My lesson today was ah-mazing. Not exaggeration. I rode a new horse today, new for me, not sure if new for the barn. He is a cute little bay thoroughbred, standing roughly at sixteen hands tall, but is as slender as can be.
Long and clean legged, with a fairly short back, a nice up hill build, high set neck with out being ewed, long cannon bones, nicely set hocks, and a high set tail. His face is rather rectangular with no white, except for a little white star and a gorgeous black square muzzle that reminds me of a moose for some reason. He is fourteen and as cute as a button. Slightly on the lean side, but it suits him. He had a jagged body clip that need touch up and some one had negated to clip the insides of his back legs. His name is Cue or Q, I dot know exactly, and he used to be a rather infamous [not sure how famous] hunter horse for the Children's level I think. Boy, is he a sweetie. I might have fallen in love with him, but sadly he is for sale. I was walking around after a canter episode and hopped off to fix my helmet [I got the metal clap of my hair net stuck in the helmet and it was biting into me]. My trainer was on the phone talking about a horse, who I had a hunch was Q and when she said "Yeah, i've got a kid on him right now." it was confirmed. The asking price is not to ridiculous ether, [7,000 $] so he could got pretty quickly. Too bad. If you think I am mentally insane for think 7,000 is cheap. Think again. Welcome to my world where ponies cost more the luxury cars and horses more then houses. This is why I vow that if I had a nice horse, I would sleep in his or her stall. For one it would be for its safety and the fax that I would want to loose an investment like that. For two it would be that I would never want to get out of sight of it. And for three, because I would not have a house to live in or car to get to the barn with. So yes, I would live in my horse's stall. Again I am not crazy for wanting to sleep in my horses stall on the ground, covered in shavings. I would bring a cot, duh! Besides if I did not have a cot, shaving are quite comfy and I have slept in wired places. [Warning! Do not fall asleep on a dock on a nice spring day with the sun beating down on you with the lake water lapping around you, smell of horses in the air along with the smell of spring and flowers, with your friends babbling lightly in the background. You. Will. Never. Want. To. Get. Up. Again. I swear! You will lay there all day, if you can.]
Anyways, I got to the barn and went on my usual trek to track down my trainer. She has a way of hiding in the small barn, leaving me to walk in circles to track her down. There is no lesson board, so I just walk around but if I am really desperate and running out if time I text her. On most days, I walk around peering into the shady stalls and cooing out names softly. I have a good bit of the personalities pinned from this. Cade is grumpy, yet quirky. Charlie is a complete grump and tends to pin his ears and shake his head each to you wall by. Dylan is kind dorky. My trainer's mare [who is absolutely a gorgeous shade of grey] is composed and tends to stand from to for or of her stall, watching it all or sleeping. Anyways, my walk was cut short by the sound of boot heels clicking on pavement. I knew it was my trainer because for one, know one was at the barn at that early hour besides me and the grooms, who were all warming work boots and sneakers that could not produce the loud clap of a rubber heel on concrete. I also knew it here because her made was in the cross ties, and the shoes were head that way. I me up with her and discovered I was riding Q. I went and got him. He was polite from the beginning, standing to face me and backing up a step when I entered the stall to give me room to enter. I looked him over and deemed there was nothing Warmblood about him or Quarter horse for that matter. To thin for etheir of them, besides maybe a yearling Warmblood, and too tall for a quarter horse. We said our hellos and I then lead him to the cross ties, him starkly working behind me, head bobbing slightly. First quirk. He eats cross ties. But what's new? I am rather used to the behavior, thanks to Pumpkin, and tolerate for it keeps them still. I even gave Pumpkin his lead role once when he was dancing around to much. It was like sticking a pacifier in a crying babies mouth. He stopped being a antsy and went right to rolling it around in his mouth. Q was not as obsessive as my fatty, Pumpkin, but he still wiggled the black nylon in to his mouth and held it in-between his teeth, watching the world go by with his brown eyes. I quickly pulled of his blanket and discovered he was lean but muscular at the same time and very sleeker and dainty looking yet tall. This prompted me to ask my trainer if he was a thoroughbred. The answer was yes. After a quick groom, and discovering he was a little stiff in front knees, I led him out and got on. I got side tracked while I was swinging my leg over, a fast approaching white truck was coming down the road and for a second I thought it was my father's