Lesson 3/5/12

20 meter circles

I'm very happy to say that this lesson was one of the best ones I've had in a long time. Kilo is finally - finally - starting to get better. He is still getting over his Lime disease, but this time in the barn he did not bite at me that much once I smacked him a couple times. He actually seemed relatively happy for once, and I could do all of the grooming and tacking up myself. At first I thought he was so much better because Chester wasn't in front of us (the lady who rides him wasn't there), but my instructor just said that it's most likely because he's healing. Anyway, I got up to the ring on time and without incident, which was a huge relief and pretty much set the stage for the rest of the lesson.

Tonight we practiced our 20 meter circles again. This time we learned there are actually three places that you can make one of these circles: one in the middle, and two on each end of the dressage ring (see picture - I added the circles!). The circles start at A, B, and C, which you can kind of see in the picture. We all practiced doing these circles at a trot, each of us starting at a different letter and completing the circuit - that is, doing a circle at A, trotting around the ring, doing a circle at B, and so on. It got a little tricky when we weren't evenly spaced out, so we had to slow down or speed up to avoid crashing into each other.

 In order to do the 20 meter circle correctly, you're supposed to be practically touching the side of the ring whenever you're near it. I have a hard time with this because I don't really try hard enough to get my horse closer to the side, so most of the time I end up cutting off the corner and making the circle smaller. I know I can get Kilo closer to the side, but I don't know, I usually just don't try hard enough. So next week one of my goals is to perfect my circles and actually make them the correct size.

After doing this circuit thing three whole times through - trust me, it was exhausting - we all got to canter. We again did the thing where we all get in a line and take turns cantering until we catch up to the next person. Before I went, my instructor told me to try asking for the canter on what is called the upbeat. When you're doing a posting trot, and sitting up and down, usually I ask for the canter when I sit down. For me it just seems easier because you can start sitting with the canter as soon as your horse switches gaits. But this time, she told me to ask when I was up in the saddle, turning from my center to get the correct bend, and to then start sitting to the canter. This confused me because I didn't see how that could possibly work, but I tried it anyway - and it didn't work. I actually got Kilo to canter, but I didn't sit soon enough once he started so he just went right back down to a trot. The next time, I asked for the canter in the upbeat and sat as soon as I felt Kilo change gaits. It actually made a lot of sense once I did it. The transition was actually a lot smoother as it didn't involve the bouncy sitting trot that I usually do beforehand. After I got the canter I continued down the long side before I stopped. My instructor said that it looked really good, and I was very happy with it too. Luckily, that's where the lesson ended. I'm hoping next week's lesson will be even better and Kilo will be almost back to normal!

Before I end this post, I just wanted to mention something sad I heard the two other riders talking about. The guy who rides with us used to have a horse named Sky, until very recently when he had to be put down. From what I heard, he had something wrong with his digestive system and couldn't eat properly. I was very sad to hear this, because I remember seeing Sky at the barn every Sunday when I work for as long as I've worked there. The day before my lesson, when I found out about this, Sky actually wasn't in the paddock with Moo (the guy' s brother's horse) when I came to feed them. I thought it was weird, and just assumed he was somewhere else for the time being. Moo also had seemed kind of upset - he was kind of walking all over and seemed to want my attention more than usual. As soon as I heard the guy say that, it all made sense. It's a very sad thing, but I thought you all should know. My thoughts are with Sky's owner. Rest in peace, Sky.