Lesson 7/18/11

Tonight's weather was hot, hot, hot. I was not prepared for that kind of heat when I stepped outside my air-conditioned house. But considering the awful weather, it was a very enjoyable lesson.

After calling the barn owner, my instructor informed me that I it was my choice on who I wanted to ride. I was happy, because I wanted to ride Annie again. I went to go get her out of the paddock, and as soon as I put on her halter, Annie refused to move. It took a lot of convincing and some help from my instructor who came down when I was taking too long, I guess. At least now I kind of know what to do when she does that again.

When I was grooming Annie, my instructor pointed out these huge welts on Annie's side. I had noticed one before, but I didn't really think much of it. Apparently, they were bug bites. What's scary is that some bug bites I've had in the past have gotten as big as Annie's! Anyway, when I was ready to go up to the riding ring, Annie decided she didn't want to go anywhere just yet. I tried to move her, but nothing was working. Then my instructor realized that I forgot to put on bug spray. I guess Annie knew I had forgotten! But even after I sprayed her, she still wouldn't budge. It was very frustrating because I wasn't getting what my instructor wanted me to do. I got it eventually though. Sort of.

We started this lesson with some walk-halt transitions because Annie was walking painfully slowly. That wasn't really working well, so my instructor got me a crop (for those of you who don't know what a crop looks like, look at the picture above). Now I know what some of you are thinking - 'Don't those hurt the horse?' But the answer is no. And that's because I don't hit Annie with it, I only tap her lightly. My instructor gave me a little exercise to do with the crop at the trot to get Annie moving faster. She told me to tap Annie on the shoulder, and then right behind my leg. Sounds easy right? Yeah, well try doing that while posting. Not so easy. I thought I had pretty good rhythm before I tried this exercise. I was supposed to tap Annie with every stride, alternating between her shoulder and right behind my leg, but I just couldn't seem to keep that up for long. After maybe eight taps or so I would lose the rhythm and have to stop and start over, which my instructor didn't like to see me do. On the bright side though, she did say my alignment looked very nice, which was a good thing to hear.

After a long while of tapping, I finally got to stop and take a break. Then I got to canter, which I was excited about. Since it was so hot though, I was only allowed to canter around half of the ring at a time, which was actually okay because I didn't want to canter that much at first. I cantered on the left lead without too much trouble (except for nearly hitting a barrel because it was too close to a jump that I had to go around to complete my circle), but as with Captain, Annie refused to canter on the right lead. And, again, I had trouble keeping her on the outside of the ring while still keeping the bend in her body. Hopefully one day I will get that right!

Overall, it was a pretty satisfying lesson. I'm glad I decided to ride Annie again, because I really like her even though I struggle with some of the things she does. Unfortunately, the lady who rides after me has also been riding Annie, and Annie can't do one lesson after the other because it's too hot, so I assume that means we'll be taking turns each week. I guess next week I'll be riding Captain again, which is more than fine by me!