first group lesson

[elise]

well friday i had my first group lesson after 6 private lessons at this barn. there were 4 of us total in the lesson, two older women, one 20-something, and myself. i was assigned Spirit, the very hairy morgan gelding. unfortunatly he's a bit of a stubborn fellow and would not let me get his bridle on. i actually got him to take the bit fairly easily but i could not get the strap over his ears. i know i am probably too gentle but i had the instructor bridle him for me anyways. i am getting good at using the crop when i ride a pokey horse like spirit but i still can't get the hang of rising trot and using leg aids at the same time. we mostly worked on trotting which seems to be the norm lately. i could sit spirit's trot fairly easily, but the rising trot was a bit slow so it was pretty tough. midway through the hour lesson (which ended up being an hour and half) an injured pigeon snuck into the school. he stuck to the side for the most part and the horses ignored him, but near the end he waddle out to the middle of the school and Spirit couldn't stand it any more, he had to go see what the deal was. so we walked over to the pigeon and he nosed at it a bit. i think he was throughroughly confused why it wasn't flying away. all in all i think it was a pretty mediocre ride. i think just trying to get used to riding in a group and not getting to close and passing when it's neccessary and all that contributed to it. but i'll take a mediocre ride to no ride any day!

so then it was off to my bf's farm. saturday i ended up missing out on a huge cattle roundup. the bf's little bro went and no one thought of sending me along til it was too late. he came back walking a wee bit slower than normal. he doesn't normally ride horses. but boy was i jealous, a whole day of riding around hearding cattle. man that woulda been fun, and the weather was perfect this weekend to boot. oh well, they'll remember me for next year. i went down to the shop and visited with cody and axel. the owner was busy but he told me "you know where the saddles are." so i thought i'd take cody out for a ride alone. i think there was a conspiricy going on though. i tacked him up all the while axel tried to gain my attention. i mounted up and cody just sat there. no amount of proding, clicking, or pulling would get this horse to leave axel's side. so i got off and led him around a bit. he follows just fine. axel paced in his pasture. i finally decided to lead cody around to the other side of the building and mount there so that axel and cody couldn't see each other. well axel threw a flying fit! he galloped from one end of the pasture to the other desperatly trying to call to cody. i swore he was going to go over the fence. or in his overweight case, maybe right through the fence. i figured it would be best to just skip the ride for the day. those boys are so darn buddy sour it's not funny. and since i am not one of the owners i don't have that boss-man position over the horses yet. so i took off his tack and brushed them both for a while and took some photos. i wanted to get one of them atleast to run so i could take a picture of it but it seems unless absolutely neccessary (ie, one of them is leaving the pasture) they won't go more than a walk. darn fat horses. heh. oh well. i will attempt a ride next time the owner is available.

http://www.gaetzfamily.com/elise/photos/horses_and_farm/204_cody_poses.jpg

when my website stops acting like a baby there will be more photos up here:
http://www.gaetzfamily.com/elise/photos/index.php?page=horses_and_farm

[Laetitia]

You should see my nag if you think that's fat. She has had the summer off so is stuffed with summer grass and is seriously fat. I shouldn't worry about leaving Axel, he didn't come out over the fence when you took Cody out of his sight so he's not likely too.
Go for your ride and enjoy. The more you leave Axel the more he'll realise you're coming back. I have a retired steeple chaser as companion to my nag and I worried he would come out over the gate. He hasn't, and has now stopped flying around and shrieking his head off, as he knows she's coming back. Be useful if you can get someone just to keep an eye on Axel on your first few ride outs, to talk to him and sooth him. L

[kedwards]

Very cool-looking horse. I love the mask!

What a shame about the cattle roundup, that certainly would have been a blast. Will you have other opportunities?

[elise]

well at the very least i think they do the roundup every year, so next year i'll have to remember to ask about it and tag along. i guess they even had extra horses that no one was riding.