Well, he's pretty much a bear. I love Rupert! I'm in a very happy mood from my lesson today. There were four of us again, we have a new person (cannot remember her name, oh no!) but Gemma from last week didn't come. (That will be me next week... although going on holiday makes up for missing a weeks worth of riding!)
One of the girls (Amie) had Dan... poor girl! I think I've made better friends with her than anyone else in the group, maybe because she's closest to my age. (Well, six years younger than me, but I'm young at heart!)
We finally had the indoor school to ourselves! (Insert dance).
I was so pleased! I asked the instructors before the lesson if we'd always be sharing the school, and they said it was just due to the bad weather we'd been having. (Sigh of relief).
To begin with we did a lot of walk - halt work. We did some of this on each rein, then did the same but without stirrups. It amazed me how much I rely on them, when I asked Rupert to stop my legs swung forwards and my shoulders back, in a poor, incorrect attempt to get my message across! I quickly sorted this out, and did every walk - halt - walk transition much better after!
After about 20 minutes we began on trot work, and Rupert is fantastic for working on your position in trot, as you barely need to move him along! He has a wonderful, springy trot that only needs a squeeze every few beats just to keep going. Then our stirrups were taken away. And oh dear. I felt like I was one of those rubber balls attached by elastic to a ping pong paddle. And the only time I had the swinging motion perfect, I was looking down! I was so annoyed with myself, that has to be my worst habit that I NEED to improve! I am terrible for looking at the horse! (And somewhat my crotch, I guess looking at my hips pushing with the trot motion helps?) Simon suggested to think about how I drive my car, because I certainly don't spend my time driving staring at the bonnet! It helps a lot in the indoor school that they have mirrors at one end, so going down one long side you can check your position and focus on one point at the end.
We did lots of circles and changes of rein, I am getting a lot better at using my legs to direct the horse around the circle, just using the reins to point their head in the right direction.
I was hoping Simon would squeeze in a canter each at the end of the lesson but I suppose he wants everyone to have sitting and rising trot nailed, and lower legs strong before we all move on to cantering. (I hope we do the week after next though, and not next week, so I can be there to see everyone's canters!)
I only get to ride once more before my holiday, but I don't post about the other rides I do on this blog. I look after an 18 year old, 13.3HH new forest gelding on Mondays called Bruno, and ride an 18 year old, 13.1HH gelding on Fridays called Ziggy. (What is it with me and 18 year olds?!) Both are wonderful ponies, so I may post about them from time to time.
Is it sad that I'm really upset that I'm not going to be able to ride for a whole week? Because I'll be lying on a beach? Something tells me I'm going to be booking a ride in Majorca...
xx
Ohhhh my goodness I had Dan for my lesson yesterday. Dan's a pony, by the way. He might look like a sweet little angel in the picture but one ride on him and you'll change your mind. This was my third ride on him. Let's just say Dan is the laziest horse you could ever meet. And if you try smack him with your whip he'll run into the wall. What a nightmare!
I was incredibly excited though because two new people have joined the group! Two girls, one named Amie and one name Gemma. (I'm better at remembering names than our instructor haha).
However.
Brat patrol come along as usual.
Only two this time (yay they must be outside!)
It' raining a little (drizzle compared to what we rode in last week)
Mummy comes in with that bitch smile, and they split the indoor school in half.
I hate bitch smile people. It drives me insane. You can't deliver bad news, knowing you have the power and there's nothing anyone else can do about it, with a big fat smile on your face. I know one other person like this. Everyone hates her too. I'm yet to meet a bitch smile man. Maybe it's a woman thing.
So two in one half of the school and four in the other? With an empty outdoor school? Doesn't that just sound like the fairest situation anyone's ever come up with?
All I could hear for their half hour lesson was their instructor yelling at them to pay attention, pull on their reins, turn, pay attention again, etc etc. Then one of the boys started crying, and everyone ran over with comforting words. All I could think was, "if you're going to sit there crying like a brat, then fuck off so we can use the school instead!" Then when they left, our poor instructor had to put all the dividing poles and blocks away! Rude!
