Ride at Dusk

My ride today was pretty great. Actually, I'm writing this.. 10 or so minutes after I hopped off, and Rush is chilling in her sun pen as we speak. I dragged out three cavalettis and set them up as trot poles down the side of the ring. They were set at like 6'', so she had to pay attention and pick up her feet a little more than usual. The first few times were laughably disastrous- feet flying everywhere and awkward leaps- but after she figured it out she was a champ. We spent most of the trot work focusing on going through those calmly until she figured out that her feet were supposed to go in between the poles every time, then moved on to canter work.

This is the first time I cantered her in the jumping ring without doing some canter work in the dressage ring first, and she by far surpassed my expectations. To the right her canter was a little more up&down than I would have liked, but I got her to settle into a more forward rolling pace by really sitting back, spreading my hands, and encouraging her to open up her stride a little. She never ever got fast, which was awesome awesome awesome because that used to be a big problem that we never completely surmounted. To the left, her transitions are a bit rougher and she starts out like a banshee booking it but once I settle her she's a little lady again. She was even better to the left than to the right (when does that EVER happen???) and through the turns she offered some great bending and stretching, really reaching down for the bit and balancing herself.

Tomorrow I'm thinking we finally buckle down and do some hill work. Her topline is starting to bulk up a bit, hooray, and I'd like to keep mixing it up for her so she doesn't get too bored with all this flatwork.