Back in the saddle!
Oct. 1st, 2006 12:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearNot only has ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
siroswold inspired me to take up riding again, but he has also inspired me to write about it on my live journal!
So, today was my first riding lesson after a three month break. It was tough making myself go to bed at a reasonable time last night, and it was tough getting up in time for a 9am lesson this morning, but overall I think it will be much better riding on a Sunday morning than a Tuesday night.
The downside to riding at the weekend is that it's really busy at the stable. However, I purposely got there early and everything was very well organised. Someone pointed me in the direction of my horse and the lesson started pretty much on time. There were six in my lesson (adult intermediate), six in an advanced lesson at the other end of the school and four individual lessons meandering about all over the place, but there were no collisions and all the instructors were evidently used to what seemed like chaos to me.
The instructor for my lesson - Dominic - was by far the best I've been taught by at this stables, and I really hope he teaches the lesson regularly. He gave me tips about the horse I was riding beforehand, was interested in hearing about my previous experience and how I'd found the other horses I'd ridden there, and he took time to get feedback from all six of us at the end of the lesson. He was enthusiastic in his praise of how I handled my horse, but never neglected to improve my technique, even though the other people in the lesson required a lot more of his attention than I did. He handled our differing skill and fitness levels brilliantly, and the lesson was the most interesting I've had so far.
We did acute transitions from halt to trot and back again, and then took turns trotting past the ride before moving into canter - all this was designed to get the horses really listening to our instructions, rather than just following the horse in front, and it worked really well.
I rode a mare called Flossie. Dominic had said before the lesson that I should keep my hands as light as possible, which is something I've always been quite good at, so we got on pretty well together. She's the most middle of the road horse I've ridden at Trent Park so far - she took a little encouragement to keep going, but she did everything I asked of her with the minimum of fuss. (Previously, the horses have been one extreme or the other - really lazy, or really excitable.) I completely lost both stirrups during the second canter, but Flossie's gait was smooth enough that it wasn't a problem. The only problem I had with her was right at the end. We'd been lead file all the way through, but we ended up behind a slower horse in the last five minutes of the lesson, so I had to start holding her in a bit. She really didn't like it, tensed up and started bouncing, which was quite difficult to deal with - how do you calm and slow a horse who goes faster when you pull on the reins? It was a case of relaxing, letting her have her head, making my seat as firm as possible and doing "squeeze and release" half halts to keep her under control. I managed to keep her at a reasonable pace and stop her from getting too upset, but I'm glad she wasn't like that all the way through. It was also weird riding a horse that suddenly sped up at the end of the lesson rather than slowing down!
My other problem was that my left ankle started hurting right at the beginning of the lesson and got progressively worse throughout. I hope this isn't going to be a recurring problem, because it rather marred my enjoyment of the lesson. I might get a support thingie and see if that helps, because I don't want to do myself damage and have to stop riding altogether.
I also got to catch glimpses ofmarkwelham, vampadvocate, siroswold and weaselbitch on their lesson, which was cool. Every now and then, my ride would halt for a bit down the long side of the school, and I could look up to the paddock where their lesson was going on, so I got to see them taking turns at trotting, and they all looked like they were doing really well.
Altogether a very good re-introduction to riding - a good work-out without totally wearing me out, an interesting lesson without containing anything too hard, and a horse I had to work at riding properly without being too frustrating.
Roll on next Sunday!
siroswold inspired me to take up riding again, but he has also inspired me to write about it on my live journal!So, today was my first riding lesson after a three month break. It was tough making myself go to bed at a reasonable time last night, and it was tough getting up in time for a 9am lesson this morning, but overall I think it will be much better riding on a Sunday morning than a Tuesday night.
The downside to riding at the weekend is that it's really busy at the stable. However, I purposely got there early and everything was very well organised. Someone pointed me in the direction of my horse and the lesson started pretty much on time. There were six in my lesson (adult intermediate), six in an advanced lesson at the other end of the school and four individual lessons meandering about all over the place, but there were no collisions and all the instructors were evidently used to what seemed like chaos to me.
The instructor for my lesson - Dominic - was by far the best I've been taught by at this stables, and I really hope he teaches the lesson regularly. He gave me tips about the horse I was riding beforehand, was interested in hearing about my previous experience and how I'd found the other horses I'd ridden there, and he took time to get feedback from all six of us at the end of the lesson. He was enthusiastic in his praise of how I handled my horse, but never neglected to improve my technique, even though the other people in the lesson required a lot more of his attention than I did. He handled our differing skill and fitness levels brilliantly, and the lesson was the most interesting I've had so far.
We did acute transitions from halt to trot and back again, and then took turns trotting past the ride before moving into canter - all this was designed to get the horses really listening to our instructions, rather than just following the horse in front, and it worked really well.
I rode a mare called Flossie. Dominic had said before the lesson that I should keep my hands as light as possible, which is something I've always been quite good at, so we got on pretty well together. She's the most middle of the road horse I've ridden at Trent Park so far - she took a little encouragement to keep going, but she did everything I asked of her with the minimum of fuss. (Previously, the horses have been one extreme or the other - really lazy, or really excitable.) I completely lost both stirrups during the second canter, but Flossie's gait was smooth enough that it wasn't a problem. The only problem I had with her was right at the end. We'd been lead file all the way through, but we ended up behind a slower horse in the last five minutes of the lesson, so I had to start holding her in a bit. She really didn't like it, tensed up and started bouncing, which was quite difficult to deal with - how do you calm and slow a horse who goes faster when you pull on the reins? It was a case of relaxing, letting her have her head, making my seat as firm as possible and doing "squeeze and release" half halts to keep her under control. I managed to keep her at a reasonable pace and stop her from getting too upset, but I'm glad she wasn't like that all the way through. It was also weird riding a horse that suddenly sped up at the end of the lesson rather than slowing down!
My other problem was that my left ankle started hurting right at the beginning of the lesson and got progressively worse throughout. I hope this isn't going to be a recurring problem, because it rather marred my enjoyment of the lesson. I might get a support thingie and see if that helps, because I don't want to do myself damage and have to stop riding altogether.
I also got to catch glimpses of
markwelham, vampadvocate, siroswold and weaselbitch on their lesson, which was cool. Every now and then, my ride would halt for a bit down the long side of the school, and I could look up to the paddock where their lesson was going on, so I got to see them taking turns at trotting, and they all looked like they were doing really well.Altogether a very good re-introduction to riding - a good work-out without totally wearing me out, an interesting lesson without containing anything too hard, and a horse I had to work at riding properly without being too frustrating.
Roll on next Sunday!
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Date: 2006-10-02 10:21 pm (UTC)Hey ho, hopefully I'll be able to track my improved fitness by my increasing ability to move on Mondays as the weeks progress...