Pedro
20th Mar 2001, 02:11 PM
Tuesday, 6 March
For a change from Chèrie, today I rode Mefisto. Sensitive as always, he is a pleasure to ride. I think he was resenting my leg a little, as he was shaking his head sometimes, when I used the inside leg in turns. I was extra careful with the reins, so I'm pretty sure it was not hand related. Anyway, he was as willing as ever so I can't complain.
The weather did another turn for the worst, after a few days of good weather the rain came back with a vengeance this weekend - with the tragic consequences you might have heard about. Once again the side of the arena was turned into a swamp, with up to one hand of mud and water. Another unpleasant effect of the unexpected return of bad weather resulted from Francisco recently oiling Mefisto's bridle and reins. With the rain and moisture the excess oil didn't dry and the reins were very slippery, making my life difficult - particularly during canter. By the end of the lesson my hands hurt from the permanent clasp I had on the reins :-(.
On itself, there was nothing remarkable about the work we did. We focused mostly on extending and shortening the trot, and with both I made clear progress over the course of the lesson. My fellow students were not the customary ones, as I had had to anticipate the lesson from Wednesday, due to a scheduled work presentation. Darn work keeps interfering with what's really important :)! The good news is that my friends and co-workers are showing signs of increased interest into equine affairs. After putting up with me for five months now, I'd expect them to be utterly fed up with anything horse related. In fact the opposite is happening. Two of them are looking into riding lessons ("Just a few lessons..." - they say in their innocence, not knowing what they are getting into :D). The others actually come up to me with questions about horses, knowing very well that has on me the same effect of taking the chocks away from a loaded cart on the brink of a long step slope :-D.
Friday, 9 March
As soon as I arrived at the school I could see that Lord was giving his young rider a hard time. Keeping inside the path, refusing to approach the corners, slow in his transitions, Lord was taking the student for a ride - a slow one at that!
When Francisco saw me at the gate, watching the class, he looked at me, pointed towards Lord and said with a slightly exasperated look "You're riding him next!". With that I was expecting a tiresome not-at-all-pleasant lesson. In fact I was proved wrong. Well... tiresome it proved to be, but it was also one of the more pleasant ones in later weeks. I owe Lord an excuse, and I think I've earned a pat on the back myself.
As soon as I was on Lord, and before the others arrived (they had to tack up their horses, so they took a while) I started to work with purpose. I begun with a couple of laps at walk and then at trot. I asked and expected of Lord to close to the corners, no demanding, no pushing and no pulling. He did as I asked without resistance, there was only one corner he pull away from, I guess because it was ramping up to the outside (the arena was drier, but hardly in the best of conditions). Because he was willing to abide to my suggestions elsewhere (including in places were the ground was loose and deep) I compromised and let him come inside on that corner during all of the lesson. After that short initial warm-up I did some transition work between halt-walk, walk-trot and then halt-trot.
I don't know if it was my initial approach that made the difference, or if a higher sense of purpose on my part is to "blame", but the thing is - we had a great lesson! I had to keep my legs working, one step without asking him forward and he would revert to dragging his feet through the dirt. With continuing encouragement from my part he kept a nice lively trot - which is not something I was used to in Lord.
The lesson was rather plain. We did the usual exercises, including canter, and Lord put up a good work through all of it.
I took advantage of the loose dirt in one of the corners of the arena to make a little experiment. In that corner Lord picked up a lot of impulsion, because it was easier for him to cross that area with a higher stronger action. As we were doing sitting trot, that meant that when passing through there his trot was really hard to sit. I had to flex like a green bamboo to avoid being lifted from the saddle. I decided to try not to flex and just relax, to see what the difference was. Well, after two strides I gave the experience for finished, has I was being lifted a couple of fingers off the saddle before being thumped hard into it. That was the perfect demonstration of the importance of absorbing the motion correctly.
To finish a great lesson in perfection, after we had gone to the centre to dismount, I remembered a "demonstration" another instructor had given us some weeks back on Lord. He had backed him up without insistence and without strength on the reins. I decided to try it out. I set my hands, asked Lord forward and he immediately gave me one beautiful stride straight back. Just one because I asked him to stop then, as I was doing this when everyone was looking the other way - I didn't want it to look like I was showing off to the rest of the class :-).
Today's lesson was the proof that there are no bad horses, only bad riders. The same horse that I had initially dismissed as lazy and disobedient, showed himself to be just fine, as long has the rider is more confident and focused - although he still is lazy, my sweaty helmet was the proof of that :)!
Pedro Fortunato
Lisbon, Portugal
For a change from Chèrie, today I rode Mefisto. Sensitive as always, he is a pleasure to ride. I think he was resenting my leg a little, as he was shaking his head sometimes, when I used the inside leg in turns. I was extra careful with the reins, so I'm pretty sure it was not hand related. Anyway, he was as willing as ever so I can't complain.
The weather did another turn for the worst, after a few days of good weather the rain came back with a vengeance this weekend - with the tragic consequences you might have heard about. Once again the side of the arena was turned into a swamp, with up to one hand of mud and water. Another unpleasant effect of the unexpected return of bad weather resulted from Francisco recently oiling Mefisto's bridle and reins. With the rain and moisture the excess oil didn't dry and the reins were very slippery, making my life difficult - particularly during canter. By the end of the lesson my hands hurt from the permanent clasp I had on the reins :-(.
On itself, there was nothing remarkable about the work we did. We focused mostly on extending and shortening the trot, and with both I made clear progress over the course of the lesson. My fellow students were not the customary ones, as I had had to anticipate the lesson from Wednesday, due to a scheduled work presentation. Darn work keeps interfering with what's really important :)! The good news is that my friends and co-workers are showing signs of increased interest into equine affairs. After putting up with me for five months now, I'd expect them to be utterly fed up with anything horse related. In fact the opposite is happening. Two of them are looking into riding lessons ("Just a few lessons..." - they say in their innocence, not knowing what they are getting into :D). The others actually come up to me with questions about horses, knowing very well that has on me the same effect of taking the chocks away from a loaded cart on the brink of a long step slope :-D.
Friday, 9 March
As soon as I arrived at the school I could see that Lord was giving his young rider a hard time. Keeping inside the path, refusing to approach the corners, slow in his transitions, Lord was taking the student for a ride - a slow one at that!
When Francisco saw me at the gate, watching the class, he looked at me, pointed towards Lord and said with a slightly exasperated look "You're riding him next!". With that I was expecting a tiresome not-at-all-pleasant lesson. In fact I was proved wrong. Well... tiresome it proved to be, but it was also one of the more pleasant ones in later weeks. I owe Lord an excuse, and I think I've earned a pat on the back myself.
As soon as I was on Lord, and before the others arrived (they had to tack up their horses, so they took a while) I started to work with purpose. I begun with a couple of laps at walk and then at trot. I asked and expected of Lord to close to the corners, no demanding, no pushing and no pulling. He did as I asked without resistance, there was only one corner he pull away from, I guess because it was ramping up to the outside (the arena was drier, but hardly in the best of conditions). Because he was willing to abide to my suggestions elsewhere (including in places were the ground was loose and deep) I compromised and let him come inside on that corner during all of the lesson. After that short initial warm-up I did some transition work between halt-walk, walk-trot and then halt-trot.
I don't know if it was my initial approach that made the difference, or if a higher sense of purpose on my part is to "blame", but the thing is - we had a great lesson! I had to keep my legs working, one step without asking him forward and he would revert to dragging his feet through the dirt. With continuing encouragement from my part he kept a nice lively trot - which is not something I was used to in Lord.
The lesson was rather plain. We did the usual exercises, including canter, and Lord put up a good work through all of it.
I took advantage of the loose dirt in one of the corners of the arena to make a little experiment. In that corner Lord picked up a lot of impulsion, because it was easier for him to cross that area with a higher stronger action. As we were doing sitting trot, that meant that when passing through there his trot was really hard to sit. I had to flex like a green bamboo to avoid being lifted from the saddle. I decided to try not to flex and just relax, to see what the difference was. Well, after two strides I gave the experience for finished, has I was being lifted a couple of fingers off the saddle before being thumped hard into it. That was the perfect demonstration of the importance of absorbing the motion correctly.
To finish a great lesson in perfection, after we had gone to the centre to dismount, I remembered a "demonstration" another instructor had given us some weeks back on Lord. He had backed him up without insistence and without strength on the reins. I decided to try it out. I set my hands, asked Lord forward and he immediately gave me one beautiful stride straight back. Just one because I asked him to stop then, as I was doing this when everyone was looking the other way - I didn't want it to look like I was showing off to the rest of the class :-).
Today's lesson was the proof that there are no bad horses, only bad riders. The same horse that I had initially dismissed as lazy and disobedient, showed himself to be just fine, as long has the rider is more confident and focused - although he still is lazy, my sweaty helmet was the proof of that :)!
Pedro Fortunato
Lisbon, Portugal