Now that Catfish has settled in, I have graduated to riding Classy. I have had her on trail rides before and I enjoy her immensly. She tends to be stiff walking off, but once she loosens up she is a joy to ride.
Yesterday for the first time I took her to the arena to condition. N rode Catfish and S rode Kelzon. I trotted her around and tried to find her rythm, or mine,or OURS. I noticed that N was watching me closely. I am the feeder, tacker and health advisor. I am also the sometimes coach when I can see an obvious error in my daughters riding. I am NOT a very competent rider. I do - uh - O. K.
Classy and I are trotting around, I am giving her her head to feel her rythm, I am steering where needed and trying to avoid the deep sand that bothers her arthritis. Finally N finishes working out Catfish and we switch horses. After stirrup adjusting she gets on Classy and immediately asks me what I was doing on her. It seems I've been letting her get away with TOO much. She's diving into trotted circles.. (an obvious no-no in the barrel arena) she's not listening..yada yada yada.
So today we returned to the arena and I was told I could WALK Classy only. Right. Walk only. After spending all summer walking on Keo because of her hock issues. Yea. Right. I trotted her and worked on keeping her shoulders up in the circle and making her listen to me better. When we switched I was told that I again had ruined her. *sigh*
Finally as we were untacking I told my 13 year old that maybe she could give me some lessons on the correct way to ride her horse. She smiled and said "Okay!"
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
It's a good thing...Right?
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3 comments:
Cute story! I think a horse that gets ridden by several people will always feel different to someone who is very familiar with it. I ride horses every week that are used for lessons and I always have to re-train them for my bad habits! Gorgeous picture.
Oh man...you know, we are about to buy a (cough) dressage hourse and it's obvious that I will not be good enough to ride it. Maybe they will let me sit on it!! Or maybe walk around on it. Maybe practice sitting trot on a lunge rope...I think I should write to MTV and beg them to "Make Me" a Dressage ride in one month!!!
That is a beautiful photo!
Honestly, I think sometimes we have to back off a bit from all of the technical stuff and just enjoy. You don't have to be a classically trained dressage rider to enjoy yourself and your horse and have a very mutually enjoyable experience, in my humble opinion. When we are learning, we are going to make some mistakes. How else will we learn to become better riders? And when riding a horse I don't know, there's always an adjustment time. A getting to know you. I've known my daughter's andalusian mare for over a decade now. She and I practically have mental telepathy going on. My son's horse, our newest one, is one I'm still getting to know.
I wish that I'd had the benefit of years of riding lessons, but unfortunately couldn't afford. And, now that I'm a mom, of course (I'm sure you understand), if anyone's taking expensive dressage lessons, it will be my kids!
However, maybe I should rethink that one... ;-)
Kimberly
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