Yesterday I went to Victory. Erica picked me up at the house at 4:30 pm. I was rejoicing in the fact it was Friday when she arrived WITH COFFEE! Yay! I love when she brings me coffee... my mom always 'forgets' to make me some in the mornings! Even though it was afternoon I still enjoyed the extra energy it provided. When we got to the barn, we decided to bring the horses in even though it was about three hours too early. Eric came over and helped us and when he left after all the horses were inside, Erica and I retreated to the apartment for a few minutes, sipping what was left of our coffee and donning our half-chaps.
Who did we ride? I rode Sonny (I know, I know... I should ride Pete... but it's only January! 4H doesn't start until, like, May!) and Erica rode April. We both rode bareback (didn't need those half-chaps after all!) and had a great, great time. Sonny was being retarded at the canter, but eventually we got it kinda under control.
In the end, I focused on getting Sonny to do something he just didn't want to do: bend. In the beginning he was fine, but by the time it was just me riding (Erica wimped out on me!), Sonny would flip his head to the rail, stick his butt towards the middle of the arena, and try to walk (I wanted a collected trot, that's all, really!) backwards. What the heck? Eventually I would trot him down the middle of the arena, bent the opposite way of what I wanted, and then just make him circle the way I wanted him to, even if he was bent the wrong way. He started to catch on eventually and, instead of being bent the wrong way, he just wasn't bent either way.
I gave up at that point, having accomplished SOMETHING, and joined Erica in the apartment. What'd we do?
Looked for pecans (inside joke ;)), hot coco & gram crackers, and of course,,... ice cubes!!! :)) ohh fun times. Gotta love those!
3 comments:
Congrats on getting your SAT's out of the way. That must be a relief. I know back when I was a kid (which just happens to be back before the stone age) we only got to take those things once. We did take a test called the PSAT the year before but it really wasn't like taking the SAT twice. I still remember how numb my tush got sitting there for that long.
Seems to me when I have a horse wanting to go backwards, it's been because I'm using more rein than leg and the horse is confused. I don't know if this will help you or not but for me the answer has always been in more leg in some manner or another. Sometimes it's more inside, sometimes more outside and sometimes a combination, but always more leg.
Rising Rainbow - I'm glad I'm getting practice. I'm only in 7th grade currently but I might move up to 9th instead of 8th next year. Not sure quite yet. Taking the SAT's is just practice for high school - which I know will be handy.:)
As for going backwards... Sonny has a very strange thing where he'll sometimes shake his head around and start backing like crazy. He only does it when he's angry or confused, and usually to solve it you can squeeze a little or even give a small kick and he'll stop moving; then ask him to tuck his head and walk on and he's fine. But he was acting strange; I don't know if it's because of the lack of work he's been getting or not. I just don't know.
I've always wanted to ride a good Morgan-one of my very first loves as a beginner rider was a Morgan cross. Unfortunately, I haven't encountered any since then (though there was a gorgeous Andalusian/Morgan at my last barn. Let me just say that is an amazing cross!) but I hope to one day:)
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