Thursday's Lesson

Okay everybody, I officially fail.

School started for us this week, so I have been really busy with homework and the such, so I haven't gotten on the computer much, and I didn't get to ride much.

That said, the promised tack pictures didn't get taken. :( I'm sorry! But next time, which will be next week, I will have multiple pictures of my nice, clean, shiny, tack. :)

Also, I haven't been keeping up with every ones blogs this week. I am working on reading all of the new posts now, just give me a little time, and I will be done. :)

And now, what you have all been waiting for - the story of the ride in our lesson.

Thursday, I went out to the barn to ride in the lesson.
I got there a little late, due to traffic, but he had just gotten his hooves trimmed and he was in his stall. Oh, and by the way, his hooves look GREAT! :) Anyway, I groomed him, and then tacked him up. Our warm up was a little rushed, but I made sure that he was good and loose before the lesson started.

Please keep in mind, when I start talking about the jumping portion of the lesson, that I had not gotten the chance to ride him in 6 days. It makes me feel horrible, yes, but I am doing all that I can.

Our warm up fence was a crossrail. It wasn't too small, but it wasn't very big either. We went uphill over it, and he looked at it, causing an awkward jump. When we went downhill over it, he stopped and looked at it. I turned him around, asked for the canter again, and we jumped it better.

Next we put the wooden jump and the red gate together. The wooden was not very good, at all. So, I went back down to the bottom of the arena, and picked up my canter, coming towards it again. Better. It wasn't great, but it was an improvement. We stopped and got our simple change, and then jumped the red gate. It was alright. It wasn't fantastic, but it wasn't horrid either.

Note that while I am saying this, the people that I was riding with, were saying that it was looking fine. It just felt this way to me. If you know what I mean.

Then we worked on the inside line. The corner going in to the inside line if VERY sharp. This gave all of us in the lesson a little difficulty, so we worked on this for a while. In the end though, me and Roanie finally got our act together, and made the turn pretty nicely. Over the first fence was good. We added the strides nicely, and then the second fence was pretty nice as well.

The last thing that we worked on was courses.

The course was up over the inside line, down over the outside line, up over the inside single, and down over the outside single.

Our inside line was pretty good since we had been working on it. He landed on his lead going towards the outside line.

Our outside line, was uh, interesting. Coming up to the first fence, he looked at it, then popped over it, causing the rail to be knocked down. We had lost all of our momentum, and I couldn't get him to find it, even if I used all of my leg power.
I woahed him, let them set the fence up again, and then picked up our canter, jumped it again, still a little awkwardly, but we got over it. The second fence in that line was pretty good, just a little off, from the awkwardness of the first one. We didn't land on our lead, so we stopped and got the simple change, and then cantered towards the wooden fence.

It was nice. We had a good pace coming up to it, and we flowed over it. It was a nice fence, all and all.

The red gate was messy. It was going downhill, and we kind of sped up, and then slowed down, and couldn't find our pace again. The fence was pretty good, but the approach was bad.

Since we had improved a lot since the beginning, we stopped there.
Every lesson keeps improving, no matter how small the improvement may be.

I am happy about it, since I had not gotten a chance to ride all week. I plan to change that this week though. I am going to try as hard as I can to get out and ride more often this week.