stormchaser
10th Oct 2005, 05:04 PM
Well! Had quite an eventful day (horse-wise and non-horse-wise) on Sunday! :D
Had wanted to arrive early, but on the way to the stable saw a lady who was apparently knocked down by an idiot on a bicycle or rollerblades, tried to help, so that meant I arrived 30min later, late enough to miss my time slot. My instructor had gone on her own timetable and had begun her own training for the competition, but she told me to hang around and Fantom (that huge, cheeky fella they call a 'dressage horse'!) would be available for me in about an hour. So I decided to go for a little jog to warm up. (Sounded like a good idea after a month of no riding.) Weather was still amazingly warm and pleasant for mid-autumn in Moscow!
Anyway went to the tack/changing room to discover that my breeches had been misplaced, and no way was I going to borrow one from the 'damp pile', so I thought my streachy trouses would be fine and put half chaps on, then went out to meet the main coach (since RI was busy). Tacked up, bribed Fantom with a sugar, embarrassed myself with the leg-up as usual, and the main coach just sent me off like that. Fine, but...
Hey, didn't RI said we were going to do a lunge lesson because my seat was pretty insecure? Which she did mention to her (by yelling across from the other side of the arena), but main coach decided to go for the 'sink or swim' approach. So off I went walking a bit... now I started to worry that Fantom has forgotten that I didn't want to have him dragging himself about with I ask for trot... however all I did was to squeeze a little with my legs and did walk to trot transition beautifully!
So it was fine, until I started to try sitting trot later on, and discovered that the bottom-most buckles on my half-chaps kept getting caught in the stirrups. :eek: So RI, trotting up beside me, suggested I just do without stirrups. :eek: :eek: Without a lunge? I thought I'd bounce off!
Anyway it went fine, but it wasn't comfortable! RI said to just 'do nothing'. I tried to stop my upper body from rattling all over the place, and when I 'did nothing' my lower body was the one that started rattling all over the place! How RI does it I don't know, she is a fantastic dressage rider, and she really looks like she's 'doing nothing'! Must be some secret she will keep from me... ;)
Oh, got a feel of a couple of canter strides when Fantom got excited when someone brought a young horse in the arena for training. Neighed loudly as if to say, "Heeeeelllooo sweetie!" and took off in the direction of the horse. It was easier to sit to than I thought!
Anyway, at the end of the ride, the main coach said I was ready to 'go solo' and I can buy discounted season tickets for horse-rental. Yayy!
Our stable is in an exhibition center, so next door they were having some farm animals exhibition. Never saw a 2-tonne cow before! :o Huge buggers... and yes, there were some beautiful horses there on show too!
Had wanted to arrive early, but on the way to the stable saw a lady who was apparently knocked down by an idiot on a bicycle or rollerblades, tried to help, so that meant I arrived 30min later, late enough to miss my time slot. My instructor had gone on her own timetable and had begun her own training for the competition, but she told me to hang around and Fantom (that huge, cheeky fella they call a 'dressage horse'!) would be available for me in about an hour. So I decided to go for a little jog to warm up. (Sounded like a good idea after a month of no riding.) Weather was still amazingly warm and pleasant for mid-autumn in Moscow!
Anyway went to the tack/changing room to discover that my breeches had been misplaced, and no way was I going to borrow one from the 'damp pile', so I thought my streachy trouses would be fine and put half chaps on, then went out to meet the main coach (since RI was busy). Tacked up, bribed Fantom with a sugar, embarrassed myself with the leg-up as usual, and the main coach just sent me off like that. Fine, but...
Hey, didn't RI said we were going to do a lunge lesson because my seat was pretty insecure? Which she did mention to her (by yelling across from the other side of the arena), but main coach decided to go for the 'sink or swim' approach. So off I went walking a bit... now I started to worry that Fantom has forgotten that I didn't want to have him dragging himself about with I ask for trot... however all I did was to squeeze a little with my legs and did walk to trot transition beautifully!
So it was fine, until I started to try sitting trot later on, and discovered that the bottom-most buckles on my half-chaps kept getting caught in the stirrups. :eek: So RI, trotting up beside me, suggested I just do without stirrups. :eek: :eek: Without a lunge? I thought I'd bounce off!
Anyway it went fine, but it wasn't comfortable! RI said to just 'do nothing'. I tried to stop my upper body from rattling all over the place, and when I 'did nothing' my lower body was the one that started rattling all over the place! How RI does it I don't know, she is a fantastic dressage rider, and she really looks like she's 'doing nothing'! Must be some secret she will keep from me... ;)
Oh, got a feel of a couple of canter strides when Fantom got excited when someone brought a young horse in the arena for training. Neighed loudly as if to say, "Heeeeelllooo sweetie!" and took off in the direction of the horse. It was easier to sit to than I thought!
Anyway, at the end of the ride, the main coach said I was ready to 'go solo' and I can buy discounted season tickets for horse-rental. Yayy!
Our stable is in an exhibition center, so next door they were having some farm animals exhibition. Never saw a 2-tonne cow before! :o Huge buggers... and yes, there were some beautiful horses there on show too!