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| Sorry, no pics of the actual lesson |
The bad: I need to focus more on slowing her down and steadying her. Bigger strides rather than faster. We have the forward so no need to do the forward at all costs thing anymore.
The good: Once I focused on sitting up and slowing my posting we had what felt like a really nice trot.
The good: Really excellent balanced and immediate canter departs. Pony can easily canter 20m circles now on either lead.
The bad: She gets tired quickly and things get inverted, rushy and leany. I need to do a balanced transition back to trot before that happens.
The good: Pony is fearless over the jumps and into grids and we had some really excellent run throughs
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| Giant carrots for all the good ponies. Ginger inhaled hers, Bridget chose to nibble it like corn on the cob |
The bad: Yours truly needs to work on her skillz. We set up a small grid and cross rail on the center line with the goal of trotting in and cantering out, circling on whichever lead she got. Too much going on at once for me and after mostly failing to get a canter in a good spot, baby pony got really forward and excited jumped me out of the tack not once, but twice. She's quite enthusiastic right now and took my canter cue a couple of strides out as her cue to jump and left really long and got me by surprise. The second time it happened we had added some poles in front to help her out, but she took a flying leap over those and turned the little grid into a spread. The wheels started falling off for me after that because I was down on myself for catching her in the mouth twice. I was so focused on just staying out of her way that I was failing to ride effectively and not getting the job done.
The good: S was happy to hop on. And immediately got surprised by the pony power and left behind over their first run through lol. She's a great rider though and followed up with a couple of nice trips on a wiggly green over enthusiastic pony :)
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| Extra fresh grass for good pony |
The good: Jumper turns? What, since when does Midge know how to do that? Riding off my outside aids for the win!
The good: Watching someone else ride my horse and being pleasantly surprised by the changes since the last time. Midge is almost looking fancy, which is completely unexpected to me. I see the pictures and assume we caught a good moment - neat to watch in person and see there is much more good than bad right now! She's not an overly sporty pony and to be honest, not a great feeling ride. These cobs are tricky though, even the plainest ones seem to have surprising athleticism and presence. Don't get me wrong, she's still super green and we have a ton of work ahead - it's just neat to see glimpses of what the future might hold :)
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| My previous suspicions re: Piglet proven correct. Why roll in the pasture when the manure pile is accessible? :) |
It's so cool to watch someone else hop aboard and realize just how far you've really come!
ReplyDeleteThere are days when I feel I learn more about my horse having someone else ride her! I feel very lucky that S is happy to hop on any time I ask.
DeleteAt least there is just as much good as bad! :)
ReplyDeleteI feel like even the worst rides are more good than bad, but I'm famous for being overly optimistic lol
DeleteI love watching better riders than me ride my horses so that I can see how they can go (not at all implying this is the case for you - your rider skills sound way more advanced than mine!)
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear the Piglet has found her forward and is having so much fun with fences - perhaps your eventing dreams are closer than you think ☺
Ps i adore her sneaky dapples in the carrot pic ♡♡♡♡
DeleteOh, it's certainly the case with me - I'm not a great rider and I learn so much watching others ride! I'm very optimistic about the eventing thing, but see above comment lol. I'll have to get better pics of both the girls - the dapples this year are incredible :)
Deletejust the fact that 'forward' and 'canter' are solidly in the good column is such a big deal! she's really improving in leaps and bounds - the bad will sort itself out in short order i'm sure :)
ReplyDeleteI know, right? :) S commented the same 'leaps and bounds" thing early in our lesson and shortly thereafter I got jumped out of the tack badly. I blamed it on the leaps and bounds improving so dramatically lol
DeleteI love watching my trainer ride B. Obviously she is different to Bridget in that she is much older and more advanced in her training, but it shows me what is possible and achievable with more work… which is the same in your case too, plus you can see how far she has come over a short period. :)
ReplyDeleteS is an inspiring rider for me as well, she gets a much nicer Bridget than I seem to and makes it look easy! So much to aspire to. And yes such a treat to see my hard work result in progress:)
DeleteThat sounds like a lot of good to me! I love watching skilled riders ride my horse... It's so cool to see what they can do. :)
ReplyDelete