Lesson 12/19/11 - My First Fall

I know a lot of you have been waiting for this blog post for ages, so I'm finally going to take the time to do it. This happened a couple of weeks ago, right before Christmas.

Since September, I've mostly been riding Chachi, but he was getting so frustrating (he kept running me into things and just being annoying) that my lessons weren't very productive anymore. So I recently switched to Janie, who I like so far. The first time I rode her was a little weird since I'd been riding Chachi, who was tall and very swingy in his movements, and Janie is pretty small and not as big of a mover as Chachi. I don't really remember in detail what happened in the first two lessons with Janie, but I do remember the third lesson, which is what I'm about to write about.

I'd been able to trot on Janie fairly well - no cantering yet as I'm not that used to her - and I'd been trying to fix the problem of Janie trotting too fast. She would be trotting at a normal pace and then when we turned a corner she would speed up, making it really hard for me to post. I tried to post slower as my instructor told me but it wasn't working too well at the time. So as I was trotting down the long side of the ring - and Janie was speeding up a lot - I ended up leaning forward to try to slow her down. I wasn't intentionally leaning forward, it just kind of happened. The next thing I knew, Janie was cantering. I got kind of startled and leaned back to try to get her to stop and that's exactly what she did - she stopped dead in her tracks, legs splayed and everything. And as that happened, I flew out of the saddle and over Janie's shoulder, falling onto the ground. But I didn't just land. As I was landing I did a somersault, so I ended up landing on my back facing away from Janie.

I remember seeing the world spin and Janie go upside down as I rolled. What a weird feeling - and scary too. I was really freaked out so I guess that's why I was crying as I got up off the ground. I was just kind of scared and my back really hurt too because that's essentially what I landed on. It's a miracle I didn't hit my head though. I did break my helmet visor on the way down, but that's minor damage compared to what could have happened, like me landed straight on my head. I need to get a new helmet, as you're not supposed to use one that you've fallen on, but I haven't really had time to get out to a tack shop this week. I'll most likely borrow one at the stable until I can get a new one.

Anyway, as I got up, my instructor came over calmly (I guess she didn't want to freak me out even more by panicking) and she just kept asking me if I was okay while I composed myself. I was, of course, just merely freaked out - this was the first time I had ever fallen and it was really scary! But, despite that, I got back on Janie after a couple minutes. You're probably thinking I'm crazy, right? But that's the thing - I was scared, but it was over, I was okay, and I wasn't going to let it stop me from riding. I was a little more cautious afterwards though, and made certain not to lean forward too far.

Poor Janie though. She seemed freaked out herself and didn't seem to know what to do. Maybe she felt bad that I fell off, I don't know, but it was kind of slow going after I got back on. We were both uncertain and I didn't want to do anything to upset her, or myself. Eventually we did some trotting again because my instructor wanted my lesson to end of on a good note rather than a bad one, which it did. And I actually ended up laughing about all this afterwards and calling myself a ninja for rolling as I fell. I guess it was a learning experience as well - now I can say I know what it's like to fall off a horse!

I'm Back!

I can't believe my last post was in September. Ever since school started, I kind of stopped blogging as I became too lazy to take the time to write about my weekly lessons. But now that it's finally Christmas break, I've decided to start posting again. It's going to be one of my New Year's resolutions to continue to blog on a weekly basis. I know this will be a little difficult when school starts up again this Monday, but I'm determined to get this blog up and running again! My future posts will most likely not be up until the weekend after my lessons, so please expect it to take longer than it has in the past.

Coming up: Whenever I have a moment, I will blog about my recent experience that involved me falling off my horse for the first time (exciting, I know!). Then I will blog next week about Monday's lesson and hopefully all we be back to normal. :)

Thanks to all of you who have stuck around this far, and I'm sorry for months of not posting.

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!

Lesson 9/19/11

Sorry about skipping last week's lesson. I couldn't really find the time to do it.

Anyway, so I'm just going to skip ahead to this week's lesson. It was, like, the perfect day. It was cool and breezy, I didn't have a lot of homework, and I knew we would be working on jumping - the perfect combination!!

