The oddest thing happened yesterday.  While Balthazar was eating I turned on the tap to the water trough.  I was daydreaming sitting on the edge watching the water pour in (actually I was studying the stream from the hose, wondering how I could draw it).  Anyway, I was hidden from his sight for a few minutes by the green tank.  When I turned the tap off and walked to the gate, he was there.  That it was strange he was there didn't occur to me until I started to put his feed bin away.  He hadn't finished.  Now unless there's a circus in the front paddock or strange horses are stampeding through the yards, Balthazar doesn't leave his food.  After years of Drifter's colicks I assumed the worse.  But I was wrong.  He wasn't sick.  He was curious.  He'd come to the gate to try and see where I was, what I was doing.  While I was hovering near the feed bin wondering what was wrong with him, Balthazar calmly returned and resumed eating.  
     Today's riding was hard.  He wasn't bad or anything but I really worked on myself  and that's the hardest lesson of all.  I know that I *talk* too much with my aids so this arena riding is good training for me to learn to say one thing at a time.  What usually happens is that I'm asking with my seat, weight, legs and reins and that I'm micromanaging using all the aforementioned.  So today I was very particular about asking with my legs and getting a response.  He's learned to plug his ears, figuratively speaking, so I asked softly with my leg and if I didn't get a response, I asked with more pressure.  If I still didn't get a response I stopped him and asked with as much pressure as it took (and at the start of the ride, it was a kick or several).  But it was good because he was re-sensitized to the leg so that a gentle bump sufficed.
   Another thing I have to work on is my weight.  On his stiff right side, going to the right, I'm leaning to the left in a vain effort to get him back underneath me.  This is wrong and doesn't work.  I need to maintain a neutral position (weight wise) and get him to step underneath himself by answering my leg.  Every corner we took today in the arena was a chance to practice that.  And boy was it hard.  Good but hard.  We did quite a lot of circles and half circles (change of direction).  Much more trotting today.  Cantering too.  I got a cavort (can one just have a cavort, as a noun or must it be cavorting an adjective?).  Anyway, when I asked for our first canter he leapt into the air - cavorting.  It was the wrong lead but as I said before we can get particular about that later.  Right now all I want is a calm canter which doesn't deteriorate into a trot or inflate into a gallop.  He also needs to be able to turn smoothly (neck rein) at the canter.  We're getting there.