Two fantastic lessons this weekend!
Gorgeous warm and sunny days allowed us to ride in the outside arena… my favorite.
I didn’t had a lesson for almost a month now, just some hacking before new year… but lots of riding inside my head… so I was so looking forward to it, but trying to keep expectations low in case it all went bad… but it didn’t and I’m very happy!
Saturday – 2008´s first lesson
The lessons started in the indoor arena riding the usual horse in a snaffle. First I was asked to warm up and let the horse settle has it was his first ride that day. I did it as usual in rising trot asking bend and counter bend for both leads until he released the bit, stretching and finally asking for some trot/canter transitions.
After this we moved to the outdoor arena and the horse soon presented me with his usual moments of joy in the Sun. Funny guy! :)
We worked on settling him and keeping the horse strait like in the last lessons… but now everything goes much easier and feels absolutely great… it feels like finally I’m rediscovering the real pleasure of riding! (Because I always enjoy it, even when is not that good.)
Today’s innovation was work on getting the horse to enlarge and reduce the strides in the same gait and we did it at trot and canter, starting with rising trot, then in sitting trot and finally at canter.
Getting the horse to enlarge the stride in trot is really a wonderful feeling. Extremely powerful… and I can’t wait to properly do it in sitting trot. I’m still slow in getting him forward and also in reducing the stride back to the normal trot, and I have some hard time keeping myself in a good riding position in the downward transition. We started asking along the arena bigger side and also did it along the arena diagonal, changing lead.
In the end it was time for canter, asking for bigger strides along the bigger wall. I think I got some enlarging… not that much… but I was told that I’m allowing the horse to stretch more than it was supposed to and not reducing in time for the corners…. so we’ll have to work on that, not using hands and reducing just with shoulders/upper body.
And that was all for today. Got nice compliments from trainer about my progress and so left the arena with a huge grin on my face!
Gorgeous warm and sunny days allowed us to ride in the outside arena… my favorite.
I didn’t had a lesson for almost a month now, just some hacking before new year… but lots of riding inside my head… so I was so looking forward to it, but trying to keep expectations low in case it all went bad… but it didn’t and I’m very happy!
Saturday – 2008´s first lesson
The lessons started in the indoor arena riding the usual horse in a snaffle. First I was asked to warm up and let the horse settle has it was his first ride that day. I did it as usual in rising trot asking bend and counter bend for both leads until he released the bit, stretching and finally asking for some trot/canter transitions.
After this we moved to the outdoor arena and the horse soon presented me with his usual moments of joy in the Sun. Funny guy! :)
We worked on settling him and keeping the horse strait like in the last lessons… but now everything goes much easier and feels absolutely great… it feels like finally I’m rediscovering the real pleasure of riding! (Because I always enjoy it, even when is not that good.)
Today’s innovation was work on getting the horse to enlarge and reduce the strides in the same gait and we did it at trot and canter, starting with rising trot, then in sitting trot and finally at canter.
Getting the horse to enlarge the stride in trot is really a wonderful feeling. Extremely powerful… and I can’t wait to properly do it in sitting trot. I’m still slow in getting him forward and also in reducing the stride back to the normal trot, and I have some hard time keeping myself in a good riding position in the downward transition. We started asking along the arena bigger side and also did it along the arena diagonal, changing lead.
In the end it was time for canter, asking for bigger strides along the bigger wall. I think I got some enlarging… not that much… but I was told that I’m allowing the horse to stretch more than it was supposed to and not reducing in time for the corners…. so we’ll have to work on that, not using hands and reducing just with shoulders/upper body.
And that was all for today. Got nice compliments from trainer about my progress and so left the arena with a huge grin on my face!
Sunday
Today’s highlight was the final canter sequence in the end of the lesson, but everything before that went also pretty well.
The horse was not in a very forward attitude… a little tired maybe, but that was not a problem.
After warming up, we worked at trot in a review on Shoulder-in and Leg Yield. Shoulder-in didn’t go fantastic but it was OK, and in the end got it well along the arena central line. Leg Yields were good I think, especially on the right leg so we also did it a couple of times in canter. Great feeling!
After this we were supposed just to do some light work at canter, but it went so well… the horse was really smooth and responsive. We did Circles and Voltes, asked to enlarge the stride along the arena’s bigger wall, reduce, taking the central line and Leg Yield for both leads… loved the short turns followed by the Leg Yeld… but sometimes I didn’t manage to keep the horse at canter after the LY and he fell in to trot spoiling a little the end of the exercise… have to work on that. We also worked on doing the corners properly!
But it was a really great canter sequence… flowing! I want more!!!!!
More compliments in the end of the lessons! (Grinning) Can’t wait to ride again next weekend!!!!
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2 comments:
These are all great training tips & exercises that I will use with Secret. I haven't had a lesson in awhile too :( It has been so beautiful outside that I hacked Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Hi Emma,
Glad they are useful! :)
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