avoiding Skating and A New Technique for Me

I called our school owner this morning to see if we would be riding on account of the immense amount of ice still hanging around. She said, the lane, where we ride was OK but the yard was like a skating rink but yes, riding would be on. I arrived and asked to ride Shadow, you guys may have met this tall, white friend of mine on a video I posted here last week. He was eventually led out and the mounting block had been moved to outside our yard so we and the horses remained safe. There had been a path cleared and salt put down by the horses stables so all the horses were being led along there. I did have visions of mounting off of the ground and even though the tallest horse I've ever got on from the ground was 14.2 HH, I was actually not concerned by this at all. I know at some point, I'm going to have to learn to mount all kinds of horses from the ground in case I fall off at some point. We rode up the lane, along the farm route with another horse in front of us. She's being broken in I think and wouldn't go a few times so Shadow and I went in front. There was patches of ice but overall it was pretty clear. We did a first trot and I'd been a very sensible girl today and wore my winter riding boots that are a cross between a riding boot and a wellington boot. They're very nice boots, with a fur inlining but for riding, I find them too heavy and can't feel my legs on the horse properly. I don't know whether i'm depending far too much on feeling my legs through my jodhpurs on the horse's side but I really just don't feel comfortable in these boots at all but knew with the ice rink of a yard, I would have to endure them. I did find them clunky though and not as in tune with my horse today. My seat contact was good but I kind of felt my legs were flailing for some of the time. On our second trots, my instructor asked me to demonstrate trot transitions. I've missed doing these so much and was happy to try. My lovely pony wasn't as responsive but I had felt I wasn't able to give him what I usually can either today. Those hideous boots! At one point he decided he was going to turn around in walk and go home. I managed to win that fight but again felt little contact on my leg and I guess wasn't able to deliver the precision I'm used to being able to give when using leg aids. After our haphazard trot transitions, we had to try something new. Ask our ponies to walk on without giving any leg aids. Yes, a new challenge. I thought this would have been pretty hard but when I think about my lovely friend, he's quite responsive to the seat so I shouldn't have been all that surprised. I used my seat and only after one ask through the seat did we walk on at a lovely pace. That was definitely my highlight of today's lesson. As our second set of trot transitions were even more appalling than the first. I enjoyed our little walk home and just kept him at a nice steady walk, keeping my ears out for the new pony in front. I don't feel stressed or disheartened, probably because I know what part, if not all of the problem was today. I'll be heading up in the morning so lets hope tomorrow is a better lesson, although those dreaded winter riding boots will be on my feet to avoid doing a spectacular impression of a baby penguin. Until next time, Thanks for reading, Marie