Unparalleled Lesson
Saturday, 11 November 2000
This weekend was a very horse oriented one. I missed Wednesday lesson due to work (that thing I have to do to pay for my riding). Friday Francisco (the owner and instructor of the stables) went to Golegã to the annual horse market, giving the horses an extra day off. So I had lessons both Saturday and Sunday to make up.
I prefer the late afternoon lessons in week days because there is less (absolutely no) confusion. Usually only two or three students, and we get to un-saddle and help feed the horses afterwards while we talk a little. During the weekend there's a lot more people and a little "Next please!" feeling to it.
I arrived at mid-afternoon and I watched a lunge lesson Francisco was giving while I waited for my own. I chatted with a boy, seeming around ten years old, who was also waiting. The topics were favourite horses (he likes Catraia, I like Jubileu), marking equestrian experiences (falls, that is) and challenging exercises (parallel turns that aren't, circles that don't). For a change it was nice talking about horses with someone who both understood what I was saying and spoke Portuguese 
!
When time came for our partners to be chosen my new found friend was disappointed - he was given Paloma. On the other end I was quite happy, as I was to ride Jubileu (who, I'm pretty sure you'll remember, is not vertically challenged ).
There's this thing with big horses that makes me jump up and down like a little boy. I don't know if it's a "male chauvinist pig" 
thing, with all that strength, muscle and bones. The bigger the horse the more I'm thrilled!
Well, anyway... the class was all more or less at the same level and we had another instructor (missed his name).
The lesson was basically a recap of the lessons so far, for the particular benefit of a newer student, and the general benefit of the rest of us. I found out that the boy's name was also Pedro. The name is so rare I once had a school class with twelve of us - at first it drove teachers right up the wall! During the lesson it proved a little confusing: "Pedro, shorten the reins!"... OK, did that... "Pedro, shorten the reins!!!"... I already did! What am I to do? Climb Jubileu's neck? What? Not me? Opss...
We did pretty much the usual: walk, circles, rising trot, sitting trot without stirrups... All that while the instructor told us about the need for impulsion to control the horse, the importance of keeping a proper posture and what that posture should be, the position of the hands and the pressure on the reins - just enough to feel the horses mouth.
The funny part of the lesson was the sorry looking group we must have seemed to onlookers while trying to perform parallel turns. In theory we would be trotting in single file along one of the sides of the arena. At the instructors command we would all turn inside, at the same time, and head straight for the far side, where we'd carry on in the opposite rein. That's it for the theory! In practice we would slow down at first, bunch up in the middle and revert to single file a good way before the far side . Lot's of bumper to bumper traffic!
I had previously seen the ungainly spectacle five novices can offer doing this to know we must have looked hilarious. After three or four attempts we were able to do something "presentable" and called it a day. By the way, we were in the larger outdoor arena. Five novices doing this in the smaller one would have had the spectators rolling in the dirt .
Pedro Fortunato
Lisbon, Portugal
