Flying to close to the sun (or pony butt)

My group lesson yesterday started out pretty normally. There were four of us, myself being, per usual, twice as old as everyone else (yeah, I double checked, exactly twice as old as everyone else). I rode Pan who is a really wonderful little guy that probably has a lot of ribbons to his name in short stirrup. He responds really nicely to my leg, so I could just focus on keeping my shoulders back and looking good on him. We did our whole lesson in a "ride" (riding in a straight line, pony length apart). Went fine for the most part until we started cantering in said ride. Picture this: We are third in line, the first pony starts to canter. The pony in front of me (good ole' Joy) was not too eager to get into the canter...but Pan was! I had to really sit back and hold him at bay. Once Joy started cantering she let out a couple bucks - not sure if they were special delivery to Pan or just feeling like the whole thing was beneath her. That's when I maneuvered Pan away from the ride, figuring I'd pull him away from the bucking, without the pony behind me crashing into us.

But pushing Pan off the rail brought some sort of unbridled surge of energy and we were off, galloping at full speed past ALL the ponies. For a moment there, the only thing running through my brain was "WHEEEEEEEEEE!" which was promptly cut off by D very firmly suggesting half-halts. Oh, right. Bad pony?

At the end of the lesson, needless to say, I got a lecture about how ponies in a ride will do whatever the ponies in front of them do unless you show them that they should defer to you as their leader. And also, learn how to half halt properly, for the love of God and all that is pony.

Oopsie.

No regrets.

Combination frustration

A moose like me...walk on ice like that?!

Started out my 2-ride Sunday on Calvin in the indoor. It was an icy walk from the barn that houses his stall, but we managed. I forgot my crop and felt silly, everyone was busy working on their own thing and I didn't want to go back and get it, but I ended up getting him to canter briefly, though he wasn't enthused. I think he was tired. It wasn't the most groundbreaking ride, but I liked being able to do what I want, rather than constantly being in a class when you are told what your every move should be. There must be something valuable in that!

The lesson was with a three girls who are all around my ability. We did some familiar exercises, but then the lesson culminated in doing a pattern one at a time that Joy and I completely messed up. It's never the pony's fault, so let's just say I was having difficulty communicating with her. The pattern was:

Canter a 20m circle starting at C, canter a 20m circle at E where there was also a ground pole to navigate, canter a 20m circle at A and come to a hault at A.

I would say my biggest issue was the ground pole coming around the circle at E. I ended up at an angle instead of head on to the ground pole. Once I was at an angle, I was way, way off track from my final circle and ended up falling in and coming to a halt quite a few feet from A.

Correct Diagonals: No peeking!

My Sunday morning 1-hour group lesson was pretty fun. I was on Joy again. We worked on feeling the correct diagonals at the trot and leads at the canter. The leads at the canter were kind of cheating because our ponies automatically took the correct lead on the rail, but maybe in the future we will try it down the center line. I would LOVE to learn to do flying lead changes. D had us ask for a trot without looking down and start posting on what felt like the correct diagonal. That was pretty easy on the left rein, but Joy was super bouncy on the right rein so it was harder to guess.

I am getting more comfortable maneuvering around other people in the ring. I still get confused sometimes when everyone seems to be circling in different directions at different speeds, but I somewhat broke that habit where I just stare in fear at something coming at me so my pony thinks that's where I want to go.


As I may have mentioned, the two students I lesson with now are younger than me, maybe 12 or so. At the end of the lesson they got a lecture on making sure to note what they need to improve on from lesson to lesson. And that, my friends, is why this blog exists.

Half seat everything

Shout out to Deborah from My Examined Life who mentioned in a comment that difficulty keeping the half seat at the canter can be helped by other gates and even bareback. My trainer was of teh same mind and yesterday our lesson involved EVERYTHING at the half seat. Okay, not everything, but walk, trot, canter, up and down transitions, circling without letting my butt touch the saddle. At one point, my puny muscles got tired and my leg started to swing back by the end of the lesson. I felt bad because it looked like I wasn't learning, when I was totally getting it. The middle of the lesson was awesome though, but then, I was riding Joy! Joy will keep cantering if I keep my leg on, and I'd be interested to see if I get another chance to do the same on Tank, who would prefer to slow down rather than keep going.

