Sorry for the delay! ...computer issues... 

Ryker has been doing very well,  he's had a few long weekends off here and there, but always comes back ready to work. We're trotting and cantering small crossrails and verticals on their own now.  We attempted to take him though a gymnastic - the same one-stride that Pogo excelled at, and proceeded to take a few steps backwards.  Ryker is a little bit of a sensitive soul, and tends to internalize everything, often it feels like I'm sitting on a bottle rocket that's fuse has been lit, but ends up being a dud and not doing anything exciting - I do love boring!  The amount of poles and standards in the one stride just blew his mind, so we're sticking to single fences for now -I've started relating poles before and after fences, about 3-4 stride away, and he has no problem with that.   Some horses do better with gymnastics, and others with single fences - he's just a single fences kind of guy.  The more confident he gets the more we will begin to slowly build courses together and introduce elements of gymnastic work (VERY slowly).  On the flat he has mastered the half-halt in the canter, and to right at the trot, the left is still a little inconsistent, but we're almost there! We're also continuing to work on all of our lateral aids, and our transitions into the canter, both of which are quite nice most days.

On another note, he's shedding what little coat he has like a beast, spring anyone!  Unfortunately he's also developed a little patch of track scuz on his hip - Anyone out there have a remedy ? ...I know we've all got some "magical" combination of things to cure scratches, but I personally don't have an arsenal of tricks up my sleeve for track scuz!