September 13, 2013
Finally, a vacation. I took Friday off from work to make my way out to Caledon for the weekend. But, I'll get into that later. My friday lesson was the third lesson ADW and I were riding in a single day. I rode Trinket this cool fall evening and as I mentioned last time, it is indoors. Sheri is back this Friday and we have her one more lesson before the end of September and while I am really looking forward to having Sheri again, I'm also sad that it would mean it'd be the last lesson we'd have with her at Greyden. But, as lessons with horses has taught me, things change and you just have to adapt... because you don't always have control over what happens.
We warm up with a good trot and Sheri asks me if I'm comfortable to get Trinket into a canter in the indoor arena. This is not a light question... this pony has a tendency to be heavy on the forehand and speedy while doing it. So, while you're being pulled further and further forward (this is terrible for a rider because you lose balance), she's getting faster and faster and also drifting into the circle so you're not only off-balance now (remember, riding is all about balance!) but you're losing control because you're falling inwards or struggling to not fall into the circle. I just say yes and figure if I'm not comfortable, I just pull back on the reins--not the most graceful but at least I can get accustomed to her gait.
We complete some balance exercises with the double post: up-up-down and 2-point while trotting to get our bodies into the right balance. We're reminded that the best way to determine the proper alignment is to get into a 2-point while walking. Doing this gets your weight in the right place over the saddle and to return to a full seat, all you need to do is keep your legs where they are and then sit down. Ta-da! Perfect alignment. Keeping it is a whole other story ;) In addition to this exercise, we do out-of-stirrup work. Ouch. Seated trot and posting trot. While both are more steady now, and I am able to stay on without too much jossoling around it still isn't my idea of fun. However, this is perfect to get me understanding the long leg position.
Anyways, because I already had two lessons at Cadogan Farms (more on that later!), I got quite a bit of practice cantering around and understanding how to mitigate the typical "issues" that come with cantering within an arena. To go deep into the corners and reduce the drifting in, I have to remember to apply the bending aids. So, when we're asked to get into a canter, I decide to go for it and hooray! Off I goooooo! I felt Trinket get faster and knew that I had to slow her down but didn't want her to get so slow that she'd break her canter into a trot. I sort of got Trinket under control and had her stop but my god... she stops on a dime and my body is still moving and I have an uncomfortable jam forward into the pommel *.*
Our final exercise for the evening is an x-jump that we had the option to take in a trot or canter. For some reason, I couldn't get Trinket into a canter during the turn into the jump so took it in trot. I think my frustration made things worse because it didn't matter how many times I tried it but the more frustrated I became, the less cooperative she became and she did her fast pony trot which discombobulated me too much to get through the jump.
But, my highlight of the lesson was certainly the indoor canter on Trinket! It's a first with this mare and I'm very proud that I managed to keep enough control around the corners and push her into the corners too.
Monday, September 16, 2013
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Lesson #50: Bending Towards Fall
Sept 6, 2013
The seasons are changing. By the time we were ready to ride, the sun had set and it would be impossible to ride outdoors as there is no lighting. Fall is in the air, literally! In addition, we start our fall season with a new instructor, Jennifer. And for me, to make things even better, I'm assigned Aspen!!!! Woohoo!! He even looks pretty lively tonight so I hope that things will go well.
Jenn starts us with a good warm-up of trotting. We do a lot of work to hone our preciseness such as turning, transitions and bends. We haven't worked much on bends before but I remember reading about Present Tense's experiences with a bend, back in December. There is a good article about what bends are, and how a rider is to aim to accomplish them. I suppose I didn't really realize that all these things can (and should) be broken down for further analysis.
While we don't get into specific details about the technicalities of bends, Jenn elaborates for us the reason we have to do it and if the bend is present. It's kind of like getting the feel for things when we were starting out. We accomplish the exercises by cutting the arena in half and focusing on touching the tangents of the circle and bending at these specific tangents. Looking at the picture now, I realize I was placing my legs in the wrong places. Next lesson!
We continue to work on our 2-point position over the x-jump and Jenn refers to "crest release", which is something that we haven't talked explicitly about before. That's only partially true... Lenka refers to "your hands should be further up on the horse's neck" which is basically referring to a type of 'release'. We never go into detail but it's new for me in terms of technicality. We are asked to do a "short crest release" and a "long crest release". Next time I think I'll need to take better note of what my body is feeling and where things are. After all, I'm starting to think that much of what is happening is slight unless we hone in on the details.
