Challenges

It was a relatively warm and sunny autumn day yesterday so I was more than happy walking to the yard and hanging around, waiting for my lesson to begin. I was riding the lovely coloured Gelding yesterday so I put on his bridle as he can be funny about his saddle so my instructor put that on him and I led him out, did the stirrups and mounted.

He started off very ploddy and I took a while to get him going. We took the road route yesterday, that has a few grassy parts on it to do some cantering. My trots were not as strong as they generally are on my tall white friend and others as this lovely coloured has a very bouncy gait. It's beneficial as a rider, in my humblest of opinions that you learn different horses so you become an all rounded, strong rider. So despite my weaknesses, I know it's a good thing for me. This horse is very different to my tall white friend and then again, he's different to the bay beauty but that's just it, we should have all kinds of experiences of individual horses to make those weak parts stronger.

Slowly, I got increasingly more confident in the trotting and then we attempted a canter. My canters are not yet as confident on this horse, understandably. And on a few goes yesterday I pulled back on my hands. Some of the attempts lacked the energy on my part too so I need to work on giving him more leg and seat. Personally, I think that's a lack of confidence right now with this particular horse. He is much bouncier and that kind of throws me a little but as I've said, I need to persist with it so I can get better on horses that do have a slightly more bouncier gait.

My last canter was much better, my instructor said next time, she wants more strides, I need to learn to move with him more. Like I said, that's just time, I'll get it eventually.

We tried transitions on him and they were not as sharp as they are on my tall white friend, again, lack of familiarity and learning different horses' reactions to different things. Their personalities are also different so it takes time to get to know the horse and what they respond to best.

The lesson was still a good one and I was made to work very hard which is good. I learnt a lot.

After my lesson, I offered to help out at the yard and was thrown in at the mucky end, literally. We were piling up the muck heap and even though I've never done it before and can't see exactly what I'm aiming for, I didn't do horrendously. My aim needs working on but hit a few targets. I was given the brush to sweep up which was a lot easier, practically, although it was still hard work. I am not for one minute complaining and I know after years and years, I'll not be enthusiastic about mucking out and such but I felt like was doing something productive. I desperately want a job not just for financial reasons, although that's a hefty reason but because I want to feel productive and I'm doing something so those few hours, helping out around the yard made me feel very productive. I just hope I wasn't too much of a burden. Obviously, I'm not going to be as quick to learn chores as sighted people but I was thankful for the chance.

After finishing the piling up of the tower of muck, I brushed down the legs of a horse I rode in the early days of riding. He's a sweet older horse and was very patient while I got all of the muck off of his legs.

I then went to give another horse a full brush down and got what seemed like half a tree out of his mane. He was also very patient while I de-mucked him. :)

I love brushing horses and helping out where I can. I definitely felt like I'd got a good work out yesterday morning and really hope I wasn't a burden to the girls I was working with.

Its good experience to know what I'm coming up against when I finally loan or get a horse of my own.

That's all for now,

Thanks for reading,

Marie