Last night's lesson wasn't my greatest, but it was still better than I've had before.
When Debbie asked how we were tonight, both B and I were very lazy. Although we both had very good reasons: I was sick, B's knee hurt. I got a cold again, with cough, sore throat and runny nose. Yay for head colds. B spent 13 hours this weekend in tall spiky heels dancing (her daughter's wedding) so she strained her knee.
No cantering in today's lesson, Debbie said that I shouldn't get sweaty and catch a chill. So we did trot circles, serpentines and worked on our upward and downward transitions. Walk to trot, trot to walk. It was really good. I was getting her to not fall so much on her forehand when coming into the downward transition. I had no energy due to my cold really beating on me, so it was hard for me to drive her into the bridle.
B on the other hand, had an amazing lesson!! She's on a big mare named Jazzy who's not completely finished as a dressage horse yet, but she loves it cuz Jazzy's BIG. B loves her big draft horses with lots of hair. She is a pretty horse, but she has that attitude of "You can't make me do anything I don't want to do" (Big horse mentality). Jazzy's issue is that she's not quite sure she wants to do everything that we want her to do yet. She's been left to her own devices for a while so she's rebelling. This week, B didn't let her. She put her in her place and Jazzy was so shocked, that she didn't even try to not listen. It was really good for both of them.
Next week, hopefully I'm in tip-top shape, and ready to tackle dressage anew. Plus, the barn's Holiday party is coming up next week!! I'm super excited.
xoxo
Showing posts with label transitions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transitions. Show all posts
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
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
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
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