Becoming More Natural

I had an extra lesson this week. I arrived to discover I was riding the lovely coloured gelding that loves to lean on your hands. So once I was mounted and waiting for the rest of our substantial group to go out on a ride, I made a pact with him, not to lean on my hands too much and I would give him an extra polo.

We set off up on the farm hack with smaller ponies in front. We even had to overtake one small pony to get in front and then I could hear the little shoes on that pony as the previous one in front of us had no shoes on.

He was not as forward as I would have liked on the first trot and yet my position felt fantastic on him today. Our first attempt at a canter was not great, although he had a fabulous forward trot.

More trotting was much more forward and I kept him back from the smaller ponies. I was amazed yet again of my position being so right on this horse as it has not felt that good on him before. Heels were down, I was up right and felt incredibly balanced in the saddle.

After heading down the cobbles and still feeling like he wasn't leaning on my hands as much, we did another fabulous trot. One more field was found and off I went in the best canter I've ever had on him. It was up there with one of my best canters ever. I was in the seat, I was in control and we had a fair few strides. I decided, I really like his canter despite him being slightly bouncier than many of the other horses I ride.

Our speed was good and I arrived back at the stables feeling like I'd had one of my better lessons. So, keeping to my word, he got an extra few polos. So lets see what Tuesday holds?

Thanks for reading,

Marie