Finally found time to lunge the TWH for the first time in ages this morning. I honestly don't remember the last time we've done a lunge session, a year? Maybe more? It's been a while, I don't normally lunge for exercise. All in all I am happy with the way things went, I got what I asked for and he tried hard.
We started with some basic walking without side reins and he proved that his neck can be very bendy and he couldn't possible keep a tempo. After about 5 minutes of this display I attached the side reins and fixed the "I'm looking at you with both eyes but I'm walking on a circle so I'm not in trouble" issue. It took a while for him to relax in the walk/run transitions, he kept step pacing. When being ridden and he step paces he gets a bop on a rein, every time he started step pacing he would throw his head expecting a bop, funny he realizes it is not the gait he is being asked for. Any sort of pace is very strongly discouraged as while I have a pacey horse I do not want a pacey horse.
After we had solid transitions I asked for a trot, I am pretty positive I was getting a rack and gaits I don't have a name for but once we got the trot it was amazing. I need to take a video sometime, I really really hope that is the trot I am getting/will get under saddle. It was beautifully forward, balanced and had complete self carriage. He totally looked like an upper level dressage horse about to go into an extended trot with that trot, totally amazing. Even got it the other direction, I wish he felt that balanced under saddle.
Worked on canter/trot transitions, one of the (other) reasons I cannot show him in "normal" classes yet is because we do not have a canter/trot transition. When he comes out of a canter he goes into a hard pace (or a walk if you give a strong enough half halt). I am hoping that if I can't get a canter/trot transition then I can get a canter/one stride of pace/trot transition. If I got that I would be happy enough, right now it is a work in progress.
Have a lesson on the App tonight, here's to hoping my legs don't fall off. The instructor doesn't want me to use my whip anymore because he has become dead to it and mostly ignores it unless you really smack him, she wants me to use leg-lots of thumping, thwacking, kicking leg until he starts respecting the leg again. Let the fun begin!
Interesting work on the TWH. His trot sounds really pretty. If you do manage to get a video of it I would love to see it. :) Good luck with your lesson.
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