Lessons!

We had quite a weekend, and I got to see quite a bit of money flutter away....

Saturday started with riding lessons. They're the first lessons we've had since we moved, and in fact we didn't have many right before we moved either thanks to tight finances. But now I'm working silly amounts of overtime, Leeandra is looking to do some offsite training, and so it was lesson time.

I have to say that it was one of the best lessons that I can remember. First, she got to see my new saddle, and we discussed some pros and cons. Pros - it's great for Peanut. Cons - it is not for a classical rider. It also tilts back to the point where I'm perched on the Nutter kidneys, and that explains the pressure points under there. I asked the manufacturer about it during the trial period, and they said it is normal. I might try some padding in the seat to lift my butt up a little, starting with stealing Rick's cashel butt pad. He always complains that it throws him forward. Excellent.

At my insistence, we worked on a few bad habits of mine. First, there was the wee issue of my using my heels to ask for up transitions. This means that I flex my calves, raise my knees, drop my toes, and goose the little bugger. Nope. Not good. So, I worked on using my thighs to squeeze, not my heels to prod. I also learned some new ways to cue him, mainly the single quick cue for an up transition. I tend to put pressure on and keep it on because otherwise Peanut falls back to the walk with the loss of pressure. We worked on impulsion without constant contact, both by using a dressage whip and using fast leg cues.

Leeandra teaches her young horses to trot with a double kick cue, and we started introducing that to Peanut. He got it well, and we had some really nice gait transitions. We also had some impressive halt to gait transitions as well! She would have me go in a circle (at the back of the ring as there were ice patches in the rest of it....rrrrr), and I would gait for 1/4 of it, then drop to a walk for 1/4, then halt, then halt-to-gait, and back to gaiting for 1/4. For the most part, it all felt really good, especially once I took off my gloves because the reins kept sliding right through them.

We worked on the fact that I lean in on turns/circles. She taught me instead to keep straight up and shift my navel to the inside instead to weigh the inside seat bone. So there I am, riding, worrying about my belly button, keeping my heels from creeping up for a kick, keeping my legs wrapped around him but not giving any pressure, and my reins kept sliding through my fingers. I'm surprised that I remembered to breathe.

Later, we worked on the canter. I don't know where my canter went, but I lost it somewhere. I used to run around on that damn horse in two-point, hands beside his neck like a jockey, just tearing all over the land. Yeah... that went somewhere and I can't find it. Instead, I've noticed that I tense my back when asking for a canter and that just screws the whole thing up. In my lesson, I stayed relaxed and she tried to undo my early learning at the hands of the jockey trainer that was my first instructor. She had my lower my outside hand and stop pumping it with his neck, and raise my inside rein. Peanut responded beautifully to it! I hate cantering in little circles, but it was effortless for once. He also gave me his right-hand lead each time, every time when it was proper. We were going to do some halt to canter transitions, but never did get around to them.

We then went to laterals. For some reason I am a dunce at laterals, probably for the same reason that I can't dance. I just ain't coordinated. :( After some time, and an explanation of the differences between the short leg cue for speed and the longer leg cue for laterals, we were finally doing something somewhat resembling laterals. Somewhat. Sigh. Peanut can do second level dressage moves, so I know it's not him.

Leeandra did comment that my posture has improved quite a bit since she saw us last, and Peanut was much softer. :)

I didn't see much of Rick's lesson since I overestimated the time it would take to tack up, but I did see him start it by battling Gene in order to open the gate from horseback. The gate is secured with a rope over the post so that you don't have to dismount to get in, but Gene's appy-tude was out and he was having none of the fussy movements necessary to open it. I gaited around the property while his lesson went on, and it seemed that he and Gene were either fighting (Gene will challenge Rick until Rick proves that he means what he says - that's what he gets for letting the horse walk all over him), or else cantering. Rick said Gene's canter was wonderful, the best it's been. Thank you hills, Adequan, and my equine team.

When it was time for MY lesson, we walk up to the gate and I start planning how to open it from Peanut's back. Instead, Peanut reaches to the rope, takes it in his mouth, lifts it over the post, and pushes the gate open with his nose. Good boy! It was a little harder getting it closed again when our lesson was through, but we managed without getting in a spat.

Just as my lesson ended, Dawn pulls up for the boys' trim. Leeandra leaves to transport a horse out of Legacy, and Dawn starts taking pictures as she's never seen me actually ride before. Soon enough, she's wearing my helmet and cantering away on Peanut. After she turns around, I yell to her that it was a nice canter. "Is that what that was?" she says, "it felt like a rocking horse!" Bwahaha! She also rode Gene - who was still tacked up - without the benefit of stirrups since Rick's 6'1" and Dawn and I are lucky to be 5'3". She complimented him on his easy trot since she was actually able to sit it, and she doesn't do the sitting trot.

The next day, we spend the morning spending money. We both got new winter barn boots (it snowed all damn week! WTF?!), winter gloves, and whatnot. By the time we got to the barn it was getting late-ish and we didn't feel like riding. Instead, we hand walked the boys into Fair Hill and graze at the first field.

In the distance, I see some riders coming down the hill in the next field over. "They're nicely bundled up," I think. Then, drifting on the breeze, I hear "... walks... like a dog". I think that they're talking about me, and the bitches better not get uppity about us standing around with our horses on leads. I make a point to ignore them, and hear them crossing the stream at the edge of our field accompanied by someone repeating "good gir-r-r-r-l!" Well, she certainly talks to her horse like I do Peanut.

I hear my name, turn around, and I'll be damned if it isn't Leeandra riding Doc, Anne-Marie on Mona, Lisa on Daniel, and Jill on Gaby. What the? The sun was going down, so we chat briefly before they trot off into the sunset back to the parking area.

It turns out that the dog comment was because Leeandra saw us in the distance and said, "there's Sara!" "How do you know," someone asked. "Because she's the only one around here who walks her horse like a dog."