Another new mount

My instructor is putting me on as many horses as possible for our final lessons together and this time she put me on a green, super sensitive guy who had never been in the lower ring before. Any other adult lesson student can relate to how I felt (honored).

As we were initially walking around the ring on a loose rein I could feel his attention was everywhere. All I had to do was *think* about trotting and we were off and going. His stride was laughably short, so it felt faster than it was. We worked on getting used to a sensitive, distracted horse, mainly by throwing in random smaller circles at the trot. We cantered a 20m circle going both ways (keeping him from falling in on the left rein was challenging because his pasture mate came in and stood in the middle near the end of the lesson) and, despite the small strides I found him really comfortable!

It's kind of crazy to think this will all be ending soon. It's like when they bulldoze your elementary school, but worse, because they replaced it with a nicer elementary school as oppose to a cul de sac...

We have our Halloween games and Jackpot Jumpers on Sunday and I'll be doing the cone weaving race and a cross-rail course in a referee shirt and a skunk tail. Not sure if I'll be more skunk or referee yet!

Highs and lows

I rode a new horse at my lesson that was actually 16hh which does not happen much at pony land aka my barn. What made me so happy was the way we progressed to cross rails considering it was my first time riding him.

We worked on sitting the trot down the quarterline, leg yield to the wall, then canter the short side and long side. It's become a standard warmup for jumping for us. We did this both ways and then my instructor set up two cross rails, one of which was a skinny, so that was new for me.

We cantered a figure eight going both ways with simple lead changes (another thing I'd never done before). What was amazing was doing loop after loop and addressing each issue -  pace, path and position - over the jumps. Of course path gets easier when I get to do the same jump over and over, but I still learned a little about not turning towards the jump too early, and aiming for the center of the jump. (And not letting a skinny be any different!)

It was one of the most  amazing lesson of all time and I felt like anything was possible!!! Then my instructor told me the barn was up for sale.

Yeah, so like, closing permanently. And probably being torn down for housing developments.

I have a back-up barn that is way more affordable and actually, a closer drive (I've gone there for practice rides and a few lessons), but I will wait to see where my instructor goes. You guys would know better than me - are barn closings an epidemic? Or do barns inevitably shift to more affordable real estate?
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Turn on the forehand

Well, we moved and my cat now has twice as much space to freak out (she just jumped on the couch, snuck up behind me and bit the back of my neck and then jumped away and then crowhopped and scrambled away. I was too speechless to correct the biting in time.)

In other animal news, yesterday I learned how to turn on the forehand. Guys, don't laugh, but this was hard for me. I was on a young pony and we were in a fenced in outdoor, so halfway through turning on the forehand he would step forward and put his head over the fence. I learned a lot about getting the response from one leg, containing that response with the other, and holding the rein pressure as steady as possible. I didn't do it perfectly, but afterwards we had me canter around the ring and it was so much easier to keep him from falling in thanks to making him responsive to my leg!

And in the brief time since writing that paragraph, my cat is peacefully napping. Must be a good life.