Tonight when I got to the barn, next to my name on the list was a blank. I went up to the riding ring and my instructor said that I should continue riding Kilo, since it would be easier for now. Because of the snow, we could only use the small ring, so it was just easier to ride a horse that I already knew a little bit about.
Anyway, by the time I went back down to the barn I was a little bit behind everyone else in the tacking up process, so I tried to go faster. Of course, Kilo was being grumpy as usual and kept trying to bite me whenever I even looked at him the wrong way. I just had to do everything really slowly and carefully, and when my instructor came down from her previous lesson she helped me. She basically has to do the whole saddle part because Kilo gets extra bite-y near his legs and stomach, which I'm fine with. She told me that if you just watch Kilo's head the whole time, he won't bite as much since he thinks he's going to get caught (which he will).
Once in the ring, I realized it was going to be very tricky to navigate in such a small area with four other horses and riders. It was hard to try and walk at a good pace without getting too close to another horse. After a while we were all spaced out pretty good, and when we started the figure-eights it was easier because we could turn in different directions at the intersection. After warming-up our instructor had us do an exercise where we would ask our horses to walk faster on one long side of the ring, then just relax until we came to that long side again. All of our horses were pretty happy with this exercise. The one horse, Chester, who had spooked last week, was the calmest I'd ever seen him. All of the horses looked so relaxed and it was relaxing for me too.
After a while, we did the same sort of exercise except this time, when we came to the one long side we had to ask our horses to walk almost fast enough to trot, but then relax right before they actually trotted. Kilo did surprisingly well with this - he was actually listening to me and doing what I asked. After we did that exercise, we did the same thing but with trotting. Then we just had to trot until we caught up with the horse in front of us, so basically taking turns. Kilo was very responsive with this as well.
As I said before, I was really happy with Kilo tonight, other than the issues he had while tacking up. He didn't even do a huge stumble like he's done the past two weeks! Overall it was a good lesson, and I'm definitely looking forward to next week's.
Also, something I didn't mention earlier was that one of the horses in the lesson was apparently sick. He's a new horse, so I hadn't seen him before, and I don't even think he had a name. Anyway, they said he might have had something called strangles, which is apparently contagious because when I was leaving my lesson horses were being moved so their stalls could be disinfected and things like that. One of the ladies who rode with me was going to another barn afterwards, and she had to change her gloves and wash her hands really good to avoid spreading the sickness. Just thought that was an interesting side note!
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Lesson 2/6/12
It was a really nice day when I rode - it was sunny and not very cold. I rode Kilo again at 5:30, as that is the time I'll be riding at for the time being. As soon as a hooked Kilo up to the cross-ties in the barn though, he started to turn his head to try and bite me. He wouldn't even let me get near him without pinning his ears and biting. Eventually my instructor had to hold his head to make him stop doing that, which was annoying because I hate when I have to have someone help me with something like that. Anyway, after Kilo stopped biting I finished grooming and tack him up.
For me, this lesson wasn't very strenuous. A lot of my instructor's attention was on the other two riders, which is the downside of a group lesson. I pretty much did my own thing except when all of us were instructed to figure-eight or trot or something. So after some warm-up circles, we did some half halts, and I tried to work on getting Kilo to move faster. Even though I had a crop with me it was really difficult to get him to pick up the pace.
After a while, we started to trot a figure-eight. Our instructor taught us a way to try and get our horses to bend around the circles, which was by leaning slightly on the side that we wanted or horses to bend into. For example, if I wanted Kilo to bend to the inside, I would lean a little bit on my inside foot while turning from my center at the same time. It actually worked a couple times, but it was hard to get Kilo to do that when I was more focused on getting him to actually move at a good pace. Towards the end of the lesson I had to smack him on the shoulder just to get him to trot at all. That sounds harsh, but I was doing everything I could to make him trot and he just wouldn't, so I kind of needed to.
A problem I, and my instructor, have noticed is that Kilo stumbles a lot. He actually did this last week too, but in this lesson when I was trying to get him to trot Kilo's knees just sort of buckled under him, making him fall a little bit. It was really scary, as it felt like I was going to be rolled on by this huge animal! Luckily though, he got his footing and was up again fairly quickly, but after that I just stopped walking for a while. My instructor looked concerned and I was a little freaked too, because who wants a horse start falling and possibly squish them?
Soon after this happened, another rider was having problems with her horse, Chester. He was being difficult before I think, and I'm not exactly sure the details but Chester started to spook for some reason, going into a sort of canter and lifting his head up really high. He was moving towards Chachi, who of course also started to spook a little, but luckily the instructor was there to stand in front of Chester and calm him down a little. I was surprised how little Kilo was affected - we were literally just standing there watching this happen, and he didn't even shift or anything! I was grateful for that though, obviously. Three horses spooking at once would have been very bad news.
Once the spooking was over and done with, all of us got to trot a little bit longer just to end the lesson. I was actually shivering by the end because I had barely done any trotting. Despite all the problems though, it was still a pretty good lesson, and hopefully we can resolve Kilo's biting and stumbling issues next week!
For me, this lesson wasn't very strenuous. A lot of my instructor's attention was on the other two riders, which is the downside of a group lesson. I pretty much did my own thing except when all of us were instructed to figure-eight or trot or something. So after some warm-up circles, we did some half halts, and I tried to work on getting Kilo to move faster. Even though I had a crop with me it was really difficult to get him to pick up the pace.
After a while, we started to trot a figure-eight. Our instructor taught us a way to try and get our horses to bend around the circles, which was by leaning slightly on the side that we wanted or horses to bend into. For example, if I wanted Kilo to bend to the inside, I would lean a little bit on my inside foot while turning from my center at the same time. It actually worked a couple times, but it was hard to get Kilo to do that when I was more focused on getting him to actually move at a good pace. Towards the end of the lesson I had to smack him on the shoulder just to get him to trot at all. That sounds harsh, but I was doing everything I could to make him trot and he just wouldn't, so I kind of needed to.
A problem I, and my instructor, have noticed is that Kilo stumbles a lot. He actually did this last week too, but in this lesson when I was trying to get him to trot Kilo's knees just sort of buckled under him, making him fall a little bit. It was really scary, as it felt like I was going to be rolled on by this huge animal! Luckily though, he got his footing and was up again fairly quickly, but after that I just stopped walking for a while. My instructor looked concerned and I was a little freaked too, because who wants a horse start falling and possibly squish them?
Soon after this happened, another rider was having problems with her horse, Chester. He was being difficult before I think, and I'm not exactly sure the details but Chester started to spook for some reason, going into a sort of canter and lifting his head up really high. He was moving towards Chachi, who of course also started to spook a little, but luckily the instructor was there to stand in front of Chester and calm him down a little. I was surprised how little Kilo was affected - we were literally just standing there watching this happen, and he didn't even shift or anything! I was grateful for that though, obviously. Three horses spooking at once would have been very bad news.
Once the spooking was over and done with, all of us got to trot a little bit longer just to end the lesson. I was actually shivering by the end because I had barely done any trotting. Despite all the problems though, it was still a pretty good lesson, and hopefully we can resolve Kilo's biting and stumbling issues next week!
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