This is the only picture I could find of the horse I rode yesterday (not me riding). Her name is Bally, she is young, green, and has pretty much just pulled a cart all her life! She very much likes to be with her friends! There were only four of us in the group today, which meant lots of jumping! (And yet again, no cantering?) We did our usual half an hour of flatwork. We did an exercise where we would trot the long side, then walk the short side. Then we did some figure of eights in rising trot and sitting trot. Sitting trot is difficult on Bally, not because she's bouncy, but she's so wiggly and speeds up like crazy when her friends are ahead of her! I had to turn her away a lot, and really let her know we were going where I wanted, not where she wanted! I'd seen Bally jumping before so I knew I'd be having some fun! We did a 1 foot cross pole to start with. She was really comfy to jump! Then Simon put a second jump in. Most of the time she'd trot between the two,but there were a couple of times where we got a canter! It's just so much easier! The jumps are at a 4 stride distance apart, so it's really easy to go "1, 2, 3, 4, fold!" in your head. After a few goes round we got called into the middle along with Lauren on Charlie. The other girls (Amie and Charlotte) had a few more goes on the smaller jumps. Amie really struggled on George, he was doing his trick of cantering past all the jumps! And because we haven't had a cantering lesson yet, Amie nearly fell off! She loses her balance because her heel goes up, then her lower leg swings back, sending her upper body forward. Simon dealt with it well though, he led her over the next few jumps in trot, then slowly let her go over them by herself. She was doing fine by the end, not sure if she'll want George again though! Charlotte was doing really well over the jumps! She just carried on trotting around, hop, hop, trot, hop, hop trot. She's really improving fast, it's really good to see. Simon then popped the jumps up to 2 foot cross poles and let me and Lauren go round. We were constantly going over the jumps, we must have gone round about ten times, but it was so good! I never did get her going up the long side without wiggling everywhere, but I managed to keep her straight between the jumps by the end of it! At the end of the lesson Simon asked us our usual "what colour is your horse?" question. Then he asked us parts of the bridle, then parts of the saddle. Although I know the parts of the saddle, I could only remember the pommel. cantle and knee rolls off the top of my head. Simon asked me to learn all the parts for next week, so here's an annotated diagram of a saddle, if you're interested! xx
I've got a mega manky cold today, so when I peered warily over the counter to look in the book and found out I had Dan, I wasn't impressed. I thought to myself, "Right, just get on him and show him who's boss!" I never got to show Dan who's boss. We got in the school, and as usual, I put my stirrups on, then adjusted the girth. I had another feel of the girth and figured it could go up another hole. In all my years of tacking up horses (about 2 ha), I've always let go of the reins to do the girth. I'm a weak armed lady. I need two hands to do it. I've never been told to do it any different, nobody has ever said "Hey, that's the wrong way". So when Dan pinned his ears back and bolted, I was not prepared. I tried to grab the reins but missed, he ran off and gave Shamus a double footed kick! I had no idea what to do, luckily Simon came charging over shouting "I will not have that in my lesson!" I thought Dan would just get a little telling off, but he got one of the girls working there to take him away. I felt awful! I kept apologising and he said it was OK, not to worry about it, but I feel so stupid! I went down to the stables where a girl had tacked up Rupert for me. I sheepishly took him to the school where everyone was walking around. I got on and was admittedly relieved I wasn't riding Dan. I'd never seen him flip out like that before! The other times I've ridden him I've done the same thing. Poor Shamus. We did a lot of trot work today. We did our shallow loops on both reins, then went large around the school standing up. I still find this so damn difficult! Rising trot - fine. Sitting trot - fine. Trotting without stirrups - fine. Trotting in a light seat - fine. Trotting standing - FAIL! I have to hold onto mane or I plop straight back into the saddle after a few strides. I tried to let go, but plop. Amie was doing really well today, she could stand trotting fine, and while everyone else was faffing around at the C end of the school trying to get out of each other's way, she was happily trotting around the A end. It was funny, but good as she normally doesn't concentrate on what she's doing, so if Simon tells her to change the rein or do a circle, she'll carry on as if nothing was said! After a bit of standing in the stirrups we had them taken away. I checked myself in the mirror, and I was sitting to the trot fine, but I sure felt bouncy! Especially down the long side when there's a horse ahead of Rupert! We did the shallow loops again, and I felt a bit wobbly and one sided. I now realise I should have squeezed