Day 1 & 2
8 years ago
Showing posts with label jumping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jumping. Show all posts
Monday, June 25, 2012
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Flying
Kieran was seriously full of beans today. I mean, as much as he ever gets full of beans...he totally was. Even got a little happybuck when I first asked him to canter while we were warming up. Of course, it was a bit cooler today than is typical for almost-June in Georgia so there's that factor, too.
Anyway, last week (well, Tuesday, it was raining on Sunday), Jessica set up the jump blocks so that to go over them all in one go, I'd have to make a backwards "S" shape. She had us trot over all of them, then trot over the first one and ask for the canter after a stride or two out so he'd be cantering (on the correct lead) over the last two. It was seriously hard work but Kieran did pretty well with it and I was happy with how the lesson went.
That's just background to talk about today, of course. :)
Today, the ring looked something like this:
The plain lines are just poles on the ground, the other ones were the jump blocks. The blocks started as just teeny crossrails but as the lesson went on they moved up so that the ones on the long side were "oxers" with poles in each cup when they lay on their sides (like this, except just one block high) and the one at X as a vertical on the highest block setting (so 2').
The was, when I started, that I came in from the right side over the jump at X while trotting and then was supposed to ask for the canter as we got to the jump, and direct him toward whichever pole on the ground I wanted to head for so that he had to pick up the correct lead over the jump. Jessica was like, "this might actually take most of the lesson for him to 'get' but it's really about you learning to plan ahead and know what you're asking for". Would you believe he got it perfect on the first try? So we did that with the poles from both directions and moved on to doing it over the jump blocks.
He very quickly after that started smacking the teeny crossrails with his feet. He wasn't interested. He thinks crossrails are boring. So that's when they got moved up to the "oxers" and for a while the X jump was a medium vertical before Jessica made it the 2' vertical.
We were able to do it come in from either one of the jumps in the corners and around to the one at X or from the one at X over to one of the jumps in the corners. Kieran was so game for this we even went around in big circles a couple of times or I'd go over the one at X then come around and do the whole long side.
As the lesson went on and we started to get tired though, he stopped picking up the correct lead over the X jump. I'd want to go right and he'd pick up the left lead and I think I've mentioned this before....once upon a time he was so unbalanced that when he got the wrong lead, it was easy to feel. Now? I'm still cantering along up there merrily thinking about what a nice canter he's got and Jessica's on the ground going, "CAN'T YOU FEEL HE'S ON THE WRONG LEAD? (but at least he's staying balanced through the turns....)". I suspect there are longe lessons in my future. But anyway....finally after trying a bunch of times and just not getting it right, I asked Jessica to get on him so I could see what he was doing.
Man. In the past I know you could kind of see him be like, "bwah? who the heck are you putting on me? this is weird..." when someone else got on Kieran but with Jessica...he really doesn't like her on his back (and she wasn't doing anything wrong...he just didn't Approve). He went from, head down, ears out relaxed, doing whatever I asked to...head up, eye tense...and just generally saying "eff you, lady," whenever she asked him for something. Also, it was kind of hilarious how tiny she looks on him. She did, at least, manage to just get a right lead canter out of him so then we switched back and immediately he was like, "oh, this is the right person again. Cool."
So went back and this time was asking him to canter before the jump at X and then was going to continue cantering to the right for the pole in the bottom corner. Apparently he still picked up the left lead going in to the jump at X but when I was like, "Yo, dude, we're going right" over the jump, he did a change and landed on the correct lead and hopped right over the corner fence.
He totally got told how amazing he was and we ended there. :)
Anyway, last week (well, Tuesday, it was raining on Sunday), Jessica set up the jump blocks so that to go over them all in one go, I'd have to make a backwards "S" shape. She had us trot over all of them, then trot over the first one and ask for the canter after a stride or two out so he'd be cantering (on the correct lead) over the last two. It was seriously hard work but Kieran did pretty well with it and I was happy with how the lesson went.
That's just background to talk about today, of course. :)
Today, the ring looked something like this:
The was, when I started, that I came in from the right side over the jump at X while trotting and then was supposed to ask for the canter as we got to the jump, and direct him toward whichever pole on the ground I wanted to head for so that he had to pick up the correct lead over the jump. Jessica was like, "this might actually take most of the lesson for him to 'get' but it's really about you learning to plan ahead and know what you're asking for". Would you believe he got it perfect on the first try? So we did that with the poles from both directions and moved on to doing it over the jump blocks.
He very quickly after that started smacking the teeny crossrails with his feet. He wasn't interested. He thinks crossrails are boring. So that's when they got moved up to the "oxers" and for a while the X jump was a medium vertical before Jessica made it the 2' vertical.
We were able to do it come in from either one of the jumps in the corners and around to the one at X or from the one at X over to one of the jumps in the corners. Kieran was so game for this we even went around in big circles a couple of times or I'd go over the one at X then come around and do the whole long side.
As the lesson went on and we started to get tired though, he stopped picking up the correct lead over the X jump. I'd want to go right and he'd pick up the left lead and I think I've mentioned this before....once upon a time he was so unbalanced that when he got the wrong lead, it was easy to feel. Now? I'm still cantering along up there merrily thinking about what a nice canter he's got and Jessica's on the ground going, "CAN'T YOU FEEL HE'S ON THE WRONG LEAD? (but at least he's staying balanced through the turns....)". I suspect there are longe lessons in my future. But anyway....finally after trying a bunch of times and just not getting it right, I asked Jessica to get on him so I could see what he was doing.
Man. In the past I know you could kind of see him be like, "bwah? who the heck are you putting on me? this is weird..." when someone else got on Kieran but with Jessica...he really doesn't like her on his back (and she wasn't doing anything wrong...he just didn't Approve). He went from, head down, ears out relaxed, doing whatever I asked to...head up, eye tense...and just generally saying "eff you, lady," whenever she asked him for something. Also, it was kind of hilarious how tiny she looks on him. She did, at least, manage to just get a right lead canter out of him so then we switched back and immediately he was like, "oh, this is the right person again. Cool."
