Tuesday 4 November 2014

Lesson II

Nancy's turn for a lesson today, so I arrived at the yard around noon armed with fleece, indoor & outdoor rugs as all going well Kika is getting clipped this evening. ☺

Sorry for fuzziness, only saddle shot i caught today
So i rode her first so she would be good and sweaty so that I could give her a nice Ecolicious bath. Her first since I got the lovely products - it just didn't make sense to me to bathe them when they lived out 24/7. *blush* #badhorsemama.

Giving me the evil eye for making her so sweaty
Right onto Nancy's lesson, I was right to think there might be traffic at the afternoon riding slot. There was one person lunging and another rider on a young horse that was more like Kika's character than Nancy's zen demeanour. So i tried to keep my HGV truck out of the way as best I could while concentrating on instructions.

Getting spoiled. Don't worry used warm water

Takeaways:

- we struggle much more going right then left, our collective bad sides. She is a wiggly worm, much practice needed.

- I am also apparently worse positioned on N than Kika, which I find funny seeing as N is probably the more solid & reliable creature. My right shoulder tries to creep over the pommel and hang out with my left shoulder when we are going right.

"Artsy" capture

- we need to work a lot on walk trot transitions. I have to stop my outside hand sneaking down towards her neck and keep tension in my outside rein.

- i need to play more with the reins and alternate her bend when she tosses her head up and locks against me. Legs are also useful to use for these scenarios - who'd have thunk it *blush*

K making friends with an adorable pooch
 who kept telling her off for stamping her foot

- as with K, long legs (heels down) & shoulders back.

- I also need to point my toes out more and try to keep my leg from slipping back.

Nancy getting her share of pampering

More awareness of what my body is up to is my #1 takeaway. Sorry again for haphazard lesson report, my head is such a sieve, the old memory needs a serious reboot or upgrade lol.

18 comments:

  1. It sounds like you're really getting a lot out of your lessons- that's great!

    I love your riding outfit, by the way! The color on those breeches is super.

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    1. I really wish my memory worked better and I could remember more of what was said to us to work on while we lessoned. Harumpf! *mumble-grumble*

      Thanks for kind comments on breeches - Horze. They are the fourth of my 5 pairs, first two pairs have been retired from use however remaining three are holding steady ☺
      Love the Horze breeches and keep hoping to snag myself some more ♡

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  2. I am jealous of your hot water and awesome heat drying lamps! Love the artsy shot too :)

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    1. Aw thanks, it all adds up for them perks though. 10cent for 2mins of warm water (40cent deposited there by me today) & 50cent for 8mins of solarium - i think i spent €3 on that today + €2 in recent days. The stock of coins I'd built up for such eventualities has disappeared! Must literally start penny pinching again lolz

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  3. Sounds like a great lesson - loving the recaps! I have the same problem as you, sometimes it's information overload and hard to remember everything later!

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    1. Yep, I've so many bad & nasty habits it's hard to keep track of what is being said ;-)

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  4. nice recap! i both love and hate it when i go to a lesson expecting to work on the *horse* and the trainer fixes *me* instead (thus resulting in a better horse) lol. anyways, ponies are looking very pampered :)

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    1. I would love to fix me for better horses. Baby steps though, like with our equine partners for every step forward we've to be prepared for some back pedalling ;-)
      The ponies are thoroughly pampered - blog name wasn't entirely pulled from the sky ☺

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  5. I love the pictures! Have you ever wondered if any one in the entire history of riding lessons has ever not had anything that the trainer wanted to fix? Or even just one or two things? Sorry, for some reason I started thinking about that while I was reading this and am honestly curious if it's even possible... Anyway, it sounds like you had two very productive lessons! I'm glad that you're taking so much away from them :) Also, Nancy and Kika are very lucky to have a great owner like you! You take very good care of them, lucky girls!

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    1. Interesting questions, I can't imagine anyone person has ridden perfectly as there is always something to work on as horses & riders are living hinge and external stuff comes into play like noises or life baggage. Try as we might, we can't always check that at the arena entrance. Personally I don't think perfection is possible in any aspect of life & to have perfection as an end goal is to end up disappointed (in my very personal & lazy opinion that is). There is always something new to learn, something that can be improved upon ... so nope, I don't think there has been a lesson in the history of lessons where the trainer has stayed quite due to witnessing perfection ;-)

      I don't know if they are lucky to have me, but i am deff uber lucky to have them!

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  6. Those heat lamps are fancy!!

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    1. They are fab & warm me back up to as i invariably also got soaked when washing them - more so with Nancy though oddly. Prob because she is bigger *shrug*

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  7. Don't feel bad. I bathe my horse maybe once or twice a year... I think one year I didn't bathe him at all LOL!!! With warm water and a solarium I would probably bathe him for often, but ouch that gets expensive! I take forever to bathe a horse!

    I'm glad you're getting lessons again! Is there any way to video tape the lessons so you can review them later? I have a tough time remembering everything too. It's like as soon as I dismount everything just disappears hehe. Keep up the good work!

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    1. Only one there while i ride is the teacher and I'm selfish & would rather she focus her attention on me & not trying to video *blush*
      If we can organise fortnightly lessons when I go back to work next week maybe there'll be more bodies around that I could wrangle. ☺

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    2. You don't need someone there! Just set the camera on a fence or bucket. You want it close enough to your trainer so her voice is recorded. If you and your horse aren't always in the video it's not that big of a deal as long as you can hear what your trainer is saying. :-D

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    3. Sadly I don't have a camcorder - type device and record everything on my phone. It requires someone on the ground to hold it ;-)

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    4. Well rats! That definitely won't work. Oh well, it was a good thought hehe.

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