him to direct him with my leg rather than kick, because when I kick with just one leg in sitting trot my knees pinch and I start to slide! I must remember that for next time... Our lesson had got to over halfway through and Simon hadn't made a grab for any poles or blocks, so I was really hoping we'd get a canter! Unfortunately a couple of minutes after I was thinking that, the poles were brought down. It's not that I don't enjoy the jumping, I just really want a canter! I can canter on Ziggy and Bruno, but it's good to have someone watching you and helping you get it right. I'm worried I've picked up bad canter habits because nobody has been keeping an eye on me! We did the jump a few times on the left rein. Such a teeny little jump. A 2 foot cross pole. Most of the horses just treated it as a trot pole! One of the girls had Bally, and Bally loves to jump. Amazingly she kept her in a steady trot over them! Our lesson ended 5 minutes early today, 10 if you count the walking around chatting. I do like the end of lesson chats. Simon normally asks us what our horses colour is, their markings, what breed/type they are, how we found the lesson etc. I like it, but I'm a bit of a Hermione Granger when nobody else knows the answers! xx
I had one of my favourite horses today, Charlie! (How cute is he?) He's a bit funny on the ground but a dream to ride! He loves to pop a little jump and really puts effort into it. I went to put my stirrups onto the saddle at the start of the lesson, and one snapped! Damn me buying cheap imported leather... Luckily it snapped nowhere near my holes so I could ride in them, but I will be taking them back to Stockley Trading tomorrow and buying some decent ones instead!
We did a bit of walking around, then a lot of trotting. We did a circle at one end then went large. I felt like I was doing quite well, because Simon wasn't commenting on my circles, but advising adjusting my position slightly, e.g. turn my belly button a little more, put my inside shoulder back slightly. Nearly everyone else was working on the shape of their circle. It felt nice to feel a little more advanced at the exercise! We then had our stirrups taken away, and Charlie is either pretty comfy or my sitting trot has really improved! We did the same circling exercise, and I felt like I was doing pretty well! We got our stirrups back after about ten minutes, then Simon got the jump blocks out. No cantering again! I really want to canter into the jumps, but I guess I just have to do what he says! We did a double of two small cross poles, then after a few goes round he raised them. On one go round, Charlie jumped the first cross pole really nicely, and we cantered to the second one! We got over it really nicely, and I let out a "WOOHOO!", I was a little excited! Half way through our little jumping spree, the lights in the indoor school suddenly went out! Luckily nobody's horse spooked, we all dismounted, and waited 5 or so minutes for someone to fix the power. Poor Amie was only a couple of strides away from the jump! When the lights came back on (it looked really odd and bright), we got to do the double loads of times. I was having so much fun, so when Simon started asking people to turn in to the centre to give their horses a fuss and jump off, I was gutted! I really wanted one more go. One of the ladies I ride with, Audrey, said that I look really neat going over the jumps! (Getting big headed!). After I hopped off and was trying to get my stirrups off Charlie's saddle, he turned around and bit me! I have a nice little bruise now, the bastard. xx
Ahh little Bruno-bum. My adorable part loan! I had a friend come up the yard with me yesterday afternoon, so I could finally get a video on Bruno! The weather was terrible, but he was an angel for me! I'm very proud of this video, I feel a lot worse than I look it seems! I have my lesson tonight, I'm very pumped for it! I'm using too many exclamation marks! xx
Yet another lesson where we jumped but didn't do any cantering! I had the gorgeous Elliot today, he was very forward for our flatwork but I wasn't doing so well at getting him forward over the jumps. Well, I say jumps, the largest was 1 foot. So for big old Elliot, it was a raised trot pole! I bought all my own stirrup bits today! I bought some second hand bent leg irons at a tack sale the other day (along with a cross country top and a show jacket, getting a bit ambitious I think!). Then I bought new treads and leathers today. It looks like I'm going to have to punch some new holes for jumping in my leathers though, I had them on the highest hole for the flatwork today. I did have them a hole lower, and although they were fine in the walk, trotting was really hard work, so I had to pop them up a little. We all had the usual shambles warming up. It'll now take me less time to sort out my stirrups seeing as I know what length I need now. The problem we all have is getting in each others way. It isn't made any easier by the horses all going at different speeds. I suppose it's easier if your horse is slower, you can just keep plodding along whilst everyone has to move around you! Elliot was on a bit of a mission today though so I had to turn away a lot. A big chunk of our lesson