truck, even though it is a weird shade of brown. Anyways, I for some reason gripped the cantle to start myself as I threw my leg over and ended up awkwardly sitting on it as Q jumped away from the mounting block and I had to hastily throw my leg over his back where I was not left at the mounting block. Anyways, I steadied myself and slowly lowered my weight into the saddle, keeping Q together. Once I was settled we picked up a good paced walk, reins dangling over his neck as loose as could be. He took the loose rein and picked up a forward pace. I bothered myself with stretching into my lower leg and seeing how sensitive Q was. I added pressure with my outside leg and he jumped away with it, moving across the arena. I picked up my rein as a blocker and got him to let yield a bit, before I dropped the reins and equalized let pressure. I repeated it again after half a lap and then did a little shoulders in to get him to supple up and then switched his bend. He responded well, I even got him turn in a ten meter circle no reins, and by the time my trainer came out it was time to trot. His lip popping got louder and more frequent. His trot is very forward and energetic, with a bouncy rhythm. I could feel his legs swing well and not that stiff. Applying inside rein and giving and taking, but keeping constant contact, I added outside rein and got him to track around on the bit, reaching under him with my legs to get him to engage his core muscles and shift his weight and power to his hind end. We worked like this for a while and then started adding circles at the end of each arena. Q was good about it, listening to me and my natural aids and keeping a good pace, only speeding up a little bit around the circle but came back easily with a few half halts. He held his collection and rode into the bridle with out hanging into it. We worked on opening the outside rein around circles and pushing him into it with my leg. After a few prefect rounds we switched directions and repeated before walking out some. My helmet started to bother me, so first I took my hair out of the back, but then it was too loose. I ended up taking off my helmet and trying to get my hair back in the right way, but ended up realizing that I needed to re-address my hair net. Getting off I fixed my hair, put the helmet back on and got back on. My trainer was babbling on the phone, so I just walked around waiting. After a while, she got off her cell and told me to canter. Q picked up the canter with the slightest ease, I just pulled my inside rein up a bit, about half an inch and cued him with my outside leg. He jumps away into an easy pace that I could maintain with a little leg. He collected easily and kept up, switching his pace as I asked. I exaggerated my turns, by twist my shoulders with his and supporting him with my inside leg as I stepped out of the tack around each turn and opened my outside rein. We continued like this until it was as easy as it was at the trot. His canter was nice and smooth, slightly flamboyant and not heavy in the forehand. I enjoyed it very much and liked how he was forward, but came back to me easily. I gave him lots of pats and then we moved onto jumping, starting off over this cross rail. We approached it at a slow pace, because I was trying to fix my stirrup that was being funky. This screwed us up and we almost did not make the jump. We did it again and this time chipped in, because I was worried that since Q was forward that he would take a long spot with out my authorization. It was bad and sloppy, but one more repeat and we nailed it, cantering away at a good pace. We then moved onto a small course, jumping the cross rail and then tracking to a vertical. It was great and really nice, so we added another jump. This was a vertical that I would had to approach at a slice. The first jump was sloppy. Some how I managed to miss his neck with my release and in my surprise tipped down far. I straightened back out and approached the next jump. It made me wince, because I got popped up and roaches my back as I tried to keep with the motion. The slice, I ended up striating out because I was so disorganized and need to take a head on spot. It still was a bad one, I took it to late and did not have enough pace. Once again we did it. First jump felt prefect. The second one was equally as good, prefect spot and I loved his little bascule. We landed and it got a bit hairy. He got faster and I had to sit back and take a bit of my contact up. He came back to me easily and we approached the new jump. The slice jump. It was a good spot and after it we cantered away, closing with a circle. We ended on that note.
After that me and my trainer and a lengthy conversation about spots and stuff. We talked about all the crazy spots we had seen, falls [leading to Wards most recent fall], George Morris, George Morris being god, and how I could get more lessons. She said that there are essay competitions I could write into for grants up to five hundred dollars for equine things, scholarships, and other things. I am getting much more comfortable around her.
