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Aug. 14th, 2005 01:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickWent to Sylvan Glen today (Saturday -- note posting time, it wasn't VERY Sunday) with Lala and Mezcal and Trys and Sphinx and the IRH. We did barrels and poles and flag race and relay (with Tasha and Country) and four corner stake. The IRH turned really quite well and listened nicely and aimed for the next obstacle on each of the patterns. I was quite pleased on that front and her steering is really getting to where I can live with it. Yay.
On the downside, the first time I actually asked her to lope (Most horses have three frequently-used speeds. The three speeds are, slowest to fastest, a four-beat gait called the walk, a two-beat gait called the trot and a three-beat gait called the lope or canter depending on whether you ride after cows or foxes. Horses also have a very fast four-beat gait called the gallop and some horses do weird lateral shit like stepping pace, pace, singlefoot, paso corto, and so forth. This is probably more than you wanted to know.) she loped about three strides (good) and then bucked quite impressively with me (bad) until I got her stopped. As we were in the ring at the time, running poles, everyone got to see it. Er. Yippee. However, I got her stopped and I didn't come off, two first-time-evers with this horse bucking while I'm on her. Every time prior to this, she's put me off after she started bucking. This time, she didn't. I got her stopped and I stayed on and she came back to herself and I rode her out of the ring at a walk, just as if her IQ were normal. Anyway, that kind of sucked -- if I were a better trainer-of-horses, the IRH would not buck with me. However, there were several unexpected upsides to the experience. First off, people who have heard me describe the IRH as "She pitches a little" now have a really solid mental image to put with that. (She doesn't pitch a little. She bucks quite impressively.) Second, people who've seen me ride reasonably well-behaved horses or have watched me trot the IRH around the patterns like we're tyro central have substantially revised their opinions of my riding ability. Tasha was like "You've got one hell of a seat." TJ was like "Damn, that was good. You can really sit a horse." Er. Yeah. I can. Third, the SECOND time I asked the IRH to lope, which I did in our very next class, she picked up a real pretty lope RIGHT AWAY, no bucking and no bullshit. I'm hoping she learned something from having her freaking head torn off during the bucking episode.
Anyway, all things considered, I'm scoring the evening as a win.
On the downside, the first time I actually asked her to lope (Most horses have three frequently-used speeds. The three speeds are, slowest to fastest, a four-beat gait called the walk, a two-beat gait called the trot and a three-beat gait called the lope or canter depending on whether you ride after cows or foxes. Horses also have a very fast four-beat gait called the gallop and some horses do weird lateral shit like stepping pace, pace, singlefoot, paso corto, and so forth. This is probably more than you wanted to know.) she loped about three strides (good) and then bucked quite impressively with me (bad) until I got her stopped. As we were in the ring at the time, running poles, everyone got to see it. Er. Yippee. However, I got her stopped and I didn't come off, two first-time-evers with this horse bucking while I'm on her. Every time prior to this, she's put me off after she started bucking. This time, she didn't. I got her stopped and I stayed on and she came back to herself and I rode her out of the ring at a walk, just as if her IQ were normal. Anyway, that kind of sucked -- if I were a better trainer-of-horses, the IRH would not buck with me. However, there were several unexpected upsides to the experience. First off, people who have heard me describe the IRH as "She pitches a little" now have a really solid mental image to put with that. (She doesn't pitch a little. She bucks quite impressively.) Second, people who've seen me ride reasonably well-behaved horses or have watched me trot the IRH around the patterns like we're tyro central have substantially revised their opinions of my riding ability. Tasha was like "You've got one hell of a seat." TJ was like "Damn, that was good. You can really sit a horse." Er. Yeah. I can. Third, the SECOND time I asked the IRH to lope, which I did in our very next class, she picked up a real pretty lope RIGHT AWAY, no bucking and no bullshit. I'm hoping she learned something from having her freaking head torn off during the bucking episode.
Anyway, all things considered, I'm scoring the evening as a win.
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Date: 2005-08-17 05:11 pm (UTC)