CHECK OUT ALL THE PROGRESS (videospam)

So I guess...for comparison...this is us riding in a schooling show in May 2010:



Here's some videos from today:








Don't worry, the very first video is only actually about 2 minutes long for the meat of it, hah. And the last four are all really short.

Anyway, I see today some nice transitions; a relaxed, listening horse, and I think I'm a lot more still in the saddle too.

And here's some screencaps:




THIS TROT, OMG



There was a time I never would have imagined getting that out of him, LOL.


Hard work!

I'm so proud of him, I can't wait for our lesson tomorrow. :D

Riding today

Just riding around with some cavaletti and poles. :)



No, not with the new saddle, it hasn't gotten here yet.

Just let go

Tonight was fabulous.

Jessica was running late so we spent a while warming up walking. Just doing lots of turns and walk-halt-walk transitions. When she got there, we were going to do trot poles but then Kieran, as we were moving off, put his head down. And not in the "I want grass!" sort of way, but in the "hmm, I might stretch my neck out and reach for the bit" kind of way. And Jessica was like OMG HE'S DOING IT.

Thus went a several-minute segue into why that was amazing and there needs to be more of it and somehow that got us onto sidepassing (so we used the poles instead as markers for me to sidepass from the middle of one to the middle of the other, looked like this:

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That was a slightly frustrating exercise so we broke it down to doing a turn on the forehand a step at a time so I could feel him move his hindquarters (since we're focusing on my leaving the front end alone and pushing his butt around where it needs to be). Still was a bit difficult and after a bunch of repetitions, we could tell Kieran was getting bored and no longer really even trying to pay attention so we moved on to other things.

Thus we went back to last week's exercise of trotting around the triangle, but this time Jessica wanted me to put my reins pretty much on the buckle and use mostly my leg and seat for the turns (I could lift the inside rein to encourage him to turn, but I was supposed to more or less stay off his face).

Something magic happened and Kieran's movement became freer, his head went down, and he really relaxed. Whereas, when I'd take up contact, he'd tense a bit, his movement wasn't as nice, and his nose would poke up and out a bit. Looks like I've got some work to do on how to hold rein contact, eh? Of course first I have to get it back, I suppose, since Jessica wants me to ride most of the time now with as little contact as I can get away with.

For instance, he was fine just sort of trotting around (relaxed, nice rhythm) on a loose rein, but when we started the "extend, shorten" exercise we did last wee, I had to take up more rein because pushing him to extend without it just leads to a very wiggly horse going all over the place and not sure what to do. He actually did better with the shortening bit with me using more seat than hand (probably because he knows "stop" so well and so asking him to shorten is an excuse in his mind to stop).

After we got some decent within-gait transitions going either direction (plus he was doing very well trotting around the turns, yay), Jessica had us canter. Again, more on the rail (but not completely) and same idea, canter around, and at a certain point, push him forward (which mean push with seat, push with legs, and even lower my hands and push them forward a bit), then ask him to come back and around the next turn, easy easy easy\ to get a smaller canter.

We decided he likes doing the bigger cantering, LOL. He was totally down with that. And of course, after he was all, "yay!" we went back to more trotting. Same exercise as before and this time it was much better because he was so perky all of a sudden. And then we asked for that one final "shorten trot, plz" and he gave me (and I totally get what people mean by when they say their horse gives them something because he really did tonight) this lovely little jog that was still forward and just...perfect. On a loose rein, relaxed. There was half a moment where he thought about stopping and I just pushed a little and instead of how he usually jolts forward then, he just kept the same little jog gait. :) Such a nice note to end the lesson on!

Actually, I didn't push him forward so much as do something magical with my body that I can't even verbalize or figure out yet that told him to stay right there. I wish I could because it totally worked and was amazing!

So takeaways:

Just let go of the reins. We really do have to spend a lot of time just going around letting him put his head down to his knees if he wants. Not only is it helping him relax, it should help him build his topline more too.

We'll probably start doing warmups where we do a bit of walking and circles, a couple of trot circles, then do the cantering/handgallpy bit to get him keyed up, then go into the work. Since that's something he finds fun, we'll give him a bit of fun at the beginning of the lesson so he's not having to slog through all the stuff he finds boring to get to the good stuff. Especially since he tends to go so much better after. Jessica also said in general we looked better. Not just him, but me too, and how we were communicating with each other.

I can't explain how it works that way, but it does. I guess we just both relax a bit more after having a fun canter around the ring. :)

So yeah. I'm supposed to work on turns on the forehand, that trotting exercise, and cantering/handgalloping him. Woo. And keeping my reins as loose as I can let them go.

SO MANY CIRCLES

Had my lesson tonight, we were already warmed up by the time she got there so Jessica had us start with showing her some walking circles since I said I'd worked on them since last lesson. They still weren't pretty (and one day I will get someone to video!), but they did at least feel better than last week. Mostly because Kieran just felt a bit more forward so it wasn't like he was just dragging himself around. Jessica said it looked like he was using his back end properly one stride in three (so...room for improvement, hah)

Once we'd done a bunch of circles in both directions, she had us do the same thing but at a trot (remembering to keep a steady rhythm). The rhythm part was actually much easier this week. Kieran was definitely "with it".

Then we added a new element. We had three barrels set up in a big triangle. So Jessica had us start trotting around them (so, not on the rail, but not inside the "barrel territory") and when we rounded a particular barrel (still remembering the circles! even though this was technically just part of a circle) I was to start pushing him forward with my seat and legs on every down beat of my post...not to get him to go faster, but to get him to move into a more extended trot. Took a couple of repetitions and then she was like, "YES THAT!" and I was like, "what? He didn't move any faster?" but it was bigger which was the point and when we did it again, I felt that.

So, by that point, he was starting to think about anticipating the barrel we'd ask for him to extend at so she has us go around again, but this time she said when I went around that barrel, to think about half halting with my outside seatbone and outside rein and think "easy easy easy, wait wait wait" and then on that side of the triangle, ask for a smaller trot, almost a jog.

The first time, he thought "eeeasy" meant "brakes!". The thing he's good at is stopping...and he's actually pretty good about doing it from his hind end instead of falling all over his front end when he stops. But I managed to push him forward before the brakes fully went on so suddenly he was pushing off from his hind end and we got a really nice little trot out of him. :)

Then we had to do it all going the other direction. (and remember those circles when you go around turns!)

