My first lesson

I rode three horses yesterday. I arrived at the barn at 7:30am, and I had a lesson immediately. Richard put me on his mostly-retired 23-year-old HUGE Grand Prix horse (I can't remember what his name is). Although he's big, he carries himself very well. We did a lot of walking to start. He was rather difficult to get on the bit, but he had just had a tooth pulled a few weeks ago, and I was the first one on him. One thing's for sure that I hadn't even noticed until now--he made me feel 100% safe. The older guys have that effect. Though, when we started cantering, it was another story... more on that in a bit.

I did some shoulder-ins and leg-yields. The leg-yields were somewhat difficult. I have a habit of trying to use the inside rein to bend the neck, which is NOT the way a leg-yield is supposed to be ridden. Basically, you put your weight on the outside seat bone, and the horse follows it (that's what Richard says anyway). The way Melissa taught me is to put weight on the outside seat bone, "push" the horse over with the inside calf, and support with the outside rein so that the horse's shoulder doesn't start drifting. Anyway, we also did some shoulder-ins (which, amazingly, I found much easier than leg-yields), and lots and lots of circles.

Then the canter. My previous trainers have taught me to put my outside leg back to cue for the canter. I realize this isn't actually the correct way to ask for the canter, but it's easier on both the trainers and riders, so that's just the way I've been taught. The correct way is to actually put your weight on the inside seat bone at just the right moment. Finding that moment is difficult for me, apparently. It took several tries to get the canter, but when I did, it felt like magic. I had never had a "true" canter depart before. Oh, and the canter itself was atrocious. Apparently I'm DRIVING with my seat--the horse got faster and faster, and actually started bucking a bit--when I always thought I was just following the horse's movement. This is something else I'm confused about. The only way I could do this was to stay totally rigid in the saddle, almost to the point of standing in the stirrups, which goes against everything I've been taught. But, once I did this, Richard said "good". I had been told by a previous trainer in a clinic where I was riding Baloo that I have bony seat bones, and that I may be digging into my horse's back, causing him to buck. I'm starting to wonder if maybe that really was the case. He was still an ass. ;)

OH! And we did a piaffe!!! I think Richard was just trying to get me excited, as a piaffe isn't something that riders at my level get the chance to do. It felt pretty amazing, to say the least. I don't think it was all that great, and I doubt we would have received even mediocre scores in a dressage test, but I don't care. I was able to actually SIT it, too!! :D

So, I'm rather confused with the way Richard has been teaching me, and once I get a new job (sigh), I plan on taking lessons with some other trainers in the area to make sure I'm gettting a well-rounded, correct "education". I'm not saying he's wrong--I just don't want to develop more bad habits. His horses are all (well, mostly) very well-behaved and well-trained, though.

I rode another Grand Prix horse (I think his name is Bolero?), and I really really like this guy. Too bad, as he's leaving in a month. :( He fits me perfectly, and I love his gaits. You know, it's really amazing to me that these gorgeous, upper-level horses have such wonderful, springy, free gaits and I can actually SIT them!! Whether this is a product of good training, which is unlikely, or increased abilities on my part to be able to sit these guys, is a mystery to me. Anyway, Bolero is a very sweet horse, imported from Germany, apparently very expensive, and I just love him. He's the first horse that I saw when I came to Richard's--his wife was riding him and doing some fancy stuff. We didn't do anything too fancy. Some leg-yields, shoulder-ins, and I actually tried my hand at haunches-in, which is a rather difficult movement. I did okay, but it's helpful to actually learn on a horse that KNOWS how to do it, rather than trying to teach a horse how to do it at the same time that I'm trying to learn how to do it.

I rode Antares again. He was feeling pretty strong, and he jumped out of the arena a couple of times. Little bastard. He's learned a weakness of mine, and I can't figure out what it is.

Michael and I went on a bike ride this morning. I think that crazy ride I did on Thursday royally screwed up my back. It takes a lot of back muscles to be able to climb hills, and Friday night my lower back started hurting. Plus, I was sore this morning from my barn activities Saturday. So, I was a little apprehensive about riding this morning, but I tried anyway. We met up with his team ride after a warm-up, and I hung back with the "slower" group. We were still doing 18-19MPH. If I put a lot of effort into it, my back would protest, so that kinda sucked. I met a woman named Stephanie that stayed with me once I fell behind on the hills. I was still doing really well though, all things considered. Once on Parmer, a long stretch of road, the guys hammered it, and Stephanie and I attempted to keep up with them at our relatively slow pace of 30MPH. We still couldn't catch up to them even then, so we slowed to about 20-22MPH until we hit the re-group point at Starbucks.

After that, Michael and I went home as I just didn't want to push it anymore. It was a good thing, too. I was completely toast by the time we got home. I couldn't get out of a chair without my back hurting like hell.