Back in the Saddle

So, I haven't blogged in a few weeks. Big whoop. Wanna fight about it? No? You didn't notice? Oh well. :)

So, night before last I tried to ride for the first time in a week (I was out of town/he had shiny new shoes put on) and a thunderstorm rolled in. Gator was being his ho-hum self warming up, as in, trot? forward? What ever do you mean? We didn't get past that because he'd slow to a walk and stop to stare at the super dark cloud producing sharp cracks of thunder and daggers of lightening whenever we were facing that direction. I decided he was smarter than I, and we called it a day. I guess I groomed him; that's a good thing.


Last night though I HAD A LESSON!!!! :D It's been awhile since I've had a lesson. I have needed a lesson or 30. Gator had been telling me I needed a lesson. My instructors two other lessons canceled because of the heat and she was totally free. She's also a good friend and I had called to chat she told me about her cancelations and sounded dissapointed. I casually joked I'm no wuss, I was going to ride in the heat. She wanted to get her kidlet out of the house and we met around 6:30.

Our warm up was ugly. It was obvious I have not been riding him in the ring a lot lately. Especialy not with much direction. He pulled out all the stops when it came to being a butt head. Stay on the rail? Nah. We'll veer to this jump and just stop. Trot? Nah. Oh, you're serious? Well I'll kinda trot, but I'll make you work harder than me. I need more rein, contact? No I'll just pull these RIGHT out of your hands, thanks! Grrr...

My stirrups were uneven and too long. He's lost weight. I've lost weight. I knew that changed angles. I knew they didn't feel right but I just couldn't get them right on my own. I had reverted to a somewhat chair seat partially due to the stirrups. Lovely.

I pulled up next to my instructor as she was telling what to do next after we had fixed my stirrups and we had struggled around the ring warming up. She stopped and looked at me funny.

'What's wrong?'

'Huh?', I answered.

'You look... pissed. Really mad.'

'Oh. No, just frustrated and concentrating. I let my position go to crap and he's being a butthead. Just frustrated and concentrating.' I was also distracted by the other rider who had just entered the ring slightly. I have um... not really shared a ring a lot. She didn't seem to have had either. Her instructor was being loud and obnoxious.

So, I took my instruction to do a three loop serpentine at a posting trot, concentrating on indirect rein and directing with my legs not my hands. God we had been hideous warming up. She didn't even think I could steer anymore. :(

Off we went. Loop de loop around the haphazardly placed jumps as best we could. I was keeping an eye on the kid in the ring. I noticed they started cantering on the rail. I noticed it wasn't so pretty. On one of my middle loops I was heading toward the rail, making my turn and starting back to center. I started to turn to pick up the other rider - they had come around a lot faster than I expected. She was not on the rail. She was headed exactly where I was. She was RIGHT there. Shit. Gator and I slowed and she tried to give me the rail. I was actually realizing that because I was watching her horse (and so was Gator). Her horse jumped to the right, still at the canter, having no leg she fell on his neck and stayed there. He wasn't a fan of that and ran. She came off, rolled nicely but he did run the hell over her. Shit. Gator and I had stopped long since. Girl was okay, thankfully. Loose horse caught. Gator and I walked around as she cantered him again. Both directions.

Her instructor made a bit fuss about making sure we 'came at each other again' to be sure he wasn't a freak about it again. Um... no horses freaked when crossing. Don't act like it's a big deal, they wont' either. One just had no direction, made his own decision and she couldn't sit it. Bah. We waited until she had cantered both directions, Gator didn't mind the break. I clearly explained what I was doing to the instructor so she could explain it to her student so we didn't do that again. Once she was coming up a on a jump and we were *going* to cross in front of it. I noticed and stopped. She screamed at the student to pull the horse up - good anyways as he was strung out as all hell but... over react much?

Anyhoo... back to my lesson finally. So, on to cantering. Something I felt I had made a vast improvement on and was excited to show my instructor. See, I always got forward. I had had trouble cuing him for awhile. He doesn't canter unless you're balanced and cue properly. He's a good teacher like that. We'd been doing GREAT! Shorter stirrups, while more effective felt different I think for Gator and myself. So, I was actually getting BEHIND the vertical when asking. Craptastic! Our first attemps weren't so nice.

However, at one point I had asked and he rolled into what many people refer to as the death trot. I sat it. Whatever. Big Whoop. He wasn't strung out, I was keeping him collected so he could pick up the canter but he was E-X-T-E-N-D-I-N-G. I cued again, and he stepped into the canter. After we cantered a few laps my instructor called me to pull him up and come over.

'What's wrong?'' I asked.

She put her eyeballs back in their sockets and un-swallowed her tongue. 'THAT... THAT was GORGEOUS... I mean the extended trot. Your ass was STUCK to that saddle and he... HE wow! He has an AMAZING extended trot!'

Huh. Okay, so my screw up was awesome. My canter, once I wasn't behind the motion (TOTALLY opposite of what I've always done before!) had been nice. She was impressed at how I really moved with him. I didn't bounce anymore. *whew* I thought I'd sucked too much to tell.

Reverse. Okay... walking, cue, canter, he picks it up, few strides...

'HALT!!!!!!!!'

I look over my shoulder. Kid slumped against the fence. Loose horse. Holy shit balls! AGAIN?

'OH my GOD!? ' says the other instructor to the kid. 'I don't know what went wrong! He jumped big and YOU just didn't stay with him.' She couldn't correct her position at the canter when she got in trouble, why was she jumping again? She was okay. Got back on. I went on.

Better canter, had to half halt the booger though. He was feelings good.


Kid and other instructor finally leave. Many exclamations about horse jumping big and the kid not staying with him follow from the other instructor. The kids nose is swollen. I tell them to have my instructor (Lifeguard, teaches CPR etc) look at it. Girl is freaking a bit about it from a looks perspective. *sigh*

Back to the lesson... time for a dressage pattern. We usually suck at this. I have a hard time keeping him at a trot once we'd cantered. She wanted extended walks and trotting only. We HAD gotten better about this but he'd been such a butt before...

We nailed it! He decided he could actually do a nice working trot after all. My position was making my instructor exclaim things like 'THERE! That's the trot I was talking about! That's what we want! Nice trot!' Thank heavens. I needed to hear that something I had done on purpose wasn't crap.

When I finished, she again brought up our extended trot and the awesomeness that it was. She went on about HOW powerful it looked. How he was REALLY throwing me out of that saddle - so much she said she felt sorry for me... but my ass never left the saddle. She gushed about how my ass was glued there and joked how no other sport do you hear someone say that. I think I blushed a little.

She said there are some lower level dressage shows around. She thought we'd do really well, with some more practice of course. Plus he needed to be more collected less, hunter show ponyish...

I hadn't been really asking for collection. He's simple to get into a lovely collected frame. Hell, I know I can do that.

But a dressage test? Me? Show? She really, excitedly and genuinely thought we could do that and do well?

Crap. I hate white pants.