Finally Updating Here

Ok, so I lied a little bit. I am back though. I'm really going to try and keep up with this one. It's not that hard, I ride once a week. I just have to post after my lesson. Easy Peasy. Sigh.

Anyways. Lessons. Things have been going really, really well. I'm loving my lessons. Even though they are probably the hardest work I've ever had to do with riding, it's the best. It's just pure accomplishment.

Bridget has been MIA the past couple of weeks, so I've had quite a few private lessons, which are awesome. I love riding with Bridget, but having an occasional private is totally awesome. Although, her not riding for a couple weeks won't be a benefit to her.

When Bridget is in the lesson with me, I ride Gillian. Yup, back on Gillian. Which shockingly I'm enjoying. She still frustrates the crap out of me, but I'm starting to push back a little. Not letting her bully me anymore. Sure, she still gets away from me sometimes, but then I make her work harder. And then I get her amazing. And I get a feel of what she should/could/would do for me, if I could only get her like that from the beginning, and not just the last 20 mins of my lesson. She's making me work harder, and totally change my riding habits. Totally awesome, and totally worth it. I've never felt soo happy when I get something right with her.

When Bridget isn't in lesson with me, I ride Tiffany. Who is sooo so soo cute. A little more... nervous than Gillian, but still brilliant. I work on cantering with her more than Gillian, so it's nice for that little break sometimes. She makes me work hard too. It's a lot of fun on her though, less stressful in a way. I don't always have to be on top of her, two steps ahead, and I can still get results. And results are always good. Although, the last two lessons on her have been more difficult because the weather has been seriously bad. Heavy, heavy rainfall and so she had more trouble concentrating, and gets really... hot. She's a little harder to get to pay attention, and last Wednesday, even I was having trouble concentrating. We still did really well, but it was just too much happening between the rain, and multiple people in the arena (I rode in the earlier lesson with Adriana, Tina was away as well). It was just a lot of commotion. It was fun because we were doing small pattern-type exercises. Throwing more movements together, even if they are just small ones: Leg yield, circles at a walk and a trot. But it's the fact that you want her collected, in a frame, and moving well. So much harder than it sounds.

I finally have internet up at home, so I'll be able to edit and post some videos of me riding up! Andrew has the majority of them, but I'll see what I can do!
xoxo

Knees Turn to Jelly

I was all ready to ride Gillian. Not looking forward to it, persay, mainly because yesterday was a bitch-ass day, and not in the good way. So expect my surprise when I get there, Gillian had just finished being ridden and I had the CHOICE to ride either Gillian or Max. I chose Max. I was like, "Today is just not a Gillian day." Fighting with Max is a completely whole other ballgame.
And one that I can win easier.
And not get as frustrated.
We stuck with simple stuff, getting him to listen to me first off. Which is fine, because he listens until he just tries to go where he wants to. So you put him in his place with a quiet "discussion". Once you get him there, he's like gold. Light on the reins, moving off leg and body, perfect. He's a little out of shape so he's not perfection yet, but he still has it there. Under the covers. Definitely doesn't act his age.
It's amazing when you can apply pressure in one area in a certain way, you can feel him move. And where you want him to move.
I'm slowly getting used to using more of my knee to make them do what I want them to do. It's insane. My legs are like jelly once my lesson is over. I never used my knees in Western other than to not make them stick out. I feel like my body position is all over the place, but when I actually use my knee, it really does work. I just have to be more consistent with it. I had him working on leg yield, shoulder fore, and shoulder in. Plus circles. He was a little bit of a bugger in the beginning, he actually kicked out with me on him, but it was so non-threatening that I was more worried that he would hit Debbie.
My knees are paying for it this morning... I need to start doing more stretches and exercises to make me less... out of shape.

Until next week,
xoxo

Pictures That I Owe

Gillian :) 

Jazzy

Max

The True TESTament of My Ability

Last night's lesson... was eventful.

I wasn't sure who I was going to be riding, but I was fairly certain that it would be Max (picture still to come). But there was nothing on the board, and the weather was pretty bad, but B and I perservered this time. Debbie drops the bomb.

I'm riding... Gillian.



