We are starting to understand each other a little more now with things beginning to go more smoothly for us. He finally seems to have settled in properly now and is becoming a lot calmer and less jumpy in both the schools and out hacking. He has improved considerably out hacking and today we managed to have a lovely long hack, cantering round the fields and even found a fallen tree to jump and he was very well behaved (photo above of him having a great time splashing about in the puddle!). Although he did have another horse with him which makes him feel more supported, I am very pleased with how quickly he has calmed down and grown in confidence.
He has had quite a busy week of training this week. We saw Micheal Pavley for the first time for a pole work lesson, which we both learnt a lot from and got some very helpful tips from Micheal. While it was clear that Beau is still quite young and inexperienced in being able to do controlled pole work exercises, he got the hang of it and slowly improved throughout the lesson. We then also had a flatwork lesson with Jane where we are now starting to focus on improving upon his canter and also a pole work/jump lesson working on our jumping technique over a fence on a circle to make sure we had relaxation and control; essential before jumping any bigger!
He is proving very quick to learn and I am excited for our progress over the next few weeks!