We rounded out the lesson with a bit of cantering and here Jessica said if we needed, I could go more on the rail instead of just staying around the barrels). But the idea was the same...get a nice forward trot going, then sit and ask for the canter. The first time, we just cantered once around both directions (and no snarky kicking out this time when I asked for a left lead canter!).

Then we went back to the right lead canter and Jessica said, "now when you come around the turn heading toward the gate, I want you to sit back a bit more and push with your seat and legs and get him to really move out". We found another gear! Pretty exhilarating, actually.

Back to the left lead and going that way, I asked him for the extra gear going away from the gate, but still got it! He was fairly tired by that point (so was I!) even with several walk breaks but he still was willing to give it to me.

I did have some issues with my feet sliding through the stirrups while cantering (they'd end up shoved "home" instead of on the balls of my feet) but Jessica said I was keeping my hands where they were supposed to be and my butt was where it was supposed to be and my legs weren't flailing around so she didn't stop me. I just...I guess I tense up or something, but I have a really hard time with my leg sort of drawing upward when we canter and then the stirrup goes wherever the heck it wants.

We also talked about me having to remember keeping my calf on and weight in my heels (in general, not just at the canter) which is something I know, but it's good to be reminded of. I like that she reminds me of the things I need to fix with me, but we're focusing a lot on getting Kieran to use himself better and be fitter. And he definitely seemed more interested this week than last week (whether that's the improved weather or he likes that we're doing something instead of random moseying, I'm not sure, but I'll take it!).

So, good lesson! Kieran got peppermints afterward. :)

First Lesson in GA!

Had my first lesson in Georgia tonight. Gosh, it's been since, like...the end of May/very beginning of June since I had a lesson. I totally needed it. As I told Jessica (new instructor), at the end of the lesson: we've been riding, but...I do just sort of get on and ride around for a while and then we're done. It's nice to have someone there with a plan in mind of what she wants to see (and explain how to do it) and to tell me, "no, you can push him to do more than that!" :)

Anyway, today's lesson was a sort of "getting to know you" deal and ran a bit long (expected to). First, she had us start off simply by walking and warming up, then she asked me to do a couple of circles, any size I wanted, and watched what we did and asked me to explain what I was doing to ask for the circle and why. Basically, I was wiggling my inside rein (don't really have to pull, wiggling my ring finger usually works) and nudging with my inside leg. Apparently it wasn't that pretty, LOL.

So she talked about how circles are actually really difficult to do well and you really have to ride them actively and also once you've got a horse that really understands leg and seat aids, the reins can be pretty superfluous. She talked about how I needed to be a more active rider in general but that a good circle you really have to ride actively (not like...moving a lot just... being engaged? Directing the horse? Uh, I'll keep explaining what she said, I wish I had recorded it!). Like, inside shoulder back, inside leg and inside seatbone really on and pushing to encourage that inside hind leg to cross over and that I should use my outside leg back a little to control speed and shape of the circle. Still figuring that one out but I sort of get it. Hands, she said, just really control where the shoulders go but legs control everything behind the girth and everything starts back there with the horse pushing from behind and that's what we need to work on, more leg, less hand.

After that, she had us start trotting and she said she wanted me to sing aloud, "how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood" in the same rhythm that I was posting. The idea being that my posting should dictate Kieran's trot rhythm and not the other way around and the "wood chuck" thing helps keep me focused on the rhythm I want. It was a bit rough at first, because he did want to sort of go slooooow, speed up!, go sloooww....and not really keep a consistent rhythm but we did get some nice trotting done in there. And once we got something consistent, then she had me ask for a turn, remembering the stuff we'd talked about with the circles at the walk and still, you know, keeping rhythm. And there it all fell apart. Hah. So we did it again a couple times until we got it and then started over the other direction.

Oh yeah, she also said for now when trotting, not to really worry what he was doing with his head or directing him too much with the reins, just to focus on getting the rhythm I want with my posting and getting it to be consistent.

We also talked about figuring out what gets him interested because right now she says he looks like he's just kind of going along and not really paying a lot of attention to me or caring about what we're doing. Not sour, just not interested. Also that his issues with picking up his feet properly may stem more from that boredom than anything else, since when we get him engaged and active....a lot of that magically disappears.

Then she had us get back into a nice working trot and told me to pick a spot to ask for the canter. First time was going to the right and he gave me a really great transition and a lovely, uphill sort of canter. It actually felt slow but Jessica said he's got a big stride and was really eating up the ground (didn't feel that way though! Maybe I'm just used to a more rushy canter). Anyway, I was all, "wow! That was great!" and we talked about the difference between that and when he canters more on the forehand and kind of dragging himself along. The difference this time, she said, was that I did have him in a nice forward trot and really pushing with his hind end and ready to go so that when I asked for the canter, she could see him really using his back end and pushing off into a nice canter.

So then she asked if I wanted to end on that note or try cantering the other way. I wanted to go the other way too. Hah.

The left has always been a little more difficult to get a good canter out of him. So this time the first one wasn't that great and I don't remember much about it because I remember the second try more. That one, he kicked out right after the transition (rather like the video down below somewhere) and Jessica growled at him for me, I just pushed him to keep cantering. She said for a minute she wasn't sure I actually felt it since I stayed right in the saddle, hah but that I should have really got after him so he knew it wasn't acceptable, instead of just sitting up there and being like, "it's okay, just keep going".

Anyway, we did it one final time and then we got a decent transition (it was late and I did have to get after him there to Just Canter, dammit! with a smack with the crop) but then a good canter most of the way around the ring and when he started faltering, I was able to just push with my seat and squeeze with my legs and he kept moving till I asked him to stop. He wasn't tired (he wasn't even breathing hard, there were a lot of walk breaks in between stuff since we spent time talking about what we were doing and why and what we'd done before), just lazy, I think.

So, all in all, it was a good, productive lesson. I'm happy with it and we've got some homework: active circles and rhythm (oh yeah, she sang "row row row your boat" for the canter). Next week, Jessica says she'll set up patterns with the ground poles for us (and we'll see if that gets Kieran more interested in what's happening, hah).

Couple more things that were mentioned in the lesson:

Jessica says cantering's easy, once you get a really good walk and trot.

I talked about him really trotting out on the trail on Sunday and how he felt like he was ready to canter if I just asked and she said that's what a really good working trot ought to feel like, with them moving out and ready to do whatever you ask. That's not a feeling I've gotten out of him often. ;) His "working trot" has typically been rather more sedate.

