I made a foray back into hacking during the 1st weekend in April. It was the first time since January I had been outside on horse back and I only cantered for the first time since January on the Wednesday beforehand. The viral infection I have had since December last year, which wasn’t picked up by me until my body began screaming at me to ‘JUST STOP’ during January has really knocked me out. Unfortunately my balance has been most affected and I have been so tired at the weekends that I cancelled many hacks booked with the thought ‘Oh I will be fine’, at times my lessons have been really tough and my instructor Claire has been brilliant throughout. One lesson I simply walked Wee Gem around the arena as two strides of trot had made me want to vomit, another lesson I cancelled two hours beforehand and all they want to know was if I was okay.
This meant the April hack was a real highlight for me, I cantered twice – both times just myself and the leader but the first time was really good and a decent length of canter. I felt really balanced as I was concentrating more than normal and looking straight ahead. The second canter #FlameTheWonderHorse felt I was off balance before I did and we slowed to trot pretty quickly. The gorgeous chestnut dude looks after me like no other horse can, with Twix gone my fondness for Flame grows each time I ride him. I felt full of joy for my hobby again until it struck me I have been riding again for 9 years! Yes, let me repeat that 9 years! Suddenly I started analyse everything – why wasn’t I better? Why were my nerves still around? Should I continue to do this if I can’t even trot in a group without being a little nervous? Why do I bother? You know the totally normal* things people say to themselves about a hobby.
I floated these ideas to Claire at my last lesson and as she stood rolling her eyes at me, explaining patiently to a 34 year old woman to stop being an idiot she suggested I set some goals for my hacking and my lessons. She also pointed out that I can walk, trot, canter and jump so really I can ride, I just still don’t believe it. To that end I have been thinking about what my new horse riding goals can be and have decided to set three and start to work towards them throughout the year.
Hacking wise I want to canter in a group, that’s all, nothing fancy just straightforward cantering in a group.
Lesson-wise goal 1: Learn 2 new dressage moves for flatwork, if Claire agrees I would like to perfect leg yield in trot and try it in canter
Lesson-wise goal 2: Jump a small course of jumps in canter. I don’t need big jumps I would just like a wee course. I haven’t done this for years! This one will wait until my balance is fully restored
So that’s it! I have written them down and will chat to Claire next week to see where we go from here. On a different note, I am planning on changing the blog slightly and will focus on reviews of riding establishments and quarterly updates of my riding – this applies to the horse-y part of my blog other posts will be written and published but I have realised that it might be helpful for other nervous riders if I write up where I ride and let them know my thoughts! Any comments on my goals or the horse-y plans for the blog I would love to hear them.
So last Wednesday it was almost as though my instructor had read my blog and opted to put me on P again – I reckon part of it has to do with the fact he is now available again during the week, the lass who had him on loan can now only ride at the weekend. Well it went much better, I had a better attitude coming in to the lesson and also part of it was I didn’t feel I could write another post so soon after the last talking about my nerves as regards P. 😉 Continue reading “The Nerves Receed (Kind of)”
Back to the riding and this weekend I threw myself back into it fully with my normal lesson and my dressage training. We are now working on British Dressage Introductory Test B which I find a lot more flowing but despite my fellow trainees (this makes us sound so official  rather than a group of riders just learning 🙂 ) mapping it out for me I still came unstuck halfway through and had to ask for it to be called out. I have Tx for these sessions and you can read about our first attempt here and then my 2nd attempt with Td here. Continue reading “Daydreaming Horses”
Well you read about my not-so good lesson last week, this week was much better! I had asked if I could do my dressage test training during my lesson since I had been a muppet and missed my bus on Saturday. When I turned up my instructor informed me that I was going to be riding a different test which involves 2 half 20 metre circles and getting the horse to stretch in trot – As I stood looking suitably bemused I was also told my dressage pony (the ever lovely Tx) doesn’t come back from his “weekend” field until Thursday so I would be riding Td but had to pretend he was Tx – cue more confusion from moi. Continue reading “Dressage Test Take 2”
Am and I are not quite friends yet, maybe acquaintances and sometimes it feels more like she despises me but more on that later.
