Happy new year, chums! Hope you all got completely sozzled and had a good snog at midnight.
I'm really sorry, I completely forgot to post on my blog last week. Nothing particularly exciting happened except that I accidentally turned up an hour early, so you're not going to get an extra post I'm afraid!
I got to pick who I was riding today for the first time. It was only a choice between two, but still, better than nothing! I chose Conker over Shamus, as I hadn't ridden Conker in months!
We had a lady teaching us today as it's a Thursday and Simon isn't working. Our lessons the past two weeks have been shuffled around due to the festivities. I think her name is Ally. She's really nice, and this lesson she decided to really concentrate on our positions. It meant we only did walk and trot for an hour, but it was really worth it!
We started out just walking around, concentrating on our shoulder, hip, heel alignment, opening out our chests and lifting our chins. I tried really hard today as well to work on my "penguin feet". They stick out to the sides so badly, so I was concentrating all lesson to keep them pointing forward.
After about ten minutes of walking around we took our feet out of the stirrups and did some leg stretches. This helped open out our hips and get our legs nice and long. Ally then called us into the middle and started putting everyone's stirrups down a couple of holes. Unfortunately mine don't go any lower, so I had to go stirrup-less for about twenty minutes! Sitting trot when desperately concentrating on your position equals pain! I couldn't believe how much burn I was feeling, especially in my lower stomach! It was amazing the difference a subtle movement in your leg position makes to your use of your core and how much more strength is needed. Hello six pack!
I asked to take my stirrups back after a while because the pain was just getting that bit too much. My stirrups felt horribly short! However I had a great sense of achievement when we spent the last 20 minutes trotting around, as my feet did not move in the stirrups once! Hurrah! It's been months since my feet have felt secure, it was so great!
After my lesson I punched an extra hole into my stirrups so I can have them longer next lesson. I can't wait, it's only 5 days away!
xx
