brookiki

Or so Wayne says...

First, I finished rereading Half-Blood Prince.

( Cut for spoilers...just in case.Collapse )

Second, riding lesson today. It was probably my best one in a long time. Blackie was in a fairly cooperative mood. He actually jogged and then trotted today without me even having to really ask for it, which was nice. I corrected a couple of posture things (dropping my right shoulder, not keeping my left leg on the horse as much as I should), which made a huge difference.

It was about 40 degrees today and since there's no sunlight in the arena, it felt more like 35, so I didn't push it too hard. Wayne said my posture was nice and relaxed, but I felt really stiff and tense from the cold. Also, even though my hands weren't cold or stiff, everything else was....especially my hips and thighs. I also wasn't sure Blackie wasn't stiff (given his age), so I took it really easy. It was mostly walking with a bit of trotting and jogging thrown in. I did four-leaf clovers, figure eights, and serpentines. At the end, Wayne wanted me to stop Blackie right in front of him, but he moved a lot. Usually, he'll just back up a bit and move side to side, but today he actually ran around the ring, so I really had to chase him. I actually had to go at a trot and at one point, Blackie did this awesome cow horse "to the side" move. My only regret was that I wasn't riding Reno, Becky's horse. According to Becky, you can't work Wayne like a cow on Reno because Reno gets too excited and tries to bite and actually pins Wayne against the fence.

That would have been so fun today. *evil smile*

Overall, I'm just really impressed with my ride today, not because I did anything, but because I had such great focus. I kept looking to where I was riding, not at the horse. I didn't push myself because it was cold and I wanted to have a nice easy ride where I didn't set myself up to fail on, which I accomplished.

On a side note, Dreamer has moved. He's not being boarded at Wayne's, because his owner thinks they can do it cheaper. I'm kind of sad about that, because even though I had trouble with Dreamer's trot, he was a great horse.

Also, I feel insanely hypocritical, but I broke down and bought a Wii today. I'll probably keep it at my apartment, just to exercise with.

So, that's my very boring day.

Oh, and I had pizza for supper. It was good.

And no major progress on my paper. I've got to get in gear.

I rode today. I finally got on Dreamer, who is a very, very lazy thoroughbred that does pretty much none of the stupid things most thoroughbreds tend to do. It wasn't a bad ride, but there were still a few problems:

1) Height difference. I've ridden mainly quarter horses, with a paint and a Morgan thrown in the mix for variety. Dreamer was several inches taller than Blackie, so I was up a bit higher.

2) A bit more power. Or, at least, a different style of movement. He wasn't as quick as some I've ridden and I've ridden some Quarter Horses with so much muscle that you literally feel how much they're capable up in every step. Dreamer didn't have that, but, as Wayne put it, he really had a ground-eating stride.

3) Dreamer doesn't neck rein, which meant that I had to ride with both hands. It didn't give me a lot of problems and it actually gives me more control over the horse and keeps me square in the saddle, but I'm so used to holding the reins in one hand and having my right hand free that it was a little distracting.

4) Dreamer also had a different style of reins. Lately, I've been using Mecate reins, which is where a rope attached to the bit is looped around to make closed reins, then the tail is twisted around the saddle horn. That leaves a little bit of rope hanging loose. If you were actually working the horse on a ranch, you would be able to tuck the tail in your belt. That way, if you either had to hop off the horse to open a gate of if you went off the horse, he couldn't just take off. According to Wayne, if you're out on a ranch in New Mexico where you're 40 miles from the nearest person and the cows will try to kill you if you're on foot, keeping the horse in kind important. In my case, I can just use the tail for a quirt if the horse doesn't respond to a squeeze and two kicks. No Mecate meant no tail, which meant that I had to carry a crop. That threw me off a bit, because it felt like the crop kept getting in the way when I was trying to move my hands.

5) Also, Dreamer is put together a little differently than Blackie in terms of the angle of the back. That means that I was sitting at a slightly different angle.

I think those are the chief differences. I also have what Wayne calls "new horse phobia." Pretty much everyone has it, especially if you're not used to riding different horses often. I think I've been on seven different horses: Blackie, Lacey (the Paint who wasn't a Paint), Lewis, Sue, Pest (the Morgan), Spanish, and Dun Rose. Well, eight after today... Anyway, different horses have different ways of moving, different habits, etc. Once you get used to that, it's no big deal Until you do, everything is a little disconcerting.

I really hate new horses.

I don't know what I'm afraid of. I'm a decent rider. Wayne's horses are well-trained. I could handle them. It's just that Lacey got away with me once and, since then, I've had a hard time settling into a new horse.

