The barn down the street from the one I lesson at is allowing me to practice ride on a young horse (I think five?) named Calvin! The barn manager will keep an eye on me, but really just leave me to work on what my instructor, D asks me to focus on. I really enjoyed my evaluation lesson to find the right horse - I actually ended up only trying one because Calvin was so intriguing to me. He's young so he has a short attention span that the BM is looking forward to me working on (we see it as a win-win). He also has a really bouncy trot - At first I thought to myself, will this not be a good horse for me to learn my sitting trot on? But then I realized - BIGGER challenges are good! Sit his trot and I can sit any, seriously. Even sitting a beat before canter was bouncy.
The other thing I like about him is he has a really smooth jump. I mean, we only went over a cross rail, so he didn't jump, but I'm TOLD he's smooth and I also didn't feel him jump over that crossrail at all. He tripped badly at one point (he's still learning how to not be an awkward teenager) and I didn't feel like I was going to fall off." I guess, to summarize, feeling confident on a horse that hasn't gotten it all figured out yet is a great feeling!
My bf came with me and so I had the rare treat of getting footage! I'm sorry if it's cringeworthy - I am a beginner after all! I took one look and thought, "Does my foot need to be that far back to keep him going? Why can't I sit back more?"
I did another group lesson yesterday and am realizing it takes a lot of skill to ride different horses and anticipate when they're going to go off course. For example, we were all trotting in a circle doing a game called "Carousel" - you pick a partner and trot exactly across from them while not getting too close or behind the person in front or behind you. And we were supposed to depart from the circle one at a time, canter around the ring and fit back into the circle with perfect timing. But when I left to canter, Pan just started cantering back towards towards the circle (Basically cantered a wide circle and tried to rejoin the herd). I need to be 110% focused on where I want to go so the pony doesn't see an opening.
I also need to learn to sit back during the sitting trot. Add that to sitting back at the canter. And probably just sit back in life. Oy.
yay you got practice rides!! you looked pretty good from what i saw, of the video.
ReplyDeleteThank you for all yoru kind words! To your no stirrups idea, I think you're right. It'll be great to warm up with. Sometimes the lessons are so rushed and I hop on a pony just as someone is getting off so there's no warmup. These practice rides will be perfect for that! I'm going to have to hold my self accountable to remember all the things I want to accomplish during those rides!
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