Negotiations.

My lesson with J on Saturday went great! Max and I have been struggling with a canter depart to the right for...a while...and a couple of minutes with J and we figured it out. She really is a wonderful trainer!

She noted that there has been some negotiating going on between us. Max would either 'round' out, or he'd move forward. We have been slowly settling into an either/or, when in reality we have to be both.

My reigns were the main problem. Some slack had started to creep back in and the contact was no longer existing and soft, but loopy and jarring.

After we worked on fixing the contact with the bit, and putting my foot down with the forward, he moved beautifully, and today we accomplished a wonderful canter depart to the right with no head-tossing or bucking. It still doesn't feel as pillow-y soft as our left canters but it's an improvement nonetheless!

I love my fuzzy face cheeky boy so much. I still cannot believe he's mine!

Kiss!