Talked about turning my leg out a bit more so I'm not holding my knees so close to the saddle. (Maybe not really "turning out" since it was more about opening at my hip and getting my calf on but my toes weren't really turned out or anything. Ugh. I think that will require video so I can see what I'm doing.)

Here's hoping I can work in some real riding time between now and next week. I pretty much have either Wednesday or Thursday and that's it. And one of those days I have to clean house since I have a friend flying in late Thursday night and staying until Tuesday afternoon. Doubt she'll want to go out to the farm with me every day and sit around in the sun and watch me ride, LOL.

Poles and other fun things

Lesson tonight!

After warming up, started out with lots of trotting. I was complaining to Christina about how he drifts in and cuts corners and doesn't seem to listen to my leg when I try pushing him with it though in other contexts he understands leg pressure means move over (like when we did the backing up exercise and I had to move his butt around, or when we've done turns on the forehand, or the bits of sidepassing we've worked at and so on). I can't decide if he just doesn't understand in the "going on the rail" context that inside leg pushing him means "move away from pressure nao plzkthx" or if he's just being lazy.

Really, it's probably the latter combined with the fact that I've been pretty inconsistent about really making him go deep in the corners (especially if I'm concentrating on other things at the time) so he doesn't feel like he "has" to. Anyway, we worked on it for a while but he was still cutting corners and Christina said from the ground it looked like I was doing the right things so she got on to see what it feels like and how he responds.

1. She commented on how much of a workout it can be to keep him moving/get him moving. ;)
2. She rode him around the ring and the started riding him, basically, straight at the wall in the corner, stopping just before he'd "hit" it, then turning him into the wall and going back the other way. Basically, so he'd have to listen to what she was telling him to do and where to go instead of just going on autopilot around the corners.

The conclusion is that for a while, I'll have to be really conscious of not just going around on the rail and when I do, I have to really think about taking him deep into the corners. Otherwise, I can do the sort of thing she did, stopping, turning in to the rail and going back the other way. Also, if I want to do circles, probably better to do them in the middle of the ring rather than on the ends (since a 20 meter circle on the end is basically cutting the corners off).

I got back on, went around a couple more times and when he was not leaning on me as much as before, we called it quits to that particular part of the lesson (partly because I was getting tired of working so hard pushing him around and keeping him moving and partly because we didn't want to repeat the exercise too much where he just got irritated about it).

After that, Christina set out trotting poles and we went trotting over them on one side of the ring, then she set up more on the other side. Then one side was just trot poles and the other was a very very tiny crossrail (like...6 inches). Then after he was trotting over that without hitting it, she raised it to be a vertical (so probably like 9ish inches high? I don't know, it was higher *shrugs*). Then she added in a cavaletto in the center of the ring on the diagonal. (most of the trot poles were being used to make the "jump" and one each was in front of the "jump" and the cavaletto. One pole was left out of the original trot pole group so basically, the ring looked like:

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Where the thing on the left was the vertical, the x's in the middle are supposed to be the cavalletto, and the lines are just poles.

Then, finally, she raised the "jump" again so it was another crossrail but this time about a foot high. Once he went over it both directions without knocking it over (only did that once), we called it a night and I cooled him out. He's not really been exposed to jumping, so it was just really good he was paying attention and picking his feet up (instead of bulling through the jump as he has done in the past). He actually seemed to like it and a couple times I could feel him kind of picking himself up...not jumping really, but kind of raising his shoulders as he trotted over.

Christina also pointed out the times he'd hit the jump (not knock it over so much, but not lift himself enough so he'd get over without hitting it) even though I was in two point and had my eyes up...my shoulders and chin were pointed down. She pointed out the last couple of times that he did really well, I had not only my eyes up and looking ahead but my chin up and my shoulders back and that really helped him be able to trot over it nicely.

Oh, and he stood completely still for mounting without my hands ever touching the reins till I was read to go. :)

Riding Alone

Went up and rode by myself tonight. I think I feel more relaxed if I don't have anybody else watching me. Except that then there's the pressure to come up with stuff to DO. Hah.

So tonight, I set up a few trot poles on one side of the arena by the wall and on the other side of the arena, I set up about five or six orange cones about 4 big steps apart to use for weaving through. We started the evening by just walking around, over the poles, through the cones, going both directions. Then we went through them trotting (I just went around the ring a couple times straight before going through the cones). I tried to stay cognizant through the ride of keeping steady with the outside rein and pushing him over with my inside leg when he'd want to start drifting off the wall. This is much easier to do when he's just walking than when we're trotting, hah!

We also did some transitions when I asked him to halt and he didn't want to stand for a second. So he got to walk-halt-walk-halt-back up-walk-halt. ;) We did a bit somewhere in there too of trot-halt-trot which he did really well at.

Before we both got too tired, I asked him for a canter. This time I didn't worry too much about coming out of the corner, just tried to make sure I wasn't pulling his head around to the outside, and that I really sat for the transition. And that I kept after him until he gave me what I wanted. :) I only realized after we cantered one direction a few strides that I'd asked him to do it for me his "bad" direction (going to the right) but it hadn't been as difficult as it used to be and I wasn't riding with a whip.

Then we went and did it going to the left which was much easier and once again we got a full circuit around the ring. (well, not completely full, I let him go to the inside track to avoid the ground poles :) ). I made sure each time we stopped cantering that we stopped because I asked for it and he got walk breaks in between sets.

After that, we did some other exercises, mostly at a walk, a lot to do with getting him listening more to leg and seat for turning and stopping and some more with getting him to move over toward the wall instead of in toward the center as we went around. And we had several walk-with-no-reins breaks. Really, it wasn't that long of a ride (no more than 40 minutes, I think closer to a half hour) but it was a nice one. He's, as I usually say, such a good boy.

Tomorrow is my last lesson for a while. Christina is taking a break because she's supposed to have a baby within the month. I could take lessons with the backup instructor (the trainer, Carey Reed, who put a few weeks of training on Kieran) but some external-to-horses-or-the-people-in-question issues mean I figured it'd just be better to take a break from lessons for a while. Same goes for Hilary, alas.

Hopefully, I can get things straightened out and get back to doing lessons soon but even if I don't, I'll still be riding Kieran. :)

Wednesday night was AWESOME!

So I went into my regular lesson on Wednesday night after talking with Christina about how the lesson went on Tuesday and what my impressions were and what we did. She also viewed the videos and such.

