I ride Knight early each morning. I work on keeping him soft and responsive. I ride alot of straight lines. I usually walk until he feels comfortable. I usually have him move his hind quarters left and right at a walk. Then I will ask him to skip the trot and go right into a lope.
I lope straight lines across the pen, diagonally, and down the center. Sometimes I will side pass at the lope towards the center of the arena, then back out to the opposite corner and do that on each side of my arena. I change often to keep him from anticipating. Mostly working on him traveling forward freely. He usually starts out resisting not wanting to go forward and finishes up free and willing.
