All The Poles

I'm apologizing in advance for big pics with no captions. Blame mobile blogger. Also pics are from last week as there's no photographic proof of my lesson.

After last weekend's canter pole excitement I was determined that we could show off our fancy new skills in our lesson this week. Unfortunately right as my lesson started it began to rain and we had to move inside. While McKenna is normally better behaved inside (not as many distractions and/or spooky things), doing poles/jumps inside tends to make her more nervous. 

I had warmed up prior to trainer's arrival so we trotted a lap or two while she set poles (one on each long side) for us. We started cantering just one of them and halting on a straight line. Mare got a bit strong but after she bumped her nose into the wall she realized stopping was a good thing. We then moved on to cantering a circle after the pole really exaggerating the bend because she was convinced she was a motorcycle.

After we proved we could go both ways trainer used our little rail raisers and put one of the poles up to 1' and told me to go for it. Our first canter fence! McKenna didn't realize "the jump went up" and demolished it the first time. But after that she was foot perfect. 

Towards the end of the lesson she had a tantrum because she was tired and done. She started flinging her head and her bonnet was flapping up and down. It was pretty funny and distracted me from gettting mad or picking a fight with her about her head. I was told to just stay steady and ride her through it and she finally quit.