(no subject)

Good ride last night- it was kind of cold, and Trudi was snorting and spooky as I led her up to the barn. Normally she's pretty quiet being led around, and since I worked her on Sunday I have no idea why she was acting like she was on crack. In any case I took her straight to the indoor and turned her loose- BIG HUGE springy trot, SNORT SNORT, tail up in the air... she was pretty fun to watch, but it's one of those times where you go "Yeah, I'm glad I'm not riding THAT right now.". I had her trot and canter a bit till she blew off some steam and then groomed her and tacked her up.
She was fairly warmed up by the time I got on her, and happily I warmed up fast. She relaxed pretty well because she wasn't so hyper. We got some good work done- decent walk, good trot- relaxed with no rushing. She was good in the bridle although a bit crooked, and so we did leg yields in and out and shoulder in/out on the circle, serpentines, flexing and voltes. She was stuck again behind her withers but I told her to let me help, and she did. We worked on straightening and she was a little reluctant to move her shoulders, but overall we did a lot of nice through work that was much straighter. We had some really nice strides of canter both ways, though sometimes she still looses her balance and then tends to get really crooked. We did several transitions and finished up with more trot. I worked on keeping her more through and reaching toward the bit in the transitions, and that was better, though as she got tired she wanted to lean a little and get heavy on the forehand, or raise her forehand, hollow her back, and rush. I found that lifting my chest seemed to really make her shoulders more moveable, and we also worked a lot on getting the hind legs to step under and closer, which allowed us to end with a lovely square halt.
I felt like all the pieces were there last night, I just couldn't necessarily keep all of them together at the same time. :)