Anyways, some new stuff for a new season! :)
The seasons are changing. By the time we were ready to ride, the sun had set and it would be impossible to ride outdoors as there is no lighting. Fall is in the air, literally! In addition, we start our fall season with a new instructor, Jennifer. And for me, to make things even better, I'm assigned Aspen!!!! Woohoo!! He even looks pretty lively tonight so I hope that things will go well.
Jenn starts us with a good warm-up of trotting. We do a lot of work to hone our preciseness such as turning, transitions and bends. We haven't worked much on bends before but I remember reading about Present Tense's experiences with a bend, back in December. There is a good article about what bends are, and how a rider is to aim to accomplish them. I suppose I didn't really realize that all these things can (and should) be broken down for further analysis.
While we don't get into specific details about the technicalities of bends, Jenn elaborates for us the reason we have to do it and if the bend is present. It's kind of like getting the feel for things when we were starting out. We accomplish the exercises by cutting the arena in half and focusing on touching the tangents of the circle and bending at these specific tangents. Looking at the picture now, I realize I was placing my legs in the wrong places. Next lesson!
 |
| I've got the "bends"! |
Anyways, some new stuff for a new season! :)
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Lesson #49: Neglecting Sleep
September 1, 2013
It's caught up with me: my lack of sleep for the entire week. It was evident on Friday and even more evident today. My equitation was miserable today and I'd say, it affected my work. Lenka really tested us today but that doesn't matter, because it was evident that stuff wasn't going right and I have to work on certain things in order to get it right. One of the most evident things today was that when you speed things up, weaknesses and errors become even MORE evident. I'm not at the point where I'm some super star who can race around naturally as everything I do still requires effort and work.
I ride Nikki today and there are a few things that I am reminded of: Nikki is small so my leg position is not where it is with other horses so I have to make adjustments to where I place my leg because Nikki's not lazy... she's specific. It's like pronouncing your words appropriately when you're speaking. She's also quick to take excuses if you give them to her and she will do what she feel is easiest if clear instructions are not given to her.
To work on strengthening inner thighs, we do work without stirrups. This is an easy step up from bareback since your "goody bits" aren't being jammed into the horse's withers or their spiny backs. However, it takes a great deal of effort from your inner thighs to keep from falling off. We work on seated trot then the dreaded posting trot. I didn't think it was possible to do but it is; you don't get as high as you do with stirrups but you are still able to ride if you have your inner thighs engaged properly. This, is the proper place of effort! For the remainder of the lesson, I try to focus on keeping my legs engaged there while maintaining the contact of the lower leg and the weight down through the heels but not actually relying on your stirrups. I am finally starting to understand what it takes to ride properly but by no means am I close to actually having the stamina to do it or the ease of slipping into the right posture with little effort.
The lessons peaks with this exercise: ~20m circles in the canter. I've seen seasoned riders make it look like a walk in the park. It is not by any means easy. I'm still working on just riding the canter and add in a small circle and the need to control and maintain the aids, to the whole equation and I present you the mess that is Deb. The following have become my issues: my hands are too low, my body is collapsing forward, my lower leg position is shot to sh*t and I can't stay balanced--I look like a sack of potatoes. I manage at least one good go at it and am quite pleased that I was able to accomplish this: small achievements some days.
Now, my next work up to the actual achievement? More supporting exercises and MORE SLEEP.
It's caught up with me: my lack of sleep for the entire week. It was evident on Friday and even more evident today. My equitation was miserable today and I'd say, it affected my work. Lenka really tested us today but that doesn't matter, because it was evident that stuff wasn't going right and I have to work on certain things in order to get it right. One of the most evident things today was that when you speed things up, weaknesses and errors become even MORE evident. I'm not at the point where I'm some super star who can race around naturally as everything I do still requires effort and work.
I ride Nikki today and there are a few things that I am reminded of: Nikki is small so my leg position is not where it is with other horses so I have to make adjustments to where I place my leg because Nikki's not lazy... she's specific. It's like pronouncing your words appropriately when you're speaking. She's also quick to take excuses if you give them to her and she will do what she feel is easiest if clear instructions are not given to her.
