It has been a long road with Kasane’s various leg issues and our lesson today felt like a triumph over all of those things. She was bouncy, had hang time in her trot, picked up her canter leads really well. She just felt great. It was one of our most exciting lessons just for the sheer joy of riding her. My mom was there and thankfully recorded some snippets of our lessons. Kasane’s...
Continue reading...Lesson
Fantastic month of June
I have so much stuff to catch up on for June. Horse Masters Horse Camp was the weekend of June 16th and it was fantastic. Most of the month was spent getting ready for camp. Kasane and I were signed up for walk, trot, canter sessions — which meant she had to know how to canter before camp. Every available evening was spent at the barn working with Kasane and with Isis. Camp...
Continue reading...Sunday with the kids
Sunday morning was the weekly riding lesson. My last riding lesson was last Sunday and it went well. Unfortunately, my back hurt so much the morning after I had to stay home from work. Last night, I went to the company holiday party. Three hours of walking around in heels plus moving boxes out of my storage unit meant my back was a mess this morning. I took 400 mg of ibuprofen and...
Continue reading...Courbette Magic Dressage Saddle
During my riding lesson on Tuesday, I did an experiment: I dropped my stirrup and rode as if I was in a dressage saddle. Big different on how Isis responded. When you ride dressage, your seat is different then when you ride hunt seat. In dressage, you ride in a “balanced” seat: you sit back farther so that your upper body is up and down instead of leaning forward. Your stirrup length is...
Continue reading...Riding lesson
Isis and I had a riding lesson this afternoon/evening. I hadn’t been able to ride on Monday. I had to make up time from Friday when I left early to take Stella to the vet’s. My instructor asked me what I would like to work on. This was the perfect opportunity to work on problems pointed out by the show: How do you correct a horse who isn’t listening and is more interested...
Continue reading...Riding Lesson: Share the enthusiasm!
Isis was *great*. I mean GREAT. We were relaxed and rode the dressage test twice. She did very well. She’s learned where to stop and could probably ride the pattern by herself (even though we have only ridden it like five times). She stopped square and stood quietly. Only pulled on me once. Big improvement. The second part of the lesson focused on jumping. Isis gets excited and tends to rush when we...
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