Lesson 7/9/11

I went to the barn today expecting it to just be me and the other girl who was there last night. But there were about four other people in the barn too. And according to a list on the bulletin board, I would be riding Annie. I found this out later, but apparently maybe five minutes after we left the rain stopped and the instructor called and had the lesson anyway. Oh well! I guess it was better that I rode today, because I got to ride Annie.

I was actually glad I was riding Annie as opposed to Tuffy. Annie's a lot more similar to Captain than Tuffy is, I think. But once I was on Annie, I could immediately see she might be challenging to ride. She would not move forward when I asked her. My instructor (not my regular one, but the owner of the barn) told me she has some bad habits and can be very pigheaded, but that's she had basically all the same training that Captain's had. So eventually (with the help of a crop) I got her to move. My instructor told me Annie has the bad habit of moving her shoulder to the inside, causing her to counter-bend and walk towards the middle of the ring, kind of like Tuffy's weird diagonal walk, but not as bad.

When it was time to trot, I ran into the same problem. Annie refused to walk faster, so I had to use the crop again. It's very helpful sometimes actually! Annie's trot was nice though - smooth, and not too bumpy. Then we (meaning me and the two other girls with me - who I learned were also going to be attending Advanced Camp with me, so that was nice!) were told to do trot figure-eights. Normally, with Captain, they are no problem. But with Annie's bad habit, it was more difficult. I kept having to use the crop to tap her shoulder back into place, something that I haven't really had to do before so it felt a little weird to be doing it. Anyway, once Annie got moving into a nice trot, she wasn't much of a problem, except for the occasional turned in shoulder and counter-bend.

After that we played what our instructor called "Catch Up", which meant all three of us were to get in a single-file line behind each other, about a horse's length away from the person in front of us. Then our instructor would tell the person in front a task to do. Most of the time the 'task' was to get our horse into a canter, although sometimes it was just to trot (for the other girls though, not me). So we would canter (or trot) until we caught up with the person in the back of the line.

My first impression of Annie's canter was pretty much, Holy crap. It was a whole lot faster than I'm used to riding Captain. I didn't feel very graceful because I wasn't used to going that fast, so I kind of felt like I wasn't really connected with Annie. But about halfway through my third turn to canter, I felt I really got it. I finally just let go and let her canter that fast, instead of holding on for dear life. And it felt amazing! Our instructor was very impressed, saying I looked very nice. She even said she wished she could videotape me cantering to show me and everyone else! She also commented that all of my instructor's students always had a good seat (my regular instructor, that is). Compliments aside, that was the best canter I've ever had. It was fun and it felt really smooth and was even relatively graceful! That's why when the lesson was over, I asked her if I would be riding Annie in my next lesson. She asked if I would like to, and I said I would like to try. I think if I stick with Annie for a while and really get to know her, I could really enjoy riding her as much as I enjoy riding Captain. Annie will be a challenge for me, I know, but I think it'll really help me in the long run.

I uploaded a picture of Annie so you could see what she looks like. She's really pretty - she had brown and white splotches with a black and white mane. As you can see in the background, this picture was taken in the winter, when I rode her one night when Captain wasn't available.