More riding

[alobear]

I got to the stable and was told I was riding Molly. My heart sank and I figured this was to be my comeuppance for the extreme cockiness of last week. I'd not ridden Molly before, but I've seen other people ride her, and she always seemed recalcitrant and very difficult to get going. This was confirmed by the instructor, Matt, who came to help me get her out of the stable. He saw I had a whip and said that was a good idea, then told me Molly took a lot of work to get going. We went down to the school and I mounted. Matt told me to join the ride, I gave Molly a nudge, and she went backwards.

The signs were not good.

However, like Dominic, Matt had a couple of tricks to get the horses listening to us. He told us to do half halts with the outside rein in the corners. This would keep the horses on the track and wake them up a bit, since it would ensure they were listening to what we told them to do, rather than just following along with the horse in front.

Molly responded amazingly well to this technique and went along very nicely in both walk and trot. The thing about her that impressed me most was that, when the horse in front kept dropping back into a walk, she invariably stayed in trot, just slowing her pace a bit. This was very helpful in keeping her going, and meant she was paying attention.

We did the standard B lesson format. Walk round, trot round rising, 20 metre circle, trot round sitting, change rein and repeat in the other direction, canter to the back in turn, change rein and canter again. This was all rather tedious from the point of view of tasks to perform, but Molly was a very nice ride and I enjoyed the process, concentrating on my hand and body position while working through each exercise.

It was when we got to the cantering that things went a little pear-shaped.

There were six horses in the lesson. James, Martini and Jigsaw took their turns cantering to the back quite happily and without incident. The three remaining horses were Madison, Lily and Molly (I was at the back, which made a nice change). Madison has a very long stride so, once she was in lead file, she stretched out a bit and got a bit ahead of the rest of us. So, when it came her turn to canter, there was quite a bit gap between her and Lily. Matt gave the instruction for Madison to canter; Madison stayed firmly in trot, but Lily took off at a rate of knots, eliciting a panicked squawk from her rider. Molly immediately perked up, put her ears right forward and tried to head off as well, presumably thinking we were all supposed to be cantering together (something that happens in A lessons when there are only three people riding). I managed to hold her back, while Madison trotted happily to the back of the ride, and Lily's rider got her back under control.

Matt brought Madison back round to the front and slotted her in behind Lily and in front of Molly. Lily then cantered quite happily to the back of the ride, and then Madison did the same. Molly perked right up again when Madison set off, but I held her back again and waited for my turn. As soon as she was in lead file, Molly dropped her speed right down and started plodding along as if she was about to fall asleep, so I thought she'd given up and would be difficult to get into canter. However, it turned out she was just lulling me into a false sense of security! When it came time for us to canter, I trotted to the corner, sat down in the saddle, gave the canter signal and she shot off like a rocket!

I gave her some strong half halts, sat back and down, and just aimed her at the back of the ride, assuming she'd stop when she got there, which she did.

The second round of canters proceeded in much the same fashion. Lily got overexcited and rushed off, her rider yanked on the reins, which really didn't help matters, but Lily stopped eventually and her rider declined to have another try. Madison's rider got a really good transition and cantered very nicely to the back (I know how hard this is, because I've ridden Madison a lot, and I only get a decent canter out of her about 1 in 3 tries). Molly started rushing her trot again, but I was ready for her this time. We cantered to the back - I can't pretend it was a perfectly controlled manoeuvre, but it was better than the time before.

The interesting thing was the difference in reactions between me and the girl riding Lily. She yelped and yanked on the reins, took Lily into the centre and stopped, refusing to ride any more. I just went with Molly's mad dash, controlled it as much as I could, giggled madly and wanted to do it again! :o)

Anyway, at the end of the lesson, Matt said I'd done really well with Molly (my ego is really getting a lot of boosting in these lessons!), particularly the fact that I didn't pull on the reins when she took off with me. He said she would just have got worse if I'd done that, like Lily did. This again begs the question - what do you do with a horse that just goes faster when you pull on the reins? Judging from today's lesson, the answer is nothing - just keep your seat, try to steer and hope for the best!!

Like last week and the week before, I didn't get out of breath and I don't feel too achy now. I'd like to think that means I'm getting fitter. However, I think it's really just that I've had three fairly forward-going horses in a row, and they're not as much work. As I said after last week, Madison would be the real test, because I always nearly fall down after I ride her.

Well, that's probably far more than anybody ever wanted to know about my riding lesson!

Comments

[alobear.livejournal.com]

Carreering round totally out of control gives you something to look forward to? Well, I suppose I *did* say it was really fun, and you are even more insane than me when it comes to these kinds of things, so I shouldn't really be surprised!

Glad to be entertaining - I certainly enjoy writing about riding.

To give you something further to look forward to (we'll have to arrange it at some point) - the most fun I've *ever* had on a horse was a hack I went on whilst on holiday once, where we galloped the horses along the beach in the surf. Absolute heaven!

[weaselbitch.livejournal.com]

I'm really looking forward to when we start cantering!

One thing I have to ask... what's a 'half halt'? I keep coming across the term, but haven't a clue what it means.

[alobear.livejournal.com]

Half halts are one of the most useful things you can learn in riding.

Essentially, it's squeezing the reins and then releasing them again. So you're sort of "half" asking the horse to halt, but not pulling on the reins consistently so that they actually stop.

It's the best way to slow a horse down as it communicates "slow" but not "stop", and it's very handy with the type of horse who doesn't like their mouth pulled a lot. Some horses react badly to you pulling on the reins, so using half halts gives them the "slow down" message without bothering them as much.

Does that make sense?