New Year's Day? Lesson! :)

Just a couple of short clips from today. The whole lesson was really a lot of hard work. We started by doing figure 8's in each half of the ring (so figure 8's on the top half, then figure 8's on the bottom half) at a trot. Which was harder than I thought, to really get the circles round and not make one small and the other big (i wanted to do a long diagonal between them instead of making them circles that happen to touch). After that, Jessica had use the whole ring to do canter figure 8s (with a few trot strides in the middle, we don't do flying changes yet!) and that was even harder because I really had to plan how I was going to make my canter turns and when to trot in the middle and ask for the other lead canter. That's our homework for the week.

Then she had us canter over some canter poles, down to the fence, come back to a (forward) trot and around over a crossrail with the idea that the canter poles would remind Kieran to pay attention to his feet (we don't keep cantering because she doesn't want us cantering into fences yet). That crossrail he doesn't really like though because it's pretty airy and bare (balanced on a couple of traffic cones, I can't wait until my jump blocks get here!) so he never puts in much effort over it. The other crossrail where we use barrels laying on the ground as "standards" he tends to actually jump (instead of trotting over and hanging his feet) because it looks more solid.

So then we had to canter around down to the barrel crossrail and all I was supposed to focus on was encouraging him forward (she stresses "allowing" and not pushing, because we can't make him think this is a fun thing to do) and just staying straight and getting out of his way when we go over.


That was one of the first times over the barrel jump. Then we had a couple of awkward tries and then we ended on this note:


Ignore Jessica's screaming, LOL.

Riding with Tracey

One of the other boarders and I both rode today. She was trying out an English saddle she'd just gotten (she's ridden Western for years) and I was just toodling around with Kieran. :)


I think my position has improved light years from what it used to be.


I didn't expect him to actually jump this but I think I managed to get properly out of his way.


Good pony!


Yes, we briefly switched horses :)


Canter departure


Hopping over the crossrail. Ignore us dorking out about it afterward, LOL.


Longer video, just riding around. There's a nice canter departure at about 2:33

Foward, Straight, don't stop!

So today we pretty much worked on keeping Kieran moving forward and in a straight line, without letting him get bored. Once he decides something is boring, he stops paying attention and we get him just stumbling over trot poles or tripping over himself or drifting around the ring. Mostly that means I have to not zone out because when I do, he does.

Anyway, we started the lesson and Kieran was ready to go. I asked him to trot, he wanted to canter, when I finally let him canter, he gave a happy "whee!" kick. I guess it was the drop in the temperature but it was like riding a different horse! LOL.

That said, even when he was frisky, I felt like I was right there with him the whole time, instead of slightly out of sync like I used to feel sometimes.

Today, Jessica had set up a set of four trot poles at E and two crossrails (one over by B, one at X). One of the crossrails was really open and inviting, the other was set up on two barrels laying on the ground so it was a bit more "solid" looking. We started with the open crossrail and she just wanted us to get a forward trot going and for me to point Kieran at the fence and allow him to go forward. She was like, "I don't care what your position over this looks like, you can follow him well enough over a fence this small that you can just grab mane and go, what we want is for him to just come straight at the fence with a steady, forward rhythm, and not to stop after the fence." So we just worked on that and then about the third or fourth time instead of just trotting over, he kind of hopped over and cantered away nicely. He got lots of praise and pats and a long walk break for that.

Then we went and did the more "solid-looking" crossrail. And after the long walk break, she had us start by cantering around the ring to get him forward again, then when we came around the turn to the fence, to come back to a trot with the idea that he'd stay forward.

Well...he didn't, really. I think that confused him, "slow down, wait, keep moving out? Why'd I slow down, then?" So we went back to just trotting and pushing him forward and that one we got him to hop over it and canter out a stride so that was really good too.

A lot of my lessons lately have been about working on me, this lesson was pretty much all about teaching Kieran something. :)

Longing over Crossrails

Started out the day with a quick warmup on the longe, then asked Kieran to trot over a cross rail. He trotted right up to it, hopped over, cantered out. I was so pleased! So we went a few times to the left, then a few more times to the right (had to go a couple extra times because he went around the crossrail instead of over). All in all he did a good job. He mostly set himself up nicely and hopped over and didn't just barrel through.

And when he cantered around on the longe, he gave me a pretty nice, rhythmic canter clocking around whereas when I've asked him to just canter on the longe in the past, he tends to want to pull away and go reeeeeeaaaally wiiiiide. But not so much tonight! I think he liked that I was asking him to do something different.

Then I hopped on bareback and we did some walking around while he cooled out and did some more turns and circles.

So, what you're really interested in are the pictures, right?

First time to the crossrail:













Annnnd cantering out


After cantering in the second time around


Going the other way





Bonus...me making like I can mount him bareback from the ground (hah!). And yes, I photoshopped my rear to save your eyeballs.



