Passage!

Yesterday, I took a dressage lesson on one of the school horses.  I haven't had a chance to just work on myself in a long time, so I was pretty excited for the opportunity.  The horse's name was Joey, and he is an old schoolmaster who has a few fin tricks up his sleeves.  After some lovely trot and canter work, I had the chance to do something I've always wanted to do - ride passage!  It was definitely one of the coolest things I've experienced on horseback.  Whaddaya say, Deedles, you wanna be an upper-level dressage thoroughbred?  

"No upper-level nonsense for me, thanks, I'll just eat this tasty grass."

 To her credit, Dee has been quite lovely lately (other than a brief "I will kill you mom" moment the other day).  The canter has really been coming along, and she's feeling almost as good as she felt the last summer I had her (pre-law school).  Of course, she's a lot more buck-happy than she used to be, but as long as I keep her out in front of the leg at all times, she is a complete lady.  Yesterday and today we got some steps of counter-canter in both directions, and today she was even quite rideable at trot, which isn't always the case.  While she has been behaving in trot, she never feels super rideable... and by that I mean I never feel like I can really put my leg on and ask her to give me MORE.  Today she actually let me put my leg on and gave me a few little lengthenings without losing her cool, which was exciting.

She is also much more laid back in the barn: