Herbie Rides Again!
Aug. 19th, 2007 11:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearI was on Herbie again for this week's riding lesson, and my goal was simply to do better than last time. I achieved this, so I am happy. It was a really hard lesson, though; we spent 40 minutes straight trotting without stirrups, while trying to do complicated maneouvres, and Kerry didn't let up the whole time. She's an excellent instructor, but she really makes us work hard. Today we were focusing on leg aids and getting inside flexion, making sure the horses were really listening to us and going where we wanted them to go. Herbie and I both find this quite difficult but I think we were doing pretty well by the end of the lesson, and Kerry said she could see a big improvement.
I still couldn't get a smooth canter transition out of Herbie, but Kerry had given me an extra whip for my outside hand at the start of the lesson, which really helped. I found out last week that Herbie bucks quite violently if you use a whip on him, but he kicks out and raises his hind quarters away from the side where you're using the whip. If you have two whips, one on either side, and just gently tap him with both at the same time, he doesn't know which side to buck on and he actually responds by moving forward with more energy. I also discovered that he needs a very strong contact, which is not how I like to ride and possibly explains why I had such trouble with him last week. Once I'd got him collected on a very short rein, he actually went forwards much more energectically and was easier to control. So, lots of things learned today!
I got extremely wet on the walk back home - but at least now my boots are clean!
I still couldn't get a smooth canter transition out of Herbie, but Kerry had given me an extra whip for my outside hand at the start of the lesson, which really helped. I found out last week that Herbie bucks quite violently if you use a whip on him, but he kicks out and raises his hind quarters away from the side where you're using the whip. If you have two whips, one on either side, and just gently tap him with both at the same time, he doesn't know which side to buck on and he actually responds by moving forward with more energy. I also discovered that he needs a very strong contact, which is not how I like to ride and possibly explains why I had such trouble with him last week. Once I'd got him collected on a very short rein, he actually went forwards much more energectically and was easier to control. So, lots of things learned today!
I got extremely wet on the walk back home - but at least now my boots are clean!