Started the lesson with warming up and she had me do a couple of exercises out of this Yoga for Riders book (I don't think that's the title but I don't remember specifically what it was called) she just got. At one point I said, "good thing he's not spooky, because if he did take off, I'd have NOTHING holding me on". I had my hands up over my head and both legs pulled up a little and out at the knee.

I discovered doing that very exercise there's a catch in my right side that doesn't seem to be in my left as it was much easier to do on the left than the right.

After that, we worked on cantering. (and yes, I was carrying the dressage whip tonight. Didn't have to use it, it's mere presence helped) My thing with the corners and waiting till he had a "nice" trot to ask Christina pointed out was because when we first started working on this with him, we kind of had to do that, he wasn't balanced enough otherwise to manage but now he seems like he CAN do the canter from anywhere in the ring, so long as I'm ready to ask for it. So she had me trot him around and whenever I thought it felt good, to sit and ask and do it like we did on Tuesday, keep after him until I get it (and keep after him to ensure he stayed in gait).

It was SO much easier to get the canter and stay in it, not perfect, but definitely easier. We started going his "good" way and the first time, he broke gait. The second time I asked him was really nice and Christina told me to make him stop. She said, after I had him stopped, it was so nice she wished she hadn't, but she wanted me to make him slow down without him deciding he wanted to. Then we worked at getting it back. We actually managed to canter more than one whole way around the ring and it felt like he would have kept going with very little effort on my part.

Going the other direction was harder but not hard. It's obvious that it's more difficult for him that way and when we finally got something going, he kind of slipped and that ruined our momentum. Still, we got a good canter going both directions and after that I was like, "I kind of just want to end the lesson here, he did SO well." We didn't end it, but we did back off cantering and do some trotting with the idea that I'd use my leg to push him over to the wall and deep into corners instead of using my outside rein to pull him over (thus having him counterbent). I had a pretty hard time with that so we slowed it down and did it at the walk. Next time I ride him, we'll likely revisit it at a walk and then at the trot. Christina said actually for something like that, pushing him with my inside leg, it's okay to keep a steady pressure instead of bumping him and once I did that it was easier.

She also pointed out that it seems every time she's seen me cantering him, he's been picking up the correct lead, so that's a good thing! :)

Riding, the weekend, and dressage!

Ended up not riding last Thursday. I did go up to the farm but got all distracted talking to Christine about an upcoming wine tasting the rescue is hosting and other news related to the farm. And then I got invited to stay for dinner. And then I stuck around to keep Christine company while she fed medication to a couple of horses. And by that point it was late (after 9) and cold and I just wasn't motivated enough to trudge out into the big pasture to fetch Kieran in.

Didn't ride Friday either, didn't even go to the farm.

I did, however, ride on Saturday!

Kieran's brains were, indeed, back, and he was a good boy. He'd motored around the ring that morning for a student in a lesson (they just did a lot of walking with some trotting thrown in) and I rode him in the afternoon. We did a lot of transitions. Halt, walk, halt, trot, walk, halt, back up, walk. That sort of stuff. I was pretty pleased with how it went.

Sunday, I didn't ride, but he ended up going in two lessons and even though neither was much work for him, I still let him have the break. I did mount him bareback in one of the lessons because halfway through they took off his saddle and Christina wanted the rider (an older lady) to ride without it and get a feel for what that was like but even with the mounting block, she wasn't really getting how to mount so Christina had me demonstrate getting on and off.

He also went for a ten year old girl and was very good for her too. :)

Last night, Hilary came up to the farm to teach me on Kieran there. Everything below is copied and pasted from where I posted about it on a forum I frequent because I didn't see any point in redoing it but wanted to save it here for posterity. There is also video!

The post can be found here, lots of people gave me good suggestions so I want to save the link too!

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Okay, so tonight was my second lesson with Hilary, the dressage instructor. The first time I went to the farm she teaches out of and rode one of the school horses. This time, she came up to GG and taught me on Kieran. Before the lesson began, she asked me what I wanted to work on with him and I said we'd been working on, for instance, the intro USDF tests (which we spent the first lesson on so she really already knew that) as well as just generally getting Kieran more balanced and doing transitions and, lately, trying to get a decent canter transition. Usually that means we try and get one short transition both ways before we move on to other stuff.

I thought that meant we wouldn't work on the cantering thing much but we did quite a bit more than I expected, but I think it was beneficial. But I'll get to that.

The first thing we did was she asked me to think about what I'm actually doing with my body when I ask for a transition down and to tell her what that is. I told her, since I was walking at the time, that with Kieran I usually exhale and squeeze my buttcheeks and then tighten the reins to ask for a halt and she said that was right and then we talked about half-halting.

Normally, when I've heard it described, it's about kind of pushing with your seat, squeezing with your legs, and holding the energy with your hands. Or something like that. I've never felt like I really did a "real" half halt but I think I was making it more complicated than it was and trying too hard. Hilary described it as doing that same halt transition....almost. Basically, doing it but relaxing my body before he actually halts and then pushing him forward. So we tried that, and talked about how to use a half halt to rebalance (and later she talked about it sort of as something to do in those stretches of a dressage test where I might be tempted to let my mind wander because "oh, we have until whatever letter before we have to do something new so I'll just sort of mosey along till we get the-....dangit, we're there, turn!" If that makes sense). Then she had me do downward transitions from trot to walk, then half halting at the trot which I had to figure out how to do it all in that instant where I'm on the downbeat of a post but once I got it, I could really feel Kieran almost sort of hesitate for an instant before moving forward again. Not breaking gait or anything, I don't know how to describe it well.

The way I ended up describing what I was doing to Hilary (becuase she made me imagine I was also standing in the center of the ring as the instructor and telling myself what to do) was really sitting deep when I come down on that beat, tightening the reins, but squeezing with my legs to make sure he doesn't stop.

Once we'd done this, we talked about transitioning up into the canter. We also discussed how Kieran tends to anticipate, once we've started trying for the canter, he'll lunge into the really fast trot in certain corners he thinks I'm going to ask "go faster" again, and then I usually feel like I have to bring him back down, or circle him, getting him back in a nice trot before we can ask again. What she suggested was doing exactly opposite of what he expects. So if he's plugging along thinking I'm going to ask to slow down, really pushing him harder to go faster in the gait. If he anticipates me asking him to go faster, ask for a walk instead.

