Sunday, February 17, 2013

Lesson #17: Energizer Bunny

February 15, 2013

Finally, we make it out to Greyden for a lesson. I can't complain much though... the weather hasn't been that unreasonable this winter. There was a major accident on the 401 and some blockage on the QEW so we took a different approach and enjoyed the change of scenery.

Tonight I'm riding Indy and ADW is on Aspen. I didn't have to tack up today so I spent the time helping ADW with Aspen and got a good review and challenge: Aspen wasn't easy with getting the bridle on tonight! He raised his head high and refused to open his mouth. I should have taken this as a sign that he'd be livelier today.

When we got to the arena, Jason handed me Indy. J said that Indy's being his saucy self today so that I would need to watch him more. I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I've only ridden him once before and he was a wonderful experience: agreeable, enthusiastic and sweet. Today, I spent most of the lesson trying to keep him in order. He was more eager than I had anticipated and tried to get into the canter in a few corners.

We continued to work on the rising trot a balance exercise where we'd raise up 2 beats and down 1, which proved to be far more difficult than I had anticipated. I ended up giggling everytime I tried to do the 1 down because it became a double bounce no matter how hard I tried. But, I can feel the balance coming together much better than it has been in the past.

The last section of the class was getting 3 of 4 of us into short canters to get used to the motion. Indy was clearly much happier once he was allowed to get going. So much so that I had difficulty trying to slow him down. It's like what NR said about Indy... that a rider needs to spend more time slowing him down than needing to speed him up. He's clearly the opposite of the other schoolies that we've ridden in that he is all go and no stop!

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