Long and clean legged, with a fairly short back, a nice up hill build, high set neck with out being ewed, long cannon bones, nicely set hocks, and a high set tail. His face is rather rectangular with no white, except for a little white star and a gorgeous black square muzzle that reminds me of a moose for some reason. He is fourteen and as cute as a button. Slightly on the lean side, but it suits him. He had a jagged body clip that need touch up and some one had negated to clip the insides of his back legs. His name is Cue or Q, I dot know exactly, and he used to be a rather infamous [not sure how famous] hunter horse for the Children's level I think. Boy, is he a sweetie. I might have fallen in love with him, but sadly he is for sale. I was walking around after a canter episode and hopped off to fix my helmet [I got the metal clap of my hair net stuck in the helmet and it was biting into me]. My trainer was on the phone talking about a horse, who I had a hunch was Q and when she said "Yeah, i've got a kid on him right now." it was confirmed. The asking price is not to ridiculous ether, [7,000 $] so he could got pretty quickly. Too bad. If you think I am mentally insane for think 7,000 is cheap. Think again. Welcome to my world where ponies cost more the luxury cars and horses more then houses. This is why I vow that if I had a nice horse, I would sleep in his or her stall. For one it would be for its safety and the fax that I would want to loose an investment like that. For two it would be that I would never want to get out of sight of it. And for three, because I would not have a house to live in or car to get to the barn with. So yes, I would live in my horse's stall. Again I am not crazy for wanting to sleep in my horses stall on the ground, covered in shavings. I would bring a cot, duh! Besides if I did not have a cot, shaving are quite comfy and I have slept in wired places. [Warning! Do not fall asleep on a dock on a nice spring day with the sun beating down on you with the lake water lapping around you, smell of horses in the air along with the smell of spring and flowers, with your friends babbling lightly in the background. You. Will. Never. Want. To. Get. Up. Again. I swear! You will lay there all day, if you can.]
Anyways, I got to the barn and went on my usual trek to track down my trainer. She has a way of hiding in the small barn, leaving me to walk in circles to track her down. There is no lesson board, so I just walk around but if I am really desperate and running out if time I text her. On most days, I walk around peering into the shady stalls and cooing out names softly. I have a good bit of the personalities pinned from this. Cade is grumpy, yet quirky. Charlie is a complete grump and tends to pin his ears and shake his head each to you wall by. Dylan is kind dorky. My trainer's mare [who is absolutely a gorgeous shade of grey] is composed and tends to stand from to for or of her stall, watching it all or sleeping. Anyways, my walk was cut short by the sound of boot heels clicking on pavement. I knew it was my trainer because for one, know one was at the barn at that early hour besides me and the grooms, who were all warming work boots and sneakers that could not produce the loud clap of a rubber heel on concrete. I also knew it here because her made was in the cross ties, and the shoes were head that way. I me up with her and discovered I was riding Q. I went and got him. He was polite from the beginning, standing to face me and backing up a step when I entered the stall to give me room to enter. I looked him over and deemed there was nothing Warmblood about him or Quarter horse for that matter. To thin for etheir of them, besides maybe a yearling Warmblood, and too tall for a quarter horse. We said our hellos and I then lead him to the cross ties, him starkly working behind me, head bobbing slightly. First quirk. He eats cross ties. But what's new? I am rather used to the behavior, thanks to Pumpkin, and tolerate for it keeps them still. I even gave Pumpkin his lead role once when he was dancing around to much. It was like sticking a pacifier in a crying babies mouth. He stopped being a antsy and went right to rolling it around in his mouth. Q was not as obsessive as my fatty, Pumpkin, but he still wiggled the black nylon in to his mouth and held it in-between his teeth, watching the world go by with his brown eyes. I quickly pulled of his blanket and discovered he was lean but muscular at the same time and very sleeker and dainty looking yet tall. This prompted me to ask my trainer if he was a thoroughbred. The answer was yes. After a quick groom, and discovering he was a little stiff in front knees, I led him out and got on. I got side tracked while I was swinging my leg over, a fast approaching white truck was coming down the road and for a second I thought it was my father's truck, even though it is a weird shade of brown. Anyways, I for some reason gripped the cantle to start myself