Lesson #53: Front Heavy

Sunday September 29, 2013

I've got a long day ahead of me but what better way to start it than to be riding! I'm on my own today, to get everything done. The lesson with Trinket is a good start to the day. Since it's an outdoor lesson, we work on getting our gaits going and Lenka challenges us to a sort of "course" with trot poles. We're asked to start a canter and then transition to a trot and then trot over poles and then re-initiate the canter and then trot over some more poles and completes with a canter. Easy enough to comprehend what is being asked but I certainly had a good deal of difficulty getting through this. My initial canter worked just fine and I even transitioned down into a trot. But, getting back into the canter was a total nightmare. I was struggling and Trinket was only going faster and faster. Nothing worked despite my urging and pushing.

Lenka pointed out that I was leaning forward and my shoulders were hunching forward. It isn't that Trinket is not listening... but she tends to be heavy on the forehand so when I tip forward and my weight gets onto her front end, it must put her out of balance and make it difficult for her to initiate the canter. So, instead of am bumping around in a seated trot with my posture totally out of alignment and my shoulders rounding forward with her pulling me down and forward.

This is certainly not my most graceful moment on this mare so I do try to continue to push forward and try again but I also recognize that I will have to do something about my own posture to get this right. It isn't her... she's clearly capable of doing a canter but I would say that she's probably not feeling balanced enough to initiate it and nobody wants to trip.

This was a frustrating lesson and I hope that my luck will be better next lesson.

The rest of the day was me driving out in the country to get to Stratford/Sebringville. It's such a wonderful drive out that way and I have a great time driving out on country roads on my own. It was a great break to be out on my own zipping around in ADW's car ;)

The best part? I'm on my way to do a food pick up this afternoon. Starting with my trip to Sebringville/Stratford to pick up my half Berkshire pig carcass. That's right folks, I'm going to pick up ~100lbs of delicious heritage pork. I always say, pork is supposed to be fatty. If it isn't, why aren't you eating chicken or something even less fatty? There's nothing wrong with fat. Especially when the animal is raised naturally and happily. I arrive and pick up 2 large boxes of my pig and head home with an additional 100lbs in the back.

I won't get into too much detail as I'll save that post for another day but the farm that I went to is called Perth Pork Products and they raise several heritage breeds that taste like the pork that used to be eaten. mmmmm mmm delicious!