To work on strengthening inner thighs, we do work without stirrups. This is an easy step up from bareback since your "goody bits" aren't being jammed into the horse's withers or their spiny backs. However, it takes a great deal of effort from your inner thighs to keep from falling off. We work on seated trot then the dreaded posting trot. I didn't think it was possible to do but it is; you don't get as high as you do with stirrups but you are still able to ride if you have your inner thighs engaged properly. This, is the proper place of effort! For the remainder of the lesson, I try to focus on keeping my legs engaged there while maintaining the contact of the lower leg and the weight down through the heels but not actually relying on your stirrups. I am finally starting to understand what it takes to ride properly but by no means am I close to actually having the stamina to do it or the ease of slipping into the right posture with little effort.
The lessons peaks with this exercise: ~20m circles in the canter. I've seen seasoned riders make it look like a walk in the park. It is not by any means easy. I'm still working on just riding the canter and add in a small circle and the need to control and maintain the aids, to the whole equation and I present you the mess that is Deb. The following have become my issues: my hands are too low, my body is collapsing forward, my lower leg position is shot to sh*t and I can't stay balanced--I look like a sack of potatoes. I manage at least one good go at it and am quite pleased that I was able to accomplish this: small achievements some days.
Now, my next work up to the actual achievement? More supporting exercises and MORE SLEEP.
Monday, September 2, 2013
Lesson #48: Do Things with Purpose
August 30, 2013
I'm back from skipping a week of riding and it feel great to be back. It's just me tonight and no ADW to join me as he's returning from Calgary. It's the start of a long weekend and the end of a long week. It's humid and raining today so we end up riding indoors. The day light is also getting shorter and we're finding ourselves in the dark during our lessons.
This lesson is spent indoors as it is raining and nobody likes to be all wet while riding. Our usual warm up is started to get our rhythm right--consistent and in control. Sheri tells us that the best way to get into things is to get into a consistent rhythm so that you can move forward. It's kind of like getting your land legs back, after disembarking a cruise. I notice that with Indy, my legs are secure and I use my inner thighs to keep myself balanced. This is an interesting discovery on my part: it's part of the eventual aim of a proper posture and correct muscles being engaged.
We continue to practice some work with posting and seated trot and also work on the balance by double posting up and once down. This is tricky to consistently do because if your leg position isn't right, then you fall back down. We work up to some very tricky exercises that really test your ability to quickly transition from one gait to another and direction as well. This is not my evening at all. I have trouble initiating the canter over the two ground poles and cannot canter through the X-jump at all! My posture is all over the place and I'm literally falling over Indy during transitions. What's wrong?
I reflect on the way home and I come to realize that I am genuinely tired for this lesson. Part of it is me just going through the motions and not really being "in it". Riding requires you to be actively living the moment and not thinking about what's happened or what will happen but to anticipate just a few moments before, in order to make a sound decision about what you'll do. That's the problem: because I was such a zombie, I wasn't in the moment and my mind was wandering around and I was drifting off into la-la-land all evening. It's time to ramp up my schedule and really buckle down on what needs to be done! After all, I have to work, in order to continue to do what I like to do in my spare time (at this time, anyways...) and so I've got to really pull myself together and not waste time.
I'm back from skipping a week of riding and it feel great to be back. It's just me tonight and no ADW to join me as he's returning from Calgary. It's the start of a long weekend and the end of a long week. It's humid and raining today so we end up riding indoors. The day light is also getting shorter and we're finding ourselves in the dark during our lessons.
This lesson is spent indoors as it is raining and nobody likes to be all wet while riding. Our usual warm up is started to get our rhythm right--consistent and in control. Sheri tells us that the best way to get into things is to get into a consistent rhythm so that you can move forward. It's kind of like getting your land legs back, after disembarking a cruise. I notice that with Indy, my legs are secure and I use my inner thighs to keep myself balanced. This is an interesting discovery on my part: it's part of the eventual aim of a proper posture and correct muscles being engaged.
We continue to practice some work with posting and seated trot and also work on the balance by double posting up and once down. This is tricky to consistently do because if your leg position isn't right, then you fall back down. We work up to some very tricky exercises that really test your ability to quickly transition from one gait to another and direction as well. This is not my evening at all. I have trouble initiating the canter over the two ground poles and cannot canter through the X-jump at all! My posture is all over the place and I'm literally falling over Indy during transitions. What's wrong?
