Pony work!

I have begun the Top Line Improvement Regimen with Siaga. This consists of lunging (proper lunging, not the kind where you let the horse run to get the bucks out (or the Ya-ya's, as my instructor calls it). No, this is the kind with the surcingle, the long line passed through the bit on the inside to a D-ring on the side of the surcingle. We did mostly trot and canter after a warm up walk.

After that we did several minutes of backing up across the yard, and a lot of work to get him to put his head down low to better engage and stretch the back muscles.

And then we went for a short ride. Without the stability of a saddle, it's much more difficult to convince him to go somewhere he doesn't want to go, so I mostly let him pick. Oooooh boy. Surprise, Beth. Your pony likes the corn field, A LOT. When I gave him head, he went out in the field and started around the outside edge, and we crossed the ditches, and eventually he turned and aimed for the other side, then back towards home, with a lot of random zig-zagging in there. I ended the ride on the hill on the road past the driveway, I'm trying to teach him that going past the drive way is a good thing. We have such a problem with that area. If only I could be on the ground and on his back at the same time. xD Then I could lead/drive him from the ground AND from his back and work to get him over that issue. Gah.