Pony Club Kicks - Cringe!

Yesterday I turned up early for the last lesson before Christmas,  so I could give out all my Christmas cards! All of them had horses on, for extra dorkiness. I looked in the book and saw I had George. I know I had Bally for three weeks, but I was kind of gutted I didn't have her again! I'd only ever ridden George once and I remember him being quite hard to jump. (He refuses a lot). 
We had an extra person in the group today, she was from the 7.15pm lesson though. She couldn't go to next weeks so decided to have a two hour slot! 
We pretty much had the same routine as last week. We had a slight change in the flatwork though. We did lots of standing in our stirrups, which I still cannot do to save my life! After a few trot strides I just slump back into the saddle. I find I have to grab onto a chunk of mane to keep me steady. I hope by the end of next year I'll be able to do it with no issues! We also did an exercise where we put our left hand into the small of our backs to open our chests more. We did this in standing trot, rising trot and sitting trot. I did ok, but George likes to cut corners so there was a lot of inside leg going on! After the trot work we halved the group for some cantering. Oh my goodness. George is so hard to keep in the canter! This is where my pony club kicks came in. Practically booting him every stride was the only way I managed to keep him from breaking into trot. I felt awful! I looked awful! My upper body was too far forward, my lower leg was slipping back, my feet went too far into the stirrups, my hands were a mess, argh! The biggest challenge was keeping him cantering over the three poles Simon had put out. It was so difficult. I think everyone found it hard, I only managed to keep him cantering over the poles once. 
After our exhausting canters, Simon sent everyone out trotting and set up three small cross poles. I tried to get George cantering between them but he only mustered the energy for it a couple of times. I was trying so hard to get him riled up! Simon popped up the jumps to 2 foot cross poles for myself, Audrey and Lauren, and we went over a few times. I felt so unorganised compared to when I was jumping on Bally. George is really sweet and comfortable, but I always prefer a more forward going horse. One that responds to a squeeze, or a click of the tongue. Simon keeps telling me off for clicking. He says "Kick, not click!" to me about 50 times per lesson. I need to sew my mouth shut! I tried really hard not to do it this week either, I vow that next week I shall not click, but to only KICK! 
At the end of the lesson Simon went round asking different parts of the bridle and saddle, asking everyone to name two parts each. He kept coming to me last, I think he's cottoned on to my boffin side! He also asked everyone to name native breeds. After everyone else had said what I was going to say, I only managed to name one breed! So here is a list of native breeds of horses and ponies that I shall learn for next week:

• Cleveland Bay Horse
• Clydesdale 
• Dales
• Dartmoor
• Eriskay
• Exmoor Fell
• Hackney Horse and Pony
• Highland
• New Forest
• Shetland
• Shire
• Suffolk Punch
• Welsh A, B, C and D

xx

Finally, cantering! WOO!

As you can probably tell from the title, we finally did some cantering in our lesson today! I had Bally again, third week in a row! I quite like having the same horse, you get used to them and what buttons to press. 

There were four of us in the group today, and we were absolutely freezing our butts off. It was so cold that in the hour my car was covered in ice again! It meant some painful hands and feet today, making me really want to head to Stockley to invest in some warmer gloves. I can't actually get anymore socks on than I did and have my foot fit in my boot, so I'm going to have to work out a different tactic there. I think I saw some battery heated socks on Amazon the other day... 

We started off with flatwork, and Simon brought out the poles straight away. We did some shallow loops and changes of rein in trot, then called myself and Amie into the middle. Audrey and Lauren then got to canter down one long side a few times on each rein. They were both doing quite well, I could tell neither of them had really cantered much though. They both had really good seats so I'm sure they'll be great within a few weeks! Me and Amie then got to go out whilst Audrey and Lauren rested. I found out Bally is much happier on the left rein than the right. On the left rein she transitions really nicely and is very forward. She was very easy to get into the canter. On the right rein she struggles a bit and broke into trot quite a lot. It was so good to finally be cantering though! I know I do it on Bruno, but it's nice to do it on different horses and with the motivation of someone there telling you to do it. She was quite fast in the canter (it felt pretty fast anyway), but I felt like I sat it nicely. My feet need a bit more discipline to stay down in those stirrups though, they're always flapping about again now, so frustrating! We had about three canters on each rein, then had a rest. Simon put up three 1 foot cross poles and we all went out and did them in trot. Bally occasionally cantered but she mostly treated them like trot poles. 

