Riding Lessons

I was so excited this evening to go to my first riding lesson with an old coach.  Wayne was my coach in college, when I rode on the intercollegiate team for Columbus State.  It has been 12 years since I had a lesson from him, and sorta forgot how honest, and tough he can be.

Let's just say, I showed up for my lesson, after driving through a snow storm mind you, happy and ready to go.  Just awaiting my assignment, as there were many horses in the barn, all of them different from 12 years ago.  Wayne walks in, and tells me that I am to ride Irish, a big grey quarter horse, who looks like a lot of fun. 

I have been riding whenever possible, on my sweet Ginger, so I'm feeling pretty confident when he tells me that this horse can be tough.  I may not have been riding in my english saddle as often as I should be, but none the less, feeling like I am pretty riding fit.  :)

Ha, I was proven WRONG!  LOL, Irish has to be ridden completely opposite of how I ride Ms. Ginger.  When riding my sweet mare, it is on a long rein, maybe light contact, and she is very in tune to my body movements.

Irish on the other hand, wants contact, short rein, keep my arms a little further up his neck, and close the angle of my body in relation to his neck.  Oh yea, and lean more forward when asking him to trot if I want any kind of forward movement.

This fealt so wrong, but I'm here to learn, and in my quest to learn as many disciplines as I possibly can, I sought out lessons from one of the best in our area.  The Hunter Jumper world is so new and strange to me, and evidently I have a lot to learn.

So at the beginning of our lesson, Irish was slow, and agitated, and charged a few fences with me.  By the end of our lesson, I was riding him the way he needed, and we had quiet, forward movement, and much better jumps.

The funny part though is when Wayne asked me how I handle things when Ginger is too fast?  I just had to smile, and tell him, that she is never too fast.  I have certainly taken for granted how wonderfully predictable, quiet, and even tempered my red headed mare can be.  Irish was the perfect horse for me to learn on tonight, he reminded me what it was like to ride a horse that can be quiet full of himself, bucks and all!

So that brings me to my next fitness and riding goal.  My next lesson is on February 20th, and I need to try and ride at a rising trot, sans stirrups, for 15 minutes.  First step will be to try 5 minutes on Thursday when I ride Ginger next.

As for tonight, I'm headed to a warm shower so I can relax these muscles.  Goodnight!

The Healthy Equestrian
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