This week I'm going to play around with the saddle since I really don't ride Tug with it that much. Before we started with that though, I took him out to where we had the circling problem a few days ago, and we did backwards by the tail. He really gets it! :) We practiced driving from the right side, and then he offered to put both feet on a tire/pedestal which he's never done before. So big treats for that and backwards by the tail! Then I did the pushing passenger lesson with him and it really blew his mind when I rubbed him for stopping at the gate! :D Then we did follow the rail and had a few frustrating moments because he kept resisting lateral flexion. Again, I felt horrible for how bad things went so I tried again after he ate. I know I shouldn't try to teach him things at feeding time though. This time we played "Find the safe spot" with the saddle which was hanging on a stall gate. This went well, with a lot of licking and chewing. Then when he thought I was going to send him through the roundpen gate, I backed him up and we played approach and retreat with that, and going through it. Then I got on him and we did one or two laps and he really didn't need that much correcting. I stayed with him for a few minutes while he ate hay. When I went back later, he was really touchy feely and he followed me to the gate. Whether he wanted to go eat (which we haven't done in a while) or if he just wanted to be with me, I'm not sure. But he hung his head over the gate until I made it to the house. :)

I'm finding that going back to the task/spot that we had trouble really helps both of us. :)