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This Tuesday, I rode inside because it was raining.
Plenty was going on inside, though.
When I arrived, a younger girl was riding my instructor's white-ish horse, Jesse. I'm not sure how old the rider is, but in grade/middle school, for sure.
She was riding English style and doing jumps. I was very impressed! So was her dad, who watched from the gate with me.
After her lesson was finished, I asked my instructor whether the second baby horse had been born since my last lesson, and he had! So we went across the arena to the area in the back where the moms/babies are in their respective stalls, still next to one another.
Apparently even though they each have their own baby now, one of the moms keeps trying to bust into the stall of the other one.
The newest foal is a little less shy than the other one. His mom is a little more protective, though.
We got a wet Chief out of the field & let him drip-dry a little while we stood in the arena and watched the now 1.5-week old Sky run free for a little bit in the arena with his mom, Bayla. Bayla runs in pretty arcs around the arena, rippling muscles, etc. Sky is awkward as fuck, running & then stopping again, not really understanding how to use his legs and sometimes seeming about to trip over himself and wipe out.
Other people who board their horses at the stable are often around in the evenings, brushing/caring for their horses. On Tuesday, one of them stood with my instructor & I to watch Sky and Bayla run around. It's been 5-6 years since the last time this ranch had a baby horse, so everyone's pretty excited.
Of course, all the baby excitement has a consequence - I got out much later, & was super crabby when I got back home. Please pity The Boyfriend.
As for me & Chief, picking the mud out of his hooves is currently DISGUSTING. ugh.
As soon as I got on Chief, he almost decapitated me by booking it through the arena garage door, so I had to duck down so as not to clip my head :( :( :(
My instructor thinks Chief's thought process was, "We went outside last time! This girl is on me again! Let's go outside, yayyyy!"
Not so much.
In the arena, we did precision training. Two sets of 90-degree angled posts were lying flat on the ground, perpendicular to each other. So, like this:
__ | | __
We'd through the middle of each pole like this:
_>_ | > | _v_
^
Then, we'd halt between the two poles that were parallel to one another:
__ | x | __
Finally, they were spaced out more so that I would bring him to a trot between parallel poles:
__ | (trot) | __
For each sequence, I'd go one way & then reverse it.
The last thing we did was work in a giant ring of flat fluorescent cones. I worked to weave in an out, first every-other cone, then in patterns of two inside/one outside & then two outside/one inside. And finally, switching between in & out with every cone.
It was a lot of work! My instructor thinks I'm getting better.
Except for dismounting, :( This time, I didn't get my left foot unhooked after swinging my right over the horse & starting to sink down. My body weight was already too far down & I don't have the arm strength to haul myself back up on to the horse, so I ended in disgrace.
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Plenty was going on inside, though.
When I arrived, a younger girl was riding my instructor's white-ish horse, Jesse. I'm not sure how old the rider is, but in grade/middle school, for sure.
She was riding English style and doing jumps. I was very impressed! So was her dad, who watched from the gate with me.
After her lesson was finished, I asked my instructor whether the second baby horse had been born since my last lesson, and he had! So we went across the arena to the area in the back where the moms/babies are in their respective stalls, still next to one another.
Apparently even though they each have their own baby now, one of the moms keeps trying to bust into the stall of the other one.
The newest foal is a little less shy than the other one. His mom is a little more protective, though.
We got a wet Chief out of the field & let him drip-dry a little while we stood in the arena and watched the now 1.5-week old Sky run free for a little bit in the arena with his mom, Bayla. Bayla runs in pretty arcs around the arena, rippling muscles, etc. Sky is awkward as fuck, running & then stopping again, not really understanding how to use his legs and sometimes seeming about to trip over himself and wipe out.
Other people who board their horses at the stable are often around in the evenings, brushing/caring for their horses. On Tuesday, one of them stood with my instructor & I to watch Sky and Bayla run around. It's been 5-6 years since the last time this ranch had a baby horse, so everyone's pretty excited.
Of course, all the baby excitement has a consequence - I got out much later, & was super crabby when I got back home. Please pity The Boyfriend.
As for me & Chief, picking the mud out of his hooves is currently DISGUSTING. ugh.
As soon as I got on Chief, he almost decapitated me by booking it through the arena garage door, so I had to duck down so as not to clip my head :( :( :(
My instructor thinks Chief's thought process was, "We went outside last time! This girl is on me again! Let's go outside, yayyyy!"
Not so much.
In the arena, we did precision training. Two sets of 90-degree angled posts were lying flat on the ground, perpendicular to each other. So, like this:
__ | | __
We'd through the middle of each pole like this:
_>_ | > | _v_
^
Then, we'd halt between the two poles that were parallel to one another:
__ | x | __
Finally, they were spaced out more so that I would bring him to a trot between parallel poles:
__ | (trot) | __
For each sequence, I'd go one way & then reverse it.
The last thing we did was work in a giant ring of flat fluorescent cones. I worked to weave in an out, first every-other cone, then in patterns of two inside/one outside & then two outside/one inside. And finally, switching between in & out with every cone.
It was a lot of work! My instructor thinks I'm getting better.
Except for dismounting, :( This time, I didn't get my left foot unhooked after swinging my right over the horse & starting to sink down. My body weight was already too far down & I don't have the arm strength to haul myself back up on to the horse, so I ended in disgrace.
This entry was originally posted on Dreamwidth. You can comment here or there.
There are <
> comments on this post at Dreamwidth.