Woo hoo on my 6th lesson! I missed last Wednesday do to Nonies phones not working and Weatherbug showing a heavy rain storm directly over the ranch. I called, I emailed C but I could not reach anyone and I did not want to drive 30 miles each way to say I did not want to ride in the rain. I felt like a bum for not wanting to ride in the rain, as it really does not bother me, but I don't wan to pay money to ride in the rain. Not for a lesson at least. Nonie got in touch with me on Thursday to let me know her phone was back up and that I could make up on Sunday if I wanted to, and I did.
Due to the Heep needing stall rest Andrew took his dad's car to work to leave me the Toyota. I got to the ranch at 2:30. The kids were finishing up decorating their ponies and taking final pictures before heading home. I slowly got Mr. Duke ready. We used a different dressage saddle today. This is the third one I think. It felt a touch small, like my hips wanted to tip forward but it worked great for my leg and I had little trouble posting and cantering. Duke was a good boy in the round pen even though he had already been ridden today and most the other ponies had been turned back out.
During our warm up Nonie felt my left elbow sticks out worse and wants me to widen my hands and turn my palms more upward to help bring in my elbows. This seemed to work well when I remembered to do it. After our warm up we ventured out to the arena.
We practiced Intro test B twice. Neither was good. Duke pretended like he was going to spook in the top right corner, I kept him forward but used his mouth to keep his attention. The cows were coming in and he acted like he had never seen them before. We finished the test but I felt his attention span was melted. I wanted to finish on a good note so I asked him to back. Duke apparently forgot how to do this and went sideways, threw his head, anything but back. I did as Nonie said and I got a solid 3 steps back that were relatively straight. I gave him the reins, pat him and hopped off.
Overall:
Good:
Nonie was very happy with my leg
The length
The looseness
Nonie was happy with my patterns and geometry while walking
We walked and free walked quite a bit while I talked to Nonie in the arena
My arms improved with the palms up and farther apart
I did not get to scared when Duke was looky !! I rode through it.
Bad
My elbows still stick out
I felt like I was riding off my hands
Duke seemed to get tense and I felt like I was nitpicking at him for things he probably can not do yet
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