And the people say AMEN!!!!
Miss Iris (the Oldenburger I'm riding) and I had a good ride yesterday, much better than our first. She still wants to stick her head down in between her knees after a jump, but this time I smacked her and popped her inside rein, and she decided that it really was a better idea just to duck her head a little (that I can put up with).
She's much smaller than Gracie, with a shorter neck (anything but a giraffe has a shorter neck than Gracie) and a lovely reaching trot, but her canter feels a little like an out of balance Maytag. We're working on it, lots of circles and changes of lead -- she is not happy with me at the moment (nobody else makes her work like this, as our trainer says, she's just been carrying the teenage girls and they let her poke around with her head sticking out and her hindquarters trailing) but she's going to have some self-respect or else.
She actually relaxed after going down the jumping lane, pulled up nicely without bucking or shaking her head, and I gave her many pats and nice words. I think she'll figure out that it's easier to get with the program (and that the treats will start appearing more regularly if she does.)
I saddled up Gracie and hacked her a little, but she's still off on her right foreleg. :-(