Another freezing day, so just jumped on Giant and got him moving and warmed up, lots of forward work, but he was really good in the cold today, nice and relaxed. Once we were both reasonably warm I wanted to work on some new lateral movements, so in walk we started on our shoulder in square, he does this really nicely now, both ways, although it can be slightly more difficult to the left cos thats the way hes stiffer flexing to. Then rather than just doing a fairly rounded corner in shoulder in I asked him for a 1/4 shoulder in priouette, straight away he did it really well, I just had to get him to step around a bit slower, he did some nice 1/2 SI pirouettes too.

Doing pirouettes (I'm sure you're picturing Giant in a tutu...) lead well into learning travers (in the piroette he had to move in the direction of the bend), I started this a few weeks ago but he didn't really get it so I left it for a while. Today we got the start of it, he understood what I wanted, I just put him in shoulder in on a straight line and then changed the flexion so that he was moving into the bend rather than away from it. This was more difficult to the left but he still got it.

Changed Harry's bit today, thought he might like the weird leather bit I got from HOY and never used... and he did seem to really like it, he was calmer (not so worried about his mouth) and steadier in his carriage. I think I've written about the scarring in his mouth, I wouldn't be suprised if he has bone spurs along the bars of his mouth, in which case the soft leather would be much more comfortable tha the metal. He was a star, we just went through suppling exercises in walk - shoulder in on a circle, then on a square. For him I straighten him out before the turn as he still isn't so good from a neck rein. Worked on a little bit of slow trot shoulder in and then up into canter. Usually to make it easier for him I canter on the good lead then switch and ride just to the right. Today I kept changing direction so that he had to think about what I was asking for, he was good, just set him up and gave him time to think about it, still got it wrong a few times, but when he got it right the trans was much more flowing.