Youngsters can be so funny. We’re making good progress over the past couple of weeks but it certainly comes in fits and starts. Last week I was working on getting him to walk round the arean without napping at all even though there were *shock* puddles of water round the edge on the track and *shock* it was a bit windy and raining and Baby Horse really thought this was a bit much. Although prior to this he’d been ok about rein back under saddle he totally forgot how to do it for a while but after going back over that ground with M this week he suddenly seems to have got a lot more balanced, happy about rein back, happy about going where you point him, *really* happy about trotting over poles and has been spied jumping over the cross country fence in the middle of his field by the yard manager! :db: It’s only, what 18 inches? Maybe 2ft but clearly he thinks jumping is fun and it’s doing great things for his co-ordination!

M and I have both had great rides this week and he’s almost established in leg yield after only a couple of sessions. In fact yesterday he popped into leg yield for me when I asked him quite by accident – M didn’t tell me she’d been working on it with him the day before so I was pretty surprised! :laugh: (I realised as he did it that yes, I *did* just ask him for that trying to correct something else but I didn’t think he knew how to do it!)

He’s certainly getting to the point where he’s balanced enough to start thinking about canter under saddle. We did a nice rein back to trot yesterday (although I think we were both a bit surprised to find ourselves trotting – he really tucked his bum under him, got a bit excited and surged forward so I let him go and then he had a bit of a ‘Oh! Trot! How many legs do I have?’ moment) and his trot work is progressing really well. Not that we’re in any hurry of course, really trying to make sure we take things easy but it’s just sooooo tempting to push a bit when things are going well! :-[