My Wednesday night lesson was overall pretty good, some nice control and posture work – focusing on my head position which felt a little odd having so much attention paid to your head – plus some good canters and general bend work which is coming along ok BUT I am still experiencing problems with getting my weight evenly down both legs. Continue reading “A Wee Horse-y Update and a Question”
A quick mid-week horsey update. I had a lovely private lesson yesterday on Tx. I haven’t had private lesson in a couple of weeks so it was great to get one in, unfortunately it is now pitch black by the time I get to the stables and it is floodlight time in the school. Yesterday it was windy, windy, windy and with horses in adjoining fields, lights and funny noises coming from the yard as my instructor put it “all a horse needs to try and take the p%**!’. So I didn’t let him! Continue reading “Cantering in the dark (kind of)”
Apologies for the delay in writing this post it is almost time for my next riding update! Also I managed to get no pictures whatsoever but it was horrible weather and we ended up finishing in the dark so to be fair the pictures would have been terrible 🙂
So last week, well it was a day of two halves – a lesson and a wee bit of a dressage test interspersed with me picking up horse poo, cleaning tack and grooming –  oh the joys of helping out at the stables. Continue reading “The School Master and the Upstart”
Saturday was an interesting one. I set out with my friend for a 60 mile cycle out from Edinburgh to the Falkirk Wheel and back. Now to me 60 miles is a lot, a lot a lot. The furthest I have ever cycled prior to this being the 24 miles to and from the stables last Sunday after which I fell asleep on my living room floor. Still, we had promised to do this route since our attempt in August failed and as Saturday dawned with gorgeous blue skies and sunshine we couldn’t have picked a better day!
The route from Edinburgh to the Falkirk Wheel follows the tow path along the canal and is pretty flat for the whole route, but that doesn’t mean boring. The scenery was beautiful and it was relatively quiet although when we approached one of the towns along the route it did get a little busier. After the punctures fiasco of last time this time we were fine and seemed to making quite good time, we stopped in Linlithgow for five minutes and realised that our calculations on distance had been slightly off! Looking at the distance we had come (26.5 miles) and the distance still to go to the wheel (11.5 miles) something didn’t add up to the 60 miles. We both felt fine though and as we had set out to cycle to the Falkirk Wheel we decided to cycle on wards and when we arrived back in Linlithgow we could hop on a train then.
There is a horrible tunnel for about half a mile on this route, I had randomly had a check on the internet about this route and it had recommended lights and thank god it had! My night vision is close to non-existent and I find tunnels very disorientating so I was pleased to arrive out the other side into the sunshine in one piece and without having taken an unexpected bath! When we arrived at the Falkirk Wheel it was great, a busy place with families and tourists enjoying the autumn sunshine, it was lovely.
After some average food – I wouldn’t write home about it but it gave me energy – we then enjoyed an ice cream slider in the sunshine. That was awesome and a real plus side to cycling rather than running (not often allowed to stop and eat ice cream).
On the cycle back we stopped for a little longer on Scotland’s highest aqueduct to enjoy the view.
Back in Linlithgow I was feeling ok so we decided to cycle the whole return journey but whew at the 60 odd mile mark my right arm started to really seize up, it wasn’t a problem just more of a niggle that meant we had to slow a bit and I kept stretching it while on the bike. Once back in Edinburgh I couldn’t help cheering as we cycled through the city centre we did every so often just shout out ’75 miles’ at startled shoppers but I was soo chuffed. I loved it, definitely going to do more cycling – it was just great fun. Even once I am back running I want to continue to cycle.
So a quick riding update as well. Since clearly cycling 75 miles wasn’t enough for me in one weekend I also had my normal horse riding lesson on Sunday. I felt surprisingly good –  Monday I was a wreck but that’s different – and I was given Td. I love Td, I always forget how much I enjoy riding him but he makes me smile, he makes me work but makes me smile. He was in a sluggish mood as I took him out his stable, he just kept giving me a look implying that I was terrible for taking him to the mounting block.
This week there was an interesting addition to the lesson, the lunge whip that my instructor was holding in the middle of the school. This was mainly to get MJ to move but it had a similar effect on all the horses all of whom were a bit slow mainly down to the heat. It has been pretty cold then suddenly back up to the mid-teens. Td’s reaction was very funny, while all the others simply trotted faster Td decided we should canter and set off down the school. I had him under control but it was very funny as he kept half an eye on the instructor at all times and during the canter exercises kept skipping to the side to avoid being even in the same half of the school. Due to my injuries of late a lot of focus was on me getting myself sitting straight and back in the saddle. I have really tight hips at the minute but hoping that this will improve as it is making me bounce more in the canter than I am used to. Once I got the correct seat with Td we were flying in the canter, he is so eager to please and will always try – although when I think about it I think we have unexpectedly cantered every time I ride Td. It was a really fun lesson although we didn’t work on anything in particular I really enjoyed the combination of sunshine and Td!
