This week I was very busy with my other extracurricular activities, but I still managed to squeeze a few rides in. While I continued working with him on trotting circles, our focus shifted to trotting over ground poles and to picking up the canter. Merlin seems enjoy the change of pace but he still stumbles over the poles from time to time. Fortunately he slowly became more surefooted as the week went on. As far as cantering goes, he was rather bumpy at first because we had not done it in a while. He was also reluctant to pick it up on the first day but by day two he did so as soon as I asked. While these exercises are great at keeping him engaged and help aid in improving his physique, they are also helping him to improve in his basic skills as well as revealing which of these skills need the most improvement.

Next week I want to continue with the exercises that we have been doing all along (trotting in small circles and over poles), but I really want to make cantering the main focus. While he did pretty well this week, he struggles to pick up the correct lead so I plan to canter him in circles to aid him in figuring out his footing. I also hope to start going over some small jumps in the next week or so.