Goodbye, youth
Last Tuesday's lesson wasn't too bad considering I'd only ridden Clover once since ... oh, wait. I was sick last week so let me think. Well, at any rate, I've only ridden a handful of times since my last lesson two weeks ago, and the last ride before this most recent lesson was only a hack--mostly at the walk with a little trot.
Anyhoo, Michele, my instructor, certainly understands the occasional unavoidability of lowered expectations in the winter here in the northeast, so by those standards we did pretty good. By the end Clover was forward and fairly steady into the bridle, thanks to some pole work after we'd warmed up. I didn't lunge her before getting on, only because it had gotten so cold that I needed to get moving, and if I stood around lunging I'd be too stiff to have any kind of a good ride. So we warmed up on a very loose rein, just going forward and gradually taking up the contact and working from the rail down to a 20 meter circle and eventually to some spiralling into and out of a 15 meter circle at the trot and canter, with some leg yield on the circles thrown in for good measure.
Once we warmed up, