First I took Rose out from her (still very muddy) field and brought her to the arena. I again started with the stick and string and did all the exercises we had been learning. I took it a bit further today though - I switched the lead rope out for the longer lunge line and tried lunging Rose over some bigger jumps.
Now that she gets that game, she knows I want her to jump over whatever obstacle happens to be in front of her. So I started with a cross pole and asked her to jump it from the trot a few times, then canter, both directions. After she had done that calmly, I raised the jump to a small vertical. Now she got more excited and started to do a little buck before the jump, in anticipation of what she was about to do. It's so funny seeing how proud she is of herself.
It's also interesting because when I was first introducing Rose to the concept of being lunged over jumps, she really didn't like it and would try to go around the jumps whenever she could. But once she realized it was a fun game, she started to love it and look forward to the times I would send her to a jump. I think it makes her feel very free. Today, she was just soaring into the air for the joy of it. Once she even tried to jump the jump when I wasn't asking her to!
She was getting a bit too frisky after the jump, so I just leaned to the side and look at her hindquarters - my signal for her to stop and turn in to face me. It worked very well and she came right back to me when I asked.
I then put her bridle on a had a little bareback ride. I don't ride her without a saddle very much because her back is very bony and not that comfortable.
We did some turning on the forehand and haunches, leg yields, and shoulder-in. We tried a bit of trot work but Rose isn't completely comfortable yet with how much I have to squeeze my legs in order to hold myself on her back when she's bouncing around at the trot. She gets very tense and brings her neck up quite high. It's almost like she doesn't really know what's happening on her back. Bareback vs. saddle must feel very different for her.
I also had a nice, short bareback ride on Blondie. I have to say, she's a lot more comfortable than Rose!