This weekend I rode in my first clinic of the year with Ryan. I felt good going into this clinic since Gadget worked well last week for Kristin. I had a really nice ride on Friday morning working on getting him back on his haunches and off of my hands in the snaffle bridle. I started in the walk, by making him carry his own head. After some dramatic head flinging, he had such a better balance. I put Gadget in his (beautiful, blingy) double bridle for the Ryan clinic, and he felt good initially but got heavier through the ride. I told Ryan my goal is to ride fourth level next year. We worked on making his trot smaller, then larger in the correct balance. To the right, I need to ride him in slight shoulder-fore without bending the neck. After all these years, this is still tricky for me. We schooled simple changes and they were horrible! I was so surprised, but Gadget just kind of shuffled into them. I was really collecting, collecting, then asking for walk. Bad. Terrible. We f...