An older picture but a good one! Smile Td!
A couple of pieces of riding news I am upping my riding to twice a week, which should be interesting. I am hoping for a clear improvement and have my first regular private lesson today. The other piece of news is that there is a winter dressage league being started, which is similar to the dressage evenings I blogged about before but will happen once a month throughout the winter meaning we can hopefully track improvement and work on various things. I chose Td to do the first one on, a harder prospect than Am but still a good one.
Well today looks like it might be a wet lesson as the sky is darkening out there! Wish me luck that the rain stays off!
It has been a while but here is a post all about my riding progress. My stables are now on holiday for two weeks, the Royal Highland Show and the local shows are on and my instructor is competing at both I believe. A few different things to update you all on just now.
Riding & Road Safety Course
I have been doing the British Horse Society’s Riding and Road Safety course now for a few weeks. I have been learning all about the correct way to ride on the road and how to keep your horse, yourself and those around you safe. It is fascinating. However, I am finding certain aspects challenging, looking behind me enough and far enough behind me as I am not particularly flexible but I need to push myself around more to really be able to see any cars or bikes coming up behind me. I also have a tendency to do ‘jazz hands’ rather than the closed handed signal I need to when showing the direction I plan to turn. I also need to ensure the horse is walking forward smartly as sometimes I have a tendency to allow the horse to dawdle as I am thinking about other aspects. I have so far ridden Am and HB for the riding and road safety which has also been interesting as I have never ridden HB before. He immediately became bolshie with me, which I wasn’t expecting but I managed to get him back to listening to me. Once I worked out he is similar to Tx, hungry and inclined to laziness but with the added ‘I don’t want to do that’ element we got on okay and I had him walking smartly for me. I have another couple of course dates and a mock exam before the real one so I have a few more chances to get it all ingrained in my memory. I have also been practising in my normal lessons and very sadly on my bike when cycling about town. I am confident the car drivers thought I was mad with the grand turning gestures I was giving but at least it stopped me doing jazz hands 🙂
Regular Sunday Lesson
As I mentioned in a previous post I have injured my ankle, currently it is improving but I am limited in what I can do and it is causing me a bit of an issue at the riding. Sunday’s lesson for example I had to accept that my ankle was sore and I couldn’t do as much trot work as the others in my lesson. It was a shame as I had Ct and I think we could have done quite well. I got to spend some time in the walk bending him, leg yielding him left then right, putting in lots of bends and it felt great – I actually felt him soften in my hands and drop his head to me. It was also interesting to note that when he did get distracted and threw his head up I was able to get him back quickly and easily. So far so good…or so I thought. Next up came a canter exercise – canter at the corner, canter large, change the rein across the long diagonal, pull back to trot through X, then when you feel ready canter on again, then change the rein again on the next long diagonal, trot through X again then canter on to the corner and trot. Whew! Well I had to call off on that one, I wouldn’t be able to stay off Ct’s back in canter with my ankle – I was gutted it sounded great. All I was asked to do while my two friends worked away on this exercise was to place myself in the corner (with Ct) and stand. Simple you say?? Oh not if you are Ct & I. I just could not get him to halt. He was wandering all over the place and I started to get a bit panicked, what if he got in B’s way? B would not stop cantering for Ct even if it meant a crash. Me being the fool that I am started my refrain of ‘Errr I am a little worried..’, my instructor shouted back ‘Oh for god’s sake Steph he is just walking about, it’s not like he is cantering around or even trotting. Get a grip, halt him if you want him to halt’. To be fair she was entirely right and it wasn’t nice of me to but in while she was teaching someone else, I felt suitably pathetic. Thus chastised when she called Ct and I over to do some individual work I asked to work on my halt transitions and trotting with him, I thought I really need to understand what I am doing to cause various things to occur. For example my instructor explained that Ct thought I wanted him to walk on from the corner as I kept tipping my weight forward while trying to sort out my stirrups, so entirely my own fault. I also asked to do a final canter on Ct as I really wanted to and thought my ankle would hold up, it was great – more of the giraffe sensation again but this time I got him to canter around the corner beautifully and my instructor explained that is because I had him bending really well. So a mixed lesson in a way but good in the end, let’s see how much I have forgotten after 3 weeks!
