I loped again :)

First off, I loped Oscar again last night! I had just been planing an easy walk-trot ride to give me some saddle time before our lesson on Saturday. 2 minutes into our ride D comes in and starts asking me questions, giving advice and then told me it was time to start loping, so lets go.
I was scared and I told D I wasn't sure if I was ready, but he told me to just keep pushing him to go 'fast' and he would stop that 'hopping' that he does. (One of these days I will video him doing this, its like Pepe Le'pew and how he bounces.) He only does this when he thinks he needs to go slow. After the first 3 circles we got into a flow and it wasn't that bad. I do miss Lucas' canter on a good day, Oscar can't compare to that but he doesn't want me to fall off and he knows what lead he should be on.
In the midst of our ride, we trying getting him to stay more balanced going to the left he tends to drop his right shoulder and bend to the outside. I would put my inside leg on to correct and Oscar would just flip leads instead. It made for an interesting circle and we did do 3-4 changes which was interesting. I haven't had a horse that switched leads so easily since I was riding the jumpers.

We only had a short ride but rather than me worrying about loping on Saturday in my lesson I'm now looking forward to it.

Oscar also managed to destroy the front of his turnout blanket that I got him last month. We think he got hot (it went from -5 to +10 over night, and he's now back in the main barn which stays warmer) and he grabbed the front of the blanket and ripped it. I'm just glad it was a $40 blanket I bought used rather than a brand new one!