Progress is a good thing...

...I mean hey, we could all be cavemen with scummy fingernails trying to hunt down a wooly mammoth.

After mild success on Wednesday, I got up on Dee planning to continue with my reverse-psychology style riding. This seems to be working, as we had another fairly decent ride. She was doing a very nice, stretchy working trot all over the arena and focusing more on me than what was going on outside of the arena. Our right lead canter was very nice, though she's getting a little bit into the habit of leaning on her forehand. On the one hand, I'm thrilled that she wants to stretch down in the canter. I mean, she doesn't rush around out of balance, but on the other hand, she is VERY much heavy on the forehand. I've been leaving it be for now because I don't want to be telling her 'stretch stretch stretch' at the trot and then TOTALLY contradict myself by saying 'no, I don't want you there' at the canter. She's got a pretty good natural balance, so I don't think it will be hard to pick her up and teach her to canter uphill when the time comes. For now, I'm just happy that she's behaving and steady.
Going left, I DID manage to get the correct lead. It took us a few tries, and at one point we went from trotting along very nicely to broncing straight towards the arena fence (which I think happened because the cat appeared suddenly outside of the ring... I wasn't actually asking for canter at that point), but we finally nailed the left lead. Once she had the correct lead, the canter felt quite good. I think part of the problem is that she's weaker on the left hind, so stepping under and picking up the left lead is more difficult. In her mind, it's easier to throw her weight the other way and pick up the right lead, so unless I'm VERY careful to have her in the PERFECT balance, she just has trouble with that lead. I know that will sort itself out as she gets stronger.

On another note, I took my trailer to get serviced on Friday. They've got some work to do, but I'm hoping to have it back by the end of this week or the beginning of next. Once I have that sorted out, we can get back to lesson-taking.