Falling Behind

Time to play catch up!

In the last few weeks, I have become comfortable at the canter, yay!  Eclipse and I are a great team, and we zoom around the arena and over the jumps.  Today we practiced an equitation test before jumping.  Everything felt great, so I think my balance and timing are getting to where they need to be.  I may compete in a local show in early October :)

In other news, I have started working with Bourbon. My initial impression of him was incorrect.  He's a sweet horse, but he doesn't trust new people immediately.  My first day with him was last Tuesday.  Basically I'm grooming him and doing ground work with him for now.  He has a large crack in his left front, and what looks like white line disease all the way around, and is very tender-footed on hard surfaces.  It will probably be months before he will be ridable.  In the meantime, I have time to really get to know him.  He's a very sensitive and reactive horse.  I've heard that he's a dream and a nightmare (wants to please/REACTS before thinking).  We're going on short walks down the road every day to see the sights.  I've also started some of the Parelli games with him - it can't hurt to improve his manners when we have a sea of no riding time in front of us.  His rain rot is nearly gone and I'm considering talking to his owner about buying a pair of boots and a hoof supplement for him.  

Bourbon face

And, finally, the hubs and I are attending a local distance riding clinic this weekend in Ocala.  We're leaving the kids with their grandparents and camping up there for the weekend.  Should be fun!

Third lesson this week

Yep, I'm going a little crazy this week.  And I'm blaming it on the hubby, who said that he wanted to watch me ride this weekend.  Of course, on our way to the lesson, he was called in so I set up another lesson for tomorrow.  I'm a glutton.

Yesterday's lesson was at 11:30.  I got to ride Eclipse again, this time getting him ready by myself while Marie was wrapping up the lesson before mine.  I even got to put stirrups on and I didn't put them on backwards (phew - it's been a while!).  Yesterday was about trying to keep him in a frame while we were traveling around the arena.  For anyone who doesn't know, keeping a horse going at a consistent speed and with the same headset can be tough. We worked on that without obstacles, then with poles, then with jumps.  I jumped my first triple, and Marie said we looked great.  It felt right, so maybe she wasn't just being nice.  We also worked on some cantering, no lunge line.  It was inconsistent and I think I've figured out what the problem is - after the lesson was over, of course.  I'm so focused on 'scooping' with my outside leg that I'm doing nothing with the inside leg. If I squeeze with the inside leg, move the outside leg back and 'scoop' I bet I'll get the canter more consistently. 

I've also been trying to figure out where my fear of speed on a horse came from.  It wasn't something that I had before I got Karma.  I've narrowed it down to one of the folks that I took a few lessons from.  This was right after I got Karma, and the first thing this woman wanted me to learn was how to sit her trot.  Karma was green and half Standardbred and I'm not sure there's a person anywhere who could sit that trot - it was HUGE and extremely fast.  This woman would insist that we use her western saddle which was too big for me, so I had no security. Anyways, in the round pen she would lunge Karma and I would attempt to keep some contact with the saddle - and it was a disaster every time. She even had me grab the saddle horn and try to pull myself into the saddle.  It just wasn't happening.  So, knowing that I had no control of myself at the trot made me terrified every time Karma even thought about a faster walk.  I took a few lessons from this lady but I wasn't getting anywhere, so I stopped.  It's crazy to think that someone who was supposed to be teaching me to ride would make me afraid of my own horse, but that's exactly what happened.  If you're taking lessons but don't seem to be progressing - it isn't you.  Find a new instructor.