Yesterday went back out and did a re-do of what all I mentioned in the original post. My horse seemed to have caught on what all I was about and some of the exercises went more smoothly, quickly. I was able to get a few decent left lead canter departs yet those that did not qualify, I calmly told him no, would restart and go again. Once he gave me a good one, I'd quit and move on to something else. 

Ratio-wise it took about 4 tries to get to that result. The prep work (as outlined in the above post) did involve a LOT of asking him to mobilize that darn hind end of his. Back and forth, forth and back (or rather haunches in, back to the true circle line, haunches in, etc.) around the Ritter barrel we went… 

Then I took him over to the area where I had access to a good fence line/corner and I did the Ritter pattern as shown in the first comment to this post...with the keyhole part nestled right into the corner. All I had to do were three stabs at this and on the third stab HE GAVE ME A GOOD LEFT LEAD CANTER DEPART. I praised the bee-Jesus out of him and let him off for the day. Am not going to do all this again today (rain) as he really was worked so hard the last two days. At least I am seeing a glimmer. And he's answering me off of my outside seat bone slightly being weighted at the right moment. Only taken me 62 years of my life and 12 years of his life for us to get to this spot--74 years combined. 

One fascinating by-product of all this work lately is a change I felt in his RIGHT lead canter. We were working around the Ritter barrel, 8 meter volte at a walk, doing a haunches in for a few steps, then bringing his rear back to the true line of the circle and in doing so, asking for a canter depart. He gave it to me and I would ride the canter on the 8 meter line for perhaps 2 strides then allow us to enlarge the circle rather quickly to a 10-12 meter so he was not taxed so much. Suddenly underneath my seat I was feeling something new and different (in the right lead). I found I was able to sit much more centered; it was as if TIME slowed down (maybe only a fantasy in my own mind) and there felt like there was a new lift to each stride that was happening WITHIN EACH STRIDE! I brought him back down to walk, and tried it again and got the same (wonderful) result. 

Didn’t want to jinx this so I went on with the exercise and began to work him in the other direction (asking for left lead while doing the same process). In that case my focus was a calm, not popping up left lead canter depart. My priority du jour! It took a few tries but as I explained, once he gave it to me we went on to something else after a pat.