(no subject)

Good ride last night- started off trying to get a supple spine and bend and soften each way. Trudi was pretty good about it, and sighed and started getting lower in the neck early on, but I could feel a spot where she was stuck in her back- pretty far back, almost under my right seatbone. I played around with doing circles, shoulder-in, haunches-in, and trying to get her to stretch and round her whole back. She still seemed stuck there though, so I trotted her and she gave me a really nice trot- to the left she finally stretched all the way along her back, but to the right it didn't stay quite as up or as strong in that spot, though it was markedly better. The downward transitions to walk I asked for ended up with perfectly square halts instead, which almost felt like her showing off. In the walk after all the PT work she was like "Ack, that was hard...um...SPOOK?" She did a couple of halfhearted spooks- I could feel her looking for something- she wasn't actually totally scared and tense, more just looking for a way to express an opinion-- when she's truly spooky she stays very tense and stiff. This was more swingy and relaxed, but with a loose rein so she bebopped along except once in a while startling at something, then bebopping along again. The other thing she does to voice an objection is shake her head- I don't really mind that or the complaining spook, except that sometimes she really launches herself when she leaps and I'm like "OK, cut that $%!# out...".
Didn't do a lot of canter- she was straight and solid in her body, and forward and through, so we just did a little each direction since at this point I knew she was sort of tired. But I've been wanting to work on making her strides more adjustable so we did a little lengthening in the walk, then collecting the trot and lengthening. To the left it was really good, to the right, also good but not quite as much distinction.
Still, good pony, and decent riding on my part.