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Mud, Glorious Mud!
Jul. 1st, 2007 11:10 amThe woman in the office knew nothing about my supposed move to the A lesson today, so I happily joined the B lesson again, with Matt teaching. We were in the outside school, which was several inches deep in mud - and it turns out that Abbey *really* doesn't like mud, or wind or rain, for that matter.
I was lead file, and Abbey was barely moving, despite regular and increasingly frustrated kicks from me. When we shifted up to trot, she still went really slowly and kept dropping back to walk, whilst refusing point blank to go on the track, and often moving almost sideways with her head turned into the fence. When it started to rain heavily, Abbey had a bit of tantrum and did a series of small bucks whenever I tried to get her to turn into the wind.
Matt sensibly made us take turns as lead file, while we did three loop serpentines, and Abbey was much happier in the ride, though I still couldn't keep her in trot, mainly because Boycie was going too slowly in front of her.
Eventually, it was time for cantering. My first effort with Abbey involved stick-induced bucking, but a decent canter in the end. The second attempt involved lots of circling in trot and a few half-hearted strides of canter. But then it was third time lucky, when Abbey finally decided to wake up and get with the programme, and we managed a beautiful transition and a sustained canter all the way round the school.
No mention was made by Matt of me moving up to the A lesson and, after today's fairly poor performance, I didn't like to ask. Give me Flossie or Conan, and I can achieve B lesson activites with ease. Put me on a more difficult horse, and I can barely manage trot. This tells me that I'm not nearly as good a rider as I thought - and I think I need to get to the stage where I can do a perfect B lesson on the harder horses before I'm ready to move up.
I was lead file, and Abbey was barely moving, despite regular and increasingly frustrated kicks from me. When we shifted up to trot, she still went really slowly and kept dropping back to walk, whilst refusing point blank to go on the track, and often moving almost sideways with her head turned into the fence. When it started to rain heavily, Abbey had a bit of tantrum and did a series of small bucks whenever I tried to get her to turn into the wind.
Matt sensibly made us take turns as lead file, while we did three loop serpentines, and Abbey was much happier in the ride, though I still couldn't keep her in trot, mainly because Boycie was going too slowly in front of her.
Eventually, it was time for cantering. My first effort with Abbey involved stick-induced bucking, but a decent canter in the end. The second attempt involved lots of circling in trot and a few half-hearted strides of canter. But then it was third time lucky, when Abbey finally decided to wake up and get with the programme, and we managed a beautiful transition and a sustained canter all the way round the school.
No mention was made by Matt of me moving up to the A lesson and, after today's fairly poor performance, I didn't like to ask. Give me Flossie or Conan, and I can achieve B lesson activites with ease. Put me on a more difficult horse, and I can barely manage trot. This tells me that I'm not nearly as good a rider as I thought - and I think I need to get to the stage where I can do a perfect B lesson on the harder horses before I'm ready to move up.
