Taz at pony club
yesterday was our monthly adult riding club rally. so for a change, i took tazzie. the instructor i like wasn't going to be there, so therefore no x-country, plus i am wanting to take taz to a gymkhana on the 21st June & wanted to check that he wouldn't have a mental breakdown when faced with a) new grounds and b) gajillions of horses.
as usual, he was a champ & i reckon was the best behaved pony at pony club!
both morning and afternoon lessons i had with Deb, who i have ridden with before with Beejay. I thought she was excellent then - very calming & kind yet still assertive. wasn't wrong - she had a large class, so lots of ppl i think also appreciate her talents. she divided us into 2 gr of three, working simultaneous 20m circles & she stood on the outer & was able to watch both groups. i think for such a large class she was quite talented in watching both groups very thoroughly.
i don't feel i got too much out of it, instruction wise, because carly covers exactly the same thing (flexion, bend etc) but it was cool to do it in a group & have someone explain things a little differently. Deb talked about our position & how we want inside hip facing outside ear & outside shoulder facing inside hip (or something like that, simplified). it was interesting watching her point out things in the other riders too.
taz was a complete star tho. he plugged around very happily. it's the first time i really ASKED anything of him (flexion) and it took a bit to get it. discovered that he STILL gets his tongue over the bit even with the mullen mouth, so gonna clamp his nose shut with a flash. obviously, if i could ride him in a dually forever, i would, but unfortunately bitless bridles are not accepted at any organised event, except maybe endurance riding.
oh, i could wack a big mechanical hackamore on & go showjumping...
anyways. we got to have a wicked canter as well & i laughed so hard i couldn't maintain it. was hilarious! he just tried his little guts out. i thought he would pigroot, to be honest, but there was none of that. just very very unbalanced, so more practice necessary.
poor jaana suffered an unscheduled dismount from tally tho. silly pony! although amidst all the chaos i was most impressed with tazzie standing stock still!
afternoon session was excellent! did pole work with deb and it was fricking awesome. again, large class of 6, but she again divided us into 2 groups and had two ... 20m or so circles going. each circle had a straight line with 4 trot poles in it, with a 'gate' at either end made of two cones so we could work on straightness.
first we walked the poles. taz has never gone over anything in his life but he tries SO DAMN HARD for me & although he BOGGLED at them, he coped. then we moved onto trotting them. gotta make sure i keep the momentum - deb was saying i asked far too politely, even with the dressage whip i was riding with. so (just like with beejay) gotta ask and MEAN it. by the end he had definitely gained a lot of confidence, but was still VERY unsure about foot placement. his old owner has a bunch of copper logs she's donating to us so he'll be forced to suffer future indignities. haha.
he started to get super grouchy at the end tho, silly pony! making faces at other ponies. at one stage he even LUNGED at kelli & benito. hahaha.
i think he feels very confident when mummy's around - i tend to chase the other horses away and be a real alpha when we're at home, so he seems to hind behind my skirts a bit. that's okay... something i learnt from Petra when doing all the parelli work in the first year with beej - showing leadership. taz just has no need to be 'leader' with me, unlike beejy. interesting what hindsight can do, isn't it?
so yeah, pony club was wicked.
haven't ridden beej since last monday tho - been fending off a cold & it hit me pretty hard on about friday. filled up on various drugs for pony club & flaked out today. got a fucking rent inspection on thursday too, so might take a day off on wednesday. feel blah.
and beej lost all his hair today. neighbour kelly wants to get into clipping as a bit of a side business, so needs as many volunteers as possible, so i offered beejy. good job too. she was most impressed with him. once i figure out how to upload pics from the mac to fotobucket, i'll have some naked pics of beejy, haha.