So she had me start trotting him and really pushing him for a faster trot before sitting and going for a canter. Usually, once we get it, he does a stride or three and then it's really hard to keep him going and he drops back down into the fast trot and I usually let him (even bringing him back into a more even trot) and wait until we're in a "good" corner (heading into a long side) before I ask him to canter again. Hilary had me instead, if he went down back into a trot, keep after him until he cantered again (basically pretend like he never cantered) and said if he was going along nicely, he got to get the easy transition out of a corner, but if he dropped back down before I was ready, he'd have to do it wherever it was, and didn't get a free pass to just decide when to slow down. Make it harder for him to go back to a trot than if he'd just cantered a few more strides till I asked him to come down on my own.

Anyway, she had me start out by just getting a few strides out of him, then a few more, then half the ring at a time until we did that both ways. I mentioned it felt easier to get him to do the transition this way (still isn't pretty or "easy" but easier than in the past) and she mentioned it's kind of like if you woke up in the morning and someone told you you'd have to walk 50 miles that day. You wouldn't feel like you could do it or be motivated to get it done. But if they told you instead you only had to go down to the mailbox, that would be much easier and you'd get right on it. Also something about just like a long distance runner has to build up to that distance, you can start with just doing a little and then increasing it. I think previously, even though I know my regular instructor and I are "only working on the transition" and she stressed I only had to get a few strides out of him, I still had it in my head that I'd have to get him to canter all the way around the ring, for instance.

That was the bulk of it, I think, as I remember it.

Oh, she also talked about making a checklist of the things we've talked about so I can keep it in mind for when I'm riding on my own. So like. Do up and down transitions each way. Remind myself of "how" I'm doing the transition. Do half halts (or do like walk -> halt -> walk-halfhalt-walk -> halt). Remember to mix things up so Mr. Horsey doesn't anticipate what I'm asking. (Like, something I pointed out was that I tend to grab a bit of mane when asking him to canter so I wouldn't accidentally jab him in the mouth while we're still working this out. She suggested -- and had me do -- things where I'd trot, grab mane, then ask him to walk so he'd stop associating that with me asking him to canter.).

Okay, now I think I've covered the bulk of it.

We didn't really spend a lot of time talking about me and my position and I'm kind of cringing while I'm watching these videos (I also felt all over the place while I was doing the canter bits in the lesson but my videographer says I wasn't as all over the place as I felt).

Anyway, suggestions welcome. Flames, not so much, but I'll put on the flamesuit if I have to.

And yes, there's lots of little videos. My camera was apparently acting up and she couldn't get more than one semi-long stretch at a time (and the stretch she did isn't terribly exciting) but several of the others show us going into a canter.

Heeeere we go!











Let me know if the videos showed up right, they're acting up for me, but there should be six.

Core exercises

No cantering tonight. Probably a good thing. I told Christina after that I was glad we didn't, and I'd been thinking of asking if we could back off that for a while until I work on my own core strength and give him some more miles. I don't want to get him in the habit of running into a canter or thinking he can just trot faster instead of moving up to the next gear and I figure we'll both be better for more work at the other gaits first.

In the meantime, I can still work him with lunging and get him used to listening to a command for canter and then when we try it under saddle again, I can use that command along with the proper cue. I think that will help.

Instead we did lots of trotting and mostly worked on me. What did that entail? First, she had me stand straight up in the stirrups, then move down into two point (without sitting again), then keep my calf on and use my core to lower my chest as close to his neck as I can without falling in on myself. Then move back up to two point, then back to standing the stirrups. Ad nauseum.

Ow.

And then right at the end she had me half-seat without stirrups for one lap around the ring.

Ow.

But a good kind of ow. :)

Oh, and the exercise we did that was more for him than me was trotting over poles laid out in an "M" shape. The idea was he couldn't just go straight over the poles (like he would with ones laid parallel to one another) but had to pay attention to where his feet were going and adjust his stride accordingly.

The first couple times over were pretty hilarious, but it only too two or three times and he had it figured out. :)

Riding tonight. All bareback, all the time.

Did manage to ride tonight (I was at the barn last night and brought Kieran in and groomed him and all but didn't end up riding.). Didn't feel overly enthused about fully tacking up so I rode bareback (as did Hanna on Rocky). Mounting was a teensy bit interesting. Christina had mentioned they'd been having a bit of trouble with him standing at the mounting block recently on Sundays and indeed he did the same thing to me tonight.

Remember, I'm trying to hop onto his back on my stomach from the mounting blck and then swing my leg over and sit up properly. Twice he stepped forward a few steps while I was still laying on my stomach. A couple times he started moving before I even got that far.

I just got down and backed his ass right back to where he started. After a couple repetitions he figured it out and stood quietly and I finally managed to get on and go. Yay. Not sure what they're doing with him/about it on Sundays. May have to sit in and watch.

It wasn't a terribly exciting ride. We did a lot of walking, a couple of pivots on the forehand, and some trotting. Tonight we just tried to keep trotting at a steady pace all the way around the ring. He likes to speed up as he goes (especially if there's another horse in there for him to "catch up" to). Once we got pretty much all the way around the ring, I called it quits for the evening. Probably we rode for about a half hour.

Lessoning should happen tomorrow and, it being a holiday, I'm planning on spending pretty much the whole day in the barn. Assuming it doesn't rain TOO much, maybe I can get some pictures while I'm there.

Cantering in the indoor (and the rest of the lesson was good too)

So last night we had an hour-long semi-private lesson (another horse and rider in the ring with us). I kind of like switching it up so sometimes he has to ride with other horses (which also means we have to work on rating gaits because when there's another horse, he tends to trot faster and then I have to work at slowing him down so we don't constantly pass/run up their rear end) and then sometimes he has to ride alone, both of which are good experiences for him. Also, with the semi-privates, sometimes he has to stand in the middle of the ring and wait while the other horse and rider do something and sometimes he has to go on the rail and ignore the horse waiting in the middle.

Anyway. Christina had me start out the lesson with no stirrups and do some posting at the trot which...I wasn't terribly successful at. Or at least I don't feel like I was. I couldn't really get the rhythm down. Eventually, she let me pick my stirrups up again. I'm kind of convinced they're simply too long (I have 'em on the shortest holes) as when I post or do two point, I'm not really clearing the saddle (and I know you're not supposed to be way out of it, but I feel like to even get out at all, my leg is going kinda straight). I'd just make more holes but the stitching is coming loose anyway so I just should get a new pair. Anybody have some dark leathers (havana or black. Preferably black) that are 54" or so?

