Pedro
3rd Jan 2001, 01:57 PM
And yet another chronicle, today is a busy day!
Friday, 29 December
This is it, the last lesson of the millennium. To end the year in beauty, I got to ride yet another of the "better" horses. While he was saddling Pipas and Chérie for two other students, Francisco told me to go get Mefisto. His box is the one after Jubileu, and when I went past Juby's box I stopped to adjust my helmet and gloves. Juby was inside chewing some straw from his bedding. When he looked towards the door and saw me standing there getting ready, he just froze with the jaw slightly opened, with a "Oh no!" look in his face :-), I could just picture him swallowing hard.
Mefisto was already tacked up, and as soon as I had opened his door he came out gently and waited for me to lead him on - I started to wonder why is he called Mefisto (Devil). We got into the arena, where he waited patently for me to check the bridle, girth and stirrups. I mounted and we started the lesson. As opposed to Pipas, Mefisto was forward going without being maniacally so ;). He was very sensitive to the reins and responsive to the leg, I really loved ridding him.
The bulk of the lesson was learning and practicing rising to the trot in the correct diagonal. Looking at Mefisto's outside shoulder I found it rather easy to know if I was in the right diagonal or not. Changing the diagonal if needed was a different matter! We did frequent changes of rein to try it out, and at first I was having problems with it. I tried to bump just once in the saddle, but ended up bumping several times, which would force me to wait and look down to find out in which diagonal I had ended :-). After a few tries I got the hang of it and was able to change diagonals at X with just a bump and no looking down. Now all that is left is being able to perceive the diagonals without looking at the shoulder. Just that :)!
At one point during the lesson Pipas' "outbursts" returned. This time, unfortunately, I was behind. It took a lot of inner strength to prevent me from laughing myself to the ground, seeing her passing gas in rhythm with the trot, twice in every stride - "Look mummy! A gas operated horse!" :-)!
I got to find out why Mefisto got his name (or at least a good reason for having it now), when we did a bit of canter. He would get into canter effortlessly, but after a while he would start cavorting around a little. I had insufficient control over him in canter, and he took advantage of it to have some fun. My inexperience together with his misbehaving almost resulted in us both going down. I'd just asked for canter near the end of the arena, when he decided to make the turn too tight and unbalanced. The result was that he faltered during the turn and nearly fell. For a moment I was absolutely sure we were going to fall :eek: ("Mayday! Mayday! This is flight M666, we are going down! I repeat, we are going down!"). At this point I thought I heard everyone else gasping (or maybe it was only me - hard to tell :-)!), but Mefisto managed to regain balance. With all his thrashing about to regain control, I lost stirrups and my own balance, and was closer to falling off that I have ever been (without actually falling - of course). To regain balance I was close to inadvertently pulling on the reins, but at the last moment I realised what I was about to do, and instead I threw the little balance I had left forward, and steadied myself by holding his neck. When I had regain some semblance of a decent seat I slowed him down back to walk - even with all the trashing around we'd both made he had just continued to canter (no more cavorting, though)!
The lesson ended soon after that. We all helped take care of the horses and close everything up. We exchanged wishes for a happy new year (and century, and millennium) and went each is own way - until the next lesson in a brand new year!
Pedro Fortunato
Lisbon, Portugal
Friday, 29 December
This is it, the last lesson of the millennium. To end the year in beauty, I got to ride yet another of the "better" horses. While he was saddling Pipas and Chérie for two other students, Francisco told me to go get Mefisto. His box is the one after Jubileu, and when I went past Juby's box I stopped to adjust my helmet and gloves. Juby was inside chewing some straw from his bedding. When he looked towards the door and saw me standing there getting ready, he just froze with the jaw slightly opened, with a "Oh no!" look in his face :-), I could just picture him swallowing hard.
Mefisto was already tacked up, and as soon as I had opened his door he came out gently and waited for me to lead him on - I started to wonder why is he called Mefisto (Devil). We got into the arena, where he waited patently for me to check the bridle, girth and stirrups. I mounted and we started the lesson. As opposed to Pipas, Mefisto was forward going without being maniacally so ;). He was very sensitive to the reins and responsive to the leg, I really loved ridding him.
The bulk of the lesson was learning and practicing rising to the trot in the correct diagonal. Looking at Mefisto's outside shoulder I found it rather easy to know if I was in the right diagonal or not. Changing the diagonal if needed was a different matter! We did frequent changes of rein to try it out, and at first I was having problems with it. I tried to bump just once in the saddle, but ended up bumping several times, which would force me to wait and look down to find out in which diagonal I had ended :-). After a few tries I got the hang of it and was able to change diagonals at X with just a bump and no looking down. Now all that is left is being able to perceive the diagonals without looking at the shoulder. Just that :)!
At one point during the lesson Pipas' "outbursts" returned. This time, unfortunately, I was behind. It took a lot of inner strength to prevent me from laughing myself to the ground, seeing her passing gas in rhythm with the trot, twice in every stride - "Look mummy! A gas operated horse!" :-)!
I got to find out why Mefisto got his name (or at least a good reason for having it now), when we did a bit of canter. He would get into canter effortlessly, but after a while he would start cavorting around a little. I had insufficient control over him in canter, and he took advantage of it to have some fun. My inexperience together with his misbehaving almost resulted in us both going down. I'd just asked for canter near the end of the arena, when he decided to make the turn too tight and unbalanced. The result was that he faltered during the turn and nearly fell. For a moment I was absolutely sure we were going to fall :eek: ("Mayday! Mayday! This is flight M666, we are going down! I repeat, we are going down!"). At this point I thought I heard everyone else gasping (or maybe it was only me - hard to tell :-)!), but Mefisto managed to regain balance. With all his thrashing about to regain control, I lost stirrups and my own balance, and was closer to falling off that I have ever been (without actually falling - of course). To regain balance I was close to inadvertently pulling on the reins, but at the last moment I realised what I was about to do, and instead I threw the little balance I had left forward, and steadied myself by holding his neck. When I had regain some semblance of a decent seat I slowed him down back to walk - even with all the trashing around we'd both made he had just continued to canter (no more cavorting, though)!
The lesson ended soon after that. We all helped take care of the horses and close everything up. We exchanged wishes for a happy new year (and century, and millennium) and went each is own way - until the next lesson in a brand new year!
Pedro Fortunato
Lisbon, Portugal