A curate's egg of a lesson...

Jane&Ziggy

Jane&Ziggy

Jane&Sid these days!
Apr 30, 2010
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Surrey Hills
... good in parts!

Sid hasn't been ridden for 4 weeks and there is loads of grass, so I expected him to be fresh. My RI Sarah wanted to work on getting control of his great big shoulders to prevent him from falling in or out at his pleasure.

He started really well and we did some lovely work on a 20m circle. RI adores Sid and she said nice things like, "He is so cute!" and "look at your little show cob!".

After about half an hour we stopped for a quick lesson in forward seat so that I can pop over logs when I am out and about. We did this at a standstill. Then with 10 minutes to go (a 45 minute lesson) my RI asked me to do some more trot work going large around the school.

Well my goodness, Sid thought we had finished. Perhaps kids' lessons are only half an hour long? He bucked. And bucked and bucked! Sarah said he wasn't really trying to get me off - he is a powerful horse and if he had been trying, I would have been off! - just expressing his opinion, which was that he had done enough work. He was quite stressed and upset and hypersensitive to the leg by this point, so further work on laterals was tricky. But Sarah showed me how to sit the bucks better and get him back on the circle, and we got a nice enough trot out of him on each rein for me to give him a scratch and tell him he was a good boy. He calmed down then and gave me another circle on each rein, and we called it a day.

I didn't enjoy the bucking very much, but I handled it OK, so it's good to know that I can cope if he does decide to have a meltdown. The trick appears to be to sit down, really down, rather than perch nervously, which is the signal to him to buck some more!
 
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It wasn't what you planned, but it sounds like you've learned some valuable things from his tantrum. Well done for riding it out and getting some more good work at the end!
 
That’s interesting. Minto would school for however long you liked. But if you stopped for a break and started again he would be silly. He was very good at being silly but it meant warming up for dressage was difficult.

Some people I have spoken to suggest almost standing in stirrups when a horse is bucking helps. It keeps you above the jolts. Others say sit back and deep. I think you need to try both and see what you are more comfortable with.
 
Well done you, you sat the bucks, you carried on and you learnt some thing, win, win I’d say 😊
@Doodle92 Belle was like that, she too would carry on as long as you wanted but if you stopped and walked for a bit she thought she had finished and woe betide you if you asked for more work! I found almost standing in my stirrups with soft knees keeps me in place but thankfully we don’t school anymore so I don’t have to deal with her tantrums.
 
Well sat! Sid's bucks sound like Hogan's - token protest to press home an opinion, rather than a cynical attempt to get you off!
 
Oo the little sucker, but as carthorse says, lots of valuable learning to be taken from it. It probably is something learned from teaching novices in his past life. I would add more breaks rather than avoid them but that’s just me.
 
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