Apparently when I start out a lesson (it seems to get better as we go along and I think a lot of it has to do with me not riding as often as I should lately so I haven't built up the proper muscles) my leg moves A LOT. Especially when posting. So Christina kept having to remind me to keep my calf on. I kept feeling like to do this, I needed to bring my heel up and do something funky with my feet. Whatever it was, it wasn't correct. So then I had to stop and do it correctly before I could feel like what it should be feeling like. And then whenever I go up to post I have to remember to keep my calf on because apparently my leg goes "out" instead and Christina says she saw a few inches of daylight between my calf and my horse. By the end of the lesson, I think I'd worked it out and gotten it down, but I know I'll have to do it all over again next week, ugh.

We also had to go around the ring once in two point which....well, my heel dropped a lot more for it but it was just hellacious to stay up. I couldn't find the right spot which is another reason I think my stirrups are too long as I know in the past (in other saddles, on other horses) if I brought up my stirrups a hole or two it got easier to balance. Though in my case it also got easier to balance when Christina told me to bring my hands forward. I think I had them still about the spot on his neck where you hold them normally (maybe a little forward of that) and when I brought them up more, it did get easier.

We also did a little bit more of trotting a weaving pattern through cones, and trotting cloverleaf-esque shapes in the indoor (trot down centerline, turn left at C, left again at E, cross X, turn left at B, go back down the centerline, then turn...basically, whatever direction Christina called out :) And don't forget to change diagonals!) with trot poles down the centerline.

And before I got too tired from that, Christina asked if I wanted to try cantering Kieran. See, he can canter under saddle. I've done it out on the trail, and did it a tiny (crappy) bit at Saddleview. But I hadn't been able to get him to do it in the indoor (except on the ground, on the lunge line). It's kind of a small ring and it's pretty difficult for a lot of the horses there to pick a canter in there under saddle so we rarely do it. I'd tried it with him a few times but it just wasn't seeming to work. We'd come out of a corner, I'd sit and bring my outside leg back, he'd speed up, but he wouldn't canter.

Christina figured it was at least partly because I take my reins up shorter when I prepare to canter and because he can't really lift himself into it yet (still needs to pull himself into it, we think), he'd go to stretch down and hit the end of the reins and...basically I was keep him from going up into the next gear. So I gave him a looser rein, held a crop (didn't even have to wave it at him) and again, nice working trot around the ring, come out of the corner on a long side, sit and bring back outside leg. Hard. (He still doesn't know "outside leg means canter" so have to do it more exaggeratedly than "normal"). He managed to get it a few times, just a few strides down the long side, but he did it! He has such a nice canter. Now we just have to work on steering. ;)

Of course, most of what we do will still revolve around walking and trotting, but it's nice to know I can get him to canter in there if I want to.

Discussed with Christina that maybe it would be good for us both to do a few private lessons on the lunge line. He lunges pretty well and then I can more ensure I'm focusing on giving good cues with my leg and seat and not having to rely on the reins as much.

Also, after the lesson, Christina hopped on Kieran, just to see how he goes (she hadn't ridden him yet.) and she really liked him. Said he felt really comfortable. :)

Lessoning on Kieran

So now we figure we're going to have to work on getting Kieran's brain back a bit. Mostly because, while the big trail ride last weekend was really good exposure for him, he didn't really have to listen to me. We were going with the group and I wanted to go with the group and he wanted to go with the group so I didn't have to do a lot of active riding and he didn't have to do a lot of active listening. So we come to last night's lesson. Still working on getting him to trot all the way around the ring without trying to stop. And he definitely made me work for it and for now we're working him without a crop.

There was a lot of squeeze, "Trot." .......squeeze harder "Trot!".............kick! "Trot!!". And he still sometimes kinda lurches forward if I goose him on that third try so I spent a lot of time with my hands in his mane to keep from accidentally catching him in the mouth.

And of course, once we start trotting, he wanted to go say...five strides and then stop. So then squeezesqueezesqueezekick! until finally we got him to make it all the way around the ring without breaking gait once. At that point he got to walk and rest and then we spent a little time working on bending: asking him with one rein, seat, and leg to bend inward off the rail, then switch and go outward back toward the rail. He did okay going left but to the right it was about impossible so I think we need to work on that. It was interesting to see him go from being testing-obstinate-teenager mode with the trotting (he knows how to trot on the rail, after all) to "I'm not really sure what you want me to do but I'm trying to figure it out!" mode with the bending. It was neat to see him try even if he didn't quite get what I wanted him to do yet.

After that, we had a few minutes left to walk around and Christina had me drop my stirrups and work on posting without them at the walk. Which, yes, you don't have to get all the way out of the saddle the way you do with stirrups but geesh, it still hurt! Ow.

All in all, though, Kieran was pretty good for a greenie. :) I'm planning on swinging up there this evening after work and before class to ride him a few minutes as I don't want a week to go by without him being ridden again and otherwise the soonest I could probably get up there is Monday. Though I guess I could technically do weekend nights after faire or something, if somebody could be in the barn then.

Private lessons & horses we love hopelessly

My first private lesson ride saw me riding Humphrey again. Not a bad ride, lots of serpentines and Laura yelling at me to keep my toes forward and not drop my inside shoulder. Also Humphrey was getting kinda...something. Very head-tossey, though Laura said if he wasn't doing anything else to just push him through it and ignore him so that's basically what I did. Otherwise, it wasn't too exciting.

My second lesson was done mostly without stirrups on Jezzie. Jezz is a Morgan cross with a very smooth trot and canter. It weirds me out because I'm used to bigger gaits on bigger horses. They don't feel like real gaits to me.

Anyway, because she's so smooth, Laura had me working on her posting down the long sides and sitting on the short ones. But I still had to keep my calf on her to keep her moving. Can I say ow? I was definitely saying it then. Ow. I need to work on strengthening my legs, I think.

The third lesson was last Saturday and I was on Caladhin. 18.1 hands, approaching 2000 poounds, lazy, gorgeous Percheron horse. Plus, the far end of the arena is scary to him so he really likes to cut corners there. Soooo...lots of leg to keep him moving and on the rail. Got to keep my stirrups this time (thank God) but it was still a lot of work. By the end, though, got a few nice circles on him trotting where it felt like I wasn't having to fight him to make things work.

There've been a few other riding experiences in there.

