Wonder Ponies

Lovely quiet ride on Pico this morning.  His canter departs are much calmer and we end up in a balanced canter some of the time instead of a mad dash on his shoulders.  No tenseness afterwards either.  Sunday I jumped at Platinum with Morgen.  We can canter the bendy lines uphill.  As long as I look at the next jump about three strides before the current jump we get the leads, bend, all.  Then there is the downhill part ....  I can canter some of the jumps, but not with a tightish circle in front of one and only if I get my balanced canter very early.  No downhill canter departs as yet.   Everything collected is going to be so much easier with Pico.  My.

Gracie is lovely also.  I've been working on flying changes.  They seem to be all about the left shoulder.  She can't change to that lead if she is leaning on her left shoulder, so right to left takes a lot (a LOT) of left rein to keep her off it.  And at the same time I am trying not to lean on the left rein and really use the right rein.  Challenging to say the least.   

Worked a little on trot half-pass also.  Had to shoulder in, the leg yield, then shoulder in to find the looseness.