Also, there was snow falling off the roof and spooking the horses. Joy just sort of stuck her head up in surprise, but kept going going. She's a no-fuss, do-her-job 14hh pony, while the 17hh warmbloods and OTTBs were losing their shit and one dumped a student. I know, it's dangerous and not funny...but I just love old ponies for this reason :D

squeeze cluck stick

My lesson ended up being a solo one because of cancellations during the holidays. I rode Tank, who would love to go as slowly as possible if I let him. I did let him, as it turns out, until D told me to use the stick with a little more force. The truth is, I know I'm supposed to let him have it if he isn't responding, but he isn't my horse and I always feel with the lesson horses that I should get permission first. As silly as it sounds, politeness is a tough habit to break.

There's always something that is left unsolved by the end of my lessons, and that day it was keeping Tank from breaking the canter while I was in half-seat position. When I'm sitting the canter, I can keep my leg on him to make sure he keeps going. My leg is not as secure in the half seat. Something I will have to think about. Any suggestions would be helpful!

Straight lines are hard

This past lesson we worked on going down the center line and just off the rail perfectly straight. It was pretty hard, especially when the pony just wants to go where he thinks he's supposed to go - on the rail. D was pretty tough on us and even caught me posting on the wrong diagonal for one second transitioning down from the canter. As she pointed out, at my level, that shouldn't happen. Fair enough! Our lessons are definitely progressing towards jumping, with the center line work supposed to prepare us for lines towards jumps...down the center line. I guess that's pretty obvious, but sometimes I feel like I'll never get to do jumping lessons because a couple people in my group lesson are a little behind me on some things. Still, if D can catch me doing something wrong, then there's still work to be done.

The day before, I got to practice ride Calvin while the high school team was practicing around me. It was tons of fun to watch. They kept mentioning that I could "Jumping right in and use a jump if I wanted." That would have been soooo awkward. I'm sure they think I can pop over jumps like it's no big deal, but that is not the case. I have been wondering if I should get a lesson with Calvin's trainer, as sometimes she does lessons during the week and I will be working from home these next couple of weeks. I feel like I'm progressing much faster with the added practice ride. I have become more confident riding with other people in the ring and don't feel like cantering by myself is so scary. Some things I need to work on:

- Not letting horse/pony break the canter when they feel like they can get away with it
- Not letting Calvin fall in and trot like a mad man instead of immediately going into the canter
- Smoothing out downward transition so I'm not bouncing around to prevent any posting on the incorrect diagnol

Wait...'leg on' actually works?!

I had a lesson with what appeared to be 14 year old twins on Sunday and it was pretty fun. They were around my ability in a lot of ways. I was on Chance and you've heard me complain before that he falls in on the right rein. Well, not any more, folks! I finally keep my leg in the correct spot to funnel him along that rail like he's supposed to. So that's settled.

Okay, new problem. As we got further into the lesson (9am, Sunday) his energy started to increase (he's young and happy) to the point where trying to keep him at the walk required a LOT of half halts. We ended up going bareback at the end so that I could learn to keep my butt in the saddle and relax when he does that and, low and behold, he was walking around just fine. It's kind of nice to be faced with a problem and immediately know the solution you need to work towards (relaxed seat), so hopefully I can ride him again this week and correct that.

Tomorrow I'm going to ride Calvin and then lesson again on Sunday. We are going to see a show with our families on Sunday and I didn't have much on Saturday so I'm actually spreading out my two barns over two days. What a luxury! I really love the flexibility I have to ride Calvin. It's such an unusual set up that I wont be taking for granted.