Sigh. At least she's inside right? I really try to like this mare. I was happy in the cross ties, I was happy getting on her, I was exuding happy thoughts. But this mare, she's just so... mare-ish. We were walking around just fine, and then I asked her for a trot and she's gone. Doing tiny circles in the middle of the arena (at least we weren't stuck in the corner..). So Debbie gives me a whip to help Gillian keep her left shoulder up, and omg. Did that ever work. Not fool proof, because she took off at a raring-to-go trot that I had a hard time stopping... I finally got her on a circle, and Debbie was helping me out. One way (to the left), I got it. It was amazing. I had her moving off my leg and body, and she was stretching out towards the contact, and I was able to relax and be light. But.. to the right. She would go ok for awhile and then decide to duck out on me. And take me all the way to the other end of the arena. This horse, she is FAST. I think the fastest horse I've ever been on. It's not just that she has speed, she also has this MONSTER stride that just eats up ground. I have zero reaction time. By the time the 3-second reaction time ends, she's already at the end of the arena and you're left wondering how you got there. Especially when she decides to canter to get there. Needless to say, I think I got one good circle before she decided to take off on me.

The other part of my lesson was that because it was raining and warming up a little, the snow on the roof kept falling off. Which kept freaking her out. So she had one good take off (which I managed to get under control faster than I could any other one) and a little smaller one. The middle of the arena also had some trot poles and the tiniest jump ever. Barely a foot. Well, guess who got to jump over that beast? Yup. Me. I managed to avoid it twice before I caved. The first time, I made her go over the trot poles instead. The second time, we missed the trot poles and she tripped/jumped a block. The third time, it was either jump or crash into it. I decided that we should jump it. I believe that as I made that decision, I said "Oh for the fucking love of God" *jump* (B afterwards said that this was hilarious because she heard it... She heard most of what I *thought* I was muttering under my breath... aka cursing at Gillian.) After that jump she kept trying to do it all the time, but I managed to get her to listen to me enough that we didn't try again. It was a definite work out. As I write this, I can feel my back ache and my core feels weak with exhaustion. Just another day after a lesson. My shoulders are all tight, and achey and I definitely didn't get enough sleep last night. To any random person who doesn't ride, this probably sounds like torture. Or at least enough pain to ask "Why does she put herself through that?" The main answer? It's a love. And it's rewarding as hell when you can actually get the horse to co-operate with you. When you both are working together and as one. Plus it's one hell of a work out. I've never worked so hard with my body while riding as I do with dressage. It's like people who run, or like pumping weights. I don't get it, but to each their own right?

At least I'm learning. As Debbie says, Gillian is the best teacher for teaching you to be light on the reins. If only it was easier... But riding Gillian will at least give me an interesting blog post every week.

Til next week,

xoxo

Lesson #4 and #5

I am sad to report that Winston, has been sold. I was very sad over this, because I loved him. He was such a sweetheart!

So instead of riding Winston, I began riding a beautiful dapple grey mare named Gillian. She's really nice, REALLY trained, and so far... A major C-H-A-L-L-E-N-G-E.  For me anyways. I've had one really amazing lesson on her. It just worked. I had her doing what I wanted, not the other way around. Shocking, I know. I have no idea what I was doing that worked SO well, but I can't seem to get it back. Oh, trust me, it's not for a lack of trying. She tricks me, this mare. She'll do it off right and then I relax and she takes me where she wants to go. *shakes head* The good thing, is that Debbie got on her last night (I froze on the ground though. November is too cold for me already) and she was surprised at how bad she was. It was really cool to see Debbie ride though. It showed me how she rode, what she did to correct, and what it's actually supposed to look like. Also glad to know that it wasn't just ME who was being mentally handicapped when it comes to riding her. (Not that Debbie was, but I found out that she's ridden by 3 other people, and that she wasn't giving her ribcage at all, so it was more difficult than usual to do anything with her). I also realized that this week, she wasn't ridden before me, so she didn't have all the time to warm up.

A couple weeks ago, Bridget and I had our first Lunge Lesson. We had never really had one like this before at all. I was SO tired afterwards. My legs died. It was so intense, but it allowed me to try Kermi! It was so good. I got a canter out of him, and it was fun doing no reins, no stirrup work. So much easier when you don't have to worry about where your horse is going to end up! It was nice to be able to not think about other stuff that had to be done and just FEEL.

It's nice because I finally think that the other girls are warming up to us! They actually talk to us a little bit. I always hate being the new person in a barn. It's like school... So intimidating!

xoxo

Dressaggge.

O.M.G.

I realized that switching disciplines would be difficult. But not this difficult. Last week, couldn't canter to save my life. This week, couldn't walk in a straight line, get out of corners or the middle of the arena.

I've never ridden a horse that is completely push button. Sounds easy right? So wrong. It'll be easy once I've found those buttons, but until then, I'm a terrible rider. I keep doing something with my body that tells Gillian (my horse) that I want something that I don't want. So it's not her fault, it's mine.

My new mantra:
I am a good rider. I am a good rider. I am a good rider.

Right?
xoxo