Tuesday, March 3, 2015

made it to another lesson!

The weather deigned to cooperate and our trainer's home was no longer flooding. So - lesson time!! Never mind that I was super green around the gills and trying to avoid barfing on my lesson-mates... We gotta ride, right??


Seriously, tho - while we were actively riding everything was fine. But whenever we just stood around in the middle... ooof no bueno... 

Isabel flatted pretty well, considering she'd only been ridden once in the past two weeks. My goal for the day's flat work was first and foremost focused on my position:

  • sitting up and back - esp around corners when I want to collapse to the inside
  • 'standing' on my seat bones
  • stretching through my legs
  • squeezing my belly button (weird yet effective terminology for engaging my core)
  • bending elbows and hands in the 'batter's box' - letting the weight of my arms do the work for me
And I hoped that these efforts would help me better engage Isabel's hind end. I need to keep her ACTIVE behind - and not get stuck in a backwards blah trot. I want to feel her really pushing *into* the contact - rather than pulling her into it. 

To the left she's SUPER consistent and steady when I can get my pieces put together, and the right side is coming along, tho always trailing. I'm optimistic that we'll see major improvement when I can ride more frequently (I hope!). The canter is interesting bc that's the gait where it's most obvious just how much leg it takes to get her round. But of course, when I use that much leg the rest of my position suffers ... boo weak core!! 

four fences across the middle

Whatever the case, I'm heartened by the current state of our flat work bc it's pretty clear that Isabel is retaining all of our lessons, despite irregular/infrequent riding. 


That said, tho - it's also pretty clear that she's sick of the indoor. Our jumping efforts were all fine - in fact they were all whatever I made of them. Isabel kinda phoned it in. Not in a bad way, exactly, but she didn't feel particularly *bright* either, if that makes sense. (Altho nothing felt particularly bright to me since I literally wanted to puke... so maybe you'll watch the video and think Isabel's amazing and I'm just crazy lol).


We started with everyone in the lesson trotting down over an X as a group - over and over a couple times to warm up. Isabel kinda 'blahhed' over it a few times, earning me a reminder from P to keep my leg on and rider her to the fence (duh Emma!). She was also drifting left per usual - so I had to actually, ya know, steer... 


Then we moved on to cantering loopy 'courses.' Again - Isabel did whatever I asked, for better or worse. If I held for the tight distance, she complied. If I pushed for the longer spot, that was fine too. All good stuff, I suppose. We didn't do a very good job of landing on the left lead when appropriate - tho probably if I had been better coordinated she would have done that too. 



So idk - I'm not really complaining bc it was actually a pretty positive lesson. Isabel's an educated horse who's pretty straight-forward to ride. Maybe I should even be happy in thinking that the fence height in this lesson seems so boring now? 


But really, all I'm thinking about is galloping across an xc course. Yea. I mean, look how happy she is in that picture!!! THAT's the brightness I'm talking about. We'd like to do that please! Any day now! 

22 comments:

  1. If we can just get through this week (gah - no more ice!), next week looks fabulous! Firmly in the 40's :)

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    1. you're right - provided we don't all just give up and roll over after today's ice storm... and whatever else comes later this week.... maybe next week might actually be not so bad!!!!

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  2. I know your pain of riding infrequently! I also totally get the horses are getting bored on the indoor, so are we!

    Isabel had some super cute jumps in there :)

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    1. thanks!! she can be pretty adorable when she feels like it :)

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  3. I'm so ready for spring...And boo being sick, good on you for riding through it and hope you feel better!

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    1. i'm ready too!!! can't come soon enough!

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  4. isabel and you both looked great! i can't wait to get out too...

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    1. thanks!! hopefully it can't be much longer now :)

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  5. You are so boss, riding while you're sick!!

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    1. haha thanks - tho i didn't really realize how icky i felt until i was on the horse... and definitely felt it afterwords... blargh!

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  6. Looking good! Hope you're feeling better soon

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  7. We're almost there! Kudos for riding through the sickness and having a good school under your belt!

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    1. thanks! every ride counts - tho i can def tell the difference when it's only once a week or less vs. when we're getting out more often

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  8. You look great! Good riding when sick? You get all the brownie points!

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    1. haha it's funny - i think the queasiness actually forced me to be a quieter rider lol

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  9. She looks good in the video :) And you should be happy that that height is boring now! I totally agree about just wanting to go on the cross country coarse.

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    1. thanks! i'm always kinda happy to be bored about certain things -- tho it doesn't always last lol

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