I have been doing a sorry job journaling my riding and it's probably because it's been very choppy. I ride once every two weeks now, which doesn't sound like enough to make progress, but surprisingly, I have. Because I fully switched over to the instructor who I used to take practice rides and occasional lessons with. She moved her operation to a barn 28 minutes from my home. I didn't think that was physically possible in Boston but there it is. An instructor with great horses and an indoor and flexible lesson scheduling and really great prices 28 minutes from my home. It makes me wonder, will it last?? Does anyone have a perfect horse situation forever?? Feel free to weigh in on that.
My lesson is a group of 2-3 young students of mixed capabilities and the focus is on jumping. I get a lot of compliments for my equitation, thanks to the hunter barn (RIP), but she points out how it can be unforgiving when jumping more difficult horses.
She does a lot of fun activities, like setting up a jump with a cone on each side. I rode a horse that was quite good at barrel racing, so when the idea was to jump and circle the cone, jump, circle the other cone and go back and forth, the horse was getting pretty amped. This used to terrify me, but I'm getting braver the more we jump and make tight turns. And vice versa.
She also points out that my leg slides all over the place when I'm jumping. I'm not surprised, since she's been getting me over jumps as high as 2'3". I think my leg strength needs to catch up! And probably, it would help if I was riding more than I currently am. But I'm having fun, and I'm not falling all over the horse (too much) or pulling on his mouth, so hopefully my form with follow function!
I do miss my weekly lessons, and I could probably go back to them, but I also find it makes it less stressful to squeeze riding into my schedule (and my finances) and makes the time I am there really, really fun. Sometimes I just do other stuff - I've been playing quite a bit of flag football and am I preeetty good wide receiver, but that's a story for a different blog ;)
My lesson is a group of 2-3 young students of mixed capabilities and the focus is on jumping. I get a lot of compliments for my equitation, thanks to the hunter barn (RIP), but she points out how it can be unforgiving when jumping more difficult horses.
She does a lot of fun activities, like setting up a jump with a cone on each side. I rode a horse that was quite good at barrel racing, so when the idea was to jump and circle the cone, jump, circle the other cone and go back and forth, the horse was getting pretty amped. This used to terrify me, but I'm getting braver the more we jump and make tight turns. And vice versa.
She also points out that my leg slides all over the place when I'm jumping. I'm not surprised, since she's been getting me over jumps as high as 2'3". I think my leg strength needs to catch up! And probably, it would help if I was riding more than I currently am. But I'm having fun, and I'm not falling all over the horse (too much) or pulling on his mouth, so hopefully my form with follow function!
I do miss my weekly lessons, and I could probably go back to them, but I also find it makes it less stressful to squeeze riding into my schedule (and my finances) and makes the time I am there really, really fun. Sometimes I just do other stuff - I've been playing quite a bit of flag football and am I preeetty good wide receiver, but that's a story for a different blog ;)
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