I reflect on the way home and I come to realize that I am genuinely tired for this lesson. Part of it is me just going through the motions and not really being "in it". Riding requires you to be actively living the moment and not thinking about what's happened or what will happen but to anticipate just a few moments before, in order to make a sound decision about what you'll do. That's the problem: because I was such a zombie, I wasn't in the moment and my mind was wandering around and I was drifting off into la-la-land all evening. It's time to ramp up my schedule and really buckle down on what needs to be done! After all, I have to work, in order to continue to do what I like to do in my spare time (at this time, anyways...) and so I've got to really pull myself together and not waste time.
Saturday, August 31, 2013
A Review: Austenland
Let me start off by saying, wow. What a whirlwind read: I picked up Austenland because I have been avoiding Blindness for weeks; I started it and just couldn't get fixated enough to read it on my own. So, as Amb did too, I grabbed Austenland and away I went... 2 days ago. I finished reading this in 2 day, folks! I figured this would be one of those smutty "chick lit romances" that throws in this poor woe-is-me heroine who hasn't the foggiest idea of what to do with herself in terms of her love life and readers read as she awkwardly struggles to grow and mature as a character and then coincidentally finds love with a wonderful Darcy-esque man. *swoon*
I generally shun and abhor chick flicks/lit romances. Yuck. But, as Amb promised, I fell right into the rabbit hole on this one. I didn't have high hopes for the literary quality of the prose and I suppose that was the weakest point for me... the conversation style writing. It felt lazy and lacking a solid grasp of quality writing. However, I'm no writer and similar to my perspective on wine, if you like it, then that's good enough.
The story presents us our heroine, Jane Hayes. Similar to the target reader demographic, she is in her 30s and probably read Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice and then was introduced to the impeccable BBC rendition of the same story, in 1995; and like many of Austen's modern female readers, fallen in love with Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy a la Mr. Colin Firth.
(Note: most of you male readers might be completely confused about who this "Mr. Darrrcyyy" is and why us females swoon so much over him. It's ok, you'll never get it; it's a girl thing. We're all in love with Mr. Darcy in some way.)
Jane is down and out on her love life and through a surprise inheritance from a great aunt, finds herself gifted a trip to Pembrooke Park--a fantasy place where the Regency era comes to life and the patrons participate in a staged farce of Regency romance and a life of leisure. The reader follows Jane's story from starting as an awkward, damaged and unsure heroine. She becomes the heroine that we all want her to be: strong, confident and comfortable with who she is and what she wants.
The book makes a great premise for a chick flick movie, and that's exactly what happened--though I have yet to watch the movie that came out earlier this year--but lacks real "meat" as a literary gem and could easily be defined as being a quick and easy read that fits the purpose of being a literary palette cleanser; a break from something heavier. It was fun and thrilling for a P&P fan like myself but it certainly doesn't make you think or react viscerally like The World According to Garp.
If you're looking for a guilty pleasure rush of excitement, girly thrills and a Mr. Darcy fantasy, then this is the perfect read for such a purpose!
I generally shun and abhor chick flicks/lit romances. Yuck. But, as Amb promised, I fell right into the rabbit hole on this one. I didn't have high hopes for the literary quality of the prose and I suppose that was the weakest point for me... the conversation style writing. It felt lazy and lacking a solid grasp of quality writing. However, I'm no writer and similar to my perspective on wine, if you like it, then that's good enough.
The story presents us our heroine, Jane Hayes. Similar to the target reader demographic, she is in her 30s and probably read Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice and then was introduced to the impeccable BBC rendition of the same story, in 1995; and like many of Austen's modern female readers, fallen in love with Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy a la Mr. Colin Firth.
(Note: most of you male readers might be completely confused about who this "Mr. Darrrcyyy" is and why us females swoon so much over him. It's ok, you'll never get it; it's a girl thing. We're all in love with Mr. Darcy in some way.)
 |
| Oh don't look at me like that, Mr. Darcy! |
The book makes a great premise for a chick flick movie, and that's exactly what happened--though I have yet to watch the movie that came out earlier this year--but lacks real "meat" as a literary gem and could easily be defined as being a quick and easy read that fits the purpose of being a literary palette cleanser; a break from something heavier. It was fun and thrilling for a P&P fan like myself but it certainly doesn't make you think or react viscerally like The World According to Garp.
If you're looking for a guilty pleasure rush of excitement, girly thrills and a Mr. Darcy fantasy, then this is the perfect read for such a purpose!
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