Ludi-doodi
Well-Known Member
Set off from Yorkshire on Thursday afternoon and arrived at YHL around 5pm. The journey was OK if a bit windy! Settled the boy into his temporary stabling with enough hay to last a life time let alone a night and left him to it.
Up early on Friday morning and took him to the Horsewear Ireland Arena to prepare him for the lesson at lunch time. Usually a laid back guy he was a bit tense and eyes on stalks. He didn't seem to appreciate having to wait for the dressage to music horses practising their routine and kept swishing his bottom round towards them when they passed us hiding in the corner trying to keep out their way! Briefly met No Faulter from here - sorry I didn't get a chance to say much more than hello!
I had 3½ hours to wait until the lesson and my friend and I tried to distract ourselves with shopping, but it wasn't really working for me - the purchase of a new gilet to wear in the lesson and a pair of gloves, doesn't really sum up the potential shopping experience I could have had - put it down to pre-show nerves!
OH who couldn't make it due to prior work commitments rang me to tell me he was sitting in the arena waiting to watch the lesson - what a lovely surprise! Got Ludo ready and boy was he excited and tense and nervous and gittery and wouldn't stand still! Met Chris Bartle outside the arena and had a quick chat with him. He asked what I wanted to cover in the lesson and I said to have a calmer horse at events (he does get tense over his back for dressage) and also to lift him off his forehand.
The lesson was totally brilliant and hurt my brain a bit
! He had us doing lots of outside rein work and turning properly, trot and canter circles inside a 12m square box made up of 4 poles as well as doing very small circles around a jump wing in the centre of the squqre to make Ludo really have to step underneath him. CB taught me a new way asking for canter which was quite hilarious the way he described how he used to pretend to be a horse as kid and canter around the nursery! It's a bit of a visual tip and hard to explain here, but it worked! Ludo was such a superstar, he settled into really well and worked very hard, he was dripping with sweat afterwards, but I was so proud of him and he didn't flinch at all when the audience clapped at the end. I was also riding with my hands much higher and my own body position was much straighter and upright too.
After it was finished and I was buying a sandwich 2 girls came up to me and said theyd watched the lesson and really enjoyed it. I was a really pleased, if a little embarrassed LOL
It was a wonderful experience and I learnt so much. Not sure what the OH did with the camera but he got tons of really blurry pictures. Heres the best of a very bad bunch! Well done if you've made to the end! Cheers
Having a chat with CB at the start of the lesson:
Circles in the Square!
Circles outside the square
Up early on Friday morning and took him to the Horsewear Ireland Arena to prepare him for the lesson at lunch time. Usually a laid back guy he was a bit tense and eyes on stalks. He didn't seem to appreciate having to wait for the dressage to music horses practising their routine and kept swishing his bottom round towards them when they passed us hiding in the corner trying to keep out their way! Briefly met No Faulter from here - sorry I didn't get a chance to say much more than hello!
I had 3½ hours to wait until the lesson and my friend and I tried to distract ourselves with shopping, but it wasn't really working for me - the purchase of a new gilet to wear in the lesson and a pair of gloves, doesn't really sum up the potential shopping experience I could have had - put it down to pre-show nerves!
OH who couldn't make it due to prior work commitments rang me to tell me he was sitting in the arena waiting to watch the lesson - what a lovely surprise! Got Ludo ready and boy was he excited and tense and nervous and gittery and wouldn't stand still! Met Chris Bartle outside the arena and had a quick chat with him. He asked what I wanted to cover in the lesson and I said to have a calmer horse at events (he does get tense over his back for dressage) and also to lift him off his forehand.
The lesson was totally brilliant and hurt my brain a bit
After it was finished and I was buying a sandwich 2 girls came up to me and said theyd watched the lesson and really enjoyed it. I was a really pleased, if a little embarrassed LOL
It was a wonderful experience and I learnt so much. Not sure what the OH did with the camera but he got tons of really blurry pictures. Heres the best of a very bad bunch! Well done if you've made to the end! Cheers
Having a chat with CB at the start of the lesson:
Circles in the Square!
Circles outside the square