Better bonus...the videos of him going over the crossrail:

Poooooooooles

Okay, so tonight, the ring looked something like this.

Low crossrail at B (ignore the dashed line, I made a mistake), cavaletti and exceedingly low vertical (cavaletti height) at X, trot poles at E with the two I-beam shaped ones up on little blocks. Later, the middle pole was removed to make them canter poles.

So first, we trotted over everything. Post around the outside, two point down the diagonals, that sort of thing. Then I have to trot over everything a couple times with no stirrups while posting (which was actually a little easier, my ankles sucked tonight).

Then the three trot poles became two canter poles and we did some cantering over everything. Got some nice transitions up out of Kieran though he kept wanting to break into a trot at the poles by E for some reason but managed to get a good canter over them at least once or twice. Then Christina put two of the poles up on the little blocks next to each other like || and the third pole on the ground in front of them so: |||. And we cantered over that (and the crossrail on the other side). Once, Christina wanted us to try cantering up to the left from A to E around to C then turn across the diagonal at F (would have begun trotting before he had to turn at H). The idea being that we had to really go deep into the corner at K to really make the turn. But...yeah...that didn't happen though technically Mr. Kieran is capable of it. He broke into a trot and I just kept him moving. Everything else he did well, though and we ended on a good note.

Kieran likes when we end because he usually gets ear scritches from Christina before we go untack. ;) He also got some mints and a bit more turnout before it was time for the horses to come in for the night.

All in all, not an exciting ride, but a good one. :)

Tonight was fabulous

Had a working student lesson tonight at Columbia Horse Center. They had me on Shroeder, one of the intermediate horses. I'd ridden him a couple of times back during the summer and liked him, though I didn't fall immediately in love with him the way I've done a couple of other horses there that I've ridden.

Tonight, one of the first exercises Carolyn had us do was ride with "handlebars". That is, the saddlepads we were using have these velcro/nylon straps that usually fasten around the billet straps for the girth and help keep the saddle in place. She had us un-velcro them and pull them out and hold onto them along with the reins while we rode, the idea being that it would help us keep our hands still.

It was an interesting exercise, but it made steering awkward. I'm not sure if I didn't have the reins at the right length or that was just Shroeder, though. Most likely it was mostly me. ;)

We did that walking and at a posting trot several times around the ring before she had us try cantering with them. Once we'd tried it cantering, she let us go back to riding normally and we did some more cantering around the ring, both ways. Shroeder was pretty easy to get to canter, though the transition I'm fairly certain wasn't very pretty. Mostly I think that was because he wanted to do this poky trot that wasn't likely to make it easy for him to transition up. Once I got him up there, he wasn't inclined to just motor along either, he'dve dropped (and tried) back into a trot given the opportunity but I just squeezed with my legs or gave him a cluck when I felt him about to slow and he kept right on going.

It was kind of weird because Shroeder kept drifting to the inside of the ring like Cameo, though he managed not to be as annoying about it. Partly because he seemed to really just want to go on the "inside track" of the ring (I guess so he could cut corners and not have as far to go) as opposed to go to the middle of the ring and stop like Cameo kept trying. And it didn't take much more than a twitch of the outside rein and me nudging him with my inside leg a few times to convince him to go back over to the wall, so I didn't really mind.

After cantering, we worked in some jumping which...Carolyn started us just going over trotting poles posting first and making sure our horses stayed straight going through them. After that, she had us do two point over the trotting poles. Then she made a really low crossrail (preceded by trotting poles) and had us post up to it and do two point over it, again with the idea of keeping our horses straight. Progressively, she raised the crossrails until it became something they might actually jump over instead of simply trot over and that's about when she had us choose at random whether we'd go left or right when we got to the wall after the jump. With the idea still being to keep the horse straight and also prevent them from anticipating which way they'd have to turn so they'd be listening to us instead. Shroeder performed like a champ (except still wanting several times to go through a little too slow for which Carolyn got after me to get more energy out of him).

Ended definitely on a good note and I was pretty pleased. I should've asked Carolyn how my two point had looked, though, I'm pretty sure it was kinda crappy. Or at least I felt like I was more hunchy than I could've been.

Though if I was, I imagine she would've said something, so it could be all in my head. I need to get somebody to agree to come out and tape me in a lesson or two so I can see myself. Or even just a couple of times like, posting a bit, cantering, and going over a crossrail.

Doing the working student thing tomorrow, should be fun. :) Going to also ask Kristy about working in a private lesson on Tuesday and maybe she'll let me ride Shroeder again.

Oh, and in other news, I am currently on the books to ride Simone on my Monday night lesson. Huzzah! No more Cameo! (for now) And Simone seems like a sweetheart, though I guess we'll see. I haven't ridden her yet, but I've wanted to since I first saw her.

