Summer Camp for One, Please

I am hardly one to drool over the bigger horses. As an adult beginner, I think I love the control I feel (misguided or not) of being on the ponies. But there's nothing like a successful lesson on a big horse to make you question your priorities.

I've had 2 weeks off (summer weekend social life is not conducive to getting to the barn), but I got a 45-minute private lesson thanks to all the kiddies being tuckered out from Camp week. (I'm not jealous of camp week. I'm 30, why would I be jealous? Spending a day painting horses, playing tag on horses? I'm too old for that stuff. Ugh. Dammit.)

I rode the thoroughbred quarter horse mix that I hadn't in a while. He belongs to someone in the program that only rides him about once a week. They have a nice deal going where he gets worked, she gets a discount off board, and the program gets a solid almost-schoolmaster. Not sure where over 16hh he is but he's up there. It'd been a while since I'd been that high up, but I only noticed when I was getting on (and off, like when forgetting there's an extra step and you kind of go, "Whoomph."). He's been hard at work for camp and, as my instructor was explaining, the horses are at their best when they're working most days of the week. Especially the thoroughbred types.

I would say Tony's thing is he gets a little strong once you start jumping and cantering him. He actually likes a pulley rein, which just seems wrong to me, but okay, I'll do what I have to to get back down to a walk. He will also choose not to jump if he thinks you're nervous, but I am proud to say that happened once and then I got in the mindset of "we're going over this jump and I'm already thinking of what happens next" and we progressed pretty quickly. In that 45 minutes we accomplished:

- Sitting up a little straighter at the trot to get that dressage look (and, more practically, learn not to lean forward on a very forward horse)
- Getting straighter to the jump (ok, still working on this)
- Half-halting/ right rein&right leg to keep him from drifting away
- Staying off his back upon landing (so he doesn't hit the rail with his back legs
- Being straighter after the jump so he doesn't take a hard turn
- Cantering without leaning forward (amazing how you have to teach me the same lesson at the trot and at the canter, but I'm kind of a dunce like that)

The jump was only 2ft, (we use cavaletti blocks that are 24”L x 15”W x 9”D) but she did build it up to look like an oxer to try to make it look scary.  I feel pretty ready to try 2'9" again soon!

No lesson this coming weekend, but I've set up a lesson closer to home for next week with an instructor who has Icelandic horses and teaches centered riding. I'm pretty excited to find something I can get to during the week. More to come on that. I will try to remember taking pictures. This blog is so dull without them!

Horse flies are no joke

Horse flies: Not a play on words, apparently.

The horse I was on was getting eaten alive if we stood still for even a second. He actually had blood on his legs from the previous lesson where they were standing still for too long. I was worried he'd lose patience with what we were putting him through.

This was the same horse I rode last time. He also dumped me a couple years back when we were both much greener and he abruptly stepped out of the ring and into the woods. It's nice to be on nicer terms now.

We are working on half halts and it's just amazing how being aware of half halts has opened things up to new complexities. Like, right in front of the jump, he will drift right if I don't use a strong leg and a half halt (both on right side). If I use more than a half halt (pull and hold) his neck has no room for the jump and he will refuse.

He requires only the occasional squeeze (I counted every eight steps of the trot) to keep going, so I'm trying to use leg less, so he stays responsive to it. And trying not to pull on his mouth. Sometimes he gets stuck following after his friends when I want him to go a different way, so I have to pull the rein to my belly button to turn his nose and kick with the outside leg.

We did a jump to a bounce, and then the reverse. I did okay, but something about the bounce to the jump was messing me up a bit. I didn't have time to reorganize after the bounce to do the strong leg-half halt mentioned to keep him from drifting. So staying organized after jumps will be my big challenge if I hope to put a course together - those three jumps in a row were just at 2 feet. Sigh.

Personal record in time at barn

This was  my first time spending 4 hours at a barn. I realize most people who are into barn life practically live there and may find that rather sad. It was an unusual circumstance where my instructor had to exercise the horses during the week and there were only a couple other people around. I got to help out with watering and bathing the horses (it was 90+ degrees). I also got a lesson and watched her train a couple different horses, explaining how she's bringing up a young pony who is "really mean right now" and currently dumping people.

My lesson started with dressage working on a trot on the bit. There was bending and counterbending and half halts and then hooooolding the balance once his head drops. I've seen other people get their horse's head down by separating their hands, but this was all done with hands together (which I guess is what you'd want to do in a dressage test with a tough judge). It was really cool and felt great in those moment where I got it.

We then went outside to jump a little bit. They were 2, maybe 2' 6" jumps that felt really easy to go over on this horse. It was nice to string a couple jumps together and still feel organized.

By the time I could have taken a practice ride I was pretty done from the heat and walked next door to the golf course where my husband was finishing up and ordering us a pizza :) Georgetown is a pretty great place to ride and play golf and eat pizza, all on the same block. Something for the whole family ;)