Again, sorry for skipping the last couple of weeks. I honestly can't keep up with these posts, so I apologize for any future skips.
So the dressage show is this Saturday! I know, I haven't said anything about it this year... That's because a lot of things have changed this year. For one, I have a different instructor. I've also been having lessons with a lot of other people, as opposed to the private lessons I had last year. So this year I am way less prepared. I'm going to be riding Kilo for two of my classes, and a new horse named Cartwheel for one of them. I have literally ran through my tests three times each. Not a lot, I know. It's kind of stressing me out a little how unprepared I am... But like I said, things are a lot different this year. I haven't had the time to practice that much, and I don't get the same attention from my instructor any more. In the lesson I just came back from half an hour ago, there were five other people riding. So obviously, the instructor can't give all of us her attention, and she can't really let people run through their individual classes because then no one else would be able to practice.
The whole situation's a little chaotic in my opinion, and unfortunately I'm just going to have to do the best that I can on Saturday and hope for the best. I'm not trying to sound pessimistic, but because I'm pretty unprepared and haven't practiced that much, I don't expect to do as well as I did last year. Last year I had months of practice and a solid horse that I had been riding for a long time. This year, I've only been riding Kilo for a couple months, and I'm not completely comfortable with him yet. On top of that, I have to ride that new horse Cartwheel (who I've only ridden twice!) in my equitation class because Kilo's being ridden by somebody else. An equitation class is when all the people who rode their individual tests ride in the same ring while the judge calls out commands, such as "walk" or "trot". Anyway, like I said, I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much this year. At this point, I'd like to try and concentrate on just learning from this experience (as crazy as it's been) and having fun, rather than worrying about what ribbons I'm going to get. So I'm trying to turn this not-so-convenient situation into one I can learn from. I mean, it's no one's fault that it's turned out this way, it's just that so many people are participating this year and there's only so much the barn owner can do.
With all of that said, I really am grateful to the barn owner. She's helped me get two practice rides in this week (Sunday and Monday - I'm exhausted at this point!), and she's just been really understanding with me and I know she's trying her best to get everyone's situation worked out as best as she can.
Now I just kind of want to give you all some information about what I'll actually be doing at the show. I've signed up for one walk/trot division (it has three classes in it), and it starts at 2:15. I won't be cantering this year since I haven't really cantered on Kilo that much. But the first two tests are basically a pattern with some 20-meter circles and standard things like that. I actually haven't memorized them yet... I'm working on it though (not that it even matters since I'll have a reader to read the steps out loud). The third class, like I said, is the equitation class. That I'm a little nervous for, since I've never done one before and it'll be on the horse I've only ridden twice. Again, I'm trying to stay positive... Sorry if I seem a little down. I'm really tired from my lesson tonight, riding the past two days, and from school too. I might do a post later this week on the actual test patterns, but if not I'll definitely write about how the show goes (fingers crossed!). Wish me luck!
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Lesson 4/3/12
I know, I know. I had no excuse for not posting last week or the week before. I was just too lazy to do it. Basically, on my lesson two weeks ago, I rode Fresca instead of Kilo, and last week I had to cancel because of a school group project I needed to work on.
A couple weeks ago the barn instructor talked to me about possibly switching my lesson day because she thought that I was getting a little lost in the Monday lesson. I agreed with her - there were so many people that I didn't feel like I was improving much at all. She told me that there was going to be a new lesson on Tuesdays at 6 with some girls more my age, which sounded a lot better. I asked my parents, who said yes, and so that's when my lessons are going to be for the month of April, at least.
When I got to the barn, there was only me and another girl's name on the "who's riding who" list, so that alone made me look forward to this a lesson a little bit more. When the girl arrived (whose name I forget...), I could see she was a couple years younger than me. I'd guess maybe 11 or so. Anyway, she got Fresca while I got Kilo ready. Kilo was actually very easy to work with today. He only tried to bite at me a couple times, but other than that he seemed relatively happy. When me and the other girl (who from now on is going to referred to as K because I feel like that was the first letter of her name) were both done tacking up, we headed up to the ring.
When we got up to the ring there were about four young girls from the previous lesson already up there. It looked pretty chaotic to me, and later the barn owner told me it was and how one girl didn't get to ride much because she had a new horse that turned out to be lame or something like that. I also learned that the barn owner would be teaching our lesson. For some reason this always makes me really nervous - I feel like I'm going embarrass myself or something. Of course, I always realize there's absolutely nothing to be nervous about. She is really nice and I actually like when she teaches.
Anyway, the younger girls left as soon as we started walking around our horses. When K and I were on our horses, we stayed in the little ring and worked on getting Fresca and Kilo to keep up a good-paced walk. To my surprise, Kilo didn't have trouble doing this at all. It took some nudging but once Kilo was in that fast walk he kept it up for the most part. K seemed to have some trouble getting Fresca to go, but I've ridden Fresca before so I know how she can be with that. After a while of this we picked up a posting trot and went around the ring a couple times. Then we were told to walk for one half of the ring, and trot the other half. On the half where we had to trot there were three poles on the ground that we had to go over. It's always a little bit scary going over poles, even if they're on the ground, because the horse either slows down or speeds up, and in Kilo's case, he speeds up. So I have to make sure to slow myself down going over the poles or I'll be bouncing all over the place.
After that we moved into the big ring (now the dressage ring). At this point the barn owner's daughter came up with her horse, Dixie, and warmed up around the outside of the dressage ring. K and I worked at the trot and the barn owner told us that she noticed that both of us kind of use our feet when posting more than we should. This means that as we rise up out of the saddle we kind of push our feet forward, which isn't a very sturdy or correct position to be in. To help fix this, the barn owner told us to practice switching our diagonals on the upbeat at letters A, B, C, and E (see the dressage ring diagram from the previous post for reference). I feel like I've explained the upbeat before, but I'll do it again just so you all aren't confused. When posting, you kind of sit up and down, (although it's more of a forward and backward motion) and when you're up out of the saddle, that's the upbeat. So switching diagonals on the upbeat means you just stay up out of the saddle for two beats instead of one. If that makes any sense at all. After I do this a couple times I can get the hang of it. Switching on the upbeat pretty much forces you to have your feet sturdily in place and use only your legs to push yourself out of the saddle.
Next we got to work on cantering. We did the catch-up thing where we take turns going until we catch up to the next person in line (in this case, K, as there was only one other person in "line"). I went first. My first canter with Kilo was... okay. I got him into it easily, but then my position was off so he stopped cantering pretty soon. The barn owner told me that I needed to keep my legs in place or something along those line. When I tried again it worked a lot better. I honestly can't say I know exactly what I did differently, but whatever I did, it worked. Kilo kept up the canter. He not only cantered, but he raced around the ring to a point where I was a little scared he was going to run someone over. Even though he went really fast, it was still fun.
After K went a couple of times (she trotted mostly and only cantered about once), we moved to the outside of the dressage ring. The barn owner and I talked a little about the dressage show, and when she asked me what kind of classes I wanted to do, I told her I though it would be best if I only did walk/trot classes with Kilo since we hadn't cantered that much. She agreed with me that that would probably be the best idea. After that she read through one of the walk/trot test from the show (Test B, I think) and I did the actual test, just to practice. I was a little awkward and unsure doing it, but it didn't turn out too bad, I don't think. I definitely need to practice more before the show on April 21st (mark your calendars!). Overall though, I was really satisfied with this lesson and I'll update you all when I have more information about the show and the classes I'll be doing.
A couple weeks ago the barn instructor talked to me about possibly switching my lesson day because she thought that I was getting a little lost in the Monday lesson. I agreed with her - there were so many people that I didn't feel like I was improving much at all. She told me that there was going to be a new lesson on Tuesdays at 6 with some girls more my age, which sounded a lot better. I asked my parents, who said yes, and so that's when my lessons are going to be for the month of April, at least.
When I got to the barn, there was only me and another girl's name on the "who's riding who" list, so that alone made me look forward to this a lesson a little bit more. When the girl arrived (whose name I forget...), I could see she was a couple years younger than me. I'd guess maybe 11 or so. Anyway, she got Fresca while I got Kilo ready. Kilo was actually very easy to work with today. He only tried to bite at me a couple times, but other than that he seemed relatively happy. When me and the other girl (who from now on is going to referred to as K because I feel like that was the first letter of her name) were both done tacking up, we headed up to the ring.
When we got up to the ring there were about four young girls from the previous lesson already up there. It looked pretty chaotic to me, and later the barn owner told me it was and how one girl didn't get to ride much because she had a new horse that turned out to be lame or something like that. I also learned that the barn owner would be teaching our lesson. For some reason this always makes me really nervous - I feel like I'm going embarrass myself or something. Of course, I always realize there's absolutely nothing to be nervous about. She is really nice and I actually like when she teaches.
Anyway, the younger girls left as soon as we started walking around our horses. When K and I were on our horses, we stayed in the little ring and worked on getting Fresca and Kilo to keep up a good-paced walk. To my surprise, Kilo didn't have trouble doing this at all. It took some nudging but once Kilo was in that fast walk he kept it up for the most part. K seemed to have some trouble getting Fresca to go, but I've ridden Fresca before so I know how she can be with that. After a while of this we picked up a posting trot and went around the ring a couple times. Then we were told to walk for one half of the ring, and trot the other half. On the half where we had to trot there were three poles on the ground that we had to go over. It's always a little bit scary going over poles, even if they're on the ground, because the horse either slows down or speeds up, and in Kilo's case, he speeds up. So I have to make sure to slow myself down going over the poles or I'll be bouncing all over the place.
After that we moved into the big ring (now the dressage ring). At this point the barn owner's daughter came up with her horse, Dixie, and warmed up around the outside of the dressage ring. K and I worked at the trot and the barn owner told us that she noticed that both of us kind of use our feet when posting more than we should. This means that as we rise up out of the saddle we kind of push our feet forward, which isn't a very sturdy or correct position to be in. To help fix this, the barn owner told us to practice switching our diagonals on the upbeat at letters A, B, C, and E (see the dressage ring diagram from the previous post for reference). I feel like I've explained the upbeat before, but I'll do it again just so you all aren't confused. When posting, you kind of sit up and down, (although it's more of a forward and backward motion) and when you're up out of the saddle, that's the upbeat. So switching diagonals on the upbeat means you just stay up out of the saddle for two beats instead of one. If that makes any sense at all. After I do this a couple times I can get the hang of it. Switching on the upbeat pretty much forces you to have your feet sturdily in place and use only your legs to push yourself out of the saddle.
Next we got to work on cantering. We did the catch-up thing where we take turns going until we catch up to the next person in line (in this case, K, as there was only one other person in "line"). I went first. My first canter with Kilo was... okay. I got him into it easily, but then my position was off so he stopped cantering pretty soon. The barn owner told me that I needed to keep my legs in place or something along those line. When I tried again it worked a lot better. I honestly can't say I know exactly what I did differently, but whatever I did, it worked. Kilo kept up the canter. He not only cantered, but he raced around the ring to a point where I was a little scared he was going to run someone over. Even though he went really fast, it was still fun.
After K went a couple of times (she trotted mostly and only cantered about once), we moved to the outside of the dressage ring. The barn owner and I talked a little about the dressage show, and when she asked me what kind of classes I wanted to do, I told her I though it would be best if I only did walk/trot classes with Kilo since we hadn't cantered that much. She agreed with me that that would probably be the best idea. After that she read through one of the walk/trot test from the show (Test B, I think) and I did the actual test, just to practice. I was a little awkward and unsure doing it, but it didn't turn out too bad, I don't think. I definitely need to practice more before the show on April 21st (mark your calendars!). Overall though, I was really satisfied with this lesson and I'll update you all when I have more information about the show and the classes I'll be doing.
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