Obligatory Weekly Post, and Question

Lol, my posting schedule has gone to nothing. Exhausted, good grief. And camera still dead, have been running around like a crazy person and haven't stuffed batteries in it. So boring post, no pictures.

Rode three times this last week, plus today, which is something of a world record I think, especially given how crazy my schedule was. River is really doing well all things considered. It's been so very very nice (60s and 70s! The grass is trying to grow!!), and we're still half-heartedly planning on the hunter pace at the end of March, so we've been spending quite a bit of time cooling out on the trails/fields, and Friday we went for quite a long trail ride all by ourselves, exploring. His tripping on the trail is all but gone, as long as I don't let him literally drag his nose in the dirt, and he's getting the hang of picking the easiest way around obstacles. Such a good boy!

Arena work is so-so, some days really good and some days not so good. I am really struggling with working on getting him off the forehand and using himself. Have talked to Coach and she recommended transitions and backing--well, we can do trot-walk transitions pretty well (most of the time), but walk-halt are very very iffy unless I run him into a wall, and backing is nonexistent at the moment. I'm not pushing it because practicing anything slower than trot-walk makes him worse; he gets even heavier and tries to grab the bit. It's okay to do once or twice in a session, but otherwise not. Any other suggestions? I'm planning on making/getting him a Pessoa-type system to lunge in as soon as I get the time, not sure whether it will help this problem but can't hurt. Also looking around for a chiro in the area to see if that would help, see if he has any pain that would be making it worse. . . In the meantime happy for ideas. :)

He has also learned how to drink from the hose, it's hilarious! :D