Bit overdue, but I am officially knackered after a very long day. You see, I had the brilliant idea of booking two riding lessons the same day, one at 13.30 and one at 18.00, and deciding that I could just as well stay at the stable between the two. Hah. Never again. At least not in fricking December, with a bitingly cold wind chilling me to the bone, and at least not when I have two more lessons (tomorrow and Friday) to go this week.
Anyway, for my first lesson (a semi-private lesson with just two students) I was put on Gamir. Later I found out that I was actually supposed to have had Murphy, grr. ;P Still, for what we ended up doing, Gamir worked quite well. We concentrated mainly on collection and extension, and getting Gamir to actually lengthen his stride properly, with movement from his hindlegs going through his back, is pretty tricky. He’s always happy to offer ‘false’ collection and his stride easily gets short and trippy, and I don’t think I’ve managed to get him to move quite so well at the trot before. It really helps to have the instructor be able to concentrate on you almost all the time. The canter extension and collection wasn’t so good, since I slipped back into rocking him forward a bit when extending, but it was passable I guess.
After that first half-hour lesson, I had a long wait ahead of me, so I packed myself off to the at least decently warm cafeteria for some reading and chatting with the parents of the kids taking the next class. Then, when the time finally came for my second lesson, I found I had been put on Sammy and I also found out about the confusion earlier that had led me to ending up on Gamir even though I was supposed to have had Murphy. For a while, it looked like we might switch things around for the last lesson, but in the end our instructor went with the somewhat peculiar pairings set down by the senior instructor (whom, I find, can be very odd about these things at times). I was a bit miffed about missing a chance to ride Murphy, but figured that Sammy would do well enough.
Hah. Wrong. You see, most of the horses had had no exercise for three days, and I could tell Sammy was a bit frisky. Still, he’s an old, sensible horse, so I figured I could handle it. That is, until some idiot kids started throwing fire crackers outside. Spooked all the already frisky horses, and steady old Sammy decided to take me for a few whirls around the arena. No bucking, fortunately, but bolting is bad enough. Though, I later found out that I had actually been assigned Malupin initially, but my instructor decided that was a bad idea given how he tends to be after a break. Very wise of her, because he bucked and bolted his way around the arena with much more vigour than Sammy. I would not have had a chance to stay on him, I am pretty sure.
As it was, I dismounted for a while, because I had gotten so nervous that I knew I’d never be able to calm Sammy down while on his back. So, I walked him for quite a while (even ran with him when they started to trot) and then, when he felt much less tense, I gave it another go. Fortunately, he stayed mostly calm for the rest of the lesson (though I did finished up a bit earlier than the rest, because he started to feel a bit tense again, perhaps because I had gotten more tired and a little more tense myself), and I had plenty of time to practice trying to regain a good, steady seat. I even managed to get him to work fairly nicely for a while, with good movement through his whole body and a nice, extended topline.
All in all, I am glad I could pull myself together to continue riding, but I really, really hope I get Murphy tomorrow and on Friday. Two out of four is pretty good, but if I get him less than that I’ll be sad, especially since I missed that opportunity to ride him today. Plus, my nerves could use it if I am going to be able to finish up my Literature assignment this week, as well as squeeze in some shopping on Thursday.