Warming Up for Rhythm, Relaxation, and Connection

A rider's eye view of the massive indoor at Blue Fox. To give perspective, note Delphi's ears: we're standing at H on the dressage arena (the cones you see Delphi's ears pointing at are B and F) and the horse in the distance is in the same indoor as us on the jumping grid. Grand, yes?

In warming up for school-work, I do as much posting trot as necessary to get Delphi relaxed, rhythmic, and connected by bending her deep to the inside around my leg and engaging her inside hind to get her into my outside rein. I insist that she stays supple by half halting on the outside rein after bending deep, even too deep to the inside and using inside leg to engage her inside hind. I do as much of this as needed to get her working in a connected yet forward cadence, before I pick up a firmer connection to begin working toward collection.