Puddin' and I had our first Equitation lesson at Half Pass Farm in Mooreshill, Indiana yesterday evening. We are learning from a dressage instructor Rachel. I had a lot of trepidation concerning starting this lesson thing. Always have hated working in a circle or riding around an arena. Several times tried to talk myself out of it ...it will be boring was my thinking. But the other part of me KNOWS I need to gain better balance as I'm an accident waiting to happen when we gallop. So to Half-Pass Farm we went.
I unloaded Puddin' expecting her to be all weirded out with the strange barn, horses and all. The old girl took it pretty much in stride! She pinched her nose in at Rachel a couple of times, but that's Puddin'...
Rachel had me hand walk her around the indoor arena, then ride a lap at the walk, and a lap at the trot. Then she checked my stirrup length and brought them up a notch. That alone made a difference in posting the trot. It seems I feel like I'm tipping forward because I'm leaning forward. She showed me how to get my hips into position and get myself onto my seat bones. Then my leg and foot position were all wrong, and I need to change how I hold the reins, and my hand position. Sounds bad doesn't it? Well I was happy and thrilled to have someone assisting me to fix the problems. Then we did some trot outs, and I'd be good for a bit, and then I'd get something out of line and mess it all up again. As weather allows I'm going to work on it with Puddin' and try to fix one thing at a time. I've got two weeks until my next lesson.
I'm very goal driven, so this will give me a reason to ride this winter and help me to keep Puddin' in condition. Hoping it will help get Phebes started too.~Endurance Granny
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