Lesson recap/ Other Trainer

So this is going to be slightly long and slightly boring.

We went for my lesson yesterday and it went well. Andrew taught us and we worked on bending and shoulder in. It was more the idea of shoulder in as we are not quite physically strong enough to do it. Duke tried hard and gave it his best to try and figure out what the crazy women up there wants. We also did some transitions so his brain would not fry. Unfortunately we forgot the camera so there is no photographic proof of anything.

Last week I got a little butt hurt over so things N said to me. When I started riding I was paying $40 a lesson, and if I came more then twice a week on my own I was to pay a little something for that. That never happened so I don't know how much that would have been. Then Andrew and I built the cavalettis.

We built them because we wanted some to use, N never asked for them. Well she was so excited to have them to use she wanted to pay for them or exchange lessons for them. Ok, sure. We gave her a materials list that came to a couple hundred bucks not including any of Andrew's time and labor. She said she would give me 10 lessons in exchange. Everyone was happy. We got one or two lessons but then N missed more and I missed a couple. But what I did not realize is all these rides where Andrew has been helping me instead of her are counting towards my lessons. Right this moment I have three left. What I got bugged about was when I mentioned that to N she seemed to get a little, for lack of a better word, upset. Then she told me it was $45 for her lessons and $35 for each ride. Ok, I did not know the prices had changed,but it is ok we still have three more lesson/rides.

Then yesterday, she mentions as we are leaving, that she is planning to ship Duke to the other dressage trainer's place for a few months for her to use for her students! I was a little peeved at first as I had just bought a dressage saddle, that had only shipped out that day, and will only fit Duke and she had really pushed me to buy it! There is a silver lining. The Other Trainer's place is close to Andrew's work, I have heard she is very good, and her facilites are very nice. Unfortunately I don't know how many people I will have to share my horse with, and if I can afford to ride with Other Trainer. Also if I will be able to use him in the clinic in June. Aargh so annoying! I knew that something like this could always happen but a little more warning would have been nice. I guess we will see how it works out. I don't know when they plan to move him soooo we will just keep on keeping on for now.

 

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OMG dressage saddle!!!!!!

 

 

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Spring Derby helmet cam test C

 

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HIDEA Spring Derby

I went to my first horse show in over 16 years on March 8.

Duke and I preformed USDF Intro test B

As well as Intro test C , the differance only being this test includes cantering.

I was a bit sad that I was ONLY doing two tests. Less then halfway through my second test I was wondering ' why are we doing this? Holy hell I am tired....' ( this may have been muttered out loud, I am not sure). Apparently Andrew could hear me muttering, talking and giggling throughout both tests, sorry judge! At least I was giggling and having fun amyrite?

We ended up with two seconds out of two competitors. I was stoked! We got some great scores and the comments were right on.

 

 

 

 

Test C

 

 

 

 

We did well. I am really happy. I get nervous riding any horse off property and Duke was awesome. If anything he was a total dork and I think he wanted to roll in the puddles! I think we will score better next time as I won't be so worried about the 'new ' place and cantering.

I also paid to join HIDEA that also includes a USDF membership! So excited! I have never been a member of anything before!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Doin da dressage

Duke and I had a nice ride yesterday. We worked on bending, transions, poles and general self carriage. In general Duke tries so hard to figure out what the crazy lady wants and how to do it. It was also our first time trying out spurs. I used Andrew's little nubby spurs and they seemed to work well.

 

It was also my second ride in my new boot, so needless to say I have band aids on my ankles.

Our bending is slowly improving, not quite through the whole body ( or half) yet, but incorporating self carriage and attempts to frame all at the same time is hard. We also tried some leg yielding too. It went as well as you would expect for our second try. He bends, and crosses over well in front but his butt trails out behind and to the inside, as to be expected. I am sure as we both get physically stronger it will become much easier. Our transitions are good, some are more prompt then others, but again never to late and with more muscle building they will only be cleaner and neater.

Our pole work was okay. Nothing special but I did not ask for much, they were more to help break up any monotony. We did canter our first pole though! I know he has jumped with the kids before but I would like to try to teach him how to jump properly rather then throw himself over the rails. I have been told many times he is better over the bigger (2'6") fences. Not gonna go there...

In other news welcome home Flower!

 

 

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December 24 2014

We are coming along so well! I have not updated because our videos take to much to load. We had a great ride today. N was busy so we got a lesson from Andrew! We decided to go straight to the arena ( a. first!). Due to a little rain the round pen was gross and we decided to skip bitting him up. The arena was ok and we set the poles in an X on the diagonals. We 'concurred' a scary white tarp on the ground. I clambered up and we walked and trotted. There were two 'scary' tree stumps at the far end of the arena. This was our first spooky situation and I pushed him forward and past and through them. I am so proud for working through it. Andrew instructed us to do a posting trot three times around in each direction. This was really good for us to warm up and to realize our lack of conditioning. We did ok, I felt my posting was uneven at times, but I hope more conditioning will help. I wanted to show Andrew that we had been working on canter from the walk. Duke offered a canter from the halt. I was intrigued to see if he could do it again. He did! In both directions! He did better from the halt then the walk.. We all went on a short walk after our lesson. Duke was good but a bit twitchy with the falling branches. I went to open the small gate for Andrew and us but Duke rushed it. We went back through once more. The second time, Duke was more willing to listen to me and went a lot more politely. We ended there and I am so happy with him!

 

 

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6th Lesson

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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