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