Dressage Test
Now for a little more details about the dressage test. I did introductory test b as did most of the participants although a few did so well last month they graduated to the preliminary test which involves canter. The whole night was really good fun. I was more nervous than I had expected as we had been working on the test during the previous lesson and Am & I had done pretty well.
I had originally wanted to do the test with Tx but due to my ankle injury was advised to take Am as perhaps I wouldn’t need to push her on so much 🙂 Tx is a lazy wee guy but if you get him paying attention he is brilliant.
First thing to do was to get some correct width stirrups then I could get on and get Am warmed up. While I was away getting some stirrups from the tack room I heard what I thought was farm machinery being started up, it was so loud it gave me and my mate a real jolt and as we went outside I could see Am getting a little worried. All of a sudden there was a flurry of activity and we realised someone must have fallen off in the warm up area. That’s when we were told that it was a plane flying so low that one of the horses galloped off and threw his rider – no wonder, it was far too low and we reckon he thought it was going to land on his head. In fact some of the other riders were saying they thought the plane was making an emergency landing in the fields at the back! The stables did complain about this as it really is dangerous, they are meant to receive notice and it is only through sheer luck that the other horses didn’t all react as well.
With that drama out the way it was time for me to get on and get into the warm up area myself. That was odd, not having someone even giving you ideas of what to do and of course telling you if you had done it correctly. I started by moving her about in walk, honestly it was as though she had never been in that field before – everything got a good staring with the ears pricked forwards and some kids in the field well that deserved a stationary stare. After a couple of minutes I was feeling happier and started working on the bends with her. Doing circles, changes of rein and leg yielding her. I was also practising halting her and getting her to stand square – that horse loves to wander. It felt like ages that I was warming up for but I think that was because I really wanted to get in and started, finally the call came for me and Am to enter the school.
It started badly in the sense that the lass calling the test for me had gone to put her horse out and was in the furthest away fields with no idea that I needed her. Cue lots of people rushing to try and find her. I tried to amuse Am and keep her warmed up by working on trotting but I was getting quite nervous and was forgetting to do anything other than trot around and around. My caller appeared running into the school and begining to call the test on her way to the corner, she is so sweet and so funny honestly it just made me giggle. So ‘ding ding’ time to start!
Well our move up the centre line to enter was a bit wiggly and I didn’t make it to C, I turned far too soon. My 20m circles were really pretty good and my transitions to walk then back to trot were okay as well although I was in walk for too long on one rein. Throughout the first half of the test I had a great quality trot from Am and a decent walk initially for the walking section but then we lost compulsion. I can see on the video (oh yes we videoed everyone, if this blog allowed videos you could be laughing at some interesting dressage right now!) that I started to shove with my butt during the walking section and I think that’s what lost me the energy we had. I think I would have been better to use the whip once to get her attention and then I would have stopped the kicking. I did ask my instructor if I often shoved like this in walk but she said no and believes it is something to do with my ankle.
Before I knew it we were coming up the centre line in trot, back to walk at X (that was a nice transition) and halting at G. Unfortunately she didn’t stand square but given that Am hates standing still the fact she stood while I saluted was impressive enough for me. Back into the warm up area for a cool down and I was relieved it was over and quite happy with how I had done, I knew I had lost energy and I had thought some of my circles might have been squint but at least I had remember my left from my right! Once I dismounted I did the most important thing and grab a picture with the beautiful horse I was on then went to watch my friends.
Don’t we look smart? All smiles afterwards!
They all did brilliantly, they were on much tough horses to bend and keep moving than Am. In fact one of my mates was riding the horse that spooked earlier in the evening, however she rides that horse so well that the test looked effortless.
There was a wee prize giving later on so we hung around for that and to watch everyone else. Unfortunately I didn’t get placed – I was only a point away but still I was a little disappointed as Am is such a brilliant horse and frankly if I had put her in the school by herself she could have done that test 🙂
I did get a rosette, a Special rosette for taking part! Honestly it counts against me that I was really chuffed with it. But more excitingly two of my friends got placed – 2nd & 3rd!!! They totally deserved it. I on the other-hand now have bits of paper to help me work on getting placed next month. The only way is up!
The Inelegant Horse Rider 