Pedro
11th Apr 2001, 11:32 AM
Coincidently it happened to be in the fiftieth lesson that I got some new photos to show you all. Nice way to celebrate fifty lessons :-)!
The link to the photos is in the end of the chronicles, as you might want to read this first.
Saturday, 31 March
Once again work got in the way of what's really important :-) and I had to postpone Friday's lesson for today. When I arrived at the barn I found the usual weekend scenario: lots of people and crowded lessons. The good side was that my family came to watch the lesson, and more importantly my brother-in-law came too, and more importantly he brought his camera :-D! My year old nephew came also - after all I have to start thinking about the family legacy :-).
My lesson was supposed to start at six o'clock but, not surprisingly, it started only forty-five minutes later (by the way, the camera's clock was an hour late). The good news was that there were only three of us in the "outdoor" arena - so no lack of space!
When we went to get our horses the two other students were assign Pipas and Chèrie. The instructor, Mr. Jorge, told me to take Lord. Now... I actually love working with Lord, lazy horse or not. Even if lessons with him are physically extenuating, still I get along great with him. But in this case, the two of us in the large arena with Chèrie and Pipas, I was sure that by the end we'd be either dead or late :-)! Things were certainly even worse from Lord's point of view - a stable hand had just removed his bridle when I arrived. Sure that he would be through with work for the day, just to see me return with the bridle! He showed some token displeasure with the situation but he let me bridle and lead him without further ado. When we were already at the arena and I was checking tack, Francisco saw us, decided to give Lord a break and told me to go get Mefisto. Glad (both for my and Lord's sake) to get into this lesson with a more forward going horse I went get Mefisto. I arrived at his box just in time to see the same stable hand washing the mouthpiece of the bridle just-removed from Mefisto :). Back I put his bridle again, saddled him and took him out to the arena.
While I was checking tack (again!) I had the opportunity to appreciate the effectiveness of the horse's tail to keep flies away. While I was lowered attaching the elastic Gogue to the girth, Mefisto showed his annoyance by swishing his tail from side to side and hitting me on the head every two times.
It took two attempts for me to be able to mount, as I had forgotten that he is one of the tall boys, and I need to lower the near stirrup a trio of holes to be able to get up (more or less) gracefully. If fact today I managed to mount rather well! One continuous swoop with a soft landing, almost perfect if it hadn't been for one small hitch that I only came to find out later (instructors beware... Pedro's here ;)!).
As usual there was something between me and Mefisto's saddle that had me feeling that I had to fight continuously to maintain a proper position. I don't know if it is the large knee roll, if it's the saddle that is too thick at the bottom of the flaps. The truth is that my position is always worse in Mefisto than in any other of the horses I've ridden. For once the fault is not with the stirrup bars, as all saddles have them equally ill placed...
The lesson started with rising trot as a warm-up. As usual I had to cheat and look down at the shoulder to check the correct diagonal :-), I'm still a long way from feeling it, there always seems to be so much to concentrate in that I hardly have the time to feel what's happening under me. Anyway, posting with Mefisto is a lot easier than with some of the other horses for two reasons. First of all because he has a high (or at least higher) action and really throws you up, secondly because he is a good mover and requires little leg action to keep up. Still I was having some problems with the position. I had the tendency to tip-toe into the stirrups, causing my foot to slip in.
We did a few circles and this was when I found a good way to: a) drop from being first in line to being last and b) do a couple of laps in a fast trot. I accidentally (it was not intentional, I swear :-)!) missed the indication from the instructor to leave the circle and carry on straight ahead. That made me do an extra circle while the rest of the class kept going. Instead of cutting in front of them again, I used the opportunity to race after them in trot (they were trotting too) and enjoy Mefisto's beautiful action - not to mention being last in line :-)...
