Albal tries to figure out the whole 'lunging' thing.

Last night I was going to ride, but Andrew (my husband) went out and I
was home alone, and I don't like riding when no one else is home
(especially in the dark) so I decided to lunge Allie.

Her canter is starting to come together under saddle - the other day I
was schooling her, just letting her play with being forward and
allowing canter transitions to happen rather than asking for it
specifically, as she tends to rush and fall on the forehand because
she thinks she can't do it. I pretty much just sat there lightly and
stayed out of her way and she ended up cantering a full loop of my
little pseudo-arena without even thinking about it, and she felt so
balanced and coordinated. As soon as she realized what she was doing
though, it all fell apart. Lol.

I thought I would continue that on the lunge so she could have a play
without my sack of potatoes body unbalancing her as per usual. I also
put the chambon on her (I think I have only had it on her once before
tbh) and I let her figure it out. She did really well going to the
left, wasn't fussy and marched along in the walk, lovely balanced and
rhythmic trot, and she even offered a couple of nice canter
transitions. Very nice. To the right though, she was very fussy in the
mouth (her teeth are due next week to be fair), wouldn't march along
at walk, took short, choppy strides at the trot, no tracking up and I
even had to chase her up to keep her from dropping back to a walk.
This horse holds her rhythm really well at the trot, so I wondered
what was wrong. She did work out of most if it, and then when I asked
for canter she was so balanced going that way she held it for over an
entire circle (big for her because she thinks she will fall over). It
made me scratch my head! Such sloppy yuck walk and trot, but then
lovely canter? I don't know. Maybe she was a little stiff and just
needed to work out of it.