These are not the droids you're looking for.

Good lesson today. Not all happy/warm/fuzzy perfect, but some dang fine work. We had a good warmup- when we started trotting to the right, Trudi wanted to fall to the inside. I kept sitting to the outside to counterbalance, but instead Jessica had me step into the inside stirrup and push her to the outside. We went to the left and it was easier for her- she got through and supple very quickly- back to the right it was much easier- I sat in the middle, stepped to the inside, and we were good.
After that we did shoulder in, straighten, canter, then trot, shoulder in, straighten, canter, trot. This was SO GOOD for Trudi. Some of the departs happened a couple of strides after my cue, but they were all really balanced, soft, and through. It really helped put her together and helped me organize her hind legs. Her shoulder ins are getting better- I'm getting the hang of really controlling the hind legs, and when I can do that everything gets much easier. Even the downward transitions were better. Jessica said that the shoulder in helps me ride the canter too because it's an asymetric gait, which I had been told before, but I never really compared it to shoulder in.
After a little break we tried doing a 2 loop serpentine starting on one lead for the first loop, trot at X, pick up the other lead, and finish the second loop. Disaster. Trudi was a little tired but also a little jazzed, and her rushing made me clingy with my legs, which made her rush more, and then she cut the corners and it was ugly. I tried to force it and ended up with giant, crooked, ugly loops and Jessica moved us on to something else before I turned it into an all out brawl with Trudi. It's not really a big deal- I know Trudi can do it, but we haven't done any smaller canter circles in a while so we just need to revisit them.
We went back to trot and worked on getting her really listening and keeping a steadier rhythm. A couple more shoulder-ins to help put her back together, with walk transitions (still in shoulder in) whenever she tried to rush, couple strides of walk, then back to trot. Trudi went "Oh, CRAP" the first time I made her walk like this, and pretty quickly decided that it wasn't worth the effort to try rushing off. Body wise I was to sit up more in my lower waist (mental image I came up with for this one- I'm wearing a corset, LOL). Also that I was to draw her back up with my seat, which I know how to do but I needed the reminder.
She had me do some bigger trot for a few strides where I chose, then smaller, slower trot for a few strides in another spot, and so on, concentrating on keeping my hands in the same spot over Trudi's withers. Trudi loved this and although I don't have busy hands, this made them much steadier. Then we did a couple of laps trying to keep exactly the same trot. I couldn't believe how hard it was, but it was really cool. I never seem to notice when she speeds up a little, or slows down a little, and if I do I react to it, instead of trying to ride it the same before it ever changes. I could feel Trudi's feet in midair as she was about to take a bigger, faster step and was like "Nope" and she was like, "Huh? Oh, ok". Few steps later, feel her try to shift in midair- "Uh-uh." Trudi: "Huh? Oh, ok." It was totally like doing a Jedi mind trick on her.
Me: "You don't want to take a larger, faster step. You want to make this stride the same as the last one."
Trudi: "I don't want to take a larger, faster step. I want to make this stride the same as the last one."
Good lesson. Not perfect, but really, really educational.
Jessica said she thinks Trudi is ready to show this year. The fact that it's February makes it seem like show season is so far away, but I guess I should start planning...