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Dec. 15th, 2007 09:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickWe're supposed to have freezing rain and sleet tonight, which I suppose they would have called wintery mix if the weather folks had been paying attention. Yay.
Monday was just regular work. Tuesday, dad got back from Mexico. Grandma eye doctor was on Wednesday. Thursday I went to Pittsburgh to do a landlord-tenant seminar (which was interesting). Friday we pulled up carpets and I had the pony lesson that I couldn't do on Thursday due to being in Pittsburgh.
Pony lesson was on shoulder-in, which I had a hell of a time with. Shoulder-in is a lateral move wherein you bend the pony a tiny bit (for example) to the right and nudge pony with your right leg/right seat while half-halting on the left. Pony maintains the bend to the right and moves to the left. To go rightward, you tip the pony slightly left and nudge with left leg and half-halt with right hand. I think my problem wasn't so much comprehending the exercise as getting all the balls in the air at the same time. It was just more stuff to do at once than I was able ot manage. Also, was a different horse and I didn't have a good feel for how much leg was enough. She resisted settling at the trot (very forward) and kept running through my hands, which did not help.
Horses at the pony lady that I've been on: Ashley, sort of dead red roan QH. Ashley doesn't go forward at all for me. This is very annoying and I haven't been on her in about a month or so. Jubilee, forward, tense chestnut arab. Jubilee tunes me out, resists bending, and throws her head but settles to seat cues and pays attention to leg. I kind of like Jubilee. Cole is a big, quiet thoroughbred. He's a dark bay, will lean on you if you let him, but is honest enough to work well if you give him the right cues. He doesn't play you and has a huge damn trot. Katie, aged dark grade mare. Katie's forward but bends and will set her head. She's got more go than Jubilee but also more flexibility. None of them are particularly unpleasant horses. They're all easy enough to work with and I should be able to get a feel for Katie once I've been on her more than once.
It's kind of nice that the pony lady has some variety -- I don't ride different horses much at home (More a matter of preference than a lack of opportunity. It's like fucking the same person over and over, you get better at it. New people, you have to learn 'em and there's a getting-to-know-you phase of fucking where you bump noses and get the angles wrong and so forth. Riding new horses is like fucking new people. Anyway, I'm going to have to start Callisto this spring -- Nick is definitely looking knocked up, Meatly doesn't need to be doing competitive rides at nearly twenty, and I need something to ride.) and it probably does me a world of good to learn to get along with different horses. It improves my feel, my ability to listen to the horse, to find what works, to adapt my riding to the tools that best suit. It also increases the size of my toolbox because I have to *find* the things that work for each horse.
Today I went over to Liss's and rode Meatly (who is not knocked up) home from Clyde's. The *last* time I rode Meatly was home from Odie's this past spring (end of March) when she was hugely pregnant and she wasn't very forward or fun to ride. I hadn't been on her since then until today. Despite my inattention, Meatly was fine, worked well (lots more forward when she's not waddling...) and pleasantly ponied the big grey arab mare who doesn't (yet) ride. Because I was ponying another horse, I didn't have any time to work on my equitation or anything, which kind of sucked. It was also damn cold out for nearly an hour of riding. Also, getting on a fucking horse apparently makes my cell phone ring. Every time. I think I'm going to start turning it the fuck off.
If the ice isn't too bad, I gotta get over there tomorrow and pull the burrs out of her mane and tail, which are currently sort of solid matted structures of burr. (Avon's Skin-So-Soft, in a spray bottle, lets the burdock pull out really easily.) Meatly will not be amused about that but I plan to bribe her with half a can of grain.
Monday was just regular work. Tuesday, dad got back from Mexico. Grandma eye doctor was on Wednesday. Thursday I went to Pittsburgh to do a landlord-tenant seminar (which was interesting). Friday we pulled up carpets and I had the pony lesson that I couldn't do on Thursday due to being in Pittsburgh.
Pony lesson was on shoulder-in, which I had a hell of a time with. Shoulder-in is a lateral move wherein you bend the pony a tiny bit (for example) to the right and nudge pony with your right leg/right seat while half-halting on the left. Pony maintains the bend to the right and moves to the left. To go rightward, you tip the pony slightly left and nudge with left leg and half-halt with right hand. I think my problem wasn't so much comprehending the exercise as getting all the balls in the air at the same time. It was just more stuff to do at once than I was able ot manage. Also, was a different horse and I didn't have a good feel for how much leg was enough. She resisted settling at the trot (very forward) and kept running through my hands, which did not help.
Horses at the pony lady that I've been on: Ashley, sort of dead red roan QH. Ashley doesn't go forward at all for me. This is very annoying and I haven't been on her in about a month or so. Jubilee, forward, tense chestnut arab. Jubilee tunes me out, resists bending, and throws her head but settles to seat cues and pays attention to leg. I kind of like Jubilee. Cole is a big, quiet thoroughbred. He's a dark bay, will lean on you if you let him, but is honest enough to work well if you give him the right cues. He doesn't play you and has a huge damn trot. Katie, aged dark grade mare. Katie's forward but bends and will set her head. She's got more go than Jubilee but also more flexibility. None of them are particularly unpleasant horses. They're all easy enough to work with and I should be able to get a feel for Katie once I've been on her more than once.
It's kind of nice that the pony lady has some variety -- I don't ride different horses much at home (More a matter of preference than a lack of opportunity. It's like fucking the same person over and over, you get better at it. New people, you have to learn 'em and there's a getting-to-know-you phase of fucking where you bump noses and get the angles wrong and so forth. Riding new horses is like fucking new people. Anyway, I'm going to have to start Callisto this spring -- Nick is definitely looking knocked up, Meatly doesn't need to be doing competitive rides at nearly twenty, and I need something to ride.) and it probably does me a world of good to learn to get along with different horses. It improves my feel, my ability to listen to the horse, to find what works, to adapt my riding to the tools that best suit. It also increases the size of my toolbox because I have to *find* the things that work for each horse.
Today I went over to Liss's and rode Meatly (who is not knocked up) home from Clyde's. The *last* time I rode Meatly was home from Odie's this past spring (end of March) when she was hugely pregnant and she wasn't very forward or fun to ride. I hadn't been on her since then until today. Despite my inattention, Meatly was fine, worked well (lots more forward when she's not waddling...) and pleasantly ponied the big grey arab mare who doesn't (yet) ride. Because I was ponying another horse, I didn't have any time to work on my equitation or anything, which kind of sucked. It was also damn cold out for nearly an hour of riding. Also, getting on a fucking horse apparently makes my cell phone ring. Every time. I think I'm going to start turning it the fuck off.
If the ice isn't too bad, I gotta get over there tomorrow and pull the burrs out of her mane and tail, which are currently sort of solid matted structures of burr. (Avon's Skin-So-Soft, in a spray bottle, lets the burdock pull out really easily.) Meatly will not be amused about that but I plan to bribe her with half a can of grain.
