Thursday, September 4, 2014

Lesson #127: Intention

This time, I woke up late since I've been spending the last few days at FanExpo!! The last day was Sunday but I started with my usual lesson and would get back into the city for 1pm to see Ian Somerhalder (who recently bought a horse!). This post isn't about how awesome the panel (or entire weekend) was but my lesson; so, onwards!

Despite making a late start, we +ADW and I arrived early and just made our way to get ready as usual. We rode with T and her mare. Usually T doesn't do any jumping in classes and just does flat work. We start with the flat work and I checked myself in the same mindset as the other day and was intending to ride every stride and keeping Ariel in the corners. She threw up a fuss at the get go expressing her desire not to work and in response, I ensured there was contact in the reins and pushed her forward. The rest of the warm up was pretty good and she continued as I asked. Riding, even at warm up, is not like driving a car. I am required to literally ride every stride or Ariel will take advantage of the situation and she'd cut corners or fall in.

As usual, Sheri has a plan and we start with simple ground poles set in a line. As we go over them, Sheri progressively places them so that there is a low jump with a ground pole pre-jump. So far, so good. The only thing that was rather unexpected (though not surprising) is that Ariel sped up when the direction was towards her paddock and I needed to bring her back together otherwise I was afraid she'd go running right through the door and back to her paddock. That said though, I regained control after recognizing this and recomposed Ariel enough to get through a few more rounds. Then, the second jump of the line went up. "Nothing changes," says Sheri as she's putting it up. I take it at the trot a couple of times and then I'm asked to take it at a canter. I remind myself that a 2 point is hinging from the hips while pushing your butt back and keeping the weight in your heels; not tipping forward into a bow. Because I have Ariel in control with a good pace, I manage to take notice of my heels following the first jump and am able to reposition them so that I make a better 2 point over the jump. Success! I do pretty well and Sheri reiterates my thoughts about the ride and said that I took control and was able to maintain a rhythm with Ariel through the "course". The best part is that I've noticed my canter departs are much smoother these past few lessons and there isn't any bouncy pony trot.

I had a pretty smug grin on my face as we were leaving the stable even though ADW had to rush us out of there to make the afternoon session. Hopefully this consistency will translate for tonight's lesson!

No comments:

Post a Comment