Saturday saw me back in the saddle, and what a lesson it was! I was given the honour of riding one of the horses that is relatively new to lessons - and I don't mean that sarcastically at all. Mary was formerly used as a trekking horse, and it is only recently that she has been deemed capable of participating in the lessons, so it really was an honour that my riding instructor allowed me to ride her. It honestly means a lot that she trusts me enough to ride the new horses at the yard, as it is a confidence booster for me.
The pony club session was spent doing flat work and it was good fun just being able to work quietly on my position in my varying places in the ride order. Mary can be quite fast, and she's used to being nose-to-tail from her previous work, so we had to make sure she was behind a horse that was a) fast enough that she wouldn't be struggling to not crash into and b) wasn't likely to kick at her if she got too close. Her trot was lovely to sit to, and besides the slight misbehaving that was apparently a test of my seat, she was very lovely to ride. The only thing that I wish we could have worked on was the canter, because when she got going it was fine but she was really reluctant to stay on the track and go large. I think it may have had something to do with her being used to sticking close to the other horses, but I'm not too sure if that was the only reason for it. With time, I am sure she will be more confident and balanced and able to go further away from the ride. Besides that, I really cannot fault her. I think she's just one of them horses that I need to get used to. As the lesson went on, I got better at pulling her head back up quicker when she stuck it down to the floor, but I think with a few more lessons on her I would be able to prevent it more than respond to it.
After the lesson, we untacked and then we had the second part of our pony club session. We each made a mind map of some sort of illness or condition, as we're working towards our equine first aid badges, and we decided what badge we would like to work on next. Personally, I would really like to work on the equine behaviour badge for the simple reason that equine behaviour sort of comes into the EPQ I'll be doing this summer, but instead we chose to do loading and plaiting. Both of these are useful skills, so I'm not complaining - and plaiting sounds like it could be quite therapeutic! I can't wait for the next session, as I'll also be finding out pretty soon when I can start volunteering for the RDA.
Until the next time :)
No comments :
Post a Comment