Cob Jockey

I continue to get videos about once every two weeks from CGP showing me Connor's progress. Yesterday she sent me two videos privately, then posted a clip from one of them to her Facebook page with this comment:

"[CobJockey]'s pony, Connor, did his first medium trots ever today! This pony is stinkin' adorable, smart and talented! He's figuring out flying changes and lateral work is coming easily! I think [CobJockey] has a little FEI pony in the making right here!"

Collected trot:

More tension in this trot than in the other ones. I'm not worried about it; after getting to know her training philosophies well, I know it's a phase she'll eventually get him past as he learns and gets stronger in it.

Working trot:

Swoooooooooooooon

For comparison, one year ago this week I was riding in my last MW clinic (sob), and here is what his working trot was like then:

This was as good as the trot got a year ago.

Medium trot:

He's never going to be naturally talented at mediums, but to see any amount of stride lengthening without splatting is a huge win.

 Canter:

 Canter one year ago at the Mary clinic:

The two biggest changes are his balance and the activity. Megan has talked about getting TC's "breastplate" up before, and if you look at these GIFs from the Mary clinic one year ago this week and compare them to the GIFs above, you can definitely see the difference between breastplate down and breastplate (starting to come) up. Still more work to do in shifting his balance back but man is it not already miles better.

One year ago this week, with me aboard. Photo is kinda crooked, sorry.

This week, with CGP up

The canter too, looks enormously different.

Look at that inside hind go! And that open throatlatch. Good boy.

Can't believe he's already made this much progress and we're only halfway through. It's nice to see this much progress already, keeping me motivated to keep writing these checks!