Keep On Rising, Amazing Lesson #2

The lessons just keep getting better and better.

I may have missed last weeks lesson, but man, I think I'm better for it. I was on fire last night. Literally and figuratively as well. I wore all my new winter clothes, and was so warm. Totally worth the huge spending that I dropped in Greenhawk 2 weeks ago. My legs were warm without long johns, and my TOES. They were warm without two pairs of socks on. Shocking, I know. Granted the weather wasn't at it's all time low (-20) but at a gentle low of -6. That I can handle. I rode Tiffany again. I'm so not wanting her to get sold. I will cry if she does, because she's amazing and I can deal with her. We work together amazingly.

There are moments when she gets tense. Debbie (my coach) was talking to me about it. The girl who's interesting in purchasing her asked her why she's saying that Tiffany is "an intermediate" horse. She was telling me that it's because when Tiff isn't 100% sure what the rider wants, or if it's not going accordingly to how she thinks it's supposed to go, then she gets tense. Which brings on a major case of the wiggles, and over anticipation. I counteract that with just doing something else. Going back to slow. Walk to trot transitions instead of trot to canter. Serpentines. Circles. Leg yields. It was an amazing lesson. I was doing trot leg yields to the wall and then cantering out of them. My transitions are getting so much better. There are moments when going a certain direction that I know that I'm the one doing things wrong, not having enough support on the outside to counteract her wiggles, so then she falls apart. And won't be able to pick up the correct lead. Although, she makes it tough because she LOVES to counter-canter. I've never known a horse to love it so much that she won't change and does a serpentine on the one lead. And nicely too. She's so cute to ride. I think that she'll be able to teach me how to do flying lead changes (if she's around that long). I sincerely hope that she will be.

Until next week,
xoxo

Another Lesson...

...Cancelled.

I know. I hate it when I miss lessons, but B had a huge headache and was unable to drive me or herself up to the barn. She left it at such short notice that my parents couldn't drive me either. Sigh. Such is life when I don't drive myself.

It's kind of disappointing because I was ready to wear all my new winter clothes and try them all out that night!

Such is life. She seems to have passed her headache on to me...
Better luck for next week!
xoxo

Winter Costs...

Oh man. Greenhawk, you sly mistress. Sucking me in with deals and clearance, only to have me walking out with $400 worth of more horse stuff.

Why must horse gear be so EXPENSIVE?!

New boots, new pants, new socks, new sweater. New outfit. And a boot jack.

No more clothes for me. But they're all for winter, so not likely that I'll need to repurchase anytime soon.

Thank Heavens.
xoxo

I Think I'm Starting to Get This...

This week's lesson was great. I feel myself just getting better and better.

The first week of January's lesson, I just wasn't on. I was having seriously technical difficulties with my left side, not just my hand. Kept letting my outside aids fall to the wayside. So she kept getting away from me in her collection. I wasn't connected to my core so she was kind of all over the place because I was all over the place. The reference my coach uses for what my outside rein should be like is that it's like a tight rope, and there's a little man trying to walk it. If it bounces, your little man will fall off (which is not what you want). It means that your contact with her outside is not constant. That lesson, every time I looked down to check, there was my rein, bouncing all over the place. I couldn't feel that my hand was letting the reins slip or anything. I think that was the most frustrating thing. I couldn't feel my hand and what it was doing. I thought that it was ok when it wasn't.

This week's lesson I worked on my canter. Canter serpentines! It was really cool, I'd never actually done them before. Tiffany is so pro. Sadly, someone emailed about her the other day, so I might be out of another horse. On the up side, my coach said that she'd get the girl to come out on a Wednesday when I ride to showcase her. FML. So much pressure!!! Maybe I'll get Tiz to come out and tape me as well. =D that'd be pretty epic.

Canter serpentines... Just not flying lead changes in between :) 

Lesson #??

Oh man. I've been so negligent with all my blogs but this one in particular. I've been so lazy with uploading pictures to my computer, I'm now on "vacation" (more like holidays) so I think I will be uploading and blogging like crazy. Taking pictures like crazy.

I have a crazy idea. I don't know if I'll be able to do it for awhile. But I would love to be able to videotape my riding lessons and post them up here. Or at least bits of it. The good, the bad and the ugly.

Maybe I'll get the boyfriend out one day to tape me.

Lessons are going really well. I'm on a different horse again, but I think I've found my match. :) He's a Morgan-Arabian cross (which I'm not a huge fan of, generally) but he's super cute. He's super tiny but he's all power *cough Morgan cough* I've ridden him 3 times now. He's super cute! He was a little spooky last week, but nothing unmanageable. He has a nice canter, haha. He's so comfortable, and he's fun. He makes learning dressage fun. =D

Brodie!!

Isn't he cute?
xoxo

Slight Hiatus

Sadly, I won't be able to update this one as I won't be in any riding lesson until December.

The price of getting your eyes lasered! The surgeon said I needed 2 weeks off so, 2 weeks it will be.

See you in 2 weeks!
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