as I threw my leg over and ended up awkwardly sitting on it as Q jumped away from the mounting block and I had to hastily throw my leg over his back where I was not left at the mounting block. Anyways, I steadied myself and slowly lowered my weight into the saddle, keeping Q together. Once I was settled we picked up a good paced walk, reins dangling over his neck as loose as could be. He took the loose rein and picked up a forward pace. I bothered myself with stretching into my lower leg and seeing how sensitive Q was. I added pressure with my outside leg and he jumped away with it, moving across the arena. I picked up my rein as a blocker and got him to let yield a bit, before I dropped the reins and equalized let pressure. I repeated it again after half a lap and then did a little shoulders in to get him to supple up and then switched his bend. He responded well, I even got him turn in a ten meter circle no reins, and by the time my trainer came out it was time to trot. His lip popping got louder and more frequent. His trot is very forward and energetic, with a bouncy rhythm. I could feel his legs swing well and not that stiff. Applying inside rein and giving and taking, but keeping constant contact, I added outside rein and got him to track around on the bit, reaching under him with my legs to get him to engage his core muscles and shift his weight and power to his hind end. We worked like this for a while and then started adding circles at the end of each arena. Q was good about it, listening to me and my natural aids and keeping a good pace, only speeding up a little bit around the circle but came back easily with a few half halts. He held his collection and rode into the bridle with out hanging into it. We worked on opening the outside rein around circles and pushing him into it with my leg. After a few prefect rounds we switched directions and repeated before walking out some. My helmet started to bother me, so first I took my hair out of the back, but then it was too loose. I ended up taking off my helmet and trying to get my hair back in the right way, but ended up realizing that I needed to re-address my hair net. Getting off I fixed my hair, put the helmet back on and got back on. My trainer was babbling on the phone, so I just walked around waiting. After a while, she got off her cell and told me to canter. Q picked up the canter with the slightest ease, I just pulled my inside rein up a bit, about half an inch and cued him with my outside leg. He jumps away into an easy pace that I could maintain with a little leg. He collected easily and kept up, switching his pace as I asked. I exaggerated my turns, by twist my shoulders with his and supporting him with my inside leg as I stepped out of the tack around each turn and opened my outside rein. We continued like this until it was as easy as it was at the trot. His canter was nice and smooth, slightly flamboyant and not heavy in the forehand. I enjoyed it very much and liked how he was forward, but came back to me easily. I gave him lots of pats and then we moved onto jumping, starting off over this cross rail. We approached it at a slow pace, because I was trying to fix my stirrup that was being funky. This screwed us up and we almost did not make the jump. We did it again and this time chipped in, because I was worried that since Q was forward that he would take a long spot with out my authorization. It was bad and sloppy, but one more repeat and we nailed it, cantering away at a good pace. We then moved onto a small course, jumping the cross rail and then tracking to a vertical. It was great and really nice, so we added another jump. This was a vertical that I would had to approach at a slice. The first jump was sloppy. Some how I managed to miss his neck with my release and in my surprise tipped down far. I straightened back out and approached the next jump. It made me wince, because I got popped up and roaches my back as I tried to keep with the motion. The slice, I ended up striating out because I was so disorganized and need to take a head on spot. It still was a bad one, I took it to late and did not have enough pace. Once again we did it. First jump felt prefect. The second one was equally as good, prefect spot and I loved his little bascule. We landed and it got a bit hairy. He got faster and I had to sit back and take a bit of my contact up. He came back to me easily and we approached the new jump. The slice jump. It was a good spot and after it we cantered away, closing with a circle. We ended on that note.
After that me and my trainer and a lengthy conversation about spots and stuff. We talked about all the crazy spots we had seen, falls [leading to Wards most recent fall], George Morris, George Morris being god, and how I could get more lessons. She said that there are essay competitions I could write into for grants up to five hundred dollars for equine things, scholarships, and other things. I am getting much more comfortable around her.
