more on Bearito, again.

[quietann]

Because Bearito's small, he gets ridden by a lot of kids, who let him get away with stuff he shouldn't. He's the sort of pony who could easily become unrideable. Susan told me that he has several regular adult riders and that helps keep him in line. Once again, I am happy that she listened to me about wanting a more "forward" horse. I felt like I could pay more attention to my own skills (except when I needed to slow him down!) I got mad props for keeping him on the bit and pretty, and being kind to his little pony mouth.

In the "I shouldn't do this, but..." category, though I am probably the strongest rider in the class, I am also, well, the fattest. One of the other women runs at least 5 miles a day, and she and one of the other two are quite slender. I am *not* in good shape. The first few rounds of posting trot left me achy. Oddly enough, though, the second, which was a series of very large figure 8s, did not. It's possible that the transitions in direction kept me more relaxed and not "setting" into a particular way of riding. It was odd to be the only person in the class who could consistently get a good round figure 8 (riding between two poles in the middle, which Susans started at 10 feet apart and moved gradually down to four feet apart.) My ankles are getting a bit stronger, or I am learning to ignore the pain. Or both.

We also did a fair amount of riding in two-point (jumping) position, which I found a bit more difficult to sustain for any length of time. This class is heading towards very basic preparation for jumping.

Comments

practice my dear, practice

[sarahshevett.livejournal.com]

I have found that it's harder to trot earlier in the lesson than later. One time I thought I was going to die and not even make it to the end of the lesson, then, 15 minutes later, I was fine.

2 point is all about balance. I am getting better at that one as well. It all takes time. And I certainly have noticed that my muscles have the memory and it's all coming back.

[wren13.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you are making good progess at the new place. Nice going!

[unclebooboo.livejournal.com]

It sounds like you've found a good lesson setup. For many years, Sue and I were the only adult non-beginner riders who rode the lesson horses at our barn. The kids lesson horses were virtually bomb proof but our instructor appreciated that we would carefully follow her instructions and keep the horses honest. We focused on simple things like using consistent cues and making sure that our lesson horses always took their leads.

Making good circles and figure eights is tough. At one level, you need to maintain a sense of where the horse is in the circle, while at another level you have focus on keeping the horse moving along in its gait and bending the way that you want.

It's important to avoid looking down at your horse. Keep your head up and be looking ahead. If you've got a cone or a pole or some other visual reference, use it to help anchor your circle. Sometimes a hoof print or a patch of different colored sand works as a reference point. If you're connecting your circles into a figure eight or other pattern, try to focus on where the circles join up, not on the center of each circle.

The figure eights shouldn't form an "X" in the center. Rather, the two circles just touch. A common mistake is diving into the second circle without rounding off the first circle. This becomes important when you start doing flying lead changes, because the flying change should ideally be done in a straight line. It's too easy to cheat by getting the horse to change leads with a sudden change of direction.

If you can coordinate all of this while posting the trot then you're doing pretty well.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

Keep in mind also that a lot of the riding these horses get is by "special needs" kids, because that is Windrush's primary focus. I'm not sure where Bearito fits into this although he's probably fairly calm when led at the walk. And he's small, perhaps 13.2 or 3, which can be a real help with an anxious kid (and many of Windrush's therapeutic riders have more emotional disorders than physical ones.)

I'm working on circles and love it when I get a good "bend". I kind of have to work on circles because it's one of the good ways to slow Minnie down!

I should have said WRT the figure 8s that the two poles were laid down on the ground and we had to trot between them. I noticed that the other riders were approaching the poles diagonally while I tended to have more "roundess" in my approach, so my figure 8s were much more like 2 connected circles.

I'm a long way from flying changes! I used to know how to do them but it's been 25 years plus!

[unclebooboo.livejournal.com]

Precisely- you're rounding off your circles correctly.