Serafina
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
This one is My First Spook.
Squeezed the boy into a trot for Posting Practice on Monday and got 1 stride into it - I was sitting for 2, thank heavens - and suddenly we're both moving sideways in an impressive change of vector.
And I did not fall off! I didn't really even lose my seat. I folded up a little bit, but sat right back up and only had to make minimal adjustments before everything felt right again at the walk. Since I didn't have any clue what happened I felt that asking for a trot again was a poor idea.
There was another rider in the ring and her horse spooked right there as well. Instructor thinks there might have been a Terrible, Horrible, Very-Bad, No-Good, Bunny Monster in the plants by the ring. Or possibly a Great Alarming Mouse. (The plants there are not very high...and thanks to a lifetime spent in Texas, I am VERY good at hearing snakes even when they are barely moving and I'm not listening for them, so I'm pretty confident it was not something *actually* dangerous .)
The other rider, that was a First, too. I won't say I didn't find it unsettling, but I did manage to keep my mount from getting distracted by/wanting to follow along with the other horse.
The instructor took some videos of me posting. I did it all along the long bits of the rail, and even managed to steer the horse this time! And I took some corners. One time I went almost all the way around the ring! She said the videos would be useful as a point of comparison in another few months. I was actually REALLY HAPPY with how the horse and I looked. I mean, he looked 100% better than I did, but I didn't look nearly as bad as I thought I would.
I got her to e-mail me one, which I promptly watched about 75 times and then sent to my 8 closest friends (I figure, I've done my time watching their kids' recitals/ballets/bar mitzvahs, they can watch 30 seconds of my Horsemanship Skills.). I do notice that my lower legs are moving around more that I think they should be. And it is a battle to keep my hands down and quiet. On the other hand, I am pretty sure I was on the proper diagonal.
The horse has developed a quick and accurate understanding that when I am handling him on the ground, he is to keep ALL FOUR FEET ON THE GROUND unless I pick one up or walk with him, and when I pick one up, he's to LEAVE IT THERE until I am done. His understanding of Not Invading My Space is coming along, but slower. The blighter stepped on my foot while I was putting the stirrups up after dismounting. Thank heavens for a good solid boot + soft sand on the arena.
Instead, now, he acts up when I'm in the saddle. Now he's tossing his head like nuts, and yanking on the reins. I could see it in the video clip - we're going along at a decent trot, the instructor is yelling that this is a good pace and KEEP YOUR HANDS DOWN, and as soon as I responded to this and put them down, the horse walloped on the bit, I overcorrected, and there were my hands, floating up in the air again and the horse slowing to a v-e-r-y s-l-o-w trot on his way to a walk, doubtless because he felt that I was signaling for a slowdown.
I assumed I was not handling the reins properly, and I'm not, but the instructor says that's not why he's yanking the reins...she says he's just being a butt. I notice that "being a butt" is a phrase that seems to get a lot of airtime when people start talking about horses.
Squeezed the boy into a trot for Posting Practice on Monday and got 1 stride into it - I was sitting for 2, thank heavens - and suddenly we're both moving sideways in an impressive change of vector.
And I did not fall off! I didn't really even lose my seat. I folded up a little bit, but sat right back up and only had to make minimal adjustments before everything felt right again at the walk. Since I didn't have any clue what happened I felt that asking for a trot again was a poor idea.
There was another rider in the ring and her horse spooked right there as well. Instructor thinks there might have been a Terrible, Horrible, Very-Bad, No-Good, Bunny Monster in the plants by the ring. Or possibly a Great Alarming Mouse. (The plants there are not very high...and thanks to a lifetime spent in Texas, I am VERY good at hearing snakes even when they are barely moving and I'm not listening for them, so I'm pretty confident it was not something *actually* dangerous .)
The other rider, that was a First, too. I won't say I didn't find it unsettling, but I did manage to keep my mount from getting distracted by/wanting to follow along with the other horse.
The instructor took some videos of me posting. I did it all along the long bits of the rail, and even managed to steer the horse this time! And I took some corners. One time I went almost all the way around the ring! She said the videos would be useful as a point of comparison in another few months. I was actually REALLY HAPPY with how the horse and I looked. I mean, he looked 100% better than I did, but I didn't look nearly as bad as I thought I would.
I got her to e-mail me one, which I promptly watched about 75 times and then sent to my 8 closest friends (I figure, I've done my time watching their kids' recitals/ballets/bar mitzvahs, they can watch 30 seconds of my Horsemanship Skills.). I do notice that my lower legs are moving around more that I think they should be. And it is a battle to keep my hands down and quiet. On the other hand, I am pretty sure I was on the proper diagonal.
The horse has developed a quick and accurate understanding that when I am handling him on the ground, he is to keep ALL FOUR FEET ON THE GROUND unless I pick one up or walk with him, and when I pick one up, he's to LEAVE IT THERE until I am done. His understanding of Not Invading My Space is coming along, but slower. The blighter stepped on my foot while I was putting the stirrups up after dismounting. Thank heavens for a good solid boot + soft sand on the arena.
Instead, now, he acts up when I'm in the saddle. Now he's tossing his head like nuts, and yanking on the reins. I could see it in the video clip - we're going along at a decent trot, the instructor is yelling that this is a good pace and KEEP YOUR HANDS DOWN, and as soon as I responded to this and put them down, the horse walloped on the bit, I overcorrected, and there were my hands, floating up in the air again and the horse slowing to a v-e-r-y s-l-o-w trot on his way to a walk, doubtless because he felt that I was signaling for a slowdown.
I assumed I was not handling the reins properly, and I'm not, but the instructor says that's not why he's yanking the reins...she says he's just being a butt. I notice that "being a butt" is a phrase that seems to get a lot of airtime when people start talking about horses.
