Lesson #19 January 26th 2013

Hey guys!!! (and girls) Sorry i missed a couple more lessons!!!!. :)

Today was a fantastic lesson! Dandy and me are definitely getting along better!

We started with flexion, and walking on a looser rein. Then we moved on to rounding the horse at the trot. Dandy is fantastic as flexion, and he gets pretty round when you ask.

I have definitely gotten better at keeping my heels down, and that means I don't bounce out of the saddle like that day when I almost fell off.

We also did flexing and rounding at the sitting trot without stirrups. I always worry that Dandy is going to spook or something, and because I don't have stirrups I am going to bounce off haha. We started with approaching a jump on the long side at a trot, and going over it with a halt at the end of the arena. Dandy got pretty excited after the jump but I was able to get a beautiful square halt at the end! We went around again at the canter, and again he did fabulous <3  We did a three jump course near the end of the lesson, and we did it each both twice. Dandy almost needed a crop! He was so slow, and nicely went around the course. At the end of the course there was an orange cone and we were supposed to go around it. Dandy had a mini panic attack both times away from it as fast as possible! haha he is such a big chicken!

I am really starting to like him though (i didn't really like him that much in the beginning) Lets hope the next few weeks go as well as the last few :)

I also have a couple of private lessons with another instructor coming up in a couple of days. I will definitely tell you about it when I can! I will be riding BLISS!!! I love him so much. I LOVE YOU BOY!!! <3 <3 <3

Bye for now

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/167064/carriage-horse-s-rush-hour-bolt-renews-safety-debate

Lesson: Sometime after xmas break Date: Unknown

Hi everyone!

This last lesson we were taking it easy, as the horses have been off their work for a while. It shows too. The horse are always more jumpy, and fast paced, and spooky the week back after new years.

I was riding Dandy as usual, and he is looking pretty good! We call him Big Bird because he is a big chicken, its surprising how spooky he is when he is such a big animal. We only did some basic flat work this week, because of how hot some of the horses were. We had 2 newer horses in our lesson as well. Dee who I think is a chestnut Quarter Horse, and Luke who is a Percheron cross.

We worked on flexion at both walk and trot, and Dandy was going good around the whole arena. He only got skiddish a couple of times :) We all line up at one end of the arena so we could individually work on flexion at the canter. Dandy was fantastic!!! He really was a pro! (I love you boy!!) Luke got so scared, because he was on his own at the other end of the arena! He bolted, and crow hopped, and bucked. He ran straight in behind patches and hid between us while we were parked at the end. All the horses reacted quite well for having a huge horse barreling towards them! Thank god patches is a good old man <3. I thought Dandy would shy but he didn't! Yay Dandy :D

Then we did another group trot, and then a long reined walk around. That was a lazy lesson, but clearly it is better to work the horse back into the lessons, then to have someone get hurt!

Luv you bye!!

Volunteering!

This week I have been volunteering down at my stables, for a birthday party that went really well, and then for exercising, and schooling the horses. After the birthday party I got to ride Doc a quarter horse gelding. He was really sweet, and we worked well together. He was pretty glad to get moving after a week off. When the younger kids ride him, he knows what he can get away with though.

On the 31st I got to ride Dandy. He was really crazy, and so they free lunged him for a long time before I got on him. He was soaked in sweat after running so hard and I had to walk him up and down the barn isle for 20 minutes, before his breathing was normal again! Once I got on him he was really good though! He is usually terrible about going near the wall where the people sit and watch, but we slowly made our way over and soon he was ignoring it completely. He was pretty happy about the exercise he got afterwards.

We get to ride on Friday as well, and then I have my usual lesson on Saturday! Looking forward to it!

http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/lifesciences/staff/malcolmkennedy/malcolmkennedy/latherin/

December 15 2012 Lesson #16

Sorry for missing a lesson or two, I have been really busy! Not to mention Christmas break.

I am still riding Dandy, and as of yet I have not figured him out! Our last lesson we had before Christmas break was pretty scary. We had a course of 5 jumps with a combination at the end, It was jump 1 stride jump. I was pretty excited to get it over with, and see how well I could handle Dandy while I was at it. We did two practice jumps, and we went over them really easy. Dandy also had decided to cooperate so it was easier on me. We were picked first to take the course, and I had it memorized so I didn't need to worry about forgetting it (which turned out to be a good thing). We were to take the first jump at a trot, and do the rest of the course at a canter. The first 3 jumps went really well, and Dandy was going good. When we went down quarter line to approach the combination though, that is a different story. Dandy got very excited, and full out galloped in the jumps. In the middle I lost both stirrups, and he bounded over the second jump. Then if that wasn't enough he spooked, and bolted. I almost fell off that time :P

The second time we took the course, my heels went up and I almost fell off again! Our instructor asked us to go over the combination for a third time, and this time went better (even though I was still going full speed). I was pretty shaky after I got off him haha!


Lets hope his crazy gets easier to handle!

BYE!!!

http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Low-Angle-View-of-a-Jockey-And-a-Horse-Jumping-Over-a-Hurdle-Posters_i3699030_.htm