All Good Things

     Mort and I had a really good ride on Tuesday.  As I mentioned in my last post, the goals involved playing more off of the circle.  While Mort and I still used it periodically we did spend the majority of our time utilizing the entire area.  I backed down on some of what I had been asking, but still wanted correct and prompt responses.  Overall he did really well.  I also think that I rode better as I was really trying to focus on having a plan.

     Mort's biggest 'issue' is anticipating and going into auto-pilot.  I realize this is partially my fault and is a training issue, but Mort does seem extra pre-disposed to it compared to other horses that I've ridden.  It really shows through in the big arena.  He'll start turning a corner about a stride before I want him to.  He'll do his best to do what I want--he just doesn't always wait to hear what I actually want.  The circle is helping some, but I think I'm going to have to step-up and be a better, more active rider to truly fix it.  Tuesday was at least a good start for me having a plan for each transition and corner.

     Mort's canter transitions are definitely improving.  He's always had a good one in there, but it's usually really (really) hard for me to find.  He would much prefer to throw himself into the canter than lift and sit quietly into it.  Fair enough, one is harder than the other and one is what he's been doing his whole life.  I'm the crazy yahoo who wants to come in and change things.  But, with him getting more and more consistent I'm able to ride them more and more consistently.

     I fully know how to ask for canter with my seat, but it has been really hard for me to do that with Mort.  I simply didn't trust that he would canter for a long time.  He often would rush into an upside-down, bumpy, unbalanced trot.  It was really hard for me mentally to quietly swoop with my seat and get burned by a bad trot.  It also left me behind potentially catching Mort's mouth, which isn't fair for him.  But lately I am convincing my seat to trust that canter will actually happen when I ask (and it is most of the time).  This is very much "the chicken and the egg" scenario but I'm glad the chicken is laying and the egg is hatching.  Mort only gave me one bad transition on Tuesday in spite of not even being on the circle.  Good things are happening.