This lesson was just exhausting. I can't think of another way to describe it. Constant trot work with constant nudging, then kicking, then booting, then smacking for an hour. I could have wrung the sweat from my t-shirt after. The other girls were fairly novice, but you can see their potential and that they have been taught well so far. Unfortunately there was a bad mix of horses in the group, two super slow, and two super fast. One of the fast horses kept going up everyone's butts, and the girl riding didn't realise she should turn away or circle in this situation, and poor Rupert ended up getting kicked! Another reason why a tiny schooling space is not a good idea.
A huge dinner and a glass of wine was most definitely needed in the evening.
I'm sorry, this blog post is just incredibly whiny and ranty. I just can't understand why the yard owner has made a new group that conflicts with another lesson. I just can't work it out. It's moronic, either put their lesson half an hour back, or move ours half an hour forward. Problem solved.
Shame she won't care what anyone has to say. Maybe we should all go in as a unit and not back down to her. Work as a team against her ;)
xx
I had my second lesson yesterday, on the gorgeous little Conker! It's very clearly Autumn right now. Raining pretty much every day... needing a coat on to go outside... Christmas already appearing in the shops! It's ridiculous, I used love Christmas so so much, but when it's around in September (3 1/2 months away from the damn day), by the time it actually gets to Christmas day, I'm bored of it! I want nothing more to do with it! Let it be over! It's a shame that I love it for the food and present part of it, rather than the magical. It stopped being magical when I popped to the loo at around the age of 7 to discover a man that was definitely not Santa Claus drinking the brandy and eating the cookies. And then that same man woke me and my sister up later by accident, bringing in stockings. Goodbye magic, hello reality.
Anyway, my lesson! It started with me retrieving Conker from a little girl in the indoor school, where I stood and waited holding him thinking, "Yes, we're in here and not in the rain!" Insert the three little brats. What was I thinking, of course I wasn't inside...BRATS! It looks as though their lesson is going to be a weekly thing. If it is, and they continue forcing our lesson outside in the rain, I'll be talking to the yard owner. I don't think it's right to start up a new group lesson when the little brats are around. Because they'll get the special treatment. If this group gets to three people, then who will get the special treatment? I will be intrigued to see how this pans out.
So yes, I got sent outside, again. In the rain, again. And oh look, a new rider in the group! That makes it up to a colossal 2. God I hope more people join. The new rider is named Audrey, she seemed really lovely, but I didn't get to talk to her or pay much attention to her because I was concentrating too much on my lesson. Again, we did a lot of trot work. I love this instructor. He will have you trotting pretty much the whole lesson, and because we are adults and not whiny children, we push through the "I NEED TO REST" barrier, and carry on. It's going to do wonders for my riding fitness! I also found out he precedes all horse names with the word "young". I thought he called Elliot "young Elliot" last week simply because he was only 8, which is pretty young! But he was calling Conker and Rupert (Audrey's horse for the ride) young, I had to stop myself laughing, it was adorable in a way!
We carried on with lots of trot work, and transition work to get the horses listening better. The rain came down hard, and I was glad to have a peak on my riding hat, it disguised some of the downpour! My legs were telling a very different story though, they were cold and soaked through! Another instructor came up and offered to split the indoor school in two, but Simon declined... I have a feeling he's not the only one that thinks the three little kids are brats...
We had a couple of canters on each rein, and Conker was brilliant at transitioning when I asked him to! I think Audrey was having a bit of trouble cantering Rupert because they knocked over a jumping block and it threw her confidence out the window. But that was pretty much all I noticed she did all lesson, I felt bad, I wanted to see if we were at the same sort of riding level but just didn't get a chance.
I am hoping for at least two more people next week. Please let us be a larger group than the brats! Please let it rain on them! Please let there be a traffic jam and they don't make it on time!
xx
We finally had the indoor school to ourselves! (Insert dance). 