I rode Annie, as usual. She wasn't grumpy at all, either! My instructor said it was probably because of the cooler weather and because we're working on jumping - apparently she enjoys doing that, which is good because I do too. Since I tack up faster than the lady I ride with, Sarah, my instructor let me go up in the ring to warm up, so I was all ready to go when they got up there. I like the time to be alone a little, so I can familiarize myself with Annie before the actual lesson starts.

After some trot warm ups, my instructor had me do a small jump course that had three sets of ground poles and one low jump (not the lowest, but the second hole up I think). The first time Annie swerved a lot, so my instructor told me to look way up ahead of the jump and to just basically tell Annie that we were going to go over the jump/poles. It actually worked, too! Just setting that goal in my head and keeping my body focused on that goal helped Annie to go where I wanted her to. So the third time I did the course Annie didn't swerve at all - a big accomplishment for me.

After that, we moved on to cantering. I warmed Annie up with her left lead, the easy lead, and then we set to work on getting her nearly impossible right lead canter. I feel like I tried everything - I did small circles, big circles, I tried to get her to bend... But it didn't work. Every time I told Annie to canter she took an extra step and set off in her left lead canter. It's not entirely my fault though because Annie's not good t bending to her right so it was even harder for me to get her to do that. And when I did get her in the right bend, I didn't ask for the canter soon enough. So it was a pretty frustrating thing, as it is every week. I've gotten it before though, so one of these days I will be able to do it again (I hope).

Right before the end of the lesson Sarah was learning how to post for the first time. My instructor asked me to demonstrate some things at the trot - first two-point, then a half posting half two-point (I think that was a hunt seat), and then regular posting. It felt really nice to be able to demonstrate something to someone instead of the other way around for once. And later, when my instructor was talking to Sarah about how the next thing they would be doing was diagonals, it again made realize how far I've come in riding, I guess you could say. It's just that I remember learning diagonals and being extremely frustrated with it, and now I can do it without thinking. It was just a nice reminder of where I am now, and I'm really happy that I've stuck with riding and made it this far!

You can tell it was an awesome lesson, right? :)

Just a quick shout-out to my step-mom, whose birthday is today. Happy birthday!!

Working at a Horse Show

A couple of days ago the barn owner emailed me asking me if I could help out with a horse show on Saturday the 10th (yesterday). I would get paid 30 dollars (yay!) and it would go from 7am to middle-afternoon. I said yes, of course.

When I got to the barn I met another helper named Alfia. There were other helpers and riders around too. The barn owner had hired someone to trailer their horses to the show (it was about 30 minutes away) because there were maybe seven riders that were going to be in the show, and we needed to bring five horses with us: Dusty, Moo, Annie, Chachi, and Dixie. Annie was trailered seperately than the other horses because there wasn't enough room. We helped load the trailer with all the supplies, like water buckets, hay, grooming tools, and tack, and then we left. I rode in a van with Alfia, four riders, and someone's mom and sister.

When we got to the horse show location I saw there were two rings - a big one and a small one. I think the small one was made of all gravel while the big ring had a ring of gravel around the outside and grass in the middle. Grass was everywhere - it was heaven for the horses! We unloaded the horses and let them graze.

Basically what I did was hold horses that weren't in upcoming classes, and I was just there if anyone needed anything. I took turns holding Dixie with Alfia because she required you to walk with her - she wouldn't stop moving! So while I walked with Dixie, Alfia got to sit down, and vice versa. It was a long day - and it all consisted of standing. It was fun to watch the classes though, and some classes had almost all of the people from our barn in them! It was often chaotic too, because some riders had to share horses or switch them to start their next class. At the end of the day though, when everyone had their ribbons, I was happy I had come. I unfortunately got a horrible sunburn all over my face because I didn't bring sunscreen. It was cloudy when I left my house!

Anyway, by the time we got home I was almost falling asleep standing up. I was so tired from standing all day. But like I said before, I was glad I came, and I even made 30 dollars doing it. :)

Lesson 9/5/11

I'm sorry I'm getting to this post so late! It's hard to do it on a school night, because when I'm not doing homework I'm trying to relax by reading or watching TV. Hopefully I'll find time to write about my next lesson sooner than the weekend, but don't be surprised if I haven't written till then.

The bad thing about blogging six days later is that I don't really remember everything. So I'll just write about the basics of what we did. I rode with a lady named Sarah, who I think is fairly new to riding. She rode Moo, and I rode Annie. Annie was being really weird though. When I was grooming her she just kind of collapsed, like she was falling asleep. And she was being extra sensitive of people going near her butt or behind her. Luckily though, once we started riding she wasn't too bad, and she wasn't as slow as she was last week either.

I unfortunately didn't get to work on jumping this week, because of Sarah. My instructor can't really give me one-on-one instruction with someone else there. So I worked on getting Annie to move faster, and I worked on getting her to canter without stopping so much. It was hard because every time we went around a corner she would try to slow down.

That's really all I remember. Sorry for any disappointment... But you can still look forward to this week's post, which I promise I will write before next Sunday. :)

Volunteering/Working 8/31/11

Tonight was my last night of volunteering. Since school is back in session, I know I won't be able to go to the barn for more than two hours every Wednesday anymore. I wish I could keep coming, but hopefully later this year and definitely next summer I'll be able to help again.

For the first hour, that young girl named Ruth would be riding again. When I arrived at the barn though, someone told me that Ruth and another girl were already up in the ring with Captain. The other girl helping was nine, and her name was Megan. I've seen her around the stable before, so I recognized her. When I got up in the ring she was helping Ruth with the girth, but Captain kept trying to bite them so Megan held Captain's head while I fixed the saddle and girth. Then the instructor came up so Ruth could get on Captain.

It was pretty much the same as last week, except this time I just stood in the middle of the ring because there wasn't really a need for me to walk beside Ruth. So after warming up and doing some trotting (I honestly can't remember if I helped her trot or not... I don't think I did though), the instructor attached Captain to a lunge line. Basically the line is connected to his bridle so that if you stand somewhere the horse will walk, trot, or canter in a circle around you (see picture). The purpose of this was to let Ruth trot without holding on to the rains. She's been trying to get good at posting, and the instructor thought this would be a good exercise because it teaches you to post with your whole body while staying balanced.

I don't really remember what Ruth did after that. It was my second day at my new high school, and I was exhausted, as Megan pointed out to me as soon as I arrived in the ring ("You look tired!"). Anyway, when it was time for the second hour, the instructor told me that I would be leading a pony ride. I can't remember the little girl's name, but she was really small and really adorable. She barely said a word, either. She got to ride Rita, the smallest pony there. So when I brought Rita up from the paddock I showed the little girl and her dad how to groom a little. I showed the dad and he helped the little girl brush a small section of Rita's back while I did the rest. I picked Rita's hooves because that's obviously not a very safe thing for a little girl to do. It was pretty fun getting Rita ready. Since she's so small, everything was even smaller. I used a special saddle that was really small and used for pony rides, and the bridle was also very tiny. It was all so cute!! Up in the ring, when the girl was in the saddle, all I had to do was lead Rita around while the instructor held her leg to make sure she didn't fall off.

Meanwhile, during this pony ride, the instructor also had to teach a lesson (Carlee and Lydeah again - I think the little girl and Lydeah were cousins or something). After a while when Lydeah started trotting, the little girl saw her posting and tried to copy. She kept flopping up and down in her seat - it was really cute. Since she wanted to post so much, we let her trot a little, for small sections at a time while the instructor made sure she stayed in the saddle. That girl was being bounced around so much up there! She even kept posting when we were done trotting. I said to the instructor later how that girl is going to be a great student when she gets older because she's so eager to learn.

That's pretty much how the whole pony ride went. We walked mostly and we let Rita trot occasionally. The only word that girl said throughout the entire ride was "Chachi" - the name of the horse Lydeah rides. We ended the pony ride when the lesson was over, and we all headed down to the barn. I think the parents were very pleased with their daughter, and they thanked me as well. We all just couldn't stop laughing when that girl kept posting!

All-in-all, I'd say it was the best volunteering/working session I've had. Unfortunately it was my last time. The instructor kept saying, "Now I need to find a Greta replacement!" and I felt really bad, but she understood my situation. It's unfortunate though because this was the week we'd finally gotten into a good routine, but of course it was also the last week I would be there. Again, I hope I can come back and volunteer at some point, most likely in the summer. And I do look forward to coming back!!