Lesson Again! Say What?

Still no media. UGH. Sorry I need to get more proactive but lately due to the cold no one is watching our lessons BUT the instructor…so no one to video.

Got up yesterday morning and it was 25 degrees. BRGHHH. Yeah, I luckily just had to hop in truck and drive to barn rather than haul there. Got there, Remus was in the stall with his blanket on so yay for that. BUT HE HADNT BEEN OUT THE DAY BEFORE due to the weather (They are like 25 miles from me and got wet wet snow. We got nothing) and he was rather..um spicy?? I didn’t even put my spurs on as he would NOT stand still as I put my helmet on. Oh Remus. Like dancing in place.

Five minutes after getting on him I regretted the no spurs. He was so lazy (though still looking elsewhere). But with a quick instructor change we were onto our  lesson so I had to ride with what I had. He was sluggish cantering (HE KNEW I HAD NO SPURS I SWEAR, even though I don’t really use them to canter). We went over some poles and worked on trotting to poles and cantering after them and between him being lazy and there being lots of mud puddles everywhere, it was NOT our prettiest work by far.  (My event horse hates to trot through mud puddles but will trot through water on cross country courses, okay sure.)

Jenna finally pulled me in and said okay we are going to do a fun exercise but are you feeling brave? Um no, never thanks. She said you are going to squeeze him forward at a walk and ask nicely. If he ignores you, you are going to pony club kick him forward, if he still ignores you, then give him a crack of the crop behind your leg. She made me take the reins in my left hand (I asked her was she trying to kill me? She said no) and then do the exercise. She was like he might buck just sit up and push on. Umm okay great. So fun (not)!

After the first crack of the crop if I even moved my leg back slightly he went into the trot. I never had to use the crop again. Then she said okay lets try the canter. I again looked at her like she was insane but did it. He went RIGHT into the canter from the walk like perfect. WHO IS THIS HORSE?? He was so good. She said see he gets offended by you when you smacked him so now he is all like okay okay I get it. She said he is a smart smart horse and you nagging him with your leg is not doing a damn thing. BUT once he realized what you were doing and what would happen. He got it immediately (She told me a story of a Halfinger that it took an hour to get through to him with this same exercise). Remus got it in like five minutes. She also said Remus is lazy and unambitious sure BUT can be sensitive (which is so true, most people dont realize how sensitive he can be). She sussed him up very quickly HA. She said he can be an odd combo to ride and since I make him work hard he gets annoyed but yet put a kid on him and he just be bops around. She said too bad, so sad Remus you need to work. 🙂

Next, we went to pop over some cross rails. And Remus refused to land in the correct lead after the one cross rail (by the gate no less, he wanted to go out the gate). She had me LEG YIELD OVER THE POLES TO THE CROSSRAIL to get his ass in the right place and he still swung his butt back out and swapped leads to the wrong lead at the last second. She was like Remus you are causing more work for yourself. We tried and tried, we got it once, and then she had me do it again and he swapped again. I was like I GIVE UP. I was soaked with sweat by then as it had warmed up nicely. I did make him leg yield at the walk for about 10 more minutes before finishing up as I was like you can move over horse and stop being a pill. SIGH  He is never boring right?? She loves him and a good thing as she really does help us on our flatwork so much. But my abs are killing me today. My legs hurt yesterday but today it is all abs. Not sure if I will get another ride in before I go north for the week this weekend. But he seems happy enough there and hopefully some  kids (or adults) ride him this weekend. If I can squeeze in a ride tomorrow I will. Meanwhile I am over here trying to nap sitting up. So tired!

Remus should have gotten his shoes reset yesterday so hopefully he is ready to keep on riding this week with or without me!! And with this cold snap I am not too upset not having him at home for sure. It is so amazing to have lessons to blog about though. I hope after I get back from up north I can continue to ride more. Fingers crossed!