Trotting is More Fun with Poles, Part 1 (I hope)

I had a "semi-free" ride on Lex today, which in the new world order means that I wasn't taking a lesson but I was riding at the same time as Mary and she couldn't stop herself from giving me some tips and reminders. I LOVE HER. She is the best.

The good trot happened a little sooner today, but we still had our cow moments, especially to the left. Mary was jumping her up-and-coming green baby around the ring and I was very glad to be there at the same time, because it made us move the circle around and gave Lex something to be distracted by that I could work her through. Both horses were well-behaved but M's horse gets a little excited when jumping from the canter. Happily, Lex never overreacted.

Lex and I practiced changing directions and moving her shoulders from the old outside rein into the new outside rein. I think she likes that exercise much more than she likes trotting on a 10m circle forever, and I don't blame her. She's smart and when she does something right she wants to move on. Before Mary went in, she dragged out a pole for us to trot over and watched it happen a couple times. Knock on wood, but I felt it made the trot easier. I think she might be one of those that's easier to jump than flat. Which is fine, because I'm like that too, and ultimately I want a jumper and not a dressage horse. Mary is around to keep us in check with her USDF silver medal. :D Anyway, tomorrow we're supposed to have Fun with Trot Poles Part 2 and I'm to scatter poles around the ring and have her trot over them in her frame and in a rhythm. I think she'll like that--we've done it before and she seems to think it's fun.

We'll see how things go the next couple of rides, but at the moment, we're aiming at a tiny little schooling combined test. I know, I know, I just said I didn't want a dressage horse, but a walk-trot intro test and then jumping a course with four or five cross-rails out of a trot and then getting lots of pats and carrots isn't going to ruin her at all. I think it will be great fun. And the CT is cheap enough that if we get there and she's a total moose, we can scratch and just hack around until she chills out.

Finally, forward progress after a year of starts and stops. It's great!