First Lesson!

Last night I had my first lesson with the trainer the UW equestrian team is working with, Deb. And it was amazing. I haven't really experienced what a real trainer should be like (because I may or may not have ridden with a crappy one my whole life) and she was really an ideal one. She pointed out flaws, explained the corrections she wanted you to make, and overall was the epitome of constructive criticism. Nothing she explained was necessarily incredibly new news to me, but it was all stuff I was rusty on (like.. a lot..) and needed to be pushed on. She also walked us all through some concepts that I knew in practice but not in theory, which was really cool.

Another girl from the team, not me, but this is Mr. Ducati!

I rode an adorable old man horse named Ducati, which is kind of an awesome name. He reminded me of Brownie in a lot of ways, the first being the droopy lower lip that just hangs because why not. He required A LOT of leg (more than I have, and getting him in a frame was something I gave up on at the walk because I just don't have the leg for it), had a big swinging bouncy trot, and a rolling canter that he got strung out through very easily.

Biggest things pointed out that I need to work on: I ride like a dressage rider with my seat, so I need to close my hip angle more and sit on my seat bones for hunt seat. I need to keep my hands up and reins short so they don't get in my lap. Even if I'm not riding in a frame keep my horse upright and pulled together with a more upright hand. Keep hands together! I spread them out way too much.

We did some trot and canter lengthening and then collection, which was actually surprisingly difficult although it seems to basic. Ducati was willing enough to move forward, but he would get heavy on his forehand and strung out and required me to pick up him and add leg to get an actual decent canter lengthening. He was super sensitive when I sat down for collection, but I had to keep keep keep that leg on because he definitely transitioned downward a couple times instead of just collecting.. oops!

We worked on going over a little crosspole on a trot circle to finish up. This was surprisingly difficult, as everything I ever learned flew out the window and I probably looked quite foolish. The first time around I was so focused on just keeping Ducati forward enough to actually get over the jump that I forgot about everything else (ie turning) and we almost ran into the wall afterwards. Oops. It took a couple more tries before I was able to split my attention between keeping enough impulsion and actually focusing on where we were going. Once Deb got after me about not keeping his bend through the circle I got my act together. Oh, you mean that if I make him bend to the left and then look left before and over the jump he'll go left afterwards? Okay!

I think most of it is me being on a completely new horse and not really having any idea what kind of ride it needs. But it's good that I'm getting this practice, because that's what happens at IHSA shows and I need to be able to look pretty while riding a new and potentially difficult horse. I'm really going to have to get my act into gear and strengthen up these legs though, because man all these other horses are just destroying me. After cantering around and then coming into the center while Deb focused on one of the other girls I made a remark to the assistant trainer about how I didn't have enough leg for this. And then she said, "Has it been a while since you rode last?". Yeah.. about 24 hours. Talk about embarrassing.