Two Lessons in Three Days!

We had a beautiful weekend and while chilly on Friday it more than redeemed itself on Saturday and Sunday (especially Sunday where it reached almost 68 degrees). Yes, please, sun and warmth. I would like some more!

Alas we have like fifteen days of some sort of rain in the forecast and today while still warmish is gloomy gloomy gloomy. UGH.

Anyway, back to the weekend! Friday I had a lesson on Remus and I am so glad I scheduled it later in the morning because it was COLD COLD COLD Friday morning (it was 30 degrees at my house at 8 am). My lesson was at 11:30 and by the time I got to the barn the sun was helping to warm things up but it was still rather chilly. The wind was nuts too. Walking out to the ring, Remus and I watched some mini dust-devils spin by. SO MUCH WIND.

Remus was reasonably awake that day due to the wind and the cooler weather so we had a pretty good lesson. I have been riding without spurs (spoiler alert for the Sunday lesson, spurs are going back on, next lesson) and Remus was very good for all departures at the trot and canter. We then began to pop over some jumps. And since that lesson was all of three-four days ago I forgot most of what we did. (53 year old brain is a real thing!).

I do know we popped over a bunch of things and finished up trying to go from a crossrail to a vertical with four strides (or five knowing Remus, ha) and we were biffing it left and right. The reason? Because per normal I froze up and stopped riding right as we landed from the cross rail. Finally Poppy said, okay after the cross rail, hold, settle him, and then ask him at the vertical. And then you are done if you do it right. Challenge accepted!! AND WE DID IT. What do you know I can ride. Once in a while at least. We went toward the crossrail, Remus attempted to bulge out I moved him back we popped over it and as he went into the canter, I sat up, and held him for a quick second then onward we went and we met it PERFECT. I was so happy. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But I was very happy with him. We had jumped a bunch of other stuff and she was like are you done and I was like yep. Done!! Whew.

Saturday instead of horsey things we worked around the farm. I cut some grass and Mark did some weed eating for a bit (OMG the weed growth already is amazing out here). I didn’t even go to the barn as I knew Remus would be used. And he was so he was ridden three days in a row. Poor Remus. Umm yeah sure.

Sunday morning I had an early lesson at 10 so was on the road and heading there by 8:45. It was a GLORIOUS morning. Coolish but warming up fast. The wind was still strong but it was so nice out.  I got to the barn and Remus was out in his paddock standing up asleep in the sun. He meandered over to the gate and I took him in to tack him up. He was grumpy and not happy to be ridden again. I chose to not ride in spurs again and instead of my dressage whip took a crop with me. Umm, bad choices Michele. Truly bad. Sigh.

I have had great rides for so long now I forgot that I often had bad rides on Remus when we were up North and he gave me attitude about everything. So much has changed but I guess I have to expect one of these kind of rides every once in awhile. Everyone out there with my lesson kept saying it wasnt a bad lesson but I feel it was. My back was hurting again and Remus was NOT interested (no thank you very much) in moving forward at all!! SO it was a push and shove kind of day. At one point I took the crop and popped him behind my leg aka as you treat a spoiled shitty pony and he bucked hard.

Which for Remus is still not hard but oohh he was mad. Anyway finally got him moving forward…at least more than moving backward. Then we started jumping. I was already dreading the jumping part.  My abs were hurting from the ride on Friday and having to push and haul on him on Sunday did not help. At all. And again my back for some reason is bugging me lately (not every day but just once in a while). So while I had the power mares in my lesson again with me (from last Sunday) we had a persona non grata in Remus. So much fun. Not.

I will say I got a lot out of this lesson. Watching the two mares and both of their riders is a total education for me especially since they have to ride them so differently. Which is good. Both of them can zoom and take jumps like Superman. It helps me to watch how they handle them as well. Remus and I started over canter poles and he almost fell on his face. We did a few jumps and some lines and while not great they weren’t that bad. Then we went over a crossrail with a bending line to a vertical. And again….freezing up and not riding does not work out well with us. Had to try it multiple times and we did end up riding it better but neither of us were willing to go again. I was exhausted. Remus acting like he was exhausted (though he is in way better shape than me). And we called it a day.

I continued watching one of the mares being coached through some issues which are fascinating to me since she is everything Remus is not (speedy, athletic, fast). So all in all a great weekend just not a great lesson overall for me (in terms of my riding and my horse being forward). We will get there. It was warmer which is not good in terms of Remus and he still has SO MUCH FREAKING HAIR WITH NO SHEDDING. So he was probably hot. He was happy to go back into his paddock to nap and I cleaned my tack and headed home. I have been told to reinstate the spurs so watch out Remus. Fun time is over! 🙂

This week is another week. Let’s hope we get back to being more forward!! How was everyone else’s weekend? Hope all was good! We have a barn show in two weeks and a clinic the day after and then a spring hunter show Remus is going to the end of the month. Which means torrential rain is heading our way. Yeah….we shall see!