Every Wednesday from 6 - 9pm I go to a group riding lesson. Usually there are 2 or 3 of us and the trainer. I was hoping to be able to post things about the lesson on Thursday morning but I get home to late and then have to work on Thursday morning so Wednesdays lesson is going to have to wait until Friday morning.
So here is last nights recap.
There were only two of us last night and so we got lots of one on one attention - which I really like. I went first and worked on counter cantering figure eights and changing to the other lead in the middle. Wow that is kind of confusing. I started out counter cantering a circle and went around a couple of time and then ask for a lead change in the middle and went into a counter canter going the other way. The purpose for this drill is to keep the horse from dropping and pushing his shoulder in a lead change. We did a couple of lead changes and Semper got mad and kicked out at my spur. I pulled him into the ground, backed him and then loped him off on the counter canter again and asked him again and he changed beautifully. Mary the other rider wanted to work on loping and rating her speed, but her horse didn't want to pick up the left lead so before she could work on rate she worked on lead departures. She was pushing his hip over and asking him to lope off and he wouldn't pick it up. Then he started rushing off as soon as she put her leg on him to move his hip. So every time he starts to rush Trainer Lady tells her to stop back him up and then try again. When she gets him to stop rushing Trainer Lady tells of her to tip his nose to the inside and that was the ticket. He picks up his left lead and she can now work on rate. He is a little horse and very talented and athletic. When he would start to go to fast she would make a smaller circle or turn a sharp corner. Then let him our on a loose rein and let him make the mistake again and then do a sharp turn. It didn't take him long to learn that if I just lope slow, I can go around in a circle and not work that hard.
I wanted to work on our lead departures too. Semper is good at picking up the right leads, but he tends to want to pop his head up as he departs.
Trainer Lady says push him up into the bridle and then asked him to lope off and if he pops his head - depending on how bad he popped up - either bump him with my reins if it wasn't to bad and then to push him into the bridle to make him work for the rest of a circle. If it was really bad, stop him get him framed up and start over.
After that we worked on stops and this has been really a hard one for me to get down. The drill Trainer Lady likes is to use the center of the arena and start out loping and then loop the end around. After a couple of times at a slow lope ask them to speed up about half way down the arena and then slow down as we loop the end. After they are working quietly you ask for the stop. My problem is that my brain is saying stop, but nothing is coming out of my mouth. I lose the moment. We worked on that and then Semper decides that he hears me but he really doesn't have to stop right then. He does stop but he takes a few to many strides after I have asked. We did some fencing because he was starting to scotch then went back to looping the arena. Trainer Lady says if he doesn't stop when you ask, pull him into the ground. I never pull on Semper in a stop. Never usually have to. I went down the arena asked him to stop and he just keeps going and I pull him into the ground. Boy was he surprised. Shocked. We did a couple more and he was back to his normal self of stopping immediately when he heard "whoa". That was good. He is still not stopping really smoothly. He comes out of the ground and then gets his butt under him. That is something we need to work on.
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