Different Experience: Lesson Recap 5/22

Right at the start of my lesson L asked if I'd like to ride her 4 year old warmblood while she's out of town. I feel like that's such a compliment since 4 year olds in particular are so moldable. I feel like it's a huge compliment to my riding that L trusts me to ride her greenie.

She is having a trainer ride him two days per week but wants me to put the other two rides on him for two weeks while she is out since that's what she would normally be doing. Next week we're going to swap rides one evening and she'll ride Katai while I ride her horse. That way she can give me some tips and make sure that I'll be on the right track with him for her time away.

Minor mare meltdown, maybe she didn't think she was having a good hair day?

I will be gone for awhile during that time as well, June 6th - June 10th, so the weekend before and the weekend after I'll be riding/lunging two horses each day. Because of that unfortunately L won't be able to give Katai any trainer rides during that time but we're going to find a way for her to do some at some point soon.

I had a great lesson this weekend. Katai is getting to be such a grown up and really becoming a fun ride. We worked primarily on trot and did just a bit of canter with lots of walk breaks since we had another 30 degree temperature swing that put us in the 80s that day. Inside it was cooler but still hot and humid and pony got pretty sweated up pretty quick.

Sunny hand grazing this evening after a great ride

After a nice long walk break we went back to trot, L wanted to make sure that Katai can roll with the punches, and we had an AMAZING trot!!! It was seriously nice and L said, with a big smile on her face, that if we could get that trot we'd do VERY well.

Love that little drizzle of white down her jaw

So that's my goal, get that trot at the show, even if it's not in the ring I'd like to get that trot.

Trainer Ride: Lesson Recap 5/15

I really enjoy having an instructor that can ride my horse occasionally since I feel like it's such a great way for her to really feel what's going on in a way that she may not always be able to see from the ground (although L is damn good at seeing what's going on from the ground). It was actually part of why I decided to take lessons with L since not only was she willing and able to ride but she was small enough to ride my smallish dressage pony in a way that another instructor might not have been.

With that in mind, I really don't want to go more than a few months without having her hop on and make sure that I'm not setting Katai up with any habits. I have a pretty good feel for when something isn't going the way that it should but I'm not nearly the rider that L is. So, at my last lesson I brought up that I wanted L to ride Katai again soon. I mentioned that we could wait until after the show but L said that she wanted to ride at the lesson today instead. Then I'll have two more (since I'm getting a lesson at the show grounds) lessons before the show.

Love the extra fluffy mane in this one

In the meantime L had three lessons scheduled to ride with Susanne Winslade but found out that two of her client horses that she'd planned on riding were lame. When she mentioned it to Susanne apparently Susanne made a comment along the lines of, "Too bad you can't ride that spectacular little pony that your student rode on Monday." L messaged me on Tuesday but unfortunately it just wasn't in the budget for me to pay for any additional lessons. At any rate I was thrilled to hear that Susanne really liked Katai and that L would have wanted to ride her in a lesson. The only comment that Susanne made was that Katai was really locked up on the left side which both L and I are aware of.

L started off working on just kind of figuring out where Katai was at since it's been quite some time since she rode last. Then she started working on getting her to release to the left. At first there was some not so pretty stuff but then she really did it and L really got her back up in that direction which is tough impossible for me to do.

After that she was working on doing some sitting trot, transitions within the trot, shoulder in, haunches in, and canter in each direction. There were some great moments, good moments, and not so good moments but Katai tried everything that L challenged her with. She had a few minor moments but absolutely no melt downs. I asked L how she felt and was extremely flattered when L said that I'd been doing a good job with her and that Katai felt great :-) L also mentioned that everything she was schooling was from 1st level! She said that some of it wasn't very good yet but still, it made me so happy to hear that she's getting to the point where we can at least school it!

A moment of sass

However, we were both annoyed to see that my saddle is really sliding forward again. Katai has lost some weight (in a totally good way as you can see from the photos) but it means that her saddle is sliding again and not necessarily a great fit anyway. We talked about getting the Prestige Lucky trial again (I'll be calling on Monday) and I'm really hoping that it will be the answer. L had to get off twice to adjust my saddle today which is demoralizing at best. I'll be riding her with the half pad again until I can get a saddle that fits.

Everything but the Kitchen Sink: Lesson Recap 12/20

Katai got her second trainer ride on Sunday and it was amazing! I had mentioned that I was a little concerned because I hadn't been riding regularly last week but Katai actually did really well. She was tense and a little reactive at the beginning but didn't end up actually having a tantrum, she just threatened to have one :-)

At one point Katai was doing everything she possibly could to get L's weight to the outside but L, being a much more experienced rider than me, wasn't moving and Katai was getting frustrated. She literally was stumbling around like a drunk and L made the comment that Katai was throwing everything at her but the kitchen sink.

Eventually Katai realized that she was making choices that were making her life tougher and started to cooperate and then, once a few good moments happened L dismounted and handed her off to me.

I so love this little mare. Once I was on board she was so honest about what I was doing that was different than L. I again had an amazing lesson and where to put my body to keep everything that L had accomplished together. I got some really good trot by the end and we called it a day.

It's great to watch L ride and see how she handles Katai's various evasions. Unfortunately Katai never threw the stuff at L that she had at me on Saturday but I wouldn't be surprised if that's because L started out the ride in a different mental place than the one I was in on Saturday. At any rate it was an amazing lesson and again I was impressed by how lucky I am to have ended up with Katai.

A couple of take aways are that I need to be more stable with my hands. I noticed how bad I'd gotten in the video and was really careful with that during my lesson and of course it made a huge difference. It's not that I wasn't being soft before as much as that I just kept moving things around so Katai never had any stability. I also need to remember to use both legs. Baby horse just needed one leg, more advanced less babyish horse needs the support of both legs to do things right. I also need to be sure to more actively keep my weight to the inside. Finally, I need to work on teaching my body how to firm up my stomach muscles without firming up my butt. L pointed up that I tend to both simultaneously so instead of just lightly slowing Katai down I'm making her freeze up and get uncomfortable. Until she said that I didn't even realize that it was possible or necessary to do one or the other even though obviously I only use my abs when I'm doing crunches.

Trainer Ride: Lesson Recap 12/13

My sister drew this on our whiteboard for my birthday on Friday. In other news I need to change my bio from a 20 something to a 30 something.

 

Today L rode my pony and it was amazing!! So far L hadn’t ridden my pony for a couple of reasons. One was that Katai had been such a wild card that I don’t think either of us thought it would be especially helpful. She was so wild, resistant, stubborn, and just untrained that having L climb on just seemed like a waste of time and energy especially since I’ve been making good progress with her help from the ground. More recently though that’s been changing as Katai gets more broke and more rideable. She’s becoming more consistent both with the good and with the bad and L has been mentioning that she has wanted to put a ride(s) on her. I’ve sort of been waiting for L to say "Today is the day!" but based on an interaction with a different student last week I decided that I should set it up and ask her to ride instead. L is very collaborative and I think that if she thinks that I want to ride she’s not going to say anything. So instead I got to the barn a little early today so that I was there before L was in a lesson and asked if she’d like to ride. She agreed that it would be a good day and gathered her riding gear. I tacked up Katai in time for my lesson and then climbed up for a little to warm her up while the other person was riding. Then once she was done with that lesson L mounted up and started Katai at the walk.

I think that both of us were surprised at how differently Katai acted with L. She had a completely different reaction with her than she does with me and didn’t try to race off at all despite L riding with way more leg than I’ve ever been brave enough to try. However, because of that L found out that she’s insanely stiff to one side and just is not comfortable bending to the left. I’ve known she’s stiff but not that it’s an unusual amount so pony is going to be scheduled for some body work. She already has a chiro appointment at the beginning of January but now she’s going to get scheduled for a massage as well.

Both L and I also agreed that we were surprised that she didn’t have more of a tantrum. She had pretty much given them up but for the last few lessons she’s been throwing one at the beginning and then getting down to work. With L, although she was resistant, she didn’t do anything like that. L did work a lot on the walk, which is Katai’s least favorite gait, and then went to the trot. She was good enough at the trot that L didn’t do much and then it was my turn for the second half of the lesson. I couldn’t believe how good, and how different my pony was when I got on. This is why you have your trainer ride your pony! It was an amazing lesson just riding her for those first 10 minutes before Katai went back to more of the way that she goes with me. It was like riding a different horse, one that was in front of my leg, on my aids, balance, and listening to what I asked rather than just running through everything.

L said at the end of my lesson, during my ride I basically just tried to feel her out and not "ruin" anything which was a lesson in and of itself, that she wants to ride at the beginning of the next few lessons and I heartily agreed. I’m also planning on asking her to do a training ride or two in January while I’m in WA for work because I think that would be helpful.

Also, on a slightly unrelated note, remember how I said that one of my qualifications for an instructor was that they needed to be able to be small enough to ride my pony? I knew that L was shorter than me but we ended up shortening my stirrup irons three holes and she rides with a longer leg than I do. She and Katai made a really nice pair and it was so nice to see my pony being so well ridden. I really think Katai has got some talent for this dressage thing!!!

 

One of my friends got some video during my ride and that will be shared once she gets it posted :-)

 

Being able to ride outside on my birthday in December was amazing!