt like I was making progress but then it felt like we were regressing.  He's young, and I know this can be normal.  But since it has been 2 months since his last chiropractor adjustment, I was hoping another one might help a little.  The chiropractor found some sore spots on his neck, especially the right side, as well as his lower back and found his left pelvis was rotated up.  But overall she said he was doing much better and said he has put on a lot of muscle and looked good.  Though he is very lazy and I can't get him to trot in hand.  This is something I should work on, but I guess I can be a little lazy too!

He got the day after his treatment off.  I did a walk/trot ride with him the following day.  The weather was very nice so after half an hour in the arena I decided to get out a little.  We walked down a trail we've been down many times before, but all of a sudden Cupid froze.  There is a house along the trail, and someone was up on a ladder cleaning the gutter.  I urged Cupid to go forward and he took a few steps, then stopped again.  I asked him to go forward but he backed up.  I tapped him with my crop, but he just did not want to go forward.  Finally I got off and led him, and he hesitantly did end up walking past the person.  I don't know if I should have gotten off or tried harder?  I didn't feel unsafe, just that it I didn't think I would have any success.  But hopefully with more experience he won't be bothered by these things, and for a baby he actually does pretty darn good already!

The following day I rode him in the covered arena, and we were fortunate to have it all to ourselves.  We worked on bending for a bit, then on lots of transitions.  We had a nice right lead canter a few times around.  Then more transitions, before I asked him for a left lead canter from a trot circle.  He picked up the right lead.  I brought him back down to a trot and asked for a canter again on the long side, and he picked up the left lead without me even resorting to any gimmicks.  Yay!  We went about one and half times around before he broke into a trot, and I didn't want to push my luck trying to get it again so decided to end there after a little cool out.