A trick of the light?

Something strange happened today with Max and me.

We were longlining in the indoor school for the first time in ages. Max was trying his Tom Thumb Scrubs bit again, which he hasn't had in for about a year. It has copper inlays to press against the side of his tongue, and three little copper rings to play with in the middle. I don't think the bit was responsible for what followed though, I think it was just Max and me.

I strayed from his side to behind, still directing with my hands and voice, and Max continued forward with confidence. We changed direction with ease, no faffing or having to go the long way round, just a slight change of pressure with my hands, a slight change of body position, and Max didn't miss a beat, but put himself exactly where I was asking him to go.

So we upped the tempo to trot and carried on, on big circles, on small circles, changing direction, changing pace and then, well then I said "Canter" and Max cantered, not a few steps, but until I said "And.... trot... Max, walk..." and then he did his transitions down to stand when asked.

Granted, I didn't have him cantering for ages, just a few circuits around on each lead so who knows what would have happened if I'd tried to keep him going longer? We can attempt that another day. For now, it's still win/win and quit while we're ahead.

But if you'd happened to walk into the school today and observed us in session, you would be forgiven for thinking that it looked like we knew what we were doing!