So went back and this time was asking him to canter before the jump at X and then was going to continue cantering to the right for the pole in the bottom corner. Apparently he still picked up the left lead going in to the jump at X but when I was like, "Yo, dude, we're going right" over the jump, he did a change and landed on the correct lead and hopped right over the corner fence.
He totally got told how amazing he was and we ended there. :)
Thursday, March 29, 2012
LOOK UP DANGIT
Gosh. I admit, we've improved by LEAPS AND BOUNDS (here's us doing something similar a year and a half ago) but gosh, all I can see is me looking down the whole time. And I swear I'm going into it thinking, "look forward at the treeline!".
Anybody got any hints for how to improve that?
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Photos!
Basically, this is a picspam. :)
This one was a mistake...we came in severely catty-corner. He's going over the block itself. This was right after the, "you can make a mistake and he can figure it out if you tell him he can" conversation. *facepalm*
I was so impressed with his form when I was first looking at this picture it took me a few minutes to realize this was the one where he knocked the pole down. I think this was right after they'd raised it and so he jumped well but not quite high enough.
Good lord, I need to LOOK UP.
This one was a mistake...we came in severely catty-corner. He's going over the block itself. This was right after the, "you can make a mistake and he can figure it out if you tell him he can" conversation. *facepalm*
I was so impressed with his form when I was first looking at this picture it took me a few minutes to realize this was the one where he knocked the pole down. I think this was right after they'd raised it and so he jumped well but not quite high enough.
Good lord, I need to LOOK UP.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
We Jumped the Barrel Again :)
Okay, to back up.
Today Jessica tells me, "I've got an exercise he's really going to like today!"
So she has us warm up by trotting circles in all the corners of the ring in both directions. I threw in doing a bit of cantering down the long sides the second time around, then back to trotting for the circles and short sides.
So we started with poles on the ground in a zig-zag pattern, like so:
/
\
/
\
The idea being that you'd come in from the left and after going over the pole, do a circle so you'd come around straight at the next pole, then another circle going the other way so you'd be going straight at the next pole, and so on.
First she had us trot a few times over them. The first trot was fine, okay but just sort of...okay. So Jessica was like, "this time, I want you to get him engaged and really thinking about what we're doing because that time he was totally tuning it out."
And she's right. I mean...I was thinking, "hey, we've done this before, no big deal," and so that's pretty much how Kieran felt about it. So we went through it again and I thought, "we're going to be engaged and paying attention and do it right" and wouldn't you know he was really using his hind end and forward and it was just....lots better. Who knew? LOL
Then she had us do it again but this time she wanted us to do it cantering. So we talked about it because obviously, Kieran doesn't do flying lead changes, so we'd have to trot over the poles themselves to do a simple change and the circles would be a lot bigger than we could do with the trotting. So the idea was that I needed to plan ahead of time how this would go so we could do it.
It...wasn't pretty.
We could do the first circle okayish, but we'd get to the second pole and we'd have to go down to a trot and then I'd be thinking "okay, change the bed, push for another canter but you've got to circle too! omg!" and it would all kind of fall apart.
Didn't help that Kieran kept picking up the left lead coming into the first pole and we were supposed to do a circle to the right. One time I didn't even feel it even did the full circle and Jessica was like, "that was totally on the wrong lead". Usually I can tell, but that one just...felt really put together. Anyway, I ended up switching which side I was coming from and we did it from the top instead and once we got through three poles with no mishap, I skipped the last one, because I didn't want to mess it up so we ended that exercise on a good note. It was really difficult! It's hard because you've got to do the "plan" thing but you can't overthink it (or at least I can't) or it just...doesn't work.
Anyway, so we went back to trotting the poles, but Jessica used my jump blocks to slowly raise them. First they were just low cavaletti, basically, then she made them all half a low crossrail. Then she raised them to very low verticals (or the tall setting for a cavaletti). Then she'd make one side be the tall setting for the jump blocks and the other side be the medium setting but only the ones in the middle. Then she made them all the tall setting, basically 2ft verticals (and added ground poles under them). Theoretically, he could still trot over them but at that point he was more likely to jump them. Here she said if he wanted to canter in or out, I could let him, just...mostly trot.
As they got higher she also said I was really going to have to work at being serious about it (like we talked about with the first exercise) and giving him a boot to push him forward and be like, "yo, they're getting bigger, you've got to give me more effort, dude).
One time she quickly stuck her coat over one to make it more "interesting" and he was like, "oh....she wants me to jump, okay!". LOL So that one got some more effort. That was one about three strides out he started cantering (not rushing, just...cantering) and gave a pretty good jump for.
Anyway, finally we ended up sticking a barrel under one of them (remember we already jumped this last week, just in a different setup) and it was the one we were coming to at the end. (so we came in the top zig zag and jumped the barrel last at the one on the bottom).
Again, about three strides out he cantered but the jump was an "oh, shit!" jump. It wasn't pretty. It threw me out of the tack. If I hadn't thought to grab mane right before I might've actually totally lost it or at least really hung off his mouth and not meant to. But still...he went over. He didn't refuse, he didn't even think about it.
Jessica said the problem was that he made a mistake. He thought he could do that canter thing, but he was really like...two and a half strides away so suddenly he was right on top of it and hence he just had to wing it.
Anyway, she gave me the option of ending there because...hey, he did what we asked, even though it wasn't pretty, he didn't even touch the jump despite the awkwardness. Or she said, we could do it again. Not the whole thing, just the last bit with the barrel.
I really had to think about it. On the one hand, it wasn't a bad spot to end on, again...he did exactly what I asked him to do. On the other, he's got a history of the first time we do something newish tends to be awkward and then the second time through he's figured it out and it tends to be better. So it really came down to me thinking I might mess it up and then if we did it "wrong" that would be a bad note to leave it at.
