Last nights lesson was great it was a huge leap forward for me in my confidence with riding G i have so much to write!
My new coach has recommended some tack for us to try to hopefully help us move forward with out training. I was previously riding in a standing martingale because G at one point would get frusterated and turn to tossing his head which i found terrifying so that helped me get passed the head tossing and not cause any further anxiety but we have now outgrown the standing martingale so last night my coach had me ride in a breast plate with a running martingale.
Made a big difference it helped keep G's head night and low and helped to keep him off of my hands as well as keep my jiggling hands somewhat off of his face. Now to come up with $100 to buy one of these bad boys... until i can afford this my trainer is going to let me use hers, i am very happy i can retire the standing martingale. YAY for progress!
She also had me try out a new bit one that would prevent G from grabbing onto the bit and resisiting originally i was riding in a typical Eggbutt Snaffle like this one. (not quite that thin... mine was much thicker than that)
And last night i rode in one that looks like this.
The combination of the change in tack made a huge different in our ride, he felt amazing (not to mention was back to being sound after having his shoes pulled). Our trot work was great it was very forward and he kept his head nice and low as i had mentioned.
Some of the other boarders brought a few horses into the arena that were causing some craziness at one end so Nat had us stay on a circle at one end and work on riding a circle with an inside bend in both directions at a walk and a trot. Then she asked for us to pick up a canter... oh no... this is something that we had done virtually 0 work on because i had such bad anxiety towards it for no apparent reason is started to make excuses for why we should be able to "practice" on the weekend and work on it in our next lesson (thank fully before i started taking lessons i told Nat that i was full of crap and i had no reason for the anxiety and had asked not to buy into my excuses and to make me do it) she gave me a look and told me to canter down the long wall behind the other girl in my lesson. I kissed at G and squeezed and because the horse in front was doing it he started cantering as well we did pretty good werent as unbalance as we usually are.
We came back to the circle and did a little more trot with an inside bend asking with our outside leg to make the circle smaller and smaller. Then Nat asked us to canter on the circle this was something that made me a little nervous because in my head i could see G running away with me over the jumps and what not in the arena but we did it Nat was awesome she kept talking to me and telling me to slow the trot down before asking for the canter and explained we wanted a nice slow trot before the canter to put him on his hind end before asking. The first couple times we cantered on the circle i was really heavy in the saddle and very active with my hands but with each attempt it got a little bit better and i gained a little bit more confidence, there was very little head tossing and that was curbed with the martingale very quickly.
I felt very accomplished after yesterdays ride even though i have the worst cold on the planet im an excited to go out tonight and ride, i am hoping that we will be able to canter again by our selves so we can be ready for next weeks lesson.
My new coach has recommended some tack for us to try to hopefully help us move forward with out training. I was previously riding in a standing martingale because G at one point would get frusterated and turn to tossing his head which i found terrifying so that helped me get passed the head tossing and not cause any further anxiety but we have now outgrown the standing martingale so last night my coach had me ride in a breast plate with a running martingale.
She also had me try out a new bit one that would prevent G from grabbing onto the bit and resisiting originally i was riding in a typical Eggbutt Snaffle like this one. (not quite that thin... mine was much thicker than that)
Some of the other boarders brought a few horses into the arena that were causing some craziness at one end so Nat had us stay on a circle at one end and work on riding a circle with an inside bend in both directions at a walk and a trot. Then she asked for us to pick up a canter... oh no... this is something that we had done virtually 0 work on because i had such bad anxiety towards it for no apparent reason is started to make excuses for why we should be able to "practice" on the weekend and work on it in our next lesson (thank fully before i started taking lessons i told Nat that i was full of crap and i had no reason for the anxiety and had asked not to buy into my excuses and to make me do it) she gave me a look and told me to canter down the long wall behind the other girl in my lesson. I kissed at G and squeezed and because the horse in front was doing it he started cantering as well we did pretty good werent as unbalance as we usually are.
We came back to the circle and did a little more trot with an inside bend asking with our outside leg to make the circle smaller and smaller. Then Nat asked us to canter on the circle this was something that made me a little nervous because in my head i could see G running away with me over the jumps and what not in the arena but we did it Nat was awesome she kept talking to me and telling me to slow the trot down before asking for the canter and explained we wanted a nice slow trot before the canter to put him on his hind end before asking. The first couple times we cantered on the circle i was really heavy in the saddle and very active with my hands but with each attempt it got a little bit better and i gained a little bit more confidence, there was very little head tossing and that was curbed with the martingale very quickly.
I felt very accomplished after yesterdays ride even though i have the worst cold on the planet im an excited to go out tonight and ride, i am hoping that we will be able to canter again by our selves so we can be ready for next weeks lesson.
