I only had an hour or so last night so I just went out to lunge Cody a bit and put his fly mask back on. He was super slow and lazy again as he has been lately. Now even the whip doesn't really inspire him to get moving. Until something clicks and I haven't quite figured out what it is yet. I was trying to get him to trot or move or something. I recall he got pissed off and threw out a buck and after that things were golden. I can't recall what it was I did to make him mad but it worked. Then he trotted out nice and big and switched directions promptly when asked. Still can't get him into a canter and I'm not sure what's up with that. Perhaps I'll grab the carrot stick and plastic bag next time I go out. If I can't get him to canter I can't reward him for doing it correctly right away and he won't want to do it ever. It's a vicious circle.
We worked on some halt from the trot and just trying to get a reaction immediately when I ask. He did alright on that. And then I worked on some of the turns on the forehand and haunches. Turns on the forehand are sort of okay and turns on the haunches are more difficult. Lastly we worked on our backing up issue. He'll back up really well with me standing facing him and doing either the rope wiggle or waving my hands and asking him to "back." He's been not so great at backing while I'm at his neck leading lately, kind of sliding in that area. I also tried asking him to back while standing by his hip, that really confused him. So I think we'll be working more on backing in general from the verbal cue from all sorts of places and then work on some ground driving and backing that way. So I might give up my backing under saddle goal until we can do it on the ground from nearly anywhere. We'll work on the leg yielding under saddle and hopefully some of that will help with the canter.
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