I had a pleasant surprise after this. We did a bit of trot in half-seat while keeping to the outside path. This was my first try at it and it wasn't so bad (the try, I mean... the results probably were bad). It was not as hard to keep that (semblance of a) half-seat as I thought. After this "dry" training we put it to use trotting over a pair of poles. In fact it was more like cantering over a pair of poles as the images show... but who cares? It was fun, can hardly wait to learn how to jump! Although I'm likely to have to wait quite a while...
After that "excitement" we relaxed a while before getting into the next exercise. First we trotted (sitting) a couple of times down the centre line, then we did the same, but while having the horses looking either left or right. The first time, looking left, went fine, but the second one, looking right, went awfully as I found it harder to keep Mefisto down the centre with my right leg than with the left one. I had to break up the aids and get us back in line to avoid running over the instructor (now that would have made wonders for my reputation :D!). In subsequent tries I managed to do a lot better, but the odd times looking right always felt tense and awkward - and looking at the images, it was more than feelings!
This exercise, as Mr. Jorge explained was a preparation for the canter aids and was followed by canter work.
Canter with Mefisto is definitely not what I'm best at. It is always him that takes control and decides how to do it, and I can't even claim to be there just for the ride, as I'm fighting every stride to avoid jumping up and down! My seat with Mefisto is positively horrible and I keep rowing back and forward, with the legs way in front.
To complicate these last moments of the lesson, Mefisto took to complain about my (lack of) ridding skills by vigorously snatching at the reins. I did nothing but keep a hold on the reins letting my upper body be thrown forward shooting back to place when he relaxed again.
For his relief :-) the lesson ended soon after, and following a short summary of the lesson by the instructor we dismounted and took our mounts back to their boxes. While I was taking the Gogue away Mefisto took advantage of my vulnerable position to rub his face all over me. If he ever catches unprepared doing that, he'll have me sitting on the dirt in no time :-)!
For once, because I had my family waiting, I didn't stay around after the lesson. What a waste... :-)
Pedro Fortunato
Lisbon, Portugal
P.S.: As promised here it is: http://www.geocities.com/pedrofortunato/nr3.html The page is a bit heavy (almost 800Kb) so it might take a bit to load...
The link to the photos is in the end of the chronicles, as you might want to read this first.
Saturday, 31 March
Once again work got in the way of what's really important :-) and I had to postpone Friday's lesson for today. When I arrived at the barn I found the usual weekend scenario: lots of people and crowded lessons. The good side was that my family came to watch the lesson, and more importantly my brother-in-law came too, and more importantly he brought his camera :-D! My year old nephew came also - after all I have to start thinking about the family legacy :-).
My lesson was supposed to start at six o'clock but, not surprisingly, it started only forty-five minutes later (by the way, the camera's clock was an hour late). The good news was that there were only three of us in the "outdoor" arena - so no lack of space!
When we went to get our horses the two other students were assign Pipas and Chèrie. The instructor, Mr. Jorge, told me to take Lord. Now... I actually love working with Lord, lazy horse or not. Even if lessons with him are physically extenuating, still I get along great with him. But in this case, the two of us in the large arena with Chèrie and Pipas, I was sure that by the end we'd be either dead or late :-)! Things were certainly even worse from Lord's point of view - a stable hand had just removed his bridle when I arrived. Sure that he would be through with work for the day, just to see me return with the bridle! He showed some token displeasure with the situation but he let me bridle and lead him without further ado. When we were already at the arena and I was checking tack, Francisco saw us, decided to give Lord a break and told me to go get Mefisto. Glad (both for my and Lord's sake) to get into this lesson with a more forward going horse I went get Mefisto. I arrived at his box just in time to see the same stable hand washing the mouthpiece of the bridle just-removed from Mefisto :). Back I put his bridle again, saddled him and took him out to the arena.
While I was checking tack (again!) I had the opportunity to appreciate the effectiveness of the horse's tail to keep flies away. While I was lowered attaching the elastic Gogue to the girth, Mefisto showed his annoyance by swishing his tail from side to side and hitting me on the head every two times.
