which_chick (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
which_chick) wrote2019-02-17 05:41 pm
which_chick) wrote2019-02-17 05:41 pm
Horse Outing.
Took Bird to a local(ish) indoor for a wintertime lesson. I usually lesson on horses that are not Bird because diesel is expensive and the tow vehicle gets about 11 mpg whether or not it's hauling the three horse slant. Plus I have a real job and schlepping the horse all over the country doesn't really fit in my after-work schedule.
Trys and her horse Tin came along with me and Bird. (It's her grey 3-horse slant and my blue-ish F250. Together we have a tow rig.) The indoor was a lovely effort some 70 miles (round trip) from home and given the craptacular weather, we assembled the truck and trailer yesterday and parked it conveniently near the horses so that we'd be ready this morning. That worked surprisingly well.
And then this morning we caught the boys and hauled up to the indoor, where we arrived in plenty of time to groom and tack up and park the trailer out of the way of other people, which if we had been better planners, we would have done at the outset. But anyway. Bird's been in an indoor before. Tin has seen a (tiny, dusty) indoor before, too.
But this was a fairly roomy indoor with really great lighting. LEDs and translucent panels up high on the walls really helped with the brightness level. Footing (not that we care, so long as it's not frozen solid like every surface we have at home) was a nice stonedust base with a thick layer of sand overtop. It was dust-free and fluffy and lovely.
The indoor was new at Thanksgiving, so everything is still bright and shiny. It had plenty of room for two people to ride while two others tacked up and stuff. It's a really nice facility with easy parking. Possibly we can go there again sometime, especially in the winter.
What did we do in this lovely indoor? We walked. We worked on being straight. (Bird was not overly enthused about the indoor, especially when he knocked sand onto the metal walls and it made A Noise.)
When he got past his initial worry, we worked on leg-yielding and being straight and rhythmic during our leg-yielding.
After that, we trotted and walked and trotted and walked, ten steps apiece, while working on a Good, Forward Walk and a Good, Forward Trot and nice level transitions. I got compliments on this.
Left to his own devices, Bird tends to lollygag at the walk. He will march but I have to tell him to do that and catch him if he stops. He gently and gradually softens his walk back to lollygag speed, kind of sneakily, so I have to be attentive about that. When I ask him to trot, he offers up an autopilot trot (the one we got from Remedial Jogging, omg, so much damn Remedial Jogging) with a metronome rhythm. It is not difficult to get this trot anymore.
And apparently now it is Not Good Enough. Now we are not allowed to do the autopilot rhythmic trot anymore because he can do that in his freaking sleep and so can I. Now we are supposed to be doing a more-fancified trot with better stepping under himself. It's harder. We suck at it.
So, don't mind me. I'll be over here polishing my turd. Endlessly.
I know that all of this makes it sound like I hate dressage. I do. I hate dressage. It's boring. It is tedious and hard at the same time. It has NO FUN PARTS AT ALL. I mean, there are awesome fun parts for advanced horse&rider pairs, but we will never get to them at this rate seeing as how horse is eight and we can generate a reasonably stable trot with something resembling contact, most of the time.
But apparently this shit is what you do in order to become a better rider. So I am doing it in my sad, pathetic, and ineffectual manner because it's either this or JUST KEEP SUCKING FOREVER LIKE A MOUTHBREATHING FUCKWIT.
Trys and her horse Tin came along with me and Bird. (It's her grey 3-horse slant and my blue-ish F250. Together we have a tow rig.) The indoor was a lovely effort some 70 miles (round trip) from home and given the craptacular weather, we assembled the truck and trailer yesterday and parked it conveniently near the horses so that we'd be ready this morning. That worked surprisingly well.
And then this morning we caught the boys and hauled up to the indoor, where we arrived in plenty of time to groom and tack up and park the trailer out of the way of other people, which if we had been better planners, we would have done at the outset. But anyway. Bird's been in an indoor before. Tin has seen a (tiny, dusty) indoor before, too.
But this was a fairly roomy indoor with really great lighting. LEDs and translucent panels up high on the walls really helped with the brightness level. Footing (not that we care, so long as it's not frozen solid like every surface we have at home) was a nice stonedust base with a thick layer of sand overtop. It was dust-free and fluffy and lovely.
The indoor was new at Thanksgiving, so everything is still bright and shiny. It had plenty of room for two people to ride while two others tacked up and stuff. It's a really nice facility with easy parking. Possibly we can go there again sometime, especially in the winter.
What did we do in this lovely indoor? We walked. We worked on being straight. (Bird was not overly enthused about the indoor, especially when he knocked sand onto the metal walls and it made A Noise.)
When he got past his initial worry, we worked on leg-yielding and being straight and rhythmic during our leg-yielding.
After that, we trotted and walked and trotted and walked, ten steps apiece, while working on a Good, Forward Walk and a Good, Forward Trot and nice level transitions. I got compliments on this.
Left to his own devices, Bird tends to lollygag at the walk. He will march but I have to tell him to do that and catch him if he stops. He gently and gradually softens his walk back to lollygag speed, kind of sneakily, so I have to be attentive about that. When I ask him to trot, he offers up an autopilot trot (the one we got from Remedial Jogging, omg, so much damn Remedial Jogging) with a metronome rhythm. It is not difficult to get this trot anymore.
And apparently now it is Not Good Enough. Now we are not allowed to do the autopilot rhythmic trot anymore because he can do that in his freaking sleep and so can I. Now we are supposed to be doing a more-fancified trot with better stepping under himself. It's harder. We suck at it.
So, don't mind me. I'll be over here polishing my turd. Endlessly.
I know that all of this makes it sound like I hate dressage. I do. I hate dressage. It's boring. It is tedious and hard at the same time. It has NO FUN PARTS AT ALL. I mean, there are awesome fun parts for advanced horse&rider pairs, but we will never get to them at this rate seeing as how horse is eight and we can generate a reasonably stable trot with something resembling contact, most of the time.
But apparently this shit is what you do in order to become a better rider. So I am doing it in my sad, pathetic, and ineffectual manner because it's either this or JUST KEEP SUCKING FOREVER LIKE A MOUTHBREATHING FUCKWIT.