Yesterday's weather was perfect - not just for riding, but in general. It was sunny but breezy and not too hot. And it was a much needed break from all the thunderstorms we've been having lately.
When I got to the stable I was happy to find the barn owner there, and she asked me if I had gotten my ribbons. I took the opportunity to tell her that I did but I wasn't exactly sure what they were for, so she told me that the big purple one was just for attending pony camp, and that the blue first place one was for winning the costume contest (remember our underwater themed horse?)! We then talked a little about next month. I think I'll be going back to having my lesson at 5 o'clock, which I miss doing. I don't really like having to eat dinner really early to get there on time.
Unfortunately, when me and Jess went into the barn we were told that our horses were both up in the ring so we had to wait for a while. I guess it was easier since we didn't have to groom or tack up, but I actually really like doing it so I can familiarize myself with the horse I'm riding (I rode Captain again today). All we had to do when the riders came down to the barn was switch out the saddles. Then we headed up to the riding ring.
For the first half of the lesson we were in the small ring since there was a lesson being held in the big ring (there were a lot of overlapping lessons tonight - a different one every half hour!). So Jess and I warmed up our horses with S-curves at the walk. I also practiced some bending with Captain around the corners to help his body loosen up. When we were warmed up we did some trotting. My main goal was to get Captain moving since he was being especially slow tonight. I got him to do a fairly fast trot, but he could have done it much faster if he was actually trying.
When the other riders were done with their lesson we headed over to the big ring. We did some figure-eights at the walk and then we moved on to figure-eights at the trot. By this point I had gotten Captain into a pretty decent trot that I was pretty happy with. He also tried to avoid some corners but after a while I learned to prepare him earlier for what I wanted him to do and he got better at turning when I wanted him to. After a little while we did some trot in two-point. Captain usually slows down when I do two-point and he did this time as well, but I eventually got him to keep his earlier pace. It was harder to do the turns though since I have less control in two-point - my hands have to stay on his neck for me to keep my balance. Again though, I got that I just had to prepare earlier for my turns and look ahead where I'm going so Captain knows where I want him to go.
After that we took a small break and Jess and I took turns cantering. I got to go first while she walked in the center of the ring. At first I just did plain old cantering around the ring with no specific starting or ending points, just so I could get ready to do more complicated things. And I have to say it again - I love Captain's canter! It's just so comfortable. Anyway, once Jess did some cantering it was my turn again, and this time I had to do a figure-eight. At first I had some trouble keeping Captain in a canter when we headed towards the middle of the ring to switch directions, but once my instructor told me to ask him to trot at a certain point and then canter at a certain point, I got better at keeping Captain cantering when I wanted him to. It also helped with down-transitions, which I've said before is something I'd like to work on.
After the figure-eight I got to canter around the whole outside of the ring again, but this time I had to tell my instructor what letters I wanted to stop and start at (remember there are letters placed around the ring to use for dressage). I told her I wanted to canter at K, trot at H, canter at M, and trot again at F (basically cantering on the long sides and trotting on the short sides). After a couple times my canter transitions were pretty much spot on. But then Captain started to speed up and it was harder for me to post, and he kept cantering when I wanted him to trot, so the transitions got a lot harder. Overall though, I think me and Captain did pretty well tonight. My instructor even said that next week, since I'll have a private lesson (Jess is going to college on Thursday!) I'll get to start working on crossrails - meaning jumping!! I'm very excited to start actually learning to jump in a lesson setting, rather than all the confusion I got from camp.
I'll definitely try and blog as soon as possible next week, but I might not get to it for a while because that's the first day of school (yikes). And don't forget to check my blog tomorrow night (or Thursday, whenever I get to it) for my post about volunteering/working with lessons!
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