friday's lesson

[elise]

well my lesson on friday went fairly ok. it has it's good and it's bad. only one other girl could make it. and i finally got to ride willie. someone rode him during our lesson the week before and i was sooo jealous. he is super tall and holds his head up and walks on with so much energy. usually i ride a horse that requires me to carry a crop and it was so nice to be able to hold the reins the right way with both hands. the crop is just one more thing to think of that i don't need quite yet. too much on my mind already. so the walk and trot went really well. i was figuring out how to collect his trot and he was super responsive. plus he'd trot for days without stopping. but when we got to the canter everything fell apart. she wanted us to do the canter in the 20m circle and i'm sure it was partly because i know i hate the 20m circle, partly cuz his legs are so long, and mostly because i am still very inexperienced. but he took off in the canter and i got him around the circle once sort of ok, but the second time i just couldn't keep my balance, pay attention, and get him to stay in the circle. so he took off around the full arena. he wasn't running away with me, he was still cantering, he just didn't stay in the small circle. i finally got ahold of him and did a pretty good job of getting him to trot again. as most beginners i loose the reins in the canter and with this horse that wasn't a good thing. so that part didn't help my confidence. we did a few more trot to walk to halt transitions to atleast end the lesson on a good note. man i can't wait until the day that it all clicks and i can do more than one thing at a time!

[Tootsie4U]

I think you're trying too hard ;) hee hee

Have you tried Canter to halt transitions on the straight ways yet? I found that helped me find my balance quite a bit. It also focuses your attention on the halting (something else) which seemed to relax me.

Another thing I'd like to suggest, but Im always alone on this, is to stick with just one horse for awhile until you get these basics down. Every horse feels different and by staying with one, you will better be able to acquire his feel, and then your feel. If you switch all the time, its like starting new every time. At least for now until you get this down. Just my opinion.

[canna]

Tootsie4u, you're definately not alone with your opinion on this one. I suffered a great confidence crisis when returning to riding earlier this year, after having a baby. My biggest fear was cantering, but my instructor and i worked with the same horse for weeks, and built things up gradually, moving on to a different horse when we both felt the time was right. Cantering is now my fav pace!:D I'm now able to ride a variey of horses, whenever!!
At the end of the day, you have to do what's right for you at your level. Be happy, and be safe!!

p.s. as T4U says, don't try too hard - Enjoy!:D

[elise]

well i've had two more lessons since that last one i posted. the one right after the canter fiasco was a private lesson and we worked on a lot of halts and backing up. man i never thought backing up could be so tough! took me nearly the full lesson to get the cue right and not have the horse walk off in every which direction. whoa but once we got it togther it was a good deal. the instructor kept commenting on how the horse was really holding his neck right and using the bit properly.

so then this weeks lesson was just me and one other woman. and much to my dismay i was put on the bumpy horse. heh which is fine for rising trot but sitting trot is a different story. we did a lot of sitting trot on the 20m circle which was so not fun. i'd finally get close to a good seat and he'd stop abruptly. i probably came close to going over his head atleast once every 5 minutes. i was proud of my self though, i tacked him up without getting bitten and he was a cranky boy when being girthed up.

[Turns]

I have returned to riding after 10 yrs off and have experienced the same balance issues in canter. I found I could do one full circle fine and then on the next circle I would be bouncing around everywhere and when that happens, the horse tends to get off balance and the reins slide and it just seems like there are a million things you have to think about.

I found that when I started to feel my balance getting out of wack I sit up tall and put my outside hand on my hip and ride with the reins in the inside hand. I found that half the problem was that as soon as you bump around the horse gets out of balance quickly and makes it all worse.

I must say that I think I will always prefer canter on the straight than on the circle.