Trot trot trot poles

Last thursday was Dee's first time doing serious trot poles! (Well, a proper SET, anyway) I set up three poles on a circle and started by lounging over them at the walk, which she understood perfectly. I then asked her to trot them, which she didn't understand so perfectly. It took her a few times of leaping into the middle of them and then tripping over the last, or trotting the first pole and leaping over the last two. After she'd figured out all the ways that didn't work, though, she finally did a slow motion trot-through. Realizing that doing it that ay worked, we didn't have any more issues and she trotted through in both directions with no issues. She did the middle, which was a normal trot, and the outside, which was a little wider. I'm not yet willing to encourage her to do the shorter side, because she doesn't understand collection, so I know that she will just shorten her stride by slowing down and cutting the engine.
She had the weekend off because I was up at Quinnipiac doing the LSAT prep. Monday, we picked up where we left off. She came out breathing fire a little bit. She didn't want to trot nicely through the first few times. At one point, she very handily made it into a double bounce without touching a single pole - sort of impressive. FINALLY, she settled down and started trotting through, so we did them a few times in both directions and then I made it a bit harder. I took two of the jump blocks and raised the middle pole up, so that she would have to lift those feet a little higher - be a little more careful. To the right, she was very good. She trotted through the middle perfectly and through the outside perfectly, as well. She found the left a little harder, and I think it's because of that weakness in the left hind. She clipped the raised pole two or three times with that left hind leg, which she didn't do going right. I'm hoping this sort of thing will get her stronger back there.
Yesterday she was really high again, so we just practiced the trot poles some more. I never really got her to settle, so I didn't make the exercise harder, like I'd planned. Our next step is to do four poles with the second and last pole raised. I only have two sets of jump blocks, so that's the best I can do. Ideally, I would like to have ALL the poles raised, but I figure this will force her to be careful and lift her feet, too. I took some photos of the exercise, but I forgot the camera at the barn, so I'll have to put them up later!
Bettina is away this week, but when she gets back and I finally get my trailer back (they're taking FOREVER), we're going to "operate" on Dee, as Bettina said. I'm pretty excited about it, and she said that Windhorse has stalls open, so I'm thinking of doing an overnight there - TWO DAYS of Bettina in a row!? How great would THAT be!?