These Poles were Made for Cantering

Lexi. She is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. But perhaps there is the key...

Today's lesson involved trotting over a pole on the ground (once the trot was established and nice). She'd trot it fine and then TROTAWAYREALLYFAST. So we'd re-establish the trot and then come again. But when we cantered it, she fucked up real bad the first time and had to swap leads so she wouldn't fall down, but every time after that she was a star. I think that, like a lot of horses, cantering over stuff makes more sense to her than trotting over stuff.

So! Another for our list of first:

6. Cantering poles.

It's really fun to canter her these days, even though shit sometimes goes pear-shaped. I actually get to sit on her back, and sometimes the canter becomes veryverylight and there's tons of suspension, and I'm actually riding my horse. Mary added one more thing to the mix: when the outside shoulder comes back, it's time to ask for the downward transition. I got it sometimes and missed it others, but the fact that we can think about that right now is wayyy ahead of where we were a few weeks ago.

I swear, I need to kidnap a stranger to go to the barn with me and take pictures of my lessons. Maybe my mom can do it next week. I will bribe her with Reese's cups. Here's an old picture of her so you don't forget what she looks like.

Cantering?!

In Rocket news, she did a really stupid thing and scraped up her side yesterday. I'll get pics of that grossness later. It's nasty.

Oh, and one more cuteness: Lex got her teeth done yesterday while hay was being delivered and needed only a touch of dormosedan to get her nice and sleepy. The vet fell in love with her. If only there was an Olympic event in getting one's teeth done.