Well, I just decided we wouldn't do it wrong. That I'd be with him and we'd go again. Heck, I even asked him, "are you ready?" and I could feel him kind of push forward a bit like he does when he's excited about something. Might be in my head but I took that as a yes. So we trotted another circle like we were coming out of hopping over the previous pole and I thought, "look ahead, keep your leg on, stay with him!" and we cantered the last few strides up to it and he jumped over the dang thing like he was at a show and about to win a blue ribbon. No lie, I almost cried afterward because it was pretty much perfect.
Jessica said he looked good, knees tucked up to his chin, and I looked good right there with him and if we jumped like that every time, we'd be winning in shows, no question.
I only wish there was a picture, but hey, I know how it felt. Jessica also said he might be ready then, considering today, to start cantering jumps more instead of trotting them and that we'll likely find it easier.
I'm pretty excited. :)
Today Jessica tells me, "I've got an exercise he's really going to like today!"
So she has us warm up by trotting circles in all the corners of the ring in both directions. I threw in doing a bit of cantering down the long sides the second time around, then back to trotting for the circles and short sides.
So we started with poles on the ground in a zig-zag pattern, like so:
/
\
/
\
The idea being that you'd come in from the left and after going over the pole, do a circle so you'd come around straight at the next pole, then another circle going the other way so you'd be going straight at the next pole, and so on.
First she had us trot a few times over them. The first trot was fine, okay but just sort of...okay. So Jessica was like, "this time, I want you to get him engaged and really thinking about what we're doing because that time he was totally tuning it out."
And she's right. I mean...I was thinking, "hey, we've done this before, no big deal," and so that's pretty much how Kieran felt about it. So we went through it again and I thought, "we're going to be engaged and paying attention and do it right" and wouldn't you know he was really using his hind end and forward and it was just....lots better. Who knew? LOL
Then she had us do it again but this time she wanted us to do it cantering. So we talked about it because obviously, Kieran doesn't do flying lead changes, so we'd have to trot over the poles themselves to do a simple change and the circles would be a lot bigger than we could do with the trotting. So the idea was that I needed to plan ahead of time how this would go so we could do it.
It...wasn't pretty.
We could do the first circle okayish, but we'd get to the second pole and we'd have to go down to a trot and then I'd be thinking "okay, change the bed, push for another canter but you've got to circle too! omg!" and it would all kind of fall apart.
Didn't help that Kieran kept picking up the left lead coming into the first pole and we were supposed to do a circle to the right. One time I didn't even feel it even did the full circle and Jessica was like, "that was totally on the wrong lead". Usually I can tell, but that one just...felt really put together. Anyway, I ended up switching which side I was coming from and we did it from the top instead and once we got through three poles with no mishap, I skipped the last one, because I didn't want to mess it up so we ended that exercise on a good note. It was really difficult! It's hard because you've got to do the "plan" thing but you can't overthink it (or at least I can't) or it just...doesn't work.
Anyway, so we went back to trotting the poles, but Jessica used my jump blocks to slowly raise them. First they were just low cavaletti, basically, then she made them all half a low crossrail. Then she raised them to very low verticals (or the tall setting for a cavaletti). Then she'd make one side be the tall setting for the jump blocks and the other side be the medium setting but only the ones in the middle. Then she made them all the tall setting, basically 2ft verticals (and added ground poles under them). Theoretically, he could still trot over them but at that point he was more likely to jump them. Here she said if he wanted to canter in or out, I could let him, just...mostly trot.
As they got higher she also said I was really going to have to work at being serious about it (like we talked about with the first exercise) and giving him a boot to push him forward and be like, "yo, they're getting bigger, you've got to give me more effort, dude).
One time she quickly stuck her coat over one to make it more "interesting" and he was like, "oh....she wants me to jump, okay!". LOL So that one got some more effort. That was one about three strides out he started cantering (not rushing, just...cantering) and gave a pretty good jump for.
Anyway, finally we ended up sticking a barrel under one of them (remember we already jumped this last week, just in a different setup) and it was the one we were coming to at the end. (so we came in the top zig zag and jumped the barrel last at the one on the bottom).
Again, about three strides out he cantered but the jump was an "oh, shit!" jump. It wasn't pretty. It threw me out of the tack. If I hadn't thought to grab mane right before I might've actually totally lost it or at least really hung off his mouth and not meant to. But still...he went over. He didn't refuse, he didn't even think about it.
Jessica said the problem was that he made a mistake. He thought he could do that canter thing, but he was really like...two and a half strides away so suddenly he was right on top of it and hence he just had to wing it.
Anyway, she gave me the option of ending there because...hey, he did what we asked, even though it wasn't pretty, he didn't even touch the jump despite the awkwardness. Or she said, we could do it again. Not the whole thing, just the last bit with the barrel.
I really had to think about it. On the one hand, it wasn't a bad spot to end on, again...he did exactly what I asked him to do. On the other, he's got a history of the first time we do something newish tends to be awkward and then the second time through he's figured it out and it tends to be better. So it really came down to me thinking I might mess it up and then if we did it "wrong" that would be a bad note to leave it at.
Well, I just decided we wouldn't do it wrong. That I'd be with him and we'd go again. Heck, I even asked him, "are you ready?" and I could feel him kind of push forward a bit like he does when he's excited about something. Might be in my head but I took that as a yes. So we trotted another circle like we were coming out of hopping over the previous pole and I thought, "look ahead, keep your leg on, stay with him!" and we cantered the last few strides up to it and he jumped over the dang thing like he was at a show and about to win a blue ribbon. No lie, I almost cried afterward because it was pretty much perfect.
Jessica said he looked good, knees tucked up to his chin, and I looked good right there with him and if we jumped like that every time, we'd be winning in shows, no question.
I only wish there was a picture, but hey, I know how it felt. Jessica also said he might be ready then, considering today, to start cantering jumps more instead of trotting them and that we'll likely find it easier.
I'm pretty excited. :)
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Getting some Air
I don't have anything I can make a free-jumping chute with here and the arena is too big (and grassy) to just free lunge him around like I used to do at my old barn (they had a smaller indoor ring), he'd just trot off to the other end and start grazing probably, LOL. Hence the lunge line in the picture.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
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:
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:
Saturday, December 31, 2011
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
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
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Kieran was AMAZING tonight
And I wish I'd gotten video of it. I set the camera up but must have accidentally hit the record button again (thus, turning OFF recording) when I set it down on the post. So no video, alas!
