Minnie is, well, Minnie
Jun. 19th, 2007 05:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quietannThe poor girl forgets that she is 24, not 4. We rode today, a short lesson in the newly-mown hay field where J and her daughter have set up a jump course. Minnie was jiggy, mostly because of the flies. But she also honestly thought she was there to jump, and I had to convince her otherwise. Picking up a trot about 20 feet diagonally from one of the jumps, she definitely wanted to *canter* and go that way, but she did listen enough to *trot* and go a different way, not impeded by jumps, instead. We did a lot of transitions, halfway around the large circle at a walk and then halfway at a trot or canter. At the canter, I managed to keep her at a reasonable pace even when she wanted to go. I feel like much less of a passenger these days, though I feel badly about yanking too much on Minnie's mouth when slowing down.
(The jumps are just the size I was used to when I quit riding, or perhaps a little smaller. And perhaps someday I will be able to ride a course like this again!)
Then J put a pole on the ground for us to go over. This is the first baby step towards actually jumping. Minnie was good walking over it, but then we went to trot over it, and she made it into a jump, which meant cantering several strides before it and then actually *jumping* over this little pole on the ground. After the most egregious example of this, I made her walk over it the next time, which according to J was the right thing to do. Only when she was tired did she stop jumping it and just go over it normally.
Things I need to work on: not looking down when approaching said pole on the ground (or when trying to slow down Minnie), keeping better contact on the horse with my calves, more seat work, figure out if I do need to go back to putting a brace on my right ankle when I ride.
After that, J took Trumpie back from her daughter, who had been jumping him, and we rode down the hill to see if one of the other hay fields is dry enough to be mown. This was amusing at first, because we rode by several of the paddocks and at the first few, whatever horse was in it came galloping down to say hi to Minnie and Trump. Unfortunately just as we turned to go back up to the barn, Minnie spooked, and just as we got back, J figured out that she'd lost a shoe (which wsa what had made her spook.) So I got off and untacked Minnie, hosed her off and let her eat grass while J and Trumpie went back and found the shoe.
I cleaned tack while J and her daughter showered and took them to the train station, went to the Post Office and now I'm home.
(The jumps are just the size I was used to when I quit riding, or perhaps a little smaller. And perhaps someday I will be able to ride a course like this again!)
Then J put a pole on the ground for us to go over. This is the first baby step towards actually jumping. Minnie was good walking over it, but then we went to trot over it, and she made it into a jump, which meant cantering several strides before it and then actually *jumping* over this little pole on the ground. After the most egregious example of this, I made her walk over it the next time, which according to J was the right thing to do. Only when she was tired did she stop jumping it and just go over it normally.
Things I need to work on: not looking down when approaching said pole on the ground (or when trying to slow down Minnie), keeping better contact on the horse with my calves, more seat work, figure out if I do need to go back to putting a brace on my right ankle when I ride.
After that, J took Trumpie back from her daughter, who had been jumping him, and we rode down the hill to see if one of the other hay fields is dry enough to be mown. This was amusing at first, because we rode by several of the paddocks and at the first few, whatever horse was in it came galloping down to say hi to Minnie and Trump. Unfortunately just as we turned to go back up to the barn, Minnie spooked, and just as we got back, J figured out that she'd lost a shoe (which wsa what had made her spook.) So I got off and untacked Minnie, hosed her off and let her eat grass while J and Trumpie went back and found the shoe.
I cleaned tack while J and her daughter showered and took them to the train station, went to the Post Office and now I'm home.
