This weeks sessions have concentrated on the lead change issue. Lots of circle work to get him relaxed followed by counter canter. I use three different methods for the counter canter work

1 Counter Canter squares, this I picked up at a Mike McIntyre Clinic down at Bob's last year. You basically pick up the "wrong lead" and when you come to the bends collect up the horse and use plenty of inside leg to push the rear end around the corner then let the horse relax into the straight, at some stage on a straight you can ask for the change.
2 Counter Canter circles with a lead change, this exercise is basically riding a couter canter circle a few times then asking for a lead change anywhere on the circle, rewarding him by stopping shortly after the change
3 Counter to Correct Canter, this exercise I just do as it seems to really take his mind off lead changes (I quite often do this as a warm up). Basically as I come acrross the centre, Ichange direction without changing lead so if I am in Couter Canter, I will end up in normal canter and vice versa. I am concentrating on this exercise at the moment as it seems to be relaxing him through centre.

For the moment I am trying to resist negative actions like pulling him into to the ground if he kicks out, but I may resort to this should he not improve (note if he had developed this habit as a finished horse, I would be more inclined to resort to the latter). Any how I managed to pull off a change on both sides, without any kicking out. I did this using method three for about a half an hour and then just asking for a change first left to right then right to left. I stopped at this stage as I was happy with the result.

I noticed this week that Pee Wee seems to be more sensitive to contact on his left just behind the cinch. I am going to try and relax hom against this in our next sessions, as I think this is linked to his kicking out.