Uneventful

Cupid and I have had steady but unremarkable rides since I got back.  Not surprisingly, he was fine after 5 days off - his usual slightly lazy self.  Our lessons have mainly been continuing to focus on steadying my contact through the reins (especially the outside rein).

One exercise we've started is doing a lot of transitions between a stretchy trot and more working frame, especially near the beginning of our ride.  Cupid likes stretching down, and it is good practice for me to ask him to come back up a little, while trying to make sure we don't tip onto the forehand.

We've also been doing a lot of serpentines, and our last lesson my trainer had us add a 10 meter circle in each loop so we get more bend.

The left lead canter is improving.  We still don't get it 100% of the time but it's gotten a lot more consistent.  I'm looking ahead at Training test 3, which has a longer canter to the left.  Cupid still has a tendency to drop to a trot, especially if he hits a slightly deeper spot in the arena so we're working on that.

On Saturday there were some small jumps set up in the arena so I trotted a few.  It was much warmer than it has been and Cupid was pretty low energy.  The first time over he didn't even canter out.  Then he would, but was pretty much ready to walk again a few strides out, lol.

Today we did some ground driving and in hand work.  I can back him up straight if I stand at his right shoulder, but if I'm on his left then he always swings to the right so we need to work on that.  (If I ask him to back up when I'm on him it's usually not straight either.)  The side passing went well.