Lesson Recaps

Oh yeah, in between obsessing over horse farms I've been riding a bit too :)

Last Wednesday I snuck out of work early to ride this guy:

Meet Riley!

Riley is ginormous. For real - I'm guessing 17hh or so. He also has a ginormous personality. He's a big goofy guy and it's impossible not to like him. He waits at the gate to say hi and loves attention.
As for the ride? Well, once I climbed up there and got over my fear of heights it was actually sort of fun. I found him quite difficult in that my short little legs leave me feeling a bit like a jockey on him and make it really hard to get any sort of leg on him or feel like I'm riding effectively. The saddle I was given to use on him is also hard as a rock and sadly I think something with the way he moves and that saddle left my back (OK my tailbone) in agony and I had to bow out of the lesson after the death by sitting trot part and before the jumping. It's discouraging and I was upset, because I'm sure my doctor said a year at the outside for things to heal up, and it's been a year.  In related news,  I am a super impatient person :) I really like Riley, but I guess it's not meant to be at this point in time - I do not want to go back to carrying a pillow around lol.

But he's so darn cute!

This weekend, it was back to Raleigh. (Yes for real, Riley and Raleigh - thank goodness they don't look alike!)

Also known as "The Dude"

 My tailbone still felt not quite right but Raleigh is basically a mobile couch, so I was pretty sure I'd survive :)

Sleepy boy. Sadly, he attempted to sleep through most of the lesson too.

I had an alright lesson on The Dude. He was feeling quite lazy, which sort of made my life difficult until I acquired a crop. More like a magic wand though because you just need to hold it in your hand and suddenly sleepy pony is ready to get to work! Funny how that works. He's not the stereotypical kick along lesson horse - more he just has his preferred pace and its not overly adjustable - for example at a trot if you want more forward he's just inclined to think about a canter, or if you want him to collect a little he'd like to try to jog or walk. At least with a crop in hand his thinking is instantly more to the forward side of things and he doesn't make you nag. We had a great little course, lots of bendy lines and a rollback, plus at the end a gymnastic exercise with 5 cross rails with a stride between each. As you can guess, I struggled a little with getting enough forward for that last line. We did it without issue twice but if I had another do over I'd be bolder going into the line rather than trying to make adjustments part way through.

 I also miss Ginger very much and with spring finally arriving I'm wishing I could teleport home and hit the trails with my very special pony. She's doing great - I'll see if I can get G to take some good pictures for the blog next time he visits her.