Friday 27 January 2012

Lesson #1

First thing i am going to mention is how relaxed i feel, i feel like a HUGE weight has been lifted and i can finally breath again, it is amazing.

I had my first lesson on G last night and it went pretty good there was minimal naughtiness. Catching him was not nearly as hard as i thought it was going to be, he made a little bit of a protest (trying to walk away) then allowed me to halter him. Walking back in he had a bit of a baby moment and decided that he was not going to walk anymore lol after a little pressure he gave that up too. I am not sure if he has ever been in the cross ties but he handled the cross ties fantastically only getting nervous when people went behind him. The barn i board at is build really weird i will take some pictures when i go out tonight. He was great to saddle up as usual and lunging him was a good he just got a little nervous because there were other people in the arena.

After a quick lunge and a few circles at the mounting block finally we were on, it was my first time riding in my new saddle and for a cheap saddle it was super comfy i love it. My trainer T had me walking around at first (it has been about 4 months since i have last ridden and almost 1 yr i think since G has been ridden) just getting used to the feeling of how when i tuck my seat right up and under me and tighten my abs G will walk slower and in a more rythmic pace (major AHA moment i sometimes get carried away by quick walking horses lmao).  We practiced keeping a steady rhythm (no matter how i spell that word it looks wrong sorry....) and keeping my hands stable and making sure that i am giving G the proper aids right from the get go. I also realised how sensitive he is, being a young horse and all, i will feel him tense up and be focusing on another horse or a scarey sound in the arena and all i have to do is talk to him and he relaxes completely as if to say "oh thank goodness i thought you left me alone in this big scary arena" needless to say another AHA moment.

We started some trop work and at first we just trotted around aimlessly with my bouncing around in the saddle like a noodle. I had a really hard time pushing myself into the saddle to get him to stop it was a little crazy but we started doing a few steps at a time and eventually had a fairly nice trot around the arena for a green horse and a green rider it felt fantastic when we found OUR rhythm.

My trainer T is amazing i love her to death she knows what i can do and pushes me to do it and not buy into my excuses. My riding was a thousand times better than four months ago because as i said in the begining my stress is gone... i feel so relaxed... still nervous but i am not nearly as tense. T got on G at the end of my lesson because he hit a bit of a wall and was just exhausted from our lesson it took everything i had to keep him forward at the end. He looked fantastic when she was riding him, T also said he was perfect for me once we get it we will be great.

We finished it off with G just wandering around the arena cooling himself out. Did i mention that my crush was there lol and of course he has to ask me how it is going with picking up G's feet in front of T. So after G was all straight legged for myself and my crush (im going to have to think of a clever name for him later) T walked over picked up his leg and held on while G flailed a little, and pretended he was going to fall, after that he stood still. I hadnt realised how much i was buying into his pretend panic, So we will be working on that too lol.

Homework... well we hate corners... i dont know what it is but every horse i have ever ridden i struggle to get them into the corners..... so clearly it is me and not the horses lol so when i go out (im hoping to tonight) my crush will probably meet me there and will set up cones for me and we will practise getting deep into those corners. oh how i hate corners lol!!

4 comments:

  1. Glad you had a good ride!!

    Let's hear more about this crush!

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  2. Sounds like a great lesson! Now go get into those corners :)

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  3. Sounds like you had a really good first ride back and a good lesson. You can only get better from here. Corners are a problem for a lot of us, you'll get them too.

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  4. Ha Ha More on the crush to come!

    Corners are hard for me especially at a trot so there will be lots and lots of walk work into the corners then working on it at a trot :)

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