6/23/13 Harley

Skipped the longe, as he was quiet catching & saddling.  Warmed up on light contact w.t.c., figuring that was less work than the side reins he's done before.  Nice & quiet.  Warmed up riding squares instead of circles, followed by a tiny bit of leg yield.  In no time, less than 5 minutes, he was focused on the job.

Got down to business, and found him a little lazy in the first set of 3-circle canters heading left.  He broke, twice.  DRAT.  Maybe the supplement isn't doing the trick after all.  I got some decent canter-left, though his neck was low, his face was twisted to the outside.  I flexed him left & right at the halt, listening for his neck to pop.  No-go.  Hmm.. time for a change in plans.

Canter-right, nice 3-circles.  Worked on some more trot left and right, flexing in and out of the circles.  Sent him straight down a quarterline, and he was paying complete attention to me.  Nice and forward and light. 

Testing him out again, I sent him canter-left and instead of 3-circles, I went straight ahead.  Once he quit fussing and straightened his head out, his canter was incredible.  Powerhouse straight ahead, and while not 100% collected, he wasn't twisted in his face, and he wasn't breaking gait.  More repeated canter-right, same results.

A tiny set of leg yields at trot, followed up by a touch more canter.  I glanced at my watch, making sure I wasn't pushing too hard in the heat.  40 minutes.  All riding, all awesome.  Cooled him down with some stretch trot circles, and some good free walk.

The energy supplement is helping.  Once warmed up (and this seems to take longer than I figured at his age), Harley's got forward and bend, with more in the tank. 

If schedules work, I think it's about time for our next lesson soon. :)  I'm anxious to keep testing his new warm-up work, and see just what it's going to take to get that boost of energy after a trailer ride.