Anyway, I set up a few trot poles in one corner so he had to trot over them around a turn, then one cavaletti with ground lines on each side (so we could jump it from either direction) on the quarterline, and another one set up the same way more or less on the M->K diagonal.
We warmed up and first just did a lot of trotting around, not doing endless riding on the rail but changing up directions and weaving around the cavaletti and going over the trot poles. I was pleasantly surprised to see how forward he was today (especially considering how extra-relaxed he was beforehand! That usually means he's going to be kind of lazy).
Then we started trotting over the cavaletti from either direction and instead of just trotting down the line and stopping, we'd trot over one, go down, turn and go up the diagonal for the other one (or go down the diagonal, turn, and go up the quarterline). He picked that up pretty quickly so then we threw in cantering.
First, I just asked him to canter over one, then canter around the ring on the rail. He started out kind of rushy, but once he got into the groove, it was better. Then we were able to canter down the quarterline and make the turn for the diagonal and go over both cavaletti (like a very tiny jump course, LOL) and vice versa. So we were able to do those from either direction a few times and he was doing really well at actually hopping over instead of just doing a big canter stride over them so once we did that, I called it quits and cooled him out.
I'm so very pleased with him today, you've got no idea.
I do really need to find an instructor down here to come out and teach us, though. I don't want to add anything too much more complicated without some help and I know I'm still getting in his way more than I should (I really get the sense of, "mom, if you'd just get out of the way...I've GOT this, okay?" from him). So if you're reading this and now any good instructors in the Augusta area who'll come out to where you are to teach, let me know who to contact! :)
Also got to meet one of the other boarders today as they pulled in as I was getting done riding. Unfortunately, she'd had to take her horse over to UGA to get surgery done on his eyes (something about cancerous cells?) so...not really a happy occasion but it was still nice to meet more people at the barn since I'm usually out there alone.
Oh! And there will likely be trail riding this weekend! So. Excited! :)
Anyway, I set up a few trot poles in one corner so he had to trot over them around a turn, then one cavaletti with ground lines on each side (so we could jump it from either direction) on the quarterline, and another one set up the same way more or less on the M->K diagonal.
We warmed up and first just did a lot of trotting around, not doing endless riding on the rail but changing up directions and weaving around the cavaletti and going over the trot poles. I was pleasantly surprised to see how forward he was today (especially considering how extra-relaxed he was beforehand! That usually means he's going to be kind of lazy).
Then we started trotting over the cavaletti from either direction and instead of just trotting down the line and stopping, we'd trot over one, go down, turn and go up the diagonal for the other one (or go down the diagonal, turn, and go up the quarterline). He picked that up pretty quickly so then we threw in cantering.
First, I just asked him to canter over one, then canter around the ring on the rail. He started out kind of rushy, but once he got into the groove, it was better. Then we were able to canter down the quarterline and make the turn for the diagonal and go over both cavaletti (like a very tiny jump course, LOL) and vice versa. So we were able to do those from either direction a few times and he was doing really well at actually hopping over instead of just doing a big canter stride over them so once we did that, I called it quits and cooled him out.
I'm so very pleased with him today, you've got no idea.
I do really need to find an instructor down here to come out and teach us, though. I don't want to add anything too much more complicated without some help and I know I'm still getting in his way more than I should (I really get the sense of, "mom, if you'd just get out of the way...I've GOT this, okay?" from him). So if you're reading this and now any good instructors in the Augusta area who'll come out to where you are to teach, let me know who to contact! :)
Also got to meet one of the other boarders today as they pulled in as I was getting done riding. Unfortunately, she'd had to take her horse over to UGA to get surgery done on his eyes (something about cancerous cells?) so...not really a happy occasion but it was still nice to meet more people at the barn since I'm usually out there alone.
Oh! And there will likely be trail riding this weekend! So. Excited! :)
Monday, June 27, 2011
Just a nice evening ride
Went out to ride tonight. Getting there later in the day is definitely a better idea, even if I'm leaving as it gets dark. It's such a better temperature! And Kieran seemed to deal with it better too. Though he was covered in dirt and sweat (so mud, basically) when I went to get him from his field today:
[i]That[/i] was fun to clean up (I cheated and gave him a foamy bath).
Here's some screencaps from the ride...actual videos are below:
HOW CUTE IS HE? :)
My elbows, they suck.
Muscles!
Didn't do too many of these, just put them in to give him something interesting to do. It's two ground poles leading in to the cavaletti, spaced about twelve of my (size 9) feet apart.
Videos aren't terribly exciting because I didn't have anyone there to help me out so I just set the camera on a post and let it record while I rode.
After we warmed up. This part of the ride I did in spurs (don't usually use them), to see if how he went with them. Ended up taking them off because I was worried too much about jabbing him in the sides.
Asked him for a simple change. Haven't done too much of this with him.
Then the cavaletti. First time through we trotted, second time through we cantered.
After we were done, the BO was out there with her daughter (the girl who thinks Kieran is amazing. She also thinks he's a Gypsy Vanner and I haven't had the heart to correct her) and a friend. She asked if Kieran could give the daughter a pony ride...which he did, about fifty feet. :) Girl was like, "I rode a Gypsy Vanner!" *sigh* ;)
Oh yeah, and here's the sunset:
[i]That[/i] was fun to clean up (I cheated and gave him a foamy bath).
Here's some screencaps from the ride...actual videos are below:
HOW CUTE IS HE? :)
My elbows, they suck.
Muscles!
Didn't do too many of these, just put them in to give him something interesting to do. It's two ground poles leading in to the cavaletti, spaced about twelve of my (size 9) feet apart.
Videos aren't terribly exciting because I didn't have anyone there to help me out so I just set the camera on a post and let it record while I rode.
