Practice ride on Calvin - getting to normal

Calvin and I bonded a little on Sunday during my practice ride. I didn't have a lesson that day because the lesson barn was hosting a show. So I spent a good amount of time on Calvin. He is really awesome. I had a feeling he would be awesome, but he's learning and I'm learning so I was going on instinct. In the past month, he has come so far. He trips less, he's in better shape, he has this awesome walk to canter transition that's super smooth. I got him to trot to canter one way and had to struggle a bit to get it the other way, but that's not unique to him. The trainer said she was really happy with how things were progressing with him. He got tired near the end and tried to head over to the gate, but I eventually convinced him not to by pre-empting the behavior and than rewarding him. I wanted to go over a foot-high cavaletti, but no one was watching me at the time so I figured I'd play it safe. We went over some ground poles without a problem.

I'm really hoping the weather is reasonable this winter so that I can keep up these practice rides. Last year was crazy, but you never know with New England (and el nino)!