Yes those lines in the image are poles, it was the best I could work up after forgetting to take a picture of the actual poles. Although this is something I might try doing in the future with pole work posts, then add in a picture of the actual poles too. If it came up to a more complicated exercise to explain I will be able to add in arrows etc to show which way we went.

What we did with the poles:

Throughout a circle that took up half of the arena we set out 3 pairs of poles. One in the middle of the arena (orange),  one by the entrance gate (blue) and the other in between them too (green). 

The exercise was to then go through the poles and around In a circle or oval depending on which two sets of poles we were going through. In this lesson I hadn't done any work with Legacy since the lesson the week before so on the rare occasion she was a little lively (she can normally go awhile without work and be fine when you get back on.) this toyed with my confidence a little and I'm going to be honest there was a few times I was ready to throw the towel in and say I wanted to get off.

Thankfully I had put my big girl breeches on that day and I fought through it. 

Before using the 2 outer sets of poles we did a few exercises between the blue and green sets of poles. At this point I was fine confidence wise with Legacy. 

Some of the exercises we did were:

- Go through the blue set of poles and then through the green set.

- Go through the blue set of poles and either go on the a inside or the outside of the set of green poles.

- Same as above but opposite way around. Going through the green set and either way around the blue set. 

These exercises were done on both reins. 

After that we started to incorporate the orange set of poles. Were we would do big circles from blue through orange and smaller ones in between of orange and green then blue and green.

It took us pretty much the whole lesson to get a nice rhythmic trot out of Legacy this day as she was very much running in her trot. My Instructor was very determined to get a nice trot out of her before the end of the lesson and to end the lesson on a nice trot aswell.

When we started to incorporate the orange poles was when Legacy started to heat up a little. I hadn't been this far down in the arena with her for a while as we'd been working in the top quarter to half in 20m circles and on a square/rectange that way I could always have a good amount of control of her.

The control when she starts to heat up is definitely a communication error rather than her needing another bit, something not fitting correctly, her not being happy etc. As when she does heat up my first Instinct is to stiffen and tense up and pull back on the reins slightly. Now I know that both of these are something I need to work on. In terms of the pulling on the reins this is also something we worked on in the lesson as the instructor told me to try intermittently slightly pull on each rein and that if she doesn't go off on me to send her into the arena fence a little by turning her head. I did manage to find some control of her by trying these out and maybe we'll get there when I stop stiffening up. 

The Funnel Exercise

During my last lesson on Legacy we used poles to switch it up a little. Although I pretty much understood what was wanted of us after a tester warm up round. It took me a while to translate it over to Legacy. 

What we did with the poles;

On a 20 circle I would either go on the inside, over or on the outside of the fan of poles. Then on the set of 2 poles I would go between the fence and poles, between the 2 poles or on a smaller circle between the fan of poles and the 2 poles. 

I did this exercise in trot on both reins and my instructor would say what she would want us to do with the next set of poles as we finished one set. For example I would go between the gate and the poles and then over the fan of poles. Sometimes she would leave it a little longer so I would have to react fast and get Legacy working quickly and effectively. We struggled with this a little in the beginning because it took a while to get Legacy into a nice rhythm, she would be running along in trot. When she's at this pace I never know to kick her on to keep her going or slow her down to steady her I'm fear she's going to think I'm asking her to canter or if she'll stall on me. I had to try get her into rhythm without showing her I'm worried about what she's going to do. 

Even when you think you've got Legacy working at a good speed you still have to be on the ball and concentrating on her at all times or she will just give up and go back to walk or even just stand there. There was a few times I lost my stirrups and took my concentration off of Legacy to sort these out during the trot and she was back to walk. 

So the stirrup situation is something I'm going to work on, through my position and possibly trying out the cheese grater stirrup grips so help with my losing stirrup problem.

At the end of the lesson we did a little canter on each rein, this is something that Legacy needs to work on a lot as she's not balanced at all, and I don't feel like she's balanced enough to get any benefit out of being cantered on the lunge. So in my sessions with her when I feel like I've got her in a good trot I will ask her for canter but only do a few strides then bring her back and continue doing this as she gains balance. Another thing she needs to learn is that when she comes back down from canter to trot is to keep working and not just die down back to walk.  

I really enjoyed doing this exercise with Legacy and it was nice to get her working over poles. This is something I would do again with her on my individual schooling sessions with her. 

The Horse That Hates No!

I'm really starting to like that beginning half of that blog title, might actually be something I might carry on with. So today's events have again confirmed something I already knew, Legacy hates it when I tell her no. If you haven't gathered from any of my previous blog posts Legacy likes to get her own way and typically will find somewhat of a way to say no I want it this way if I tell her no. 
This is something which we have worked on, on the ground (the post The magic halter) and something she has surprisingly adapted to, but once again like in my previous post ( The horse that hates the school ) she isn't liking listening to me when I'm on her back.

After my last riding session and then lesson after went so well (We're back on track) I got on her to ride with confidence and motivation to get her working which started out well until we had a little hiccup of going the same way around a jump wing as my mum and Cloudy which once stopped she wouldn't turn away. After a little fight I got her out of the way of Cloudy and any crisis was averted until I got her back on the circle working and asked her for trot. She then said no I want to canter and it all went downhill from here. 

I said no to her and she didn't like that which resulting in her taking off with me around the arena diverting jumps and jump wings while I'm still trying to slow her down. I don't think she liked that I was still trying to tell her no at this point as she decided to stop rear upright to which I ended up holding around her neck, come back down for a small buck rear upright again but this time she did a bit of a jump forward as her back feet also left the floor then she went back down and did a bit of a body shake which finally got me off resulting in her throwing me against the arena fence just missing the 50/50 chance of landing on the horse on the other side of the fence in the field next to the arena. And amazingly she didn't come back down to stand on me because I spooked her on the floor. This is all what my mum told me what happened, I have no recollection of what happened from the point of thinking I'm coming off to when I'm back standing up after I've hit the floor.

I'm definitely feeling like it's 2 steps forward and 1 step back with her at the moment. If you weren't reading back when I first started blogging, she did the exact same to throw me off the last time she did it nearly 2 years ago now. This time is doesn't result down to her being in the stable at night and having loads of conditioning food like last time. Unfortunately it's not that easy to fix this time. 
I'm really thinking about getting someone in to sort her out and give her a 2-4 weeks schooling with someone who will show her who's boss and is strong enough to deal with her when she says no.