ugh.
So my lesson on Friday sucked. I was on Rachel, Janet on Cloud. Just the two of us again. First was doing serpentines. I think I was doing ok, but then Linda was all "There are no straight lines on a serpentine!" So I tried to remove the straight lines. Which meant I ended up going straight on a diagonal, instead of straight across the arena. Apparently, straight across the arena is ok, it's just you're not supposed to go straight when up near the wall. So that miscommunication took awhile to work out, with Linda continually yelling at me not to do a diagonal, but also harping on not going straight lines.
Then we worked on turns and bending. Oh ouch. Learning to use the outside rein and outside leg to make smaller circles n such. This was hard because on Rachel, I could get her to do the circle, or I could keep her going forward, but I couldn't manage both. In the end, I had exceptionally sore inner thighs.
That was pretty much it. We did those two things over and over and over and over again. It was one of those frustrating as hell lessons.
Thank God Sunday made up for it.
For helping out with pony camp, Linda gave me a short private lesson on Sunday night. I got to ride Cloud this time. OMG, he is *SO* fun! He's quick. So it can be slightly intimidating. But since I normally have issues with the canter, and usually end up with a super fast trot, I can handle most fast trots. We worked on the upward and downward transitions to and from the canter. Also worked a bit on that outside rein/leg thing too. Works *really* well on Cloud. All of this was on the longe line. It was fantastic. Cloud responds so well to the aids. He really tries hard and wants to please. Linda said I was too far back from the vertical in the canter. Mostly because when learning, we're always told "Sit back!" Well, I was too back. I sat up, and it was much more balanced. And when I came back to the trot, I didn't fall forward. The hard part was relaxing. When I was relaxed, the transitions were sooooooo smooth. I could really feel the difference. Sitting the trot was much harder on Cloud; he's half as wide as Rachel, and much more bouncy. But it was a great lesson, and really got me a feel for what the canter is *REALLY* supposed to feel like.
My back is *SO* killing me today though, from the double lessons.
Linda won't be teaching next session. This makes me muchly sad. She's also in school, aside from the horsey thing, and I guess her workload is starting to be too much, so instead of having a sub all the time, she's taking a session off. Hopefully it will just be the one session. I told her I'd like to get into a lesson with Marty, preferrably *not* on a Friday night. But I'll take what I can get.
Then we worked on turns and bending. Oh ouch. Learning to use the outside rein and outside leg to make smaller circles n such. This was hard because on Rachel, I could get her to do the circle, or I could keep her going forward, but I couldn't manage both. In the end, I had exceptionally sore inner thighs.
That was pretty much it. We did those two things over and over and over and over again. It was one of those frustrating as hell lessons.
Thank God Sunday made up for it.
For helping out with pony camp, Linda gave me a short private lesson on Sunday night. I got to ride Cloud this time. OMG, he is *SO* fun! He's quick. So it can be slightly intimidating. But since I normally have issues with the canter, and usually end up with a super fast trot, I can handle most fast trots. We worked on the upward and downward transitions to and from the canter. Also worked a bit on that outside rein/leg thing too. Works *really* well on Cloud. All of this was on the longe line. It was fantastic. Cloud responds so well to the aids. He really tries hard and wants to please. Linda said I was too far back from the vertical in the canter. Mostly because when learning, we're always told "Sit back!" Well, I was too back. I sat up, and it was much more balanced. And when I came back to the trot, I didn't fall forward. The hard part was relaxing. When I was relaxed, the transitions were sooooooo smooth. I could really feel the difference. Sitting the trot was much harder on Cloud; he's half as wide as Rachel, and much more bouncy. But it was a great lesson, and really got me a feel for what the canter is *REALLY* supposed to feel like.
My back is *SO* killing me today though, from the double lessons.
Linda won't be teaching next session. This makes me muchly sad. She's also in school, aside from the horsey thing, and I guess her workload is starting to be too much, so instead of having a sub all the time, she's taking a session off. Hopefully it will just be the one session. I told her I'd like to get into a lesson with Marty, preferrably *not* on a Friday night. But I'll take what I can get.