'Round the world we go!

Today was just a pretty basic lesson. Warmup was that while Kieran was walking on the rail and doing 10 meter circles in the corners, I had to sit three beats, go into half seat for three beats, sit 3, half seat 3, sit 3...

Then, Christina had set up the ring to look like so:

Two trot poles up by A, then a caveletti and a low crossrail (on blocks, very very tiny) catty corner to each other at X.

Basically, I could trot on the rail over the poles, then turn and go down the diagonal over the things in the middle as I changed direction, that sort of thing. Lots of doing it in two point. Then she had me go around posting with only one (the outside) stirrup in each direction. Which is totally harder than doing it with no stirrups. And then I had to go up into two point, then slowly lower my chest toward Kieran's neck (without collapsing in on myself or pinching with my knee or letting my leg swing!), then raise back up into regular two point, then lower, then raise...all while he's trotting along. I've done that exercise while halted before but today was the first time we did it at a trot.

Then (and here's where the post title comes in) she wanted me to try to do "around the world" while Kieran walked in a circle around her.

Talk about terrifying. I was sure I'd fall off.

I did manage to get my left leg over his neck so I was sitting with both legs on his right side but then I just couldn't get up the nerve to swing my right leg over his hindquarters (I was sure I'd fall off backward and land on my head or something). So I chickened out and slid off. Of course, Christina made me get back up and do a real around the world (at the halt!) which I did. Wasn't pretty, but I did it.

Then I did the thing where I swung both of my legs over to one side of Kieran, but one hand on his neck, the other on the cantle (so, if my legs are on his left side, my right hand would be on the cantle, and my left on his neck) so I could then twist myself around to, essentially, have my belly against the saddle. Then I have to get back up into the saddle properly.

I think if I were doing it properly properly, my weight when I twist around would always pretty much stay on my hands/arms, and I wouldn't have taken that moment to lean my body against the saddle. =P

Then, just for the fun of it because the next rider wasn't quite ready yet, we did some quick canters a few times around the ring (and a couple times starting from a walk/trot out of F, heading toward H, we'd start cantering after F across the diagonal and over the cavaletti. Kieran thought I was nuts. ;)

Squee!

Tonight we did a lot of cantering again (like, a good half of the lesson was spent doing things related to it).

And guess who gave me one very nice walk to canter transition with absolutely no trot steps between?

It felt so nice, too! He's such a good boy. :)

Also did more with slowing down and speeding up his cantering. Also talked about bridging reins (which I've never really done) and going up into two point while cantering.

And Christina said since he's getting the walk->canter thing, we'll probably now do a lot with that transition and less with trot->canter. We also talked about how he's sort of figured out that the lessons go "warm up walk, some trotting, then working on cantering, then ease it back down again..." and when we get to that middle part, he's already figured out what he thinks I'm going to ask him to do instead of waiting for me to tell him so next time will probably go more like: "warm up walk with circles and serpentines, then straight into cantering, then ease back down."

Oh yeah, we also did a lot of trotting serpentines and spiraling in and back out again and mostly that at the sitting trot.

And a lot with no stirrups. (while Kieran was walking around cooling, Christina had me first do an exercise I think I've mentioned before where I [with stirrups], go up into two point with my hands stretched out to the sides, then slowly lower my chest toward his neck while keeping my leg in the same position, then slowly back up to two point, then stand straight up, then back down to two point, etc. Then she had me do it [without the standing straight up] with no stirrups.)

And the pain continues!

Tonight Christina got out the lunge line and I rode for most of the lesson with no reins. We did some work on asking Kieran to stop/slow when I took a deep breath and tightened my abdominal muscles and sat deep in the seat. For that we needed a bit of rein at the beginning but then he got the idea.

We also did posting trot with my hands out to my sides, half seat, and sitting trot. Look ma, no hands! We did several other balance exercises but the one that I thought was the most interesting (as well as the one that made me say to Kieran, "I'm glad you're such a good pony!") was right at the beginning and near the end of the lesson Christina had me pull my feet up so my knees were basically pointing to the ground and my feet were up closer to the top of his back. This really made me use myself for balancing on him and made me really sit in the center of my seat instead of tilting forward or back. I felt like it was stretching me out too (despite having my legs bent). And yes, Kieran was very good for me doing this. We only did it at the walk. I'm not sure I could sit his trot like that. ;)

Christina also had me drop my stirrups and go without for a while. Managed to half-seat all the way around the ring with no stirrups. Not sure how I did it but yay! :)

I also had to remind myself at one point that I was paying for the privilege of being tortured like this. ;) I imagine I'll have to do the same next week.

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. :)