After we warmed up. This part of the ride I did in spurs (don't usually use them), to see if how he went with them. Ended up taking them off because I was worried too much about jabbing him in the sides.
Asked him for a simple change. Haven't done too much of this with him.
Then the cavaletti. First time through we trotted, second time through we cantered.
After we were done, the BO was out there with her daughter (the girl who thinks Kieran is amazing. She also thinks he's a Gypsy Vanner and I haven't had the heart to correct her) and a friend. She asked if Kieran could give the daughter a pony ride...which he did, about fifty feet. :) Girl was like, "I rode a Gypsy Vanner!" *sigh* ;)
Oh yeah, and here's the sunset:
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Awesome lesson!!
Tonight Christina said, "it's only for a half hour, but I'm going to make it FEEL like an hour!"
And then she told me to drop my stirrups and trot around the ring. Then back to a walk. Now do a walk to canter transition and canter twice around the ring. Now do it the other direction.
Only after all of that did she set up a teeny crossrail with a placing pole. I got the choice of going over it without stirrups or without reins. I chose reins, hah. I don't think my stirrupless two point is nearly up to par.
Anyway, the first time around, we went over it with reins (just in case the spacing was wrong), the next time around, as we got to the placing pole, she had me drop my reins. Then after, pick them up, go around again, go over without reins and remember to put your arms out to the sides.
Then we did it from the other direction.
Then she made it a tiny vertical.
Kieran was really good and the last time through, even though you could tell he was starting to get tired from all the cantering, he went over the jump really well nor did he try to stop right after like he sometimes wants to. One time through, I went around the whole ring with no reins and we more or less stayed on the rail, hah.
My biggest problem tonight was that my feet kept sliding "home" into the stirrups. I don't know why as this isn't a usual problem for me. We think it's just that all the time off from riding and I'm still gaining back what fitness I had and thus tensing my legs upward at the canter again. It's always something. :)
Oh yeah, and he gave me a bunch of nice walk to canter transitions. Now if we can just learn canter to walk....
And then she told me to drop my stirrups and trot around the ring. Then back to a walk. Now do a walk to canter transition and canter twice around the ring. Now do it the other direction.
Only after all of that did she set up a teeny crossrail with a placing pole. I got the choice of going over it without stirrups or without reins. I chose reins, hah. I don't think my stirrupless two point is nearly up to par.
Anyway, the first time around, we went over it with reins (just in case the spacing was wrong), the next time around, as we got to the placing pole, she had me drop my reins. Then after, pick them up, go around again, go over without reins and remember to put your arms out to the sides.
Then we did it from the other direction.
Then she made it a tiny vertical.
Kieran was really good and the last time through, even though you could tell he was starting to get tired from all the cantering, he went over the jump really well nor did he try to stop right after like he sometimes wants to. One time through, I went around the whole ring with no reins and we more or less stayed on the rail, hah.
My biggest problem tonight was that my feet kept sliding "home" into the stirrups. I don't know why as this isn't a usual problem for me. We think it's just that all the time off from riding and I'm still gaining back what fitness I had and thus tensing my legs upward at the canter again. It's always something. :)
Oh yeah, and he gave me a bunch of nice walk to canter transitions. Now if we can just learn canter to walk....
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Whee!
Once again, all sorts of stuff to talk about, it's been a while. I'll just focus on the last couple of weeks thought.
Monday before last, I rode at Columbia on Handsome. Let's just say it wasn't my best lesson ever though Kristy told me a lot of it looked to be me being too tense and getting frustrated with myself because things weren't going perfectly and really, I looked fine if I'd just relax. Near the end, I started to get to that point, but still, I felt like I could have done better.
This past Monday, I rode him again and our ride was about a million times better. One of Handsome's little things he does to entertain himself in lessons is to vary the speed he's moving at. Not change gaits, just...slow trot faster trot slow trot faster trot, and so on. That didn't happen so much, or maybe I was just more aware of it and able to keep him at a steadier pace. We also did a little jumping and that was also much easier, though I still only got him to canter out once. I still haven't really gotten "keeping leg on" while being up in two-point. Too much to think about all at once!
The lesson ended on a notsogreat note, though, when one of the other riders fell going over the jump. She probably would have been fine if she'd hit dirt but she hit the standard instead and it knocked the wind out of her and, I think, she sprained her ankle. Will probably find out what all exactly happened tomorrow when I go in for the Monday lesson.
Also, Tuesday before last I went up to Gentle Giants and rode Treadway who I believe I've blogged about before. Also not one of my better rides on him. I was riding in the dressage saddle they have (in anticipation of a dressage lesson I took today) but the stirrups were too long (on the shortest hole and wrapped twice and still just a bit too long so I kept pushing my feet forward in them) and the way the saddle is, it encourages one to sit up more on their crotch. Which, I guess, is better for dressage, but on Treadway?
See, he used to be a fairly highish level eventer and his owner taught him to go faster or slower based off of her seat. So if you sit back on your seatbones, he'll go at a reasonable pace. But if you tilt your pelvis forward? He starts speeding up. You don't even have to have leg on him. So basically, Christine said it looked like he was running away with me (at the trot), though he did break into a canter once (the first time ever with me). It ended up being a fairly frustrating experience.
This past Wednesday night, I went back up to GG to ride but took Big Red out for a spin instead. It was kind of nice to ride a horse you have to use leg on to get to move. :)
Thursday (New Year's Day), was a big New Year's auction up in Thurmont that Christine wanted to go to in hopes of finding a draft or two who needed saving. It turned out there were no drafts at the auction (out of ~100 horses), but there were a few draft crosses (or, as near as we could tell, they looked it). There were three horses we ended up figuring we'd try and bid on. 1) The most adorable drafty large pony (small horse, actually) thing I've ever seen. 2) Something that looked liked a cross between a Clydesdale and a Standardbred. 3) A possible Fjord cross.
We ended up with the first guy and the person we were bidding against is a known horse dealer who likely would've been hauling the poor pony up to New Holland on Monday. Anyway, he's fat and fuzzy and possibly blind in one eye and probably about twenty but he's the most willing little guy ever and has a funny gray patch over the top of his neck.
