Pedro
3rd Jan 2001, 02:02 PM
And one more chronicle for you!
Wednesday, 27 December
This one was definitely a special lesson. I'd follow Francisco to the stalls were the school horses are. He checked a few things, turned to me and said "OK, let's start the lesson" and proceeded away from the stalls without telling me which horse to take :confused:. I stayed standing there thinking I'd be needing a horse to start the lesson. Eventually I followed him to the other group of stalls. The only of the horses for initiates there is Boneca. She is a wonderful gentle horse, but getting on the years, so Francisco keeps her most for lessons with little kids, or as a confidence builder. She is stabled with the "serious" horses because she is babysitting a young colt (or filly - not sure). Anyway... I knew I wasn't ridding Boneca, and I definitely wasn't riding Génio. So the most likely candidate was Pipas, Francisco's mare.
For once I was apprehensive about riding a horse. Pipas is a nice mare... other than acting like she had just drunk two buckets of strong coffee :-)! I'd seen her being ridden by a student with a similar level of experience, and it had been... let's say - interesting. So I knew I had a difficult lesson in front of me.
We went into the arena with little worth mentioning. She proved willing to keep up with me while being led (I tend to walk fast), in fact I had to check her a little, because she was too keen to get to the arena. When we got there I checked tack and proceeded to mount. She was a little fidgety but I managed to calm her enough to be able to climb up. I knew she was not used to novice riders, so I kept remembering myself to be relaxed, maintain a soft contact with the reins and use gentle leg aids. Once I was settled up there and had gathered the reins, I gave her a soft nudge with the calves and... off we shot at a fast trot! I tried a slight increase of pressure on the hands with little results in terms of speed. Because I had one rein slightly longer then the other, it did result in us turning left. Trying to correct our turn made us veer too much to the other side. I was rapidly loosing the control I had never had ;-). For a few moments we were wriggling around the arena like a headless worm. Francisco kept telling me to stop her, and I kept making small checks with the reins. Until it dawned on me that gentleness was all very fine but in this case it would be as efficient to stop her as asking, please, pretty please, will you stop? I started to apply more and more pressure until she finally slowed down to a walk. After I realised that she could be as hard to slow down as other horses are to speed up, we got along a lot better. She was definitely not (with me at least) between the leg and the hand. She was miles in front of the leg and barely contained by the hand :-)!
When we had finished this period of acquaintance, we joined up with the other instructor (José) on Chérie and Carlos on Mefisto (Devil). There's not much to be said on the bulk of the lesson. Guiding Pipas was a dream, she would follow the reins (for anything other than slowing down) with little more than wishes. The smallest of pressures with the leg and she would drift out. The only problem I faced with the circles was putting a smaller amount of pressure so we wouldn't drift too much. We did some other exercises requiring tight turns, and although we weren't exactly gracious in our turns, we managed OK. In a moment of rest at walk we were told to let the horses stretch their necks, but I rapidly decided against it, as soon as I removed pressure from the reins Pipas started to speed up and was about to overtake the horses in front. I wanted to experiment with seat aids, but I had to give up for the very same reason. I could tightened my buttocks as much as I wanted, but as soon as any pressure on the reins was released she would shoot forward. Conversely, it made little sense in insisting her to go forward with seat aids, if I was pulling on the reins in an effort to keep her at walk :-). I also found out that it is not only when I'm watching her being ridden that she passes gas. As someone said, it's better when you're on top - the farts follow behind :D!
When we ended the lesson and dismounted, and while Francisco was talking to us she proceeded to push me around with her head, in what I assumed to be a request to take out the bridle. This is hardly the first time a horse does this to me, but she was not only more vigorous in her request, but she also managed to fill my shirt and glove with yellowish slobber that would disgust any "unhorsey" people (I would really like to understand what they have against horse slobber, poo, hair or smell - it just baffles me :) ).
Pedro Fortunato
Lisbon, Portugal
Wednesday, 27 December
This one was definitely a special lesson. I'd follow Francisco to the stalls were the school horses are. He checked a few things, turned to me and said "OK, let's start the lesson" and proceeded away from the stalls without telling me which horse to take :confused:. I stayed standing there thinking I'd be needing a horse to start the lesson. Eventually I followed him to the other group of stalls. The only of the horses for initiates there is Boneca. She is a wonderful gentle horse, but getting on the years, so Francisco keeps her most for lessons with little kids, or as a confidence builder. She is stabled with the "serious" horses because she is babysitting a young colt (or filly - not sure). Anyway... I knew I wasn't ridding Boneca, and I definitely wasn't riding Génio. So the most likely candidate was Pipas, Francisco's mare.
For once I was apprehensive about riding a horse. Pipas is a nice mare... other than acting like she had just drunk two buckets of strong coffee :-)! I'd seen her being ridden by a student with a similar level of experience, and it had been... let's say - interesting. So I knew I had a difficult lesson in front of me.
We went into the arena with little worth mentioning. She proved willing to keep up with me while being led (I tend to walk fast), in fact I had to check her a little, because she was too keen to get to the arena. When we got there I checked tack and proceeded to mount. She was a little fidgety but I managed to calm her enough to be able to climb up. I knew she was not used to novice riders, so I kept remembering myself to be relaxed, maintain a soft contact with the reins and use gentle leg aids. Once I was settled up there and had gathered the reins, I gave her a soft nudge with the calves and... off we shot at a fast trot! I tried a slight increase of pressure on the hands with little results in terms of speed. Because I had one rein slightly longer then the other, it did result in us turning left. Trying to correct our turn made us veer too much to the other side. I was rapidly loosing the control I had never had ;-). For a few moments we were wriggling around the arena like a headless worm. Francisco kept telling me to stop her, and I kept making small checks with the reins. Until it dawned on me that gentleness was all very fine but in this case it would be as efficient to stop her as asking, please, pretty please, will you stop? I started to apply more and more pressure until she finally slowed down to a walk. After I realised that she could be as hard to slow down as other horses are to speed up, we got along a lot better. She was definitely not (with me at least) between the leg and the hand. She was miles in front of the leg and barely contained by the hand :-)!
When we had finished this period of acquaintance, we joined up with the other instructor (José) on Chérie and Carlos on Mefisto (Devil). There's not much to be said on the bulk of the lesson. Guiding Pipas was a dream, she would follow the reins (for anything other than slowing down) with little more than wishes. The smallest of pressures with the leg and she would drift out. The only problem I faced with the circles was putting a smaller amount of pressure so we wouldn't drift too much. We did some other exercises requiring tight turns, and although we weren't exactly gracious in our turns, we managed OK. In a moment of rest at walk we were told to let the horses stretch their necks, but I rapidly decided against it, as soon as I removed pressure from the reins Pipas started to speed up and was about to overtake the horses in front. I wanted to experiment with seat aids, but I had to give up for the very same reason. I could tightened my buttocks as much as I wanted, but as soon as any pressure on the reins was released she would shoot forward. Conversely, it made little sense in insisting her to go forward with seat aids, if I was pulling on the reins in an effort to keep her at walk :-). I also found out that it is not only when I'm watching her being ridden that she passes gas. As someone said, it's better when you're on top - the farts follow behind :D!
When we ended the lesson and dismounted, and while Francisco was talking to us she proceeded to push me around with her head, in what I assumed to be a request to take out the bridle. This is hardly the first time a horse does this to me, but she was not only more vigorous in her request, but she also managed to fill my shirt and glove with yellowish slobber that would disgust any "unhorsey" people (I would really like to understand what they have against horse slobber, poo, hair or smell - it just baffles me :) ).
Pedro Fortunato
Lisbon, Portugal