Agghh.. I'm a little bit late in writing this, considering it's pushing it close to my next lesson... which will be tomorrow. But I guess better late then never?
Last week's lesson was interesting, to say the least. Little Tiffany is "on holidays" due to the fact that she has girth sores. So I got the honourable pleasure of riding Max. A cute little palamino QH gelding who was originally trained Western, but now does dressage. He is 17 years old, and she's slowly weaning him out of retirement from the school ring, and getting him back in shape for the summer when Jim starts riding him on the trails.
Since he hasn't been in the riding ring for many a moon since he was taking advantage of students, he was a mixed bag of feelings for me. Not truly angry that he had to work, but had the attitude of one that hasn't been made to work in a long time, and he liked it that way. But he also liked going, regardless of his current fitness level. It was an interesting start to the lesson. He was very pushy in the aisles, but nothing that I can't handle. We get on, and I'm walking around, and he keeps taking me into the corner where his buddy and his stall are. Oh no no no. We are NOT spending this lesson in the corner. I have spent my fair share and I'm better and more balanced then I was when I started.
We talked.
We discussed.
In the end, he decided that my way was happier.
He fought my decision, decided to see if he could scare me into caving. He was a little pissy. A couple times I thought he was seriously debating whether it would be worth it to throw me off. He didn't. He made the right decision. But he made me work for it. I decided to make him work at a trot, since he wanted to go fast, and on a circle away from his little buddy. The 3 women in the lesson before us, were just talking and watching, and they started shouting out to me. "Jasmine, make that little pony slow down!" and then he went into a canter, and one woman I heard her say "Ohh what a little doucher!". It made me smile but I was concentrating pretty hard. Once he realized that I was making him work, he seemed to chill (just a little bit). But he would occasionally test me throughout the rest of the lesson. I have a feeling that Debbie liked how I worked with him and how I handled him, so I think that I might be on him more often... Even if Tiffany comes out of her holiday.
We didn't really work on anything in specific, just some circles, serpentines, and some lateral movement. Mostly it was because Max couldn't really do too much being so out of shape. Even if he had lots of energy.
The Barn Holiday party!! I forgot to talk about it! It was so. much. fun. I went with Bridget, and Mom couldn't take the day off, so it was just us two. We were kind of awkward once we first got there, mainly because a lot of the people there all knew each other because they were all related in some way. Once more "barn people" started showing up it was amazing. The women there are so inspiring, especially for me being my age. Most are late 20's - early 30's, have careers, have horses, their own places. It's what I want for myself. They are hilarious, and even though they can afford their own horses it's not rubbed in your face and it doesn't stop them from talking to you. Super friendly barn. The best part is that there isn't that gossipy-back stabbing feel from the barn. Every one is truly happy with where they are, the coach, the treatment of their horses, etc. It's a nice change from most barns. I met another girl (woman...) who rides Tiffany as well, and we bonded over that, and she just recently got married. It was interesting because this was the first barn party that actually had alcohol. And people actually drank. It was pretty sweet. I didn't, but that's just me. It was finally nice to see people that Debbie's always talking about, and to talk about other things than horses.
This one was pretty long, more tomorrow!
xoxo
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