Today I had a lesson with my mentor. My horse and I did long trotting, which is trotting for a long period of time, to build muscle and stamina. My mentor then instructed me to practice on the pattern. I first practiced rating when my horses shoulder got to the barrel. I practiced this at a trot and then at a lope. Then I practiced trotting the pattern straight through. After trotting the pattern I asked my horse to lope straight through. Since he did it nicely we stopped there and ended on a good note.