Sol
Well-Known Member
I finally got my 'holiday' for this year, although I think I've come back feeling more sore & worn out (although also motivated...) than before I left!!
Me & my boyfriend set off to Pen Llyn Lusitano Stud on Friday, after sorting Dante out. Drove to Conwy and then went for a 4 mile ish walk up/around some huge 'hill'!!
The view:
Legs already aching I then went to my first 1hr lesson.
Got to ride a lovely stallion called Rez, who was erm, rather lazy at first! He was quite big for me, more in bulk than height and I did find him hard work! When I finally did get him moving, we found that I could only really get him to passage everywhere
Biiig Rez:
Got him moving forward with a few medium trots, then started doing some shoulder-in, travers & half pass (trying to do without the passage!). When I was a bit more used to him we did lots of transitions from passage to working trot so that I could get more used to LOSING the passage, which did eventually happen
Then did some canter work, just working on basic single flying changes on the diagonal and then doing different turns back to the track.
Seems he wakes up quite a bit in canter and we did end up with some 'accidental' one tempis where I accidentally moved my legs one way and then just corrected him without thinking, rather fun!
Did learn a good lesson though - do not climb hills before riding.
The lovely Rez:
Then, just because I'm mad... we walked to the beach. And back. By this point I was almost dead (I'm really not that fit!!).
Doodling on the beach:
On Saturday I started with another lesson on Rez, practicing more of the travers & half pass, as I find it quite hard to keep myself straight and then lose it quite easily and either go too much sideways or not at all Much less passage this time & I managed to get him going much more forwards. We even got some rather crazily huge feeling extended trots which felt wonderful Then did some more canter work, this time we added in some counter canter, which turns out to be much harder when the horse knows how to do flying changes and does expect to be doing them... 
Was quite pleased though that I got the hang of controlling him and keeping the counter canter even on his 'worse' rein 
Then sat around watching some of the horses being schooled for an hour before having my last lesson
This time I got to ride one of the horses I rode last time I visited, Litri. He's tiny, much more my size!! Although does have a tendancy to become over bent rather than collect. Half pass was MUCH better today and did lots of transitions between shoulder-in & travers too, which really helped me with the aids & using them much more lightly to cause less confusion. The best part of the lesson though was practicing some more transitions in & out of passage but without any help at all from Janine, just really feeling for the rhythm & timing the aids so that it was all less half hearted from Litri
Then set off home!!
Feel like I've really learned a lot from the lessons, being able to get comfortable with the aids for some of the more advanced lateral work on a schoolmaster has helped already - just practicing some shoulder-fore & shoulder-in with Dante this morning I felt that I was giving more precise aids & he was reacting much better. Practicing riding in & out of passage helped more than I had expected when I came to ride Dante also, just practicing some medium trot & canter & also just downwards transitions, I was using my legs much more specifically and also collecting him up better when necessary
I'm really looking forwards to this winter now. I'm going to take advantage of BDs current offer for associate members & register Dante, and hopefully find something to aim for with him over the winter! I think I will also look for somewhere more local to have schoolmaster lessons so that I can keep on top of my riding and not fall into any bad habits while trying to correct Dan as he's obviously weaker with many things at the moment. Also it would help me as I introduce more advanced movements to Dan I think
Not quite sure how I'm going to work this all around college however I'm researching sitting my exams as an external candidate (I only take 2 subjects anyway, everything else annoyed me!) so that my time is more flexible & I can fit more work in to keep up with the expenses!! Hopefully it will all work out somehow
Just to finish... some pics of me & Dan having fun last week!!
Me & my boyfriend set off to Pen Llyn Lusitano Stud on Friday, after sorting Dante out. Drove to Conwy and then went for a 4 mile ish walk up/around some huge 'hill'!!
The view:
Legs already aching I then went to my first 1hr lesson.
Got to ride a lovely stallion called Rez, who was erm, rather lazy at first! He was quite big for me, more in bulk than height and I did find him hard work! When I finally did get him moving, we found that I could only really get him to passage everywhere
Biiig Rez:
Got him moving forward with a few medium trots, then started doing some shoulder-in, travers & half pass (trying to do without the passage!). When I was a bit more used to him we did lots of transitions from passage to working trot so that I could get more used to LOSING the passage, which did eventually happen
Then did some canter work, just working on basic single flying changes on the diagonal and then doing different turns back to the track.
Seems he wakes up quite a bit in canter and we did end up with some 'accidental' one tempis where I accidentally moved my legs one way and then just corrected him without thinking, rather fun!
Did learn a good lesson though - do not climb hills before riding.The lovely Rez:
Then, just because I'm mad... we walked to the beach. And back. By this point I was almost dead (I'm really not that fit!!).
Doodling on the beach:
On Saturday I started with another lesson on Rez, practicing more of the travers & half pass, as I find it quite hard to keep myself straight and then lose it quite easily and either go too much sideways or not at all
Much less passage this time & I managed to get him going much more forwards. We even got some rather crazily huge feeling extended trots which felt wonderful Then did some more canter work, this time we added in some counter canter, which turns out to be much harder when the horse knows how to do flying changes and does expect to be doing them... Was quite pleased though that I got the hang of controlling him and keeping the counter canter even on his 'worse' rein Then sat around watching some of the horses being schooled for an hour before having my last lesson
This time I got to ride one of the horses I rode last time I visited, Litri. He's tiny, much more my size!!
Although does have a tendancy to become over bent rather than collect. Half pass was MUCH better today and did lots of transitions between shoulder-in & travers too, which really helped me with the aids & using them much more lightly to cause less confusion. The best part of the lesson though was practicing some more transitions in & out of passage but without any help at all from Janine, just really feeling for the rhythm & timing the aids so that it was all less half hearted from Litri Then set off home!!
Feel like I've really learned a lot from the lessons, being able to get comfortable with the aids for some of the more advanced lateral work on a schoolmaster has helped already - just practicing some shoulder-fore & shoulder-in with Dante this morning I felt that I was giving more precise aids & he was reacting much better. Practicing riding in & out of passage helped more than I had expected when I came to ride Dante also, just practicing some medium trot & canter & also just downwards transitions, I was using my legs much more specifically and also collecting him up better when necessary
I'm really looking forwards to this winter now. I'm going to take advantage of BDs current offer for associate members & register Dante, and hopefully find something to aim for with him over the winter! I think I will also look for somewhere more local to have schoolmaster lessons so that I can keep on top of my riding and not fall into any bad habits while trying to correct Dan as he's obviously weaker with many things at the moment. Also it would help me as I introduce more advanced movements to Dan I think
Not quite sure how I'm going to work this all around college however
I'm researching sitting my exams as an external candidate (I only take 2 subjects anyway, everything else annoyed me!) so that my time is more flexible & I can fit more work in to keep up with the expenses!! Hopefully it will all work out somehow Just to finish... some pics of me & Dan having fun last week!!
