I rode inside today because the sand ring was still too soggy after Sunday's rain. Rory wasn't thrilled about being back inside the arena, but he was very good about not trying to go out the back door every time we went by. I worked for about ten minutes at the walk trying to get him to stretch over his topline, lift his back and reach for the contact. He gave me a little bit, but not as much as he'd been offering last week. It occured to me that he might need a bit of trot to adjust to the rider's weight before really getting much lift. We trotted and I concentrated more on asking for him to bring his back up and stretch than on exactly where we were going. I did discover that if I can get him to turn his head in the direction of the turn and then very lightly wiggle the outside rein he will soften and turn more easily. He was being a very good boy so I quit after about twenty minutes and we went outside onto the grass (which had drained better than the sand ring). We walked around a bit with more work on lifting his back. I asked him to canter once each way and he got the correct lead easily both times. I ended up riding for just over half an hour.
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