Christine ended up not going for the Clyde cross because, if I recall right, she was worried it wasn't actually sound. The Fjord ended up getting bidded to out of our price range and went to what looked like a good home, so that's good. :) One of the last horses of the night, however, was this poor Thoroughbred mare that nobody seemed interested in and Christine took pity on her. The mare's only 12 and her racing name was Our Sister Gina (OSG). She goes w/t/c, auto changes, and jumps! Somebody put the training into her so it's kind of amazing she ended up where she did.
The same goes for the Big Grey Pony (BGP). He goes w/t/c, is completely unflappable (so far), and if you point him over a jump, he'll do his darndest for you. It wouldn't suprise me if he was somebody's hunter pony or something once upon a time. Another one we can't figure out how he ended up at auction because he's just that awesome.
So anyway, both new horses got ridden yesterday. Laura the instructor rode OSG and was very impressed with her. Nick the farrier already is in love with her and it's likely that they'll be adopting her.
I got to ride the BGP and I am in love with him! If you'd asked me what kind of horse I wanted even a week ago I never would have described this one (save that he's grey) but he's just so cool.
And then today. Today was the dressage lesson. I'd won it back early in December at a silent auction GG held during their wine tasting fundraiser. The lesson was donated by Hilary Moore. And she was gracious enough to come out to GG to give it instead of making us haul Treadway out to where she is. I think that's kind of awesome, personally. :)
Anyway, I've talked before about how riding Treadway is complicated, even though he's a great guy. So we explained about his history to Hilary and I explained what I was looking to get out of the lesson (that I've been riding a while but at a place that does a lot of hunter/jumper stuff so dressage isn't really emphasized but it's something I've been interested in and want to learn more about). She started me out with Treadway just getting him to walk relaxed (because generally, once he gets going, he wants to get moving and then I have to hold him in with my hands....or so I thought) and then to walk->halt transitions and back up to a walk again. She had me do this by just keeping a light contact with the rein and instead squeezing with my seat and upper thigh (but keeping my calf off!) and eventually? He stopped! Once he held still, I let him walk again and we repeated till he would stop reliably. He learned that I had learned his language, more or less.
Then we did it in the other direction. Once that was going well, she had me move him up to the trot and then we worked on trot to walk transitions. Then, once he was reliably listening to me, she had me rate my posting so if I sped up posting, he'd speed up trotting, if I slowed my posting, he'd slow his trot. It was the first time I ever felt a horse do that (it may have happened in the past, but I wasn't looking for it so I can't point to it as an experience). Finally, after we both seemed relaxed and in control, she had me take him up to a canter and then do canter->trot transitions. This was more difficult but not as bad as I'll admit I anticipated. Once we'd done all of this both directions, she went out of the middle of the ring and hand me go from walk to trot to canter in both directions on my own initiative. That is, she wasn't telling me when to do it, I had to decide to do it myself. The idea being how you know you can go to a lesson and you think you get it (this goes for just about anything) but then you get home or try it later and it doesn't work how you remember? This was was my chance to try it "on my own" and then ask questions about what worked or didn't.
It wasn't as successful as it was when she was in the middle of the ring, but we weren't terrible either. It's just a lot of work to have to do all the remembering of what you're supposed to do at any given time! :) Plus, we were both getting tired by that point so that made it more difficult too to get things done properly. One thing I noticed is it became harder to use my leg and I started relying more on my hands which didn't help things. Still and all, we ended up on a pretty "up" note and I'm pleased.
Oh, most of the time she also had us going in a large circle around her instead of up and down the long straight sides of the arena. This partly helped rate his speed and also required me to work at getting him to bed, so I also had to remember to use my inside leg to push him "out" while using my inside rein to bring his head in just a bit. Also probably the first time I've really used my leg to try to move him somewhere side ways (so to speak) and it didn't cause him to speed up.
Anyway, it was a really good lesson and I'm glad I took it. Though it does look like someone is thinking about adopting Treadway in the relatively near future so I don't know how often I'll be riding him, it's all stuff I can use with other horses, I think. I mean, my big reason for wanting to learn more about dressage is to learn to ride more quietly and I definitely manage to accomplish that with Treadway today. :)
Lastly, I ended up at the end of the day getting the BGP out of the field and bringing him in to get groomed. He can't get really clean until it's warm enough to bathe (and I'm disgusted somebody ran him through the auction ring without cleaning him up first) but I was able to get some dirt off him and clean out his feet and make his tail not-tangly. I really adore this guy and am thinking I might want him for myself.
Though Christina the instructor also mentioned that they (or she at least?) was hoping one of her students (a little girl who's been taking lessons on the lesson pony there) would want to adopt her (or rather, her parents). I can't get in the way of a little girl and her first pony but I can keep my fingers crossed that they can't end up getting him, right? :)
And after all of that? Have a picture of the BGP's adorable face!
Monday before last, I rode at Columbia on Handsome. Let's just say it wasn't my best lesson ever though Kristy told me a lot of it looked to be me being too tense and getting frustrated with myself because things weren't going perfectly and really, I looked fine if I'd just relax. Near the end, I started to get to that point, but still, I felt like I could have done better.
This past Monday, I rode him again and our ride was about a million times better. One of Handsome's little things he does to entertain himself in lessons is to vary the speed he's moving at. Not change gaits, just...slow trot faster trot slow trot faster trot, and so on. That didn't happen so much, or maybe I was just more aware of it and able to keep him at a steadier pace. We also did a little jumping and that was also much easier, though I still only got him to canter out once. I still haven't really gotten "keeping leg on" while being up in two-point. Too much to think about all at once!
The lesson ended on a notsogreat note, though, when one of the other riders fell going over the jump. She probably would have been fine if she'd hit dirt but she hit the standard instead and it knocked the wind out of her and, I think, she sprained her ankle. Will probably find out what all exactly happened tomorrow when I go in for the Monday lesson.
