Progression

Cupid and I have are having a bit of a break between lessons since our trainer is away.  I asked him what we should work on in the meantime, and much to my dismay he said more longing.  He thinks I should lunge every time before I ride, but I'm kind of lazy.  Plus so much gear!  Lunge line, side reins, and whip for lunging, then also have to haul up the martingale and crop for riding - my gear is by the pasture which is a long walk from the arena!  But anyways I'm trying to be a good student and following instructions.  So far we just lunged on Tuesday, lunged and rode on Wednesday, and today I didn't lunge before I rode because I was a little pressed for time before work. 

The side reins are now where Cupid can actually feel them.  The first time I asked him to canter I was afraid he was going to flip himself over.  He tried running out but I held the line, so he stopped with his nose as high in the air as he could get it.  Luckily he's getting used to it and doing much better now, he doesn't like it but now will canter quietly.  Here's a little series to show his progression: October 2014, February 2015, and April 2015 (first 2 photos flipped for easier comparison).

We've also been working on our canter transitions (which are getting much better), yielding haunches (making progress, I think today he finally understood what I wanted him to do), and haunches in (this one still needs a lot of work).