Prelude to the Canter!

Dear Wal,

Building on what we did last week, now Buzzy and I are working on being relaxed while gaiting...and eventually (dun dun duuuun!) cantering. I have never been able to really master the canter, other than wildly racing through the wilderness giggling madly. Because, for some reason, when you're riding a cantering horse the urge to laugh wildly is impossible to resist.
But seriously, this is exciting, I can count the times I've cantered Buzzy on one hand, and all those times were uphill. (See, if you have a neurotic horse like Buzzy, with barely brakes, then you canter them uphill so by the middle of the hill, they're like...ugh, no more D:) In any case, I'm really really excited. This is going to be awesome, even thought at first we will most definitely not succeed, but who cares! Soon I will be able to put my dreams of flying lead changes and wonderful collected canters into reality, hopefully.
I've gotten off track, again, haven't I? Well, for the next few weeks BUzzy and I are going to be back on the running walk again. Except, this time it's with a greater purpose in mind than just refining his action and my equitation. Now, we're going for relaxation and flexibility, because when Buzzy moves into a running walk he is extremely tense. His stride is short, which means that he doesn't reach under his body with his hind legs like he should, and his head is up and his nose isn't vertical with his pole. Granted, he is a tennessee walking horse, so he has to have his head up in order to use his shoulders, but that doesn't mean he gets to be all strung out about it.
Here's a video if you don't get what I'm talking about:

The first gait, the step pace, is what he's doing now. The horse in this video is more relaxed than he is, but you can still tell when the horse moves into then pace he's tense, because his head doesn't bob. However, in the flat walk and the running walk his head does bob in time with his movement. A head bob is a good tell of when a walking horse, or just any horse, is relaxed. 

/endrant

P.S. I saw a corvette motorcade of eight today.