today was devoted to shallow loops on both reins. First in walk, then in trot. Then we had the stirrups taken away. I really think I'm going to have to invest in some better fitting boots and leather gaiters (Christmas present?), as I have issues with my Dublin Pinnacles when I ride stirrupless! Riding with stirrups is perfectly fine in them, so when I look after horses I can do my yard jobs then ride. I don't tend to ride without stirrups with the horses I look after. I haven't got quite used to Bruno's trot yet, and with Ziggy I'll either ride with stirrups or bareback. My main issue with my boots is that they slip off my feet a little, so I'm concentrating more on shoving my feet back into them than on the riding! The top of the boots also catch on the saddle, which makes it very hard to keep my legs in the right position. Again, I concentrate on wiggling my leg out of the saddle catching than the riding! Oops! I think until I get some nice new riding boots I will ride my lessons in my manky old jodhpur boots and suede half chaps. Now to convince someone to get me a Stockley Trading gift voucher for Christmas... I struggled a bit with Elliot's trot when I didn't have my stirrups. I was really annoyed about this because I was doing sitting trot on him with stirrups really well! I also had a very successful sitting trot with stirrups session with Bruno yesterday! So I'm blaming the boots! When we had about 20 minutes left Simon set up 2 poles and when we'd gone over them a couple of times he changed them to 1 foot cross poles. After we did that on each rein a few times he changed the first jump to a 1 foot vertical. I wish we could do them in canter, I find it much easier as the jump is like another canter stride. Trotting into jumps is just awkward! We hit them a few times because I couldn't get enough umph into Elliot's trot. The biggest horse there and he was the only one to knock them down! Haha! Can't wait for next week! xx
I've been very busy the past couple of days (looking after a horse on box rest) so I completely forgot about my riding blog! I was very sad to miss last weeks lesson, but time passes fast! There were seven people in the group this week! One girl was just sneaking into the lesson as she had been working at the yard all day, but still, that meant the group is actually up to six people! This means they will not be cancelling it! I went into the yard office feeling a big sleepy - I had returned from my holiday at around 2am, then had a 6.30am start looking after the horse, went and did yard chores twice more that day and did a load of house chores. Then I got told I had Dan! I figured I would be sleeping very well that night. The starts of the lessons are always a bit of a nightmare. Everyone is working out their stirrups and girth, then when people start warming up their horses people are getting in each others way. Part of my plan to make this time for myself shorter is to buy my own stirrup irons and leathers, that way I can always quickly adjust them to my perfect height. (I might even tippex flatwork and jumping length markers on them). I'm going to a tack sale tonight, and I have bent iron safety stirrups in mind, so fingers crossed I find some! Dan at the start of the lesson was his usual, lazy self. I had my determined hat on today though with a "Don't you dare, I'm not taking crap today" attitude. And for the majority of the lesson he was really well behaved! (For Dan) We had a few moments where he just walked into the walls, but I was pleasantly surprised that he wasn't too difficult to handle. He was probably having a good day, but I'll pretend it was all down to my determined riding. We did about half an hour of trot work to begin with. At one point we all waiting in a line whilst one person would go sitting trot to the back of the ride. It was a good opportunity to check out everyone's riding. Most people seem to be at my sort of level, and there are a couple who are a little less skilled so far. Everyone had a go though! I was really excited to see Simon bring out the jumping blocks halfway through the lesson. Then I stopped and thought "but we haven't even had a good cantering lesson yet, or been taught a jumping position". We all just walked over a pole in a jumping position first, then trotted over the world's smallest jump (I'm not even joking, it was 20cm, tops). Some of the girls (no offence to them) are really not ready for jumping. I don't really understand why Simon is teaching jumping before cantering. Maybe because they were so tiny and pretty much raised trot poles. I'll admit I struggled with the jumping rhythm a little, I think partly because it was in trot (so much easier in canter), and partly because any jumping I've done this year has been preceded by riding in a light seat, whereas Simon was teaching us from rising trot. I'm hoping we will canter next lesson, I haven't cantered in a long time now! (Around a month). I'm riding Ziggy today but I will be riding my usual bareback, and I'm still working on my bareback trot with him. I'm not quite brave enough for the canter to trot transition bareback... I've already posted a picture of Dan previously, so here's a photo of the horse I'm looking after, Barney! xx
