Lesson 9/26/11

The first thing I heard when I got to the barn is that Annie was lame. Lame pretty much means the horse has a sore leg or foot and it won't put the proper amount of weight on it. So anyway, my choices of horse were Chachi or Captain. Or as my instructor said, "Do you want a challenge, or no challenge?" As much as I love Captain, I chose to go with Chachi because I wanted to try a new horse. My instructor also put me in a dressage saddle, for some reason. Usually I use a general-purpose saddle, which can be used for jumping and other stuff (these are all English saddles). Dressage saddle just have longer side panels and a deeper seat to encourage riding low and balanced.

I've actually ridden Chachi once before at Pony Camp this summer, but it was only for about five minutes, so I knew he was a lot different from Annie or Captain. But even as I got on I realized just how different he really was. Chachi walks as if he is marching - that's the only way I can describe the feeling. His walk, trot, and canter are very swingy and pretty powerful, and a lot faster than what I'm used to with Annie.

The first time I trotted on Chachi I was thrown way off balance. After a while I got the hang of it, but his trot was so bouncy that it was hard to not get jostled a little. The barn owner was watching and said I looked graceful, even though I didn't feel one bit graceful. After some trotting my instructor let me canter. That was a big surprise too. I'm used to Annie's canter now, so when I felt Chachi's fast, rolling canter, I was a little freaked out. Again, once I got used to it a little it wasn't so bad, just really really fast. I often had to make circles to avoid moving that quickly. Chachi's canter also kind of hurt because I was flopping up and down a lot since I wasn't used to the fast movement of his canter. It was a little hard to sit to and find a good rhythm, but it was still really fun!!

By the end of this lesson I was pretty wiped out. It was a whole lot of fun though, and since Annie most likely won't be getting better any time soon (for all I know, she will, but you just can't tell), I asked if I could ride Chachi again next week. Hopefully I'll be able to but he might be ridden too much that day for me to ride. I'll just have to wait and see, I guess!