Since Galahad had his back check in June I have been making more of an effort with his groundwork.  This is something I know we need to do to keep him using his hindquarters properly but it is so easy just to ride him instead.

I am very pleased with the way he is moving at the moment – his hind legs are stepping through nicely.  He is also making a fan of poles look relatively easy.  I have been using some sidereins on him to encourage a fairly low head carriage but I have kept them pretty loose so I’m not sure they are actually having any effect.

It turns out they were probably too loose.  The grass is fairly lush in the schooling field at the moment so Galahad wanted to stop for a snack.   I moved to encourage him forward, he took a step, stood on the side rein and broke his cheekpiece.

For the rest of our session I fashioned a temporary fix using his noseband but that is obviously not a long term solution and I will have to go shopping – I don’t have any spares! On the bright side though, he still went very nicely just in the noseband.  He is a good pony really.