Canter Work

We've been focusing a lot on our canter - working on our leads, up and down transitions, and adjusting the stride.  Cupid has a very nice canter but sometimes it's hard to keep him going.  I am also still working on sitting in the saddle, my natural tendency is to lean forward and/or go into two point.
Yesterday we did a figure 8 exercise, starting with a pole in the middle which was eventually raised into a little crossrail.  Cupid prefers the right lead, and we had more success landing correctly to the right.
Today we cantered down the long side of the arena, looped around at the bottom and went diagonally across cantering the last few strides along the rail without changing leads.  Then in the corner we would do a simple change and go down the other side.Cupid was good and did not try to swap leads or break into a trot.  After riding the pattern a few times Cupid seemed to know what we were doing and pretty much did it himself!

Begging for treats