Bounce!

Dee has been doing LOTS of trot poles lately. Tuesday, we did 4 poles instead of the 3 that we've been doing. I set it up on the circle and had the first pole on the ground, the second two raised, and the fourth on the ground. She trotted through to the left REALLY nicely - there was no dragging of the LH. She didn't start out as well to the right, but I think it was mostly because it was hard for her to see the poles. She was trotting right into the sun, and just seemed surprised when some poles turned up in front of her. Once she knew they were there, she was much better, and very cleverly (I thought) approaching with her head very low. I mean, she stretches going left, too, but it just seemed like she figured out that if she stretched her nose long and low enough, the sun wasn't such an issue.
Yesterday I decided to up the ante a little. I set up 3 trot poles on one side of the ring and a small bounce on the other. We began over the trot poles, which she did very nicely, and then moved on to the bounce, which is a whole new experience for her. The first time through, she didn't quite know what to make of it and just treated it like a weird trot pole set-up. With a little extra encouragement the second time, she actually jumped it properly. After that, she was popping through the bounce like an old pro. The only issues she had was swapping between the bounce and the trot poles. Once or twice she got confused and either tried to jump the trot poles or trot the bounce, but then she'd realize the mistake and correct herself the next time.
I would just like to add that she is possibly the cutest thing ever. I set up the exercises while she was in the ring, and I just left her in the middle of the ring. She didn't move a muscle the entire time I was setting up - she just watched everything I was doing. Too adorable. I should add that she wasn't wearing any tack while I was setting up - just her halter - so if she had done something silly, it wouldn't have been a big deal. I wouldn't have left her to her own devices if she was wearing her tack!