Ryker has been very good this past week.  Getting right to work without a lunge at the beginning of our ride. I've been working on solidifying lateral aids in both the walk and on the ground - he's starting to figure out that some leg means go forward, and some means move over. We been working on starting to stretch at the trot, making him move forward off my leg in a nice forward, flowing rhythm accepting a contact - the nice forward flowing trot has become much easier for him, and we have moments of stretch, whoohoo!  

The canter, however, is a different story entirely. I'm working with a race horse that only canters right! Who whould've thought?  ;) 
 Ryker has been very quiet in the canter, he moves well off my leg and is very responsive for downward transitions.  Picking up the right lead is easy for him , which he surprised me with on the lunge line , and continues to do so undersaddle.  His left lead however, seems to be much harder for him - He has very little trouble picking it up on the lunge, but with a rider aboard he is a little lost - the lead itself is not overly strong, nor is it balanced like his right lead.  At the beginning, before getting frustrated when all the tricks I had up my sleeve didn't work, I simple re-established what I was asking for on the lunge line and called it a day.  From there I did a lead change onto it as immediately as possible, which was not very consistent, but got his left lead stronger.  Now we can get it occasionally in the corner or off a very small circle - the transition isn't pretty, but its there, and it is wonderful once he picks it up - progress! 
  Since he is easily bored, I've been adding trot poles, and just recently canter poles, towards the ends of our ride to keep his mind engaged. Those are a non-issue for him, easy as pie, and he tends to make a beeline for them when we first get started walking around the ring. He sure is motivated! 



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