Also, Tuesday before last I went up to Gentle Giants and rode Treadway who I believe I've blogged about before. Also not one of my better rides on him. I was riding in the dressage saddle they have (in anticipation of a dressage lesson I took today) but the stirrups were too long (on the shortest hole and wrapped twice and still just a bit too long so I kept pushing my feet forward in them) and the way the saddle is, it encourages one to sit up more on their crotch. Which, I guess, is better for dressage, but on Treadway?
See, he used to be a fairly highish level eventer and his owner taught him to go faster or slower based off of her seat. So if you sit back on your seatbones, he'll go at a reasonable pace. But if you tilt your pelvis forward? He starts speeding up. You don't even have to have leg on him. So basically, Christine said it looked like he was running away with me (at the trot), though he did break into a canter once (the first time ever with me). It ended up being a fairly frustrating experience.
This past Wednesday night, I went back up to GG to ride but took Big Red out for a spin instead. It was kind of nice to ride a horse you have to use leg on to get to move. :)
Thursday (New Year's Day), was a big New Year's auction up in Thurmont that Christine wanted to go to in hopes of finding a draft or two who needed saving. It turned out there were no drafts at the auction (out of ~100 horses), but there were a few draft crosses (or, as near as we could tell, they looked it). There were three horses we ended up figuring we'd try and bid on. 1) The most adorable drafty large pony (small horse, actually) thing I've ever seen. 2) Something that looked liked a cross between a Clydesdale and a Standardbred. 3) A possible Fjord cross.
We ended up with the first guy and the person we were bidding against is a known horse dealer who likely would've been hauling the poor pony up to New Holland on Monday. Anyway, he's fat and fuzzy and possibly blind in one eye and probably about twenty but he's the most willing little guy ever and has a funny gray patch over the top of his neck.
Christine ended up not going for the Clyde cross because, if I recall right, she was worried it wasn't actually sound. The Fjord ended up getting bidded to out of our price range and went to what looked like a good home, so that's good. :) One of the last horses of the night, however, was this poor Thoroughbred mare that nobody seemed interested in and Christine took pity on her. The mare's only 12 and her racing name was Our Sister Gina (OSG). She goes w/t/c, auto changes, and jumps! Somebody put the training into her so it's kind of amazing she ended up where she did.
The same goes for the Big Grey Pony (BGP). He goes w/t/c, is completely unflappable (so far), and if you point him over a jump, he'll do his darndest for you. It wouldn't suprise me if he was somebody's hunter pony or something once upon a time. Another one we can't figure out how he ended up at auction because he's just that awesome.
So anyway, both new horses got ridden yesterday. Laura the instructor rode OSG and was very impressed with her. Nick the farrier already is in love with her and it's likely that they'll be adopting her.
I got to ride the BGP and I am in love with him! If you'd asked me what kind of horse I wanted even a week ago I never would have described this one (save that he's grey) but he's just so cool.
And then today. Today was the dressage lesson. I'd won it back early in December at a silent auction GG held during their wine tasting fundraiser. The lesson was donated by Hilary Moore. And she was gracious enough to come out to GG to give it instead of making us haul Treadway out to where she is. I think that's kind of awesome, personally. :)
Anyway, I've talked before about how riding Treadway is complicated, even though he's a great guy. So we explained about his history to Hilary and I explained what I was looking to get out of the lesson (that I've been riding a while but at a place that does a lot of hunter/jumper stuff so dressage isn't really emphasized but it's something I've been interested in and want to learn more about). She started me out with Treadway just getting him to walk relaxed (because generally, once he gets going, he wants to get moving and then I have to hold him in with my hands....or so I thought) and then to walk->halt transitions and back up to a walk again. She had me do this by just keeping a light contact with the rein and instead squeezing with my seat and upper thigh (but keeping my calf off!) and eventually? He stopped! Once he held still, I let him walk again and we repeated till he would stop reliably. He learned that I had learned his language, more or less.
Then we did it in the other direction. Once that was going well, she had me move him up to the trot and then we worked on trot to walk transitions. Then, once he was reliably listening to me, she had me rate my posting so if I sped up posting, he'd speed up trotting, if I slowed my posting, he'd slow his trot. It was the first time I ever felt a horse do that (it may have happened in the past, but I wasn't looking for it so I can't point to it as an experience). Finally, after we both seemed relaxed and in control, she had me take him up to a canter and then do canter->trot transitions. This was more difficult but not as bad as I'll admit I anticipated. Once we'd done all of this both directions, she went out of the middle of the ring and hand me go from walk to trot to canter in both directions on my own initiative. That is, she wasn't telling me when to do it, I had to decide to do it myself. The idea being how you know you can go to a lesson and you think you get it (this goes for just about anything) but then you get home or try it later and it doesn't work how you remember? This was was my chance to try it "on my own" and then ask questions about what worked or didn't.
It wasn't as successful as it was when she was in the middle of the ring, but we weren't terrible either. It's just a lot of work to have to do all the remembering of what you're supposed to do at any given time! :) Plus, we were both getting tired by that point so that made it more difficult too to get things done properly. One thing I noticed is it became harder to use my leg and I started relying more on my hands which didn't help things. Still and all, we ended up on a pretty "up" note and I'm pleased.
Oh, most of the time she also had us going in a large circle around her instead of up and down the long straight sides of the arena. This partly helped rate his speed and also required me to work at getting him to bed, so I also had to remember to use my inside leg to push him "out" while using my inside rein to bring his head in just a bit. Also probably the first time I've really used my leg to try to move him somewhere side ways (so to speak) and it didn't cause him to speed up.
Anyway, it was a really good lesson and I'm glad I took it. Though it does look like someone is thinking about adopting Treadway in the relatively near future so I don't know how often I'll be riding him, it's all stuff I can use with other horses, I think. I mean, my big reason for wanting to learn more about dressage is to learn to ride more quietly and I definitely manage to accomplish that with Treadway today. :)
Lastly, I ended up at the end of the day getting the BGP out of the field and bringing him in to get groomed. He can't get really clean until it's warm enough to bathe (and I'm disgusted somebody ran him through the auction ring without cleaning him up first) but I was able to get some dirt off him and clean out his feet and make his tail not-tangly. I really adore this guy and am thinking I might want him for myself.