Saturday, I also rode Molly out in one of the fields. She's pretty lazy in the ring and I wanted to see if that carried over outside. Luckily, it doesn't, so we spent a lot of time walking and trotting around. The field is a bit hilly and I wanted to work on getting her more fit that way.

Of course, the first time I asked her to trot up the hill she surprised me by breaking into a canter. I didn't know she had it in her! :) We came back down after a few strides and that was that. I don't really want to actually canter her until she gains some more weight/muscle. (she came to GG with probable EPSM and then she had a colic episode for nearly a week and dropped weight from that).

Also rode my first spook on her. She spooks sideways. Nothing too hard to handle but I hope she doesn't make a habit of it because I'm not sure if the lady who is supposed to be adopting her can sit it. I have a sneaking suspicion lady in question liked her better when she'd hardly trot at all.

But now she's recovering and feeling better so I think she'll be perking up even more as time goes on. I have a terrible kind of hope that lady decides she doesn't want her after all because I really, really want to make her mine.

Oh! We also took Molly on her first big trail ride yesterday in a group of seven or so horses. Just walking (but she wanted to trot for the first half. By the end she was pretty pooped even though it wasn't an overly long ride) but still fun and nice scenery. No spooks (save for a little jolt when another horse tried to make a break for home near the end). And then at the end we sat out with the horses and hand-grazed them. Very peaceful.

On a not-riding subject, the Belgian foal at GG jammed my ring finger on my right hand somehow while I was leading her yesterday. Didn't want to go through a door way and she pulled back. Not sure how she got my finger but it's swollen and bruised and hurts if pressure is put on it. Not broken, thank goodness, but it makes typing interesting. Or much of anything, because I'm right-handed. Never realised how much I use my ring finger for stuff. Ow.

That happened before the trail ride. Had to ride Molly with the reins between my middle and ring finger instead of ring finger and pinky. Probably would have been easier if she (and I) neck-reined, lol.

GG went up to New Holland today. I want to go peek up there this evening and see if they brought back anything new.

Hee, bareback

Following on my fabulous ride of the other night, I had a very good ride on Carley today, up at Gentle Giants. She hasn't been ridden in about a week and a half or so since she got kicked by another horse (right in the hoo-ha) so I wasn't sure if she was going to be wiggy or not. That said, I still had it in my mind that today I was going to forego the saddle and opted for bareback.

I haven't ridden a horse bareback since I was about fourteen. Ten years ago. Eesh.

That said, despite her 17-hand-something Belgian height? Carley's a wonderful horse for bareback. She's generally pretty laid back. And she's built like a laz-y-boy couch. I could've set a table for four on her ass. She was also nice and warm and fuzzy (winter coat has grown in).

The last time I rode her, she hadn't been inclined toward anything that resembled work (I was riding her that day without stirrups, actually, but with saddle, and it was a bitch). I thiiiink I've posted about that already. Of course, that time, there was no other horse in there with her.

Today? There were three other horses. So she was pretty good about going (I actually gave away my crop at one point because she was being pretty forward. A few minutes later she figured out I didn't have the crop and started getting lazy again so I eventually had to get a crop again because she wasn't listening to my leg.). We walked and trotted. She has a nice trot to sit to, but I did try to post a tiny bit. Which is a heckuva lot more difficult bareback than just sitting, so mostly I sat. We also walked over some ground poles, just to make things more interesting for her (I know I've mentioned before that Carley's not fond of the ring, she'd much rather be out on the trail).

I even managed to stay on when she shied.

That is, another horse (Gypsy, who was on her last ride at GG today as she's going to her new adopted home tomorrow) apparently decided the closed door at one end of the arena was OMGSCARYANDGOINGTOEATHER or something. So she spooked. All the way at the other end of the ring. Still, Carley apparently has a sympathetic link to Gypsy or something so she jumped to the side too. I didn't even slip.

I mentioned she's easy to sit on, right?

I told somebody I can add that to my list of "things I can sit". Along with "bucking school horse" I can now have "shying draft horse. bareback."

Hee.

All in all, a good day today.

Another lesson tomorrow at Columbia (and not on Cameo, thank goodness. I have Simone. Who, now that I think about it, I've already mentioned. Hah! Forgot I checked that on Friday.). And Tuesday in the morning? Private lesson, hee. Not sure who I'll be riding then. Will have to ask tomorrow. And after that, I'm planning on going back up to GG and will likely ride Carley once more bareback. Hopefully, she'll still be in a good mood. :)

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.

Frustration. Level. Rising.

So I had Cameo (yet again. Kristy likes giving us one horse for several weeks before she switches us to someone new) tonight. Kristy wasn't teaching though, as she's on vacation, so we had someone else (whose name I can't remember for the life of me right now).

I didn't magically fall off on my feet this time (thank goodness).

But I did have a bitchy horse.

It's weird, because the first three or so times I've ever ridden her, she was pretty cooperative. Just last week she started with the "no, actually, I don't want to do what you want to make me do" routine. Tonight that mostly manifested in her popping her inside shoulder and doing the noodle-neck routine as she tried to move into the middle of the ring. Though I think she did get a couple of little bucks in, too, when I was trying to make her canter.

So yeah. That going to the inside of the ring thing kept happening for probably a good half of the hour or so lesson. I couldn't even cross the ring (to keep her from running up onto a slower horse in front of her) without her trying to stay in the middle of the ring and so on. And my first inclination (to pull with the outside rein and pull her back out) doesn't really work because she just noodle necks. Intellectually, I know I need to create a wall with my inside hand and leg and move her whole body over but actually putting it into practice is rather easier said than done.

So this kept happening. And I kept feeling like an idiot. And there was a new teacher (and someone else in there observing) and nobody else was having this issue. So the frustration was really there. For a minute there I was almost in tears (such a baby, I know) because she just wouldn't settle in and work (last week it didn't take nearly as long to get her going) and then there's this new person instructing and I just kept thinking she must've been wondering why I wasn't back in some beginner class or something (again, intellectually, I doubt she thought that, but who ever said I was always rational?).

Fiiiinally, she did settle in, though not after I'd worked at getting her to canter to the left several times around. But by the time we switched to going to the right, she was ready to go and that was just fine. I didn't really have any trouble with her after that (thank goodness).

I will be doing working student lessons again starting on Friday so the extra time in the saddle again will likely help. That and I'm going to try to set up an extra private lesson with Kristy on my day off next week and I'll ask her to work with that with me. Maybe I'll even ask her to put me on Cameo for that.

