Hello,
I'm taking a break from this lovely warm weather to post about my lesson that I took yesterday. Hopefully this warmth will last, as I still have yet to obtain a tan...
Yesterday morning, I yet again woke up at what felt like the crack of dawn to have my weekly 9am lesson. I was on Jigsaw again which I was very pleased about!
After mounting, sorting out my stirrups and girth then walking large around the outdoor arena once I started a simple halt/trot/walk transition exercise which is my personal favorite as I feel it gets the horse listening a lot more. after about 5 minutes of that I slowly started to introduce a few strides of canter at each corner. After I felt Jig had been successfully warmed up, my instructor explained an exercise for me to to, some down the center line in trot, do a square halt at X, trot to G, turn left and canter down the edge to start excerise again, changing the rein every time (I found a lovely diagram of an arena on google images for you to look at).
Somehow I managed to make Jig halt horizontally at X (I can't take all the credit, he was trying to get pets from my trainer who was perched at E...), then on the second go I managed to get the incorrect canter lead and continued to do so every time I tried to change it (In my defense I forgot he is not capable of flying changes at first). After about 10 attempts, I got a perfect square halt which I was rather chuffed at. My trainer then asked me to do an extended canter on a 20m circle which lasted about 10 minutes, as Jigsaw kept trying to break into a trot. I could feel he wasn't taking my kicks and nudges seriously so I had to use my trusty red whip, which just a small tap made me mistake him from Frankel which made my instructor elated that he was going at such a good pace, as when I first started riding I barely kicked the animals. After I had a good long canter, I did the trot, halt, trot,halt, canter exercise about 2 or 3 more times, on the last time I got all the elements of it spot on, so my trainer and I had a mutual decision that I should stop there and go on a nice walk around the block to cool down the sweaty Jigsaw.
I think this was probably one of the most beneficial lessons I have had yet, as I havent really had an opportunity to canter a horse at that speed before. It really got me sitting in a good, comfortable postition and my lower legs stayed solid and wrapped around the little 15hh piebald pony.
Eve xox
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I'm taking a break from this lovely warm weather to post about my lesson that I took yesterday. Hopefully this warmth will last, as I still have yet to obtain a tan...
Yesterday morning, I yet again woke up at what felt like the crack of dawn to have my weekly 9am lesson. I was on Jigsaw again which I was very pleased about!
After mounting, sorting out my stirrups and girth then walking large around the outdoor arena once I started a simple halt/trot/walk transition exercise which is my personal favorite as I feel it gets the horse listening a lot more. after about 5 minutes of that I slowly started to introduce a few strides of canter at each corner. After I felt Jig had been successfully warmed up, my instructor explained an exercise for me to to, some down the center line in trot, do a square halt at X, trot to G, turn left and canter down the edge to start excerise again, changing the rein every time (I found a lovely diagram of an arena on google images for you to look at).
Somehow I managed to make Jig halt horizontally at X (I can't take all the credit, he was trying to get pets from my trainer who was perched at E...), then on the second go I managed to get the incorrect canter lead and continued to do so every time I tried to change it (In my defense I forgot he is not capable of flying changes at first). After about 10 attempts, I got a perfect square halt which I was rather chuffed at. My trainer then asked me to do an extended canter on a 20m circle which lasted about 10 minutes, as Jigsaw kept trying to break into a trot. I could feel he wasn't taking my kicks and nudges seriously so I had to use my trusty red whip, which just a small tap made me mistake him from Frankel which made my instructor elated that he was going at such a good pace, as when I first started riding I barely kicked the animals. After I had a good long canter, I did the trot, halt, trot,halt, canter exercise about 2 or 3 more times, on the last time I got all the elements of it spot on, so my trainer and I had a mutual decision that I should stop there and go on a nice walk around the block to cool down the sweaty Jigsaw.
I think this was probably one of the most beneficial lessons I have had yet, as I havent really had an opportunity to canter a horse at that speed before. It really got me sitting in a good, comfortable postition and my lower legs stayed solid and wrapped around the little 15hh piebald pony.
Eve xox
Follow me on twitter!
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