Amie then did them a few more times by herself with Charlie. Bless Charlie, he always did the first two as trot poles, then at the last jump he'd prick his ears and give a nice little hop over them! Amie got left behind quite a bit on that last jump haha! 

Then Simon put up the jumps, bought Amie back to the middle and sent out Lauren and Audrey. They were both doing really well, Lauren had Sultan cantering the line of jumps every time! I think we are pretty similar level wise, it's really nice to watch her. 

Then me and Bally went out to do the triple on our own a few times. I say a few times, it felt like a million times! I got to the point where my muscles were telling me "No more! Please, no more!", but Simon kept pushing me on. I really enjoyed myself, she does love a jump! I got left behind a couple of times because I have a bad habit of jumping ahead. I found though when I looked straight ahead and didn't focus on the jump, my upper body waited for her to come to me and it all flowed so much better. I'll have to really try hard to remember it for next time! 

I can't wait till next week now! 

xx

Jump, trip, KABOOM!

I had another lesson on Bally today! Such an awesome little pony. There were only three of us in the group so we only had a 45 minute lesson. (I was knackered by the end anyway!)
Simon didn't give us a cantering lesson today, which I thought was fair enough. If the whole group was there we probably would have done some, but we squeezed in loads of jumping instead! 
Simon set up three poles at the beginning of the lesson. I don't think I've ever done a triple before! We did some flat work for 15 minutes and some work without stirrups. He had us put our knees up as high as they could go like a jockey, then open out the knee and stretch the leg back and down to get it in the right position. Shoulder - hip - heel. I can always get that position fine without stirrups, but as soon as the stirrups come back my feet go forward a touch. (I've realised as well that I've developed an annoying habit of thrusting my feet forward when doing a sitting trot with stirrups, ugh, it's going to be so hard to unlearn!) We did some changes of rein, but no circles or shallow loops today. After a while we got our stirrups back and he put up three 1 foot cross poles. Diddy little things! Bally sometimes treated them like raised trot poles, and other times she'd jump them properly. (I much prefer her jumping them properly, what's the point of going into a jumping position for a trot pole?!) Then he asked myself and Lauren to come into the middle so Charlotte could go round a few more times on the smaller jumps. She is really getting better, I think Simon should have let her carry on with us! Maybe it was because she was on Harold, I don't think I've ever seen him put in a proper jump! 
He popped the jumps up to 2 foot cross poles and me and Lauren went round loads! The first time was a bit of a disaster though! We came up to the first jump in a forward trot, to the second jump Bally's trot had gotten considerably faster, and we tripped over it. She still didn't think to canter to the next jump and had an ever faster trot, and we pretty much ploughed straight into it! Oops! Totally my fault, I should have either controlled her trot more with half halts, or pushed her into a canter with my seat.
After our little mishap, Bally was going like a dream! She got into the most beautiful contact (I kept checking it out in the mirror), we always got to the first jump steadily, and almost always cantered the line of jumps! I think we worked out the striding distance together, I just felt so in sync with her, it was amazing! I was sad when he said it was time to turn in to the middle for a rest! 
For the last 5 minutes Simon had us walking around doing different stretches. He came over to each of us to show us the leg stretch from earlier, I was a bit nervous when Charlotte yelped in front of me when he pulled her leg down! It wasn't so bad though, a little painful because he did them one at a time, and my back has been hurting for a few days so I'm a bit tender anyway! We also did some shoulder stretches to open out our chests more. (Tits and teeth, ha!)
At the very end of the lesson we named the parts of the bridle and saddle. I had a Hermione Granger moment again, I recited the parts of the saddle as though I'd swallowed the list!
xx