Roundpen assembled and gaps can now be filled!
Junior did great with the basic roundpen skills. I need to get him cantering more consistently, but he did better! We will get there soon.
I decided to get his cantering skills in order on the ground before continuing it in the saddle. If he can't sort out his feet and maintain his speed without a rider, having a rider on his back isn't going to help him.
I rode him at the walk and trot and he is improving immensely with both of those. He does have a tendency to root out his nose when I ask him to turn, so I am starting to add bending exercises and there are some ground exercises we need to add that will help with this.
I created a score sheet for all the groundwork exercises and riding exercises of Clinton Anderson's Fundamental Method that I use for training my horses and now I have a better idea of the holes we have. Sometimes it's easier to sort things out if they are written on a page!
I am experimenting to some extent. Normally trainers wouldn't allow their gaited horsed to trot (or canter for that matter), but I want to test a running theory of mine.
I'll let you know how it goes when we get further in.
