Lessons 16 and 17

I'll start with last week. I got to ride Domino, and I got to canter! Domino's canter, much like his trot, is big and springy. The movement of canter is easier to sit though, so as long as I kept my back loose, and moved with him, it was really fun.

Was still having steering issues though. Apparently, when I want to go right, I should be pulling the left rein more. If that makes no sense to you, join the club. If you understand, please share. It seems very counter intuitive to me.

This week I got to ride Gretsky again. After Domino, Gretsky's trot seems very small and stunted. He's also much harder to keep moving. But still a fun ride.

See his neck there? That's not what it's supposed to look like, and that's what we were working on the whole lesson (canter on Gretsky comes next week). The picture below is a little blurry, but that's closer to how he should be looking.

Next week I should get to canter on Gretsky, and work on getting him give me his head... This week every time he looked like he does above, it was instantly followed by him tossing his nose in the air. Oh well, I'll get there.

Lesson 15

There was a schooling show today. I didn't take part, but it did mean there were lots of strange horses and people for Domino to pay attention to rather than me. We were kicked out of our regular small dressage arena, as that was a warmup area or something, and ended up in a large jumping area. We had to share this area with a teenage girl and her jumping instructor (they stayed mostly in the other half of the area), and also the guy who rides his grey horse every Saturday (token male rider as Anna called him once), he came in and rode around in the arena periodically.

I was having major steering issues today. Domino was much more interested in the other horses than what I was trying to have him do. At the beginning of the lesson, when the jumping girl walked through our half of the arena to get to the other side, Domino was quite convinced that he should be following the other horse. It took a lot of effort to keep him from doing so.

Even after that, we were trying to keep to a circle around Anna, but Domino didn't seem to like my idea of circling. When I was able to concentrate only on keeping him on the circle, it wasn't too bad. But when I was trying to concentrate on my position, or sit the trot, suddenly we were doing weird shapes with right angles into the fence...

It got so bad, that at the end of the lesson, Anna jumped on to make sure Domino did it right a few times. It wasn't like I was completely out of control or anything. I was never in danger of Domino running away with me, he would always stop when I wanted... he just didn't always go where I thought I was pointing him.

Good news is, Anna did say that next week I'd probably get to canter. Something to look forward to! :) Although that was before the worst of the steering issues... so she might want to fix that first.

Pictures of Domino!

It's Domino! With glowing eyes... and trying to untie himself with his teeth... And he's the sweet horse.

Next week we're pushing the lesson back an hour, as the sun is only just rising at 6:30 in the morning now, and it was even a little chilly this morning. It is beautiful though.

Obviously, I got to ride Domino again this morning. Our first time around the ring this week, we were going to walk over these poles, and then Anna was going to pull them off to the side... Domino almost tripped on them though, so we got to walk over them another 8 or 9 times.

Domino's big trot may not look so impressive here, but Anna jokingly asked if the camera had motion capture, to catch the air time. She told me I was looking a lot better this week (I'm glad there's no pictures of the first time I rode Domino).

Pia had found a golf ball somewhere... She was playing with it, and begging everyone to throw it for her all day.

More pictures of today can be found here.

Domino

Still no trail ride. Today I rode Domino again. Thankfully, I remembered what I'd learned 2 weeks ago, and his trot didn't seem nearly as bad this time.

Today consisted of more work on 20 meter circles. I ended up doing figure eights at a trot. The circles are still more oval or egg shaped, but they were getting better.

Don't know the plan for next week, but I'll be there. :)

Trail Ride Postponed

Ikarus, or Mikey as Anna called him, was sick today, leaving Anna a horse short. So no trail ride for me. Gretsky had been promised to the other lady, the father and daughter were going to take turns on Wild Thing, Kaibab is in Alabama for the year, which left me with Domino!

Last week there was no lesson because Anna was off competing on Domino, and this week he had ribbons pinned up outside his stall.

I think Anna was originally planning to work on something specific, but Domino has a very big trot that takes some getting use to. Big like springy... not jarring like Kai, but defiantly not smooth like Gretsky. I mentioned before that I had to actually work to go up in posting trot on Gretsky. Well on Domino, I had to work to try get my butt back down on the saddle. The problem was, with being flung up from the saddle with every step, I felt the need to try hold on with my legs, which Domino figured meant I wanted him to go faster... When Domino's trot gets faster, it gets bigger and springier. I already have bruises forming on the inside of my knees, which I figured was at least a little better than hanging on with my lower legs (and going faster).

Last lesson I worked on getting a good strong working trot out of Gretsky, who was quite happy to shuffle along if I would let him. This week, I was trying very hard to keep the trot reasonably slow and manageable so I didn't grip, but as soon as I did grip, Domino thought I was telling him to go faster, which he was quite happy to do, and with the bigger, springier trot, it was even harder not to grip. By the end of the lesson I was doing a pretty good job, either that or Domino was bored, and doing a low energy trot (for him). But I got to feel like I'd gotten better, so it was good.

Next week I'm out of town, but after that we should be returning to a weekly schedule.