Though Christina the instructor also mentioned that they (or she at least?) was hoping one of her students (a little girl who's been taking lessons on the lesson pony there) would want to adopt her (or rather, her parents). I can't get in the way of a little girl and her first pony but I can keep my fingers crossed that they can't end up getting him, right? :)
And after all of that? Have a picture of the BGP's adorable face!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Three Rides....One day!
So this morning, I had my private lesson with Kristy at CHC. She put me on Kinko and I told her I wanted to work on my two-point (or half seat or jumping position or what the heck ever you want to call it). It's always kinda been hit or miss with me. I never really got very far in learning to jump as a kid and then I stopped riding for about ten years.
Then, I started taking lessons this year in February. I was in one class for a while before I switched into Kristy's class. That other class had only just really started going over two-point when I got into Kristy's where they'd already been doing it for a while. So I never really got the basics down, I guess, though I know what I was supposed to look like and, according to Kristy, have sort of been forcing myself into that position ever since. "Muscling" it. And basically, not doing it properly.
So last night, when I was in my lesson and we were working on jumping and I wasn't getting it, it became pretty obvious I needed to work on that. Some days it's fine, but a lot? Not so much.
First, today, she had me just stand up (not straight but...I guess like if I went up to post and just never sat back down) while trotting. Which I couldn't get. At all. My legs were too straight and I couldn't find the right place to balance and just...stand. About then we figured my stirrups were likely a little too long to allow me to clear the saddle and still keep my knees bent, so we shortened them a bit. Back to the exercise, first just at the halt so I could find the right balance point. Then walking, so I could do it while the horse was moving. Only once I got that did I go back to trying it at the trot. Wasn't perfect, but it was better and after I seemed to be getting it, we went back to two point.
There, Kristy had me do it at a halt again so she could correct my position. She was telling me to put my hips back and I was, apparently, trying to push my knees back. Which, obviously, doesn't quite work. She also decided I could stand to bring my stirrups up a hole more.
Once I found the right position again and could feel it (knee relaxes, heel drops, and I remember to look up and keep my chest open, etc), she had me do it again at the walk. Once that was done, she had me do it trotting. Then over trot poles. Then over a crossrail.
Luckily, Kinko's a really good guy who, once I got him trotting, would just sort of keep motoring around till I asked him to do something different so I could really focus on what I was doing with me and less on what he was doing. (Okay, it wasn't luck, that was intentional on Kristy's part).
So anyway, I spent most of the 45 minute lesson either standing in the stirrups or in two-point. By the end of it, when she was telling me "just one more time!" all I could think was "I don't think I can make it one more"....but I did! And anyway, the lesson definitely helped. I just have to keep it up.
Kristy suggested I talk to the manager about working in some practice rides on my own. I still feel kinda weird thinking about riding there without an instructor. I could of course, make sure to work on this stuff at Gentle Giants though some of the horses there are less inclined to just motor around for me than the school horses at CHC ;). And there was an exercise she told me about a while back to work on it too (though obviously, it works better on a horse) is to stand on the edge of a step or something, drop my heels (so I'm balanced on the balls of my feet) and make like I'm going into two point. I can do that too.
So that was the first ride.
After that, I drove up to Gentle Giants. Nobody was there yet, so I killed time by cleaning stalls and taking pictures of horses out in the fields. When Christina (one of the instructors) got there was when it was time to ride. Christina's riding a horse for somebody else there right now (he's still kind of green, I think. Or just skittish. Or both.) and wanted somebody else there while she rode in the arena (he does better if he's not alone). And I, of course, wanted to ride. :)
I had figured on just riding Carley, but as I thought about it I considered riding Treadway again. Bareback, as I figured it would be easier to keep my leg off him and if he got too fast? I could more easily bail. Hah.
So that's what I did and this ride was sooooo much better than the other one. He actually walked almost sedately around the ring for me. And of course, when he trotted, he had a tendancy to get fast (mostly on the long sides of the arena) so instead of hauling on his face, I would circle him, or do zig zag serpentine=y things. He'd slow down, and we'd go straight again.
I think a big part that helped on my end was that I was more relaxed and couldn't brace with my legs on the nonexistent stirrups. :) I also didn't just keep a tight rein on him, but just had light contact on his mouth most of the time and kept reminding myself to actually do the "squeeze release" thing.
I will say he steers off of my seat very well (I barely used rein to ask him to turn) and his trot is wonderfully smooth, even when he's going fast, I never really felt like I was bouncing all over his back.
So yay. :) Now I get why people there say he's a fun ride.
The third ride was Carley, but not for very long as both Christina and I were pretty tired by that time (she'd gone riding this morning too elsewhere). Not much to say on that one, neither Carley or Big Red (who Christina was riding) were overly inclined to do anything that resembled work and neither of them wanted to pass the other. Hah. Still, not a bad ride.
Of course, I did fall off at the beginning of it.
I rode Carley bareback too, but unlike the other day when she stood pretty damn still for me to mount (from a block), today when she felt my hands tense on her back in order to get on, she would try to sidestep. Once, I got partway on (from just a little too far away), she started walking, and I tried to get the rest of the way up. I basically ended up losing it and coming off the other side *facepalm*. Christina said she'd thought I was going to make it up just before I came off. I hit my hip (and a fall from 17hands or so isn't overly fun) but not badly or anything. So I tried again and got on and all was well. I told Christina that was technically my first fall since I'd started riding again (the one where I came off Cameo the other week and landed on my feet totally doesn't count). She was surprised, saying that would be like her first fall this week. But then, she rides a lot of OTTBs (and, in fact, owns one and he's apparently...exciting. Yes. :) ). Whereas I've mostly stuck to school horses and pretty laid back drafts so far. ;)
Anyway, all's well that ends well and I learned a lot.
Oh, and the picture up top was taken at GG today. :)
Friday, November 7, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, October 27, 2008
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.
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.
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