12 Feb 2008 - Weekend roundup

Anyway, here is the round up from the weekend!

Thursday (OK. so not strictly the weekend ) I'm now a house owner! Signed the contract at the Notary, so now I'm officially in debt for the next 30 years! My move-in date is 08 April, and it seems to be creeping up rather fast now

The riding shcool has a 2 week holiday now (half term), so my last lesson was on Thursday night. It was OK. We had a student teacher, who still hasn't mastered the "Voice" yet, so catching the instructions were a bit hit and miss as to where you were in the manege in relation to her! My big breakthrough was though... cantering circles! Yay! there was a few other riders who didn't attempt the exercise (as I wouldn't have done last year!), so I'm even more pleased, not only that I attempted it, but that I succeded. OK, my circles weren't exactly 20m, but this whole steering and cantering at the same time is still new to me lol (and yes, I've been riding almost 5 years continuously now :dp )

Saturday: The weather was absolutely fantastic, not a cloud in the sky, so Pinto and I went off on an exploration. We were out for just about 2 hours, and I've certainly seen bits of the Alscace that I haven't seen before. Only had a couple of mis-starts where I had to turn around due to dead ends, but was very pleased with myself for not getting wibbly even though I didn't have a *clue* where I was. We even tried trotting in some places - Pinto was definitely feeling *well* and was trying to charge off everywhere, and exhibiting very nice collected trot with plenty of joint flexion when I asked him back to walk - for 100m

Sunday: Was an evil mum and took Pinto into the manege for exercise. We did a bit lunging with side reins, and he really gets it now. Was very, very pleased with him, and it was so nice to see him working in a good shape for a change. I then hopped on and tried to do more fitness work, but gave up after 5 mins of concerted trotting, when someone else came into the manege to free school.

Monday: Very, very good day! Rode Pinto for the 3rd day in a row (I'm such a terror!), after a 5 min warm up in walk, we proceded to try and co some concerted trotting work. I admit I didn't really have any aim except to keep going. Pinto hardly gets any trot work at all, mainly because I hardly ever ride him in the manege, and outside, I'm either walking, or just having brief canters up hill. So I guess my aim, was just to keep Pinto going, and for me to feel what is going on. I really need to get the osteopath out, as Pinto feels about a straight as a bowl of spaghetti! It was impossible to stay on the piste without him falling in all the time. I also really need to get the dentist out, as he was really fussy with the contact, and occasionally ketp snatching his head up.

Anyway we managed 15 mins of solid trotting before someone else came into the manege. I would have carried on, except Pinto became very distracted and argumentative, trying to get near Sophie all the time. So we rode out of the manege, and out for a hack. Was determined that we would do more trotting outside, and have some semblance of control over it, so on almost every straight we came to we had a little trot. As Pinto has had so much exercise over the past few days I thought I would risk a canter up a hill. The hill is a bit longer, though not as steep as the normal hill, so I thought I would see how I managed. Well as soon as I asked him to trot on the hill he surged off into canter. It was a very polite, restrained canter, actually, but unfortunately my nerves are a bit floppy after the last time, which ended up being a full-out gallop. Looking back now, I'm not sure what was going on in my head! The canter was lovely, well balanced, and not too fast. I was well balanced in the saddle, but something was still shrieking in my head "you'll fall" so I asked Pinto to stop... and he didn't. I actually had to ask 3 times, before he bounced back to trot, all the while thinking "I'm balanced, he's balanced... what's the problem?" It was as if I could hear Pinto saying, "look mum, you're OK... but we're not at the top yet. I'm OK, you're OK. We'll get to the top *then* I'll stop."

After that we trotted a couple of more times on the straights, and... dun dun daaah... on a muddy straight too. I have an absolute fear of Pinto (or any horse) slipping and falling with me, so any time the ground is even slightly wet it's Walk. It's the same going down hill... I'm terrified of the horse slipping, though in general I'm much better with hills now.

I reckon we cut about 20 mins off our hack by trotting where we could, and we both got back to the stables a bit sweaty. I left Pinto knee deep in haylage, so I'm sure he was happy!

I'm feeling a bit stiff, and a bit "off" this morning, but I'm sure it will pass, and I'm so looking forward to the next time I can take Pinto out, and practice trotting along the straights!