Well, I can sit a bucking school horse!

Tonight's lesson was. Exciting. Yes, that's the word.

I had Cameo, who I've ridden in the last two lessons and got along with pretty well.

First, though, she copped a bit of an attitude when I was re-situating her saddle (it had shifted too far back before I got her) and then tightening the girth. Which is kinda par for the course with her, she's a tad girthy. Then she wanted to start walking before I was fully in the saddle. Also par for the course, but annoying.

Then, the class gets going and we're warming up trotting and I'm thinking my stirrups feel weird (I can't describe it better than that, really). I think the left one (which was the inside stirrup at the time) was a little too long or something. I just felt kinda discombobulated. Then, as I was going up to post, my foot managed to slip out of said stirrup and I totally lost my balance and came off the horse.

Luckily, I managed to somehow do this so that I was basically dismounting while trotting. I'm not entirely sure how it happened. Luckily, Cameo stopped. I don't think Kristy is sure what happened either because I think she only saw me suddenly standing on the ground.

Anyway, I got back up and we continued.

There were a couple of times where, getting Cameo to trot from a walk, she'd pin her ears and feel like she was thinking about bucking, but she didn't do it. Also on one end of the end of the arena we were working on, she would keep moving to the middle of the circle and we'd have an argument about moving back over. Still working on how to straighten a horse out that does that because my initial reaction isn't really the right one. That and, according to Kristy, I'm not getting after her enough and she knew she could get away with it.

So there was that but it wasn't too bad. I chalked it up to the weather turning colder overnight (as it had) and Cameo just being grumpy.

Until she bucked once on that end of the arena as I was pushing her back over and keeping her trotting. Pretty sure I let out a "shit!". First time a horse has done that to me in a while. Other than that, we kept going and it was okay.

Then we started trying to group canter (actually only half the class at a time, but still). The first time, she thought about bucking, wouldn't canter, and came into the ring (where the other half of the class was waiting). According to Kristy, I still needed to get after her and she was "getting into my head" and I needed to not let her do that.

So we went again. Again there were a few bucks before she straightened out. But I sat them! And didn't lose my cool.

The next time around when we went the other direction was much smoother as she apparently decided to more or less do as I'd asked.

Then we did a bit of work on trotting into a low crossrail and cantering out. I had no trouble getting her to canter there (in fact, Kristy had me drop my crop as she definitely wasn't in need of me carrying it). Mostly then it was keeping her from going before it was her turn and, once, we went over one of the "high" ends of the jump. And cantered a little too far into the other class on the other end of the ring. *facepalm*

Those last bits were much more me at fault than the horse, though. ;)

Anyway, it was definitely an exciting lesson. I left feeling like a big dork, though Kristy said I didn't do that badly, especially considering how Cameo was acting.

I suppose I figure I should be able to, at this point, just magically work with the horse and it works. Which is silly because I've only been riding again as an adult since February or so.

And even after I fixed my stirrups after that almost-fall incident at the beginning, they still felt kinda weird to me. It was just a weird night, I think.

Two good rides

I had two good rides yesterday. It being a federal holiday and all, I had the day off (yay!). So, in the morning I went up to Gentle Giants and helped out a bit with bringing horses in and feeding and watering and all of those fun things. After a while, it ended up that there was me, and Christine (who still can't quite ride yet, due to healing broken arm), Alex (who I haven't mentioned in this blog yet, but she adopted Tressa from GG and boards her there), and two other volunteers who are au pairs. One is from Germany and the other is from Sweden. Anyway, Alex, the au pairs, and I ended up taking several of the horses into the large pasture (currently empty since we brought horses in to eat) and rode around, which was fun. I got to ride Tabby, whom I adore and was very good for me. But then again, she usually is.

It's funny because Tabby gets an attitude with other horses (especially if she's got food at the time) but she's an angel for most of the people she's with. Which is good, too. :) She's another one I'd totally adopt if I could have a horse. You also wouldn't guess she's 20. She certainly doesn't look or act it.

Later in the evening, I had a lesson up at Columbia Horse Center, where we were informed our class is now officially an adult intermediate class and no longer a beginner one. So yay! I got to ride Cameo, who I'd only ridden once or so a while back. We got along pretty well and Kristy said we looked good together and I looked pretty relaxed going over the tiny crossrail she'd set up for the class to go over so I'm guessing I'll be seeing Cameo again for future lessons.

She also mentioned that Oct 24, they'll be having a Halloween party and need people to work on the haunted trail ride. I'm tempted (I think I could do the whole ghost thing. Lots of baby powder, possibly a white wig, long white veil things, and a cheap white skirt/dress/something.). But mostly for the possibility of getting an extra lesson or two in exchange for working. ;)