Tuesday, January 10, 2017

First Lesson of the Year!

And I have no media. I know, what?!

So I got to ride Mr. Holster! Charlie and he are my favorite. And Goldie. Not sure what order. Probably Holster first then then Goldie and then Charlie. Just because Charlie can be a bit of a loose cannon, which still makes me a tad nervous. He's just not as schooled as the other two. He's getting there though!

Last night was a good lesson! I was glad to know I wasn't near as sore as I thought I would be! We did quite a bit of no stirrup work and and lots of jumping and canter work. Yeah! I haven't lost all my conditioning! I'm hoping from here on out I can be consistent every week again. If the weather would just cooperate! It rained last Monday :( and on Tuesday when we tried to do a make up lesson it was a lake in the arena.

Anyway! I was late getting there from work so L tacked him up for me, which was fine by me! Every one was already out in the arena warming up so I rushed and grabbed his bridle and tried to get that on him. TRIED being the key word here. I have heard of what a pill he can be for this sometimes but haven't experienced it yet. Its been quite a while since I've rode him so I guess he forgot that I am one to be respected and as soon as I tried to put the reins over his head he was spinning into the corner and headed to his feed trough. Then I had to chase him around the stall two or three times before I finally got it on him! Turd! He had his ears pinned the whole time. I've noticed all the horses that I have rode there will pin their ears at some point during tacking up. Which if I didn't know L so well would concern me. But I know she treats all her horses like her babies. I guess it's just having to deal with inexperienced hands all day that makes them cranky about girthing up and bridling.

So I made him move his hindquarters away from me several times both ways and he decided that I wasn't someone to mess with. I jumped on and joined them in the ring. We did some general conditioning work. Sitting trot, half point. We did some circles without stirrups, some cantering.

Then we got to the fun stuff! She had me and another girl go down and hit the cross rail to warm up for jumping. My horse needs a good bit of encouragement so we barely trotted over it the first time but then he did good! It was fun to jump without L watching me, so I could make some decisions myself.;./.'



After that we went down and did a neat cloverleaf jumping pattern. It was something like this:


I know, I have mad paint skills. Hah! So hopefully you can sort of see what we did. We went over one and then kept turning to the left to go to the next fence making big loops. Every time! I had to keep telling myself LEFT, LEFT, LEFT, lol, and still missed the last fence every time. The first time through we all crapped it up pretty good. My horse kept wanting to go towards the horses the other girls were riding and that was the OPPOSITE direction we were supposed to be going! One time he about fell down with me, which was no bueno! Thankfully he put his head back up and caught himself and I was able to rebalance. Whew! Another time right at the end, the other girls were leaving the arena right as we were going over a jump and he bunny hopped it huge and tried to go with them. I went over a little something like this: 


Image result for bad jump horse

Lol, if I hadn't been holding onto his mouth like that I'm pretty sure I would have been off. But he wasn't concerned and it was his fault for being naughty L said, lol.

Anyway after that we did two more jumps that went well! L said my leg and heel look good I just need to work on my shoulders and sitting up tall. AS ALWAYS. Gah!

I havne't got to ride mister Harold lately. It was BITTERLY cold last week (like negative wind chills! What?! This is the SOUTH) and it has also been raining a lot. 

We did get Snowy to the vet! But still don't know if she is carrying a baby Snowy. :( The vet said his hand was too big to get in there rectally and the ultrasound wouldn't pick anything up, even thought he shaved a pretty close little circle. Sigh. So he said to just watch her and see if she gets bigger! Uh, okayy! 

Well thats all for now!

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