Lesson on Friday: Remus Moving Forward

Now we are back in the colder weather for this upcoming week, but last week while rainy, it was very warm. It was about 67 at 10:30 on Friday when I had my lesson. Which usually means Remus is not going to be too excited about moving forward. And I kind of called it. He was lazy. I had spurs and crop and am glad I did.

 

However, we had lovely canter work and went around the ring several times as well as me moving him over by leg yielding to the rail without pissiness. The canter departure was nice as well. He still tends to get heavy and my instructor had to remind me several times to look up and not down when he does it but overall both ways were nice canters way above our normal canters. The ring had dried up nicely and was the perfect consistency which helps unstick Remus a bit. I also got a compliment on my hands staying where they are supposed to at the trot rather than on my lap. Baby steps guys. Our trot work is mostly just moving him forward now with me leaving his head alone. And his trot, since getting pretty consistent on lessons, has gotten so much stronger and regular than it ever has been. Are we looking like ready to go in a dressage ring? Nope. But he is moving forward and I am digging that. Still lazy, still Remus, but shining a bit more under it all.

We then went to popping over some poles and cross rails. I ride with another woman who is just getting back into riding and we are a good pair, often calling each other out to go first. Both of us have comprehension problems when told what to do in what direction but if we watch each other we can figure it out. She rides a really nice school horse Trinity has called Lakota. She is an Appy/Pinto cross and yes sounds like it could be a horrible cross but she really is nice and such a pleasure to watch jump. They have it easier than we do for sure!

This video was from before our lesson as we got out there early. Some of you saw it on Instagram but it bears rewatching. Remus is such a goober, right? Cows, geese, and horses oh my:)

We started going over poles to a cross rail and then around to another crossrail. The first time I was way too busy trying to get my horse to move forward and kind of biffed it but the second time was much smoother with us even cantering to the last fence. Again the instructor reminded me to look up, keep my hands up, and not lean forward (this sounds so easy writing it down but in real life: Not easy! We then added to that line up and added a couple more trot poles and a gate at the end. You guys know how I feel about that gate. Don’t like it. Really don’t like it at all.

I watched her set it up and then when I went to go as I turned to it at the end I exclaimed, wait this looks bigger than I thought it was (She had put a pole on top of it) and of course I messed it up by looking down at it. I went back around and did it again. Then she asked us to do it one more time and even gave us an option of just jumping one fence not all of them again. The other woman did the whole course again so I had to do the same, right? This time when we turned to the gate I looked up and got him going forward, and while not perfect, Remus sailed over it with his knees up garnering expressions of OH HOW CUTE IS HE from the people in the ring. He was very proud of himself after that. And the instructor mentioned how he is so much forward doing a line now (Now he is not fast but more forward is good). YAY Remus.

Lesson Takeaways #1: Look up, leave his mouth alone, move him forward.

Lesson Takeaways #2: Even though he isn’t getting ridden a huge amount of time his fitness is improving in leaps and bounds. Even a beginner riding him trots him around several times so it is not like he is just doing leadline. So I am very pleased how well he is fitting in there at Trinity

Lesson Takeaways #3: I need to wear more deodorant when it is a warm day. I sweated through my shirt. LOL

I have a lesson again on New Year’s Day (YAY for the barn not closing that day) so this is my final post of 2019. Thanks you guys for coming along for the (not always consistent) ride! 🙂 I do appreciate you all!