Though, honestly, there was a point in the lesson tonight I was tempted to write Kristy a note saying "put me on anyone but Cameo next time, please." But then I figure that's just giving in to the bossy mare and I want to learn how to ride the difficult horses (and I'm sure she isn't the worst I'll ever have to deal with) along with the easy ones. So the note will stay unwritten. :)

Substitute!instructor did say that this is a thing Cameo does a lot and if she's been in more lessons lately with kids who aren't ready yet (or strong enough or whatnot) to make her mind, then she's more likely to be inclined toward thinking she can get away with it. Which might help explain why she was easier to ride for me before as compared to lately. Or it's possible it's the change in the weather (now that it's cooler) that is also at play here.

Anyway, I figure if nothing else, it's research for the novel I'm writing for National Novel Writing Month. I'll torture my main character with a horse like Cameo. ;)

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.

Backlog!

Three rides to talk about. I really need to get in the habit of updating this more regularly but oh well!

The first was last Thursday, I went up to Gentle Giants and rode Carley. Well, first I brought horses in from the field, hayed and watered, then I rode Carley. We had a really good ride, which I was pleased about. Near the end, I gave her a loose rein and tried steering her with just my leg and seat. Which was sort of hit or miss but I think she got the concept, she was just more interested in going the direction she wanted to go.

I've been keeping my rides out at GG to around a half hour or so. I guess I could make them longer but I always feel like I might be taking advantage or something. That and I sort of get to be at a loss for things to do. I hate to just make them trot around and around the arena. I suppose next time I should think ahead and set up trot poles. Or visualize us doing serpentines and smaller circles and things like that to keep it interesting. And gait transitions.

Yeah, I think about all this stuff now....

Probably a big part of it is that I'm still very much a student and very much in "listen for what the instructor tells you to do" mode and feel weird having a whole arena to myself and having to make it up as I go along.

What do you do when you're just riding in the arena?

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Other than that, Monday was riding lesson day at Columbia Horse Center. I had thought I was going to ride Confetti (one of the "Intermediate" horses) but a few last minute changes apparently led to me riding Valentine (one of the first horses I rode there. He's a dear old boy. And apparently used to do some pretty high level dressage which is cool.) instead. Which was a good thing because in a class of six people? Only two of the horses that night were "leaders". Valentine and one of the others. So Valentine and I ended up in front for most of the night. But at least he's quite willing to be there and I didn't have to push him about it. Didn't even need to be carrying my crop, really.

My favorite part was near the end when we had to pull our stirrups up over the saddle and work on a sitting trot with no stirrups. Kristy mentioned that Valentine was likely the bounciest in the group but she didn't think I'd have a problem with it. And I didn't! (My sitting trot used to be horrendous, bouncing all over the place, so I'm really pleased that it's become easier for me.) I still wouldn't want to ride Mickey's trot sitting (pogo stick!) but I feel better about doing it in general.

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Last night was back to Gentle Giants where I rode Treadway for the first time. He's also a nice old boy. Twenty years old, Percheron cross, former eventer. And apparently he has a hard mouth and very light sides.

We spent the entire (no more than twenty minutes) ride trotting. Except for right at the beginning when I mostly got him to walk around the arena both directions. He was determined to trot. He'd even trot verrrrry slowly so it was "like" walking but...two beat gait. I posted about it here.

Eventually it seemed to be we were both getting more frustrated with each other than anything. Me feeling like I had to really hold him in and hang off his mouth and him wanting to go. I got a good suggestions in the thread I linked to that I'll try next time we ride. Relax, take my leg off him more, shorter half halts. (It's quite possible I wasn't "squeeze-releasing" as much as I thought I was so he was just getting continual pull.) I'm also going to ask someone to really stay in there and watch, at least for a few minutes, and remind me of the stuff I should be doing. ;)

That said, I figure I'll be riding Big Red tomorrow. May depend on how early I get there. Early enough and I could ride before evening lessons and then again after. Hmmm.

Sailor seems to have an adopter. This has produced mixed feelings. I'll have to give him extra love until he goes.

That's the only problem with being at a horse rescue. The horses aren't supposed to stick around. So you grow attached and then have to say goodbye. Which I knew going in but still.

Indya likes to /move/!

First off, I went up to Gentle Giants last Thursday to help with preparations for the flea market that was on the 20th. I ended up planting mums. :) Didn't actually get around to riding, but that's okay.

The weekend, I flew home for my (and my grandfather's) birthday. Had fun. Requested my family just give me money or donate to GG so I came back with a nice lump of cash to present to Christine when I head up there later this week. Yay!

Flew back yesterday morning and ended up spending the afternoon down in Annapolis. I haven't really gone down there just to hang out in a while (with my dog!) so it was fun to do that. Took a bit of a catnap on a bench on the Naval Academy. Hee!

Last night was back to riding lessons. I rode a schoolhorse named Indya. We discovered that working up to the group canter gets her antsy (she starts anticipating). By working up I mean we all lined up at one end of the arena, the first person would start trotting, then in the corner ask for the canter and canter around, coming back to the trot at the end of line. And so on, with each of us departing with less time between until we were actually all cantering at the same time. Indya, however, would get herself worked up waiting in line until, when it was time to go, she'd go fast. It felt like we'd do four canter strides and already be down to the other end of the arena. Eesh.

I ended up having to sort of walk her around the middle of the ring on a loose rein in between turns to help keep her relaxed and not thinking about heading off to canter. We did finally get to the group canter. For a few seconds.

Then one of the other horses dropped her head, dropped her shoulder, and gave a little buck. Just enough that her rider came off, landing on her back with a pretty resounding thud. Luckily, she wasn't injured. This was the same rider on the same horse that came off last week so Kristy has pretty much decreed they won't be paired together for the forseeable future. I don't know what's up with Comet to make her do that. I hope it isn't the start of a pattern because that'd make her pretty much unable to continue being a school horse, if they can't trust her.

Anyway, we spent the last few minutes of the lesson after that working on the sitting trot and even the rider who came off got back up and worked at that.

Indya, for the record, was lovely at the sitting trot, once I got her going again. See, it was near the end of the lesson, we'd been stopped (because of the fall) for several minutes, and somewhere in there during the lesson I'd dropped my crop (accidentally, but I didn't need it anyway). She thought it was over. I had a hell of a time convincing her to pick it up again but once I did, we were fine.

Won't get to do any more riding, likely, until Thursday at the earliest, so we'll see how things go. Can't wait to find out how the flea market went. :)