I didn't have a meltdown. We took it nice and slow, so I could get used to Dreamer. We did get up to trotting a bit, but that's where I had problems. First, Dreamer's walk is sort of bouncy. His fast walk is a lot and his jog feels, to me, like a trot. His trot moves. Wayne said that his trot wasn't anything different that Blackie's really big trot after you pushed him. I'll agree with that. However, the difference is that you only get that kind of trot when you've really pushed Blackie. Dreamer just goes to it immediately.

Anyway, on the trot, I felt a little out of control. According to Wayne, my entire problem is that I stop riding and follow the horse, which leads to problems. It didn't get bad, but I wanted to stop there before I got distracted enough that something bad did happen. Also (and Wayne said it was in my head and I was making excuses, but...) I've been wrestling with a sinus infection this week and I felt like I was getting a little light-headed and dizzy on him. So, I walked a figure eight and called it quits.

Overall, it wasn't a bad lesson. I felt more or less comfortable on Dreamer, but not completely relaxed because of all the other factors like the crop, different reins, etc....


I also found out today that Bekcy's grandfather broke his back. He had fallen off the roof Wednesday (which sparked the entire healthcare discussion which sparked the argument). Fortunately, while they apparently had to fuse it, he apparently didn't have a spinal injury. Becky wasn't at the barn today, so I couldn't give her the check. That means...I'm not sure what that means.

I'm also not sure how this impacts anything else. Becky wasn't particularly worried about him when we talked Wednesday, and they aren't close. Still, part of me thinks I should be being nice or something in light of this and ending a friendship now would somehow be mean or something. But it still doesn't change anything and the problem existed way before this.

I'll figure out something, though.

Today's Friday, which means a journal entry extolling the greatness of horses.

First, though, I was so sick last night. I have no idea what caused it, but I haven't been that sick in at least a year. I was actually shaky. *shudders* I don't know if it was something I ate or the antibiotics I'm taking, but yuck.

Anyway, the main thing in today's lesson was just working on endurance...trotting around the arena. That's a lot harder than it sounds. If you don't believe me, stand up and do mini-squats and see how long it takes for you to get tired. It was really valuable, though, because it helped me work on my focus and was a good learning experience.

First, it was good because I was working on keeping a steady pace, which meant watching places where he wanted to speed up and others where he tried to slow down. In other words: "horse magnets." For instance, a lot of horses will speed up when heading to the gate and slow down a bit when they pass it. So the trick is to hold him back a bit when he's speeding up and being ready to push him through the slow spots. On the one hand, I already knew this, but on the other, it's a good lesson to reinforce.

Also, there was a good lesson about me focusing on my job and letting the horse do his. There was a mounting block in the area near the gate. I should have focused on keeping Blackie moving past the gate, but I looked at the mounting block and realized we were headed straight for it, so I started trying to figure whether to go to the left or the right. Meanwhile, Blackie took my brief distraction as an excuse to drop to a walk. The proper response would have been to focus on keeping at a trot and letting Blackie figure out how to get around the block.

I also made sure to spend a good portion of the lesson riding around the arena clockwise. I tend to prefer clockwise (even though I generally do most stuff in both directions), so it felt a little weird going counterclockwise last week. No problems today.

And now for the barrel racing for dummies part. Or, more accurately, barrel racing for snails. Wayne had some barrels set up in the arena from where they were playing around earlier, so he had me walk the pattern at the end of the lesson as a cooldown. It was fun, but I actually messed up the pattern because I didn't completely circle the last barrel.

Still, barrel racing isn't something I'd really want to pursue in riding. There are a lot of barrel horses that are just pattern horses (they learn exactly what they're supposed to do and just do that without any rider input). So, it's just a matter of the rider getting on the horse and hanging on. That's why you have so many wrecks. Call me crazy, but I refuse to get on a horse that can go that fast and won't stop or turn when I say so.

What interest me is reining. It asks for so much more from the horse (and rider). And slide stops are incredibly cool, but it's a disconcerting feeling until you get used to it. When I stopped Blackie at a trot, I got a little bit of a slide and his bottom just dropped out from under me. Since I'm still getting used to riding again, my first thought was "Did he just stumble?" (That was actually what went through my head the first time I did any sliding. Perfectly reasonable. I mean, isn't it much more likely that the horse would fall than do what I told him?)

Anyway, it was a good ride. Wayne said he was proud of me. He said that when I first started riding, he never thought I'd ever get to the point where I'd be able to get over it and really push the horse.