Spot the Difference (Lesson no. 6)

I know, I know his head carriage is still too high in the second picture BUT if you compare this to the pictures from our first lesson down below you will see the difference is pretty good. Although we still have the odd tantrum and attempts for him to take control we are heading in the right direction. The tricky thing is just keeping him calm and keeping his focus. He has the concentration span of a small gnat and anything is more interesting to him than my attempts at schooling! Anyway lack of attention aside I think we are getting better and I am learning even more than him about how to train a horse from scratch. My big new learning of this week was to rub / massage up his neck with one hand and then the other (without dropping the reins) when he starts to fight the contact. My instructor tells me this is because he gets himself all tense and wound up and so stroking his neck relaxes him back into a deeper outline. Picture below shows what she means and it really seems to work.

The other big success is that we now strike off on the right leg every time in right canter. Left canter is still proving a little elusive but I attach a picture below to show that he is at least vaguely collected - certainly an improvement on the wall of death (see entries below for explanation of this one!)