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Happy trails... or not
Jun. 3rd, 2003 08:13 amYesterday, Stephen and his wife Chris joined my roommate Frank and I at the stable. We arrived expecting to go trail riding but Rick, the instructor, had been injured and couldn't ride. But he could still instruct. So we rode in the ring. There were a lot of people around, including the owner of the place, so the lesson had to go a little slower than usual. Once again, I rode on Brawny, Frank on Denmark, and Stephen on King. Chris, who is small, rode on Bright Eyes.
I mounted up and felt comfortable almost immediately. We mostly walked around in a circle, trying to get our seat. I was told I have a good seat. What I don't have is good control of the horse. As we got up to a trot, once again, Brawny kept trying to cut into the middle. I was told by Rick this is not my fault, it's just the horse. He apparently thinks if he cuts the circle smaller, he's done working earlier. Sorry, doesn't work that way. So the thing I wound up focusing on was trying to get the horse to keep to the outside, at which point he'd stop trotting. And there was the constant hazard of running into another horse, or getting kicked by another horse. Makes it tricky. But, I figure if I can get this down, I'll learn good horse control which will be necessary for my long term goals.
One other problem, Brawny doesn't neck reign well. So we're trying to teach him by laying the reign across his neck and then doing some direct reigning if he doesn't react right away. He'll learn.
My back began to hurt kind of early, but I worked through that. Surprising the hell out of me, my knees didn't hurt at all. YAY! No knee pain. This made me happy.
We all made appointments for the next two weeks. I wish I had the time to ride twice a week. It's just too much fun.
I mounted up and felt comfortable almost immediately. We mostly walked around in a circle, trying to get our seat. I was told I have a good seat. What I don't have is good control of the horse. As we got up to a trot, once again, Brawny kept trying to cut into the middle. I was told by Rick this is not my fault, it's just the horse. He apparently thinks if he cuts the circle smaller, he's done working earlier. Sorry, doesn't work that way. So the thing I wound up focusing on was trying to get the horse to keep to the outside, at which point he'd stop trotting. And there was the constant hazard of running into another horse, or getting kicked by another horse. Makes it tricky. But, I figure if I can get this down, I'll learn good horse control which will be necessary for my long term goals.
One other problem, Brawny doesn't neck reign well. So we're trying to teach him by laying the reign across his neck and then doing some direct reigning if he doesn't react right away. He'll learn.
My back began to hurt kind of early, but I worked through that. Surprising the hell out of me, my knees didn't hurt at all. YAY! No knee pain. This made me happy.
We all made appointments for the next two weeks. I wish I had the time to ride twice a week. It's just too much fun.
