How riding lessons ought to be
Jul. 15th, 2007 02:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearI was really nervous about joining the A class this morning, but it turned out my fears were unfounded. Today's lesson was like the lessons I used to have 12 years ago when I was at the top of my riding skill. I'm certainly not back at that standard yet, but A classes are definitely going to help me get there.
I was on Abbey, something that initally made me even more apprehensive, since I'd had such a bad B lesson on her a couple of weeks ago - but she really stepped up the A lesson challenge and performed brilliantly throughout.
Interestingly, she seemed much happier with the free form structure - she doesn't like being lead file and she doesn't like being stuck in the middle of a ride, so having open space around her the whole lesson worked really well. She got a bit confused a couple of times, as there was nobody to follow and the other three horses spent a lot of the time going in different directions, but she coped fine overall.
We started with individual warm-ups where we were just supposed to do our own thing, incorporating halt transitions, changes of rein, and even a brief canter each. There were only four of us in the lesson, which meant we had plenty of space to move around without risk of collision. We never actually formed up into a ride, just doing all the exercises spread out around the school, which was challenging but great fun, and also really useful in that it meant I had to pay more attention to what I was doing all the time, rather than just following the horse in front.
We did fifteen metre circles in every corner, shallow loops on the long sides to practise changing the horse's flexion, an extended period of trotting without stirrups, a mini drill ride where we came down the centre line and went off in alternate directions, and four or five stretches of cantering all together, which was great fun. It was non-stop all the way - once we'd done the warm-up, we didn't go back down into walk except to practise the drill ride, and I was exhausted by the end of it, but it was brilliant. Definitely the right decision to move up.
The other three horses in the lesson were not ones I'd seen before, which leads me to believe that the assumption of different horses generally being used in the A lesson is correct. I'm hoping this means I'll get to ride some new horses, and that they'll largely be forward-going ones. It certainly wouldn't have worked today if we'd had Bilbo and Boycie in the lesson!
Anyway,siroswold said it would be interesting to look at horse stats again, so I thought I'd do an update on mine:
Once:
Cassie
Flash
Hughie
Kofi
Joker
Ben
Diesel
Twice:
Jim
Three times:
Dolly
Boysie
Four times:
Madison
Molly
Toby
Abbey
Conan
Six times:
Flossie
I think Cassie, Flash and Flossie would be suited well to A lessons, and I haven't ridden any of them since the last time I did these stats (Feb 28th), so hopefully they'll turn up on my roster in the near future. What's really cool is that there are 16 horses on that list, and there are none I'd refuse to ride again (though obviously I'd rather ride some than others!).
I was on Abbey, something that initally made me even more apprehensive, since I'd had such a bad B lesson on her a couple of weeks ago - but she really stepped up the A lesson challenge and performed brilliantly throughout.
Interestingly, she seemed much happier with the free form structure - she doesn't like being lead file and she doesn't like being stuck in the middle of a ride, so having open space around her the whole lesson worked really well. She got a bit confused a couple of times, as there was nobody to follow and the other three horses spent a lot of the time going in different directions, but she coped fine overall.
We started with individual warm-ups where we were just supposed to do our own thing, incorporating halt transitions, changes of rein, and even a brief canter each. There were only four of us in the lesson, which meant we had plenty of space to move around without risk of collision. We never actually formed up into a ride, just doing all the exercises spread out around the school, which was challenging but great fun, and also really useful in that it meant I had to pay more attention to what I was doing all the time, rather than just following the horse in front.
We did fifteen metre circles in every corner, shallow loops on the long sides to practise changing the horse's flexion, an extended period of trotting without stirrups, a mini drill ride where we came down the centre line and went off in alternate directions, and four or five stretches of cantering all together, which was great fun. It was non-stop all the way - once we'd done the warm-up, we didn't go back down into walk except to practise the drill ride, and I was exhausted by the end of it, but it was brilliant. Definitely the right decision to move up.
The other three horses in the lesson were not ones I'd seen before, which leads me to believe that the assumption of different horses generally being used in the A lesson is correct. I'm hoping this means I'll get to ride some new horses, and that they'll largely be forward-going ones. It certainly wouldn't have worked today if we'd had Bilbo and Boycie in the lesson!
Anyway,
siroswold said it would be interesting to look at horse stats again, so I thought I'd do an update on mine:Once:
Cassie
Flash
Hughie
Kofi
Joker
Ben
Diesel
Twice:
Jim
Three times:
Dolly
Boysie
Four times:
Madison
Molly
Toby
Abbey
Conan
Six times:
Flossie
I think Cassie, Flash and Flossie would be suited well to A lessons, and I haven't ridden any of them since the last time I did these stats (Feb 28th), so hopefully they'll turn up on my roster in the near future. What's really cool is that there are 16 horses on that list, and there are none I'd refuse to ride again (though obviously I'd rather ride some than others!).
