Pedro
20th Nov 2000, 05:53 PM
Hi!
I'm back to the usual schedule of lessons, and I bring you here two more episodes of this exciting, dangerous odyssey :-).
Before I start I have a small extra to today’s chronicles. I scanned the three photos I had of my initial riding experiences so you can take a look at them at http://www.geocities.com/pedrofortunato/nr2.html . I'll use them as back cover "before" shots whenever I publish the chronicles :D!
Wednesday, 15 November
There's really not much to say about most of the lesson. The typical exercises, walk, trot, circles, etc. During an explanation about the importance of impulsion to control the horse (as usual I'd let Catraia slow down to walk while starting a circle in trot) Francisco used the words "...they are not very generous with their forward motion" to describe these school horses. A pretty way of putting it :-)!
As usual the more interesting part of the lesson was the canter. This time I was able to:
- Start the canter when and where I wanted.
- Keep the motion once started
- Keep my feet in the stirrups, relaxed and steady.
- Work with the horse, keeping my bottom comfortably in the saddle
- Maintain a proper seat with shoulders back
- Hold a steady contact with the horse's mouth
Unfortunately none of it at the same time ;-)!
This was definitely not one of my days. To start with I was asking for canter by squeezing with the legs and pulling with the upper torso, instead of pushing with the back. In other words, I was throwing myself forward, assuming (as Heather well describes it) a "fatal" position. So fatal that three times I did it, and three times I was close to falling - griping mane, neck and saddle to remain seated. While this was taking place, Francisco was not just enjoying the show. He was screaming for me to lean back, at some point he (half-)jokingly asked "... what are you trying to do, kill yourself?". But all was to no avail. Today the words would enter through the inside ear, bounce around the empty space in my head like a pinball machine and exit through the outside ear leaving me none the smarter!
I tried several starts, but when I got Catraia to canter, I was so out of balance that I was either unable to work with the legs to keep the rhythm or I had to slow down to avoid a fall. To make matters even worse I kept letting the reins slip through. Catraia was so confused with me that at one point she was keeping up with Jubileu's canter while still trotting (was that bouncy!).
When I got home I made a little experiment. Sitting on my (wheeled) desk chair I tried to push as I was supposed to as part of the aids to canter. The result was the intended backward motion of the upper body, while the chair (and the whole of me) shot forward.
Trying the same thing, but as I had been doing it during the lesson, I got from the chair the same result I got from Catraia. The chair stayed where it was, or moved backwards, while I would loose balance and nearly shoot forward.
Of course, knowing how to do something and why you should do it like that isn't much help when you've spent your whole life doing it some other way! Overcoming some habits (like this go faster - lean forward relationship) is hard.
When the lesson ended and Francisco was talking with us, Catraia noticed I was wearing a wool shirt for the first time (it's getting too cold for me to be wearing just a T-shirt) and she made sure I'll never use it for anything other than riding :D!
Friday, 17 November
Today I had a new mount - Asterix! This, of course, meant learning a all new set of tricks and evasions. Asterix's favourite is the old one of slowing down when approaching the gate. Once noticed it was easy to deal with that one. Catraia is still the more inventive horse I've ridden :-).
We were five students, besides me there was another student at a similar level, one close to us and two others on their first lesson with saddle. With a four to one male-female ratio this was quite an unusual class!
Francisco distributed us by decreasing level of experience (better yet - increasing level of inexperience) with me and the other student in front. Being called "... more advanced" felt weird. As I looked at the two new students I was seeing myself in my third lesson, and I could see how much difference the lessons are making. During the stirrupless siting trot it was obvious there was skin parting company with leather. The new students looked unhappy, specially then, just like I did "in my time". I remember that quite well because I have my first lesson with saddle clearly imprinted in my brain (and some other parts of my anatomy :)).
The lesson was a slow one for the benefit of the newer students, though nothing was lost on the rest of us! I had the opportunity of experimenting with increasing the rhythm in trot, with some decent results. I focussed by imagining another horse in front of us getting away and, as long as I insisted a little more when we approached the gate, we went just fine.
Close to the end of the lesson we had a little prep speech from Francisco. We were stopped in the centre listening attentively. The same couldn't be said of our mounts. I had to keep Asterix from nosing the two nearest horses, as he insisted in doing it though they were obviously annoyed and threatened to bite him. Jubileu, with one of the newer students, succeeded in advancing several meters towards the gate. Asterix soon sounded like a bored person (or is that a bored horse...) by blowing air through his mouth (what do you call that?). Before they do so they puff up with air and you can feel them inflate like a balloon ("Run away! He's gonna blow!!"). That always catches me by surprise, it feels a little strange :-).
The prep talk was about connecting with the horse, etc, etc. Francisco told us that at this stage he is not concerned about the canter, that should become easier as we develop a better seat. He said that we do it mostly because he knows we like to and it doesn't hurt to try if we want to. That said we got into line again to try it. Well... we tried to get into line. After this time stopped in the centre the horses were convinced the lesson had ended and were not very happy with the idea of continuing. After a small recreation of a medieval battle, with horses facing every other way and bumping into each other, we managed to get them in line and do a little canter. We did it in groups, with the newer students doing it by themselves with the rest of us out of their way. The lesson ended there ("Finally!!" - said the horses) and we tried to repay them by helping with the feeding.
Pedro Fortunato
I'm back to the usual schedule of lessons, and I bring you here two more episodes of this exciting, dangerous odyssey :-).
Before I start I have a small extra to today’s chronicles. I scanned the three photos I had of my initial riding experiences so you can take a look at them at http://www.geocities.com/pedrofortunato/nr2.html . I'll use them as back cover "before" shots whenever I publish the chronicles :D!
Wednesday, 15 November
There's really not much to say about most of the lesson. The typical exercises, walk, trot, circles, etc. During an explanation about the importance of impulsion to control the horse (as usual I'd let Catraia slow down to walk while starting a circle in trot) Francisco used the words "...they are not very generous with their forward motion" to describe these school horses. A pretty way of putting it :-)!
As usual the more interesting part of the lesson was the canter. This time I was able to:
- Start the canter when and where I wanted.
- Keep the motion once started
- Keep my feet in the stirrups, relaxed and steady.
- Work with the horse, keeping my bottom comfortably in the saddle
- Maintain a proper seat with shoulders back
- Hold a steady contact with the horse's mouth
Unfortunately none of it at the same time ;-)!
This was definitely not one of my days. To start with I was asking for canter by squeezing with the legs and pulling with the upper torso, instead of pushing with the back. In other words, I was throwing myself forward, assuming (as Heather well describes it) a "fatal" position. So fatal that three times I did it, and three times I was close to falling - griping mane, neck and saddle to remain seated. While this was taking place, Francisco was not just enjoying the show. He was screaming for me to lean back, at some point he (half-)jokingly asked "... what are you trying to do, kill yourself?". But all was to no avail. Today the words would enter through the inside ear, bounce around the empty space in my head like a pinball machine and exit through the outside ear leaving me none the smarter!
I tried several starts, but when I got Catraia to canter, I was so out of balance that I was either unable to work with the legs to keep the rhythm or I had to slow down to avoid a fall. To make matters even worse I kept letting the reins slip through. Catraia was so confused with me that at one point she was keeping up with Jubileu's canter while still trotting (was that bouncy!).
When I got home I made a little experiment. Sitting on my (wheeled) desk chair I tried to push as I was supposed to as part of the aids to canter. The result was the intended backward motion of the upper body, while the chair (and the whole of me) shot forward.
Trying the same thing, but as I had been doing it during the lesson, I got from the chair the same result I got from Catraia. The chair stayed where it was, or moved backwards, while I would loose balance and nearly shoot forward.
Of course, knowing how to do something and why you should do it like that isn't much help when you've spent your whole life doing it some other way! Overcoming some habits (like this go faster - lean forward relationship) is hard.
When the lesson ended and Francisco was talking with us, Catraia noticed I was wearing a wool shirt for the first time (it's getting too cold for me to be wearing just a T-shirt) and she made sure I'll never use it for anything other than riding :D!
Friday, 17 November
Today I had a new mount - Asterix! This, of course, meant learning a all new set of tricks and evasions. Asterix's favourite is the old one of slowing down when approaching the gate. Once noticed it was easy to deal with that one. Catraia is still the more inventive horse I've ridden :-).
We were five students, besides me there was another student at a similar level, one close to us and two others on their first lesson with saddle. With a four to one male-female ratio this was quite an unusual class!
Francisco distributed us by decreasing level of experience (better yet - increasing level of inexperience) with me and the other student in front. Being called "... more advanced" felt weird. As I looked at the two new students I was seeing myself in my third lesson, and I could see how much difference the lessons are making. During the stirrupless siting trot it was obvious there was skin parting company with leather. The new students looked unhappy, specially then, just like I did "in my time". I remember that quite well because I have my first lesson with saddle clearly imprinted in my brain (and some other parts of my anatomy :)).
The lesson was a slow one for the benefit of the newer students, though nothing was lost on the rest of us! I had the opportunity of experimenting with increasing the rhythm in trot, with some decent results. I focussed by imagining another horse in front of us getting away and, as long as I insisted a little more when we approached the gate, we went just fine.
Close to the end of the lesson we had a little prep speech from Francisco. We were stopped in the centre listening attentively. The same couldn't be said of our mounts. I had to keep Asterix from nosing the two nearest horses, as he insisted in doing it though they were obviously annoyed and threatened to bite him. Jubileu, with one of the newer students, succeeded in advancing several meters towards the gate. Asterix soon sounded like a bored person (or is that a bored horse...) by blowing air through his mouth (what do you call that?). Before they do so they puff up with air and you can feel them inflate like a balloon ("Run away! He's gonna blow!!"). That always catches me by surprise, it feels a little strange :-).
The prep talk was about connecting with the horse, etc, etc. Francisco told us that at this stage he is not concerned about the canter, that should become easier as we develop a better seat. He said that we do it mostly because he knows we like to and it doesn't hurt to try if we want to. That said we got into line again to try it. Well... we tried to get into line. After this time stopped in the centre the horses were convinced the lesson had ended and were not very happy with the idea of continuing. After a small recreation of a medieval battle, with horses facing every other way and bumping into each other, we managed to get them in line and do a little canter. We did it in groups, with the newer students doing it by themselves with the rest of us out of their way. The lesson ended there ("Finally!!" - said the horses) and we tried to repay them by helping with the feeding.
Pedro Fortunato