The helmet works!

I got to ride Tony yesterday in a lesson with just one other rider. Tony is an appendix mix of some sort - no one's really sure. He's a great jumper, a little over 16 hands, and spoiled (in a cute way) by his owner who is a 20-something woman that was on vacation. The other person in my lesson was somewhat of a beginner, but quite a good rider all things considered. She was put on a pony named Delilah that is ridden in a hackamore and is more than a little sassy. Delilah will do anything if she is following closely behind Tony, but she is not easy for a beginner to convince to do much else.

In any case, it was kind of fun to be the "leader" for the day. The other rider told me I rode "beautifully" which just shows that I'm somewhere along the spectrum of progress. Let me just describe what wasn't so beautiful about my riding:

Cantering: as my seat and leg improve at the canter, I find myself wondering what to do with my arms. It used to be that I could just sort of rock with the horse (looks terrible, I know) and that was good enough, but now that I sit back more and keep my leg on properly, I have to follow the horse's neck without pumping my arms. So right now, that looks noticeably awkward.

Gymnastics: I'm getting better at not just leaning forward over low gymnastics when it's unnecessary, and Tony tried to refuse a few times as my instructor raised a jump in the middle of it, so I also got better and making him go through with it! However, my leg still slides all over the place and when I'm going over the jump, I'm just as likely to lean on the neck by accident as not.

Jumping: I did manage to recover after a jump, sit back and drive him forward to the next jump, but I failed to keep Tony straight after the jump. We were approaching the wall and he took a sharp turn left while I was still in two point and...that's why the title of this post is The helmet works! Because I ate it big time. And there was nothing beautiful about that fall, I'm sure.

So I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I am grateful for all the focus on equitation that my first (almost 4!) years of lessons got me, but I think it's time to focus on core strength and mechanics. I really need to figure out a way to ride more than once a week because the things I'd like to work on are piling up!

I'll end with some shots of me on Calvin, my usual lesson horse.