It took two attempts for me to be able to mount, as I had forgotten that he is one of the tall boys, and I need to lower the near stirrup a trio of holes to be able to get up (more or less) gracefully. If fact today I managed to mount rather well! One continuous swoop with a soft landing, almost perfect if it hadn't been for one small hitch that I only came to find out later (instructors beware... Pedro's here ;)!).
As usual there was something between me and Mefisto's saddle that had me feeling that I had to fight continuously to maintain a proper position. I don't know if it is the large knee roll, if it's the saddle that is too thick at the bottom of the flaps. The truth is that my position is always worse in Mefisto than in any other of the horses I've ridden. For once the fault is not with the stirrup bars, as all saddles have them equally ill placed...
The lesson started with rising trot as a warm-up. As usual I had to cheat and look down at the shoulder to check the correct diagonal :-), I'm still a long way from feeling it, there always seems to be so much to concentrate in that I hardly have the time to feel what's happening under me. Anyway, posting with Mefisto is a lot easier than with some of the other horses for two reasons. First of all because he has a high (or at least higher) action and really throws you up, secondly because he is a good mover and requires little leg action to keep up. Still I was having some problems with the position. I had the tendency to tip-toe into the stirrups, causing my foot to slip in.
We did a few circles and this was when I found a good way to: a) drop from being first in line to being last and b) do a couple of laps in a fast trot. I accidentally (it was not intentional, I swear :-)!) missed the indication from the instructor to leave the circle and carry on straight ahead. That made me do an extra circle while the rest of the class kept going. Instead of cutting in front of them again, I used the opportunity to race after them in trot (they were trotting too) and enjoy Mefisto's beautiful action - not to mention being last in line :-)...
I had a pleasant surprise after this. We did a bit of trot in half-seat while keeping to the outside path. This was my first try at it and it wasn't so bad (the try, I mean... the results probably were bad). It was not as hard to keep that (semblance of a) half-seat as I thought. After this "dry" training we put it to use trotting over a pair of poles. In fact it was more like cantering over a pair of poles as the images show... but who cares? It was fun, can hardly wait to learn how to jump! Although I'm likely to have to wait quite a while...
After that "excitement" we relaxed a while before getting into the next exercise. First we trotted (sitting) a couple of times down the centre line, then we did the same, but while having the horses looking either left or right. The first time, looking left, went fine, but the second one, looking right, went awfully as I found it harder to keep Mefisto down the centre with my right leg than with the left one. I had to break up the aids and get us back in line to avoid running over the instructor (now that would have made wonders for my reputation :D!). In subsequent tries I managed to do a lot better, but the odd times looking right always felt tense and awkward - and looking at the images, it was more than feelings!
This exercise, as Mr. Jorge explained was a preparation for the canter aids and was followed by canter work.
Canter with Mefisto is definitely not what I'm best at. It is always him that takes control and decides how to do it, and I can't even claim to be there just for the ride, as I'm fighting every stride to avoid jumping up and down! My seat with Mefisto is positively horrible and I keep rowing back and forward, with the legs way in front.
To complicate these last moments of the lesson, Mefisto took to complain about my (lack of) ridding skills by vigorously snatching at the reins. I did nothing but keep a hold on the reins letting my upper body be thrown forward shooting back to place when he relaxed again.
For his relief :-) the lesson ended soon after, and following a short summary of the lesson by the instructor we dismounted and took our mounts back to their boxes. While I was taking the Gogue away Mefisto took advantage of my vulnerable position to rub his face all over me. If he ever catches unprepared doing that, he'll have me sitting on the dirt in no time :-)!
For once, because I had my family waiting, I didn't stay around after the lesson. What a waste... :-)
Pedro Fortunato
Lisbon, Portugal
P.S.: As promised here it is: http://www.geocities.com/pedrofortunato/nr3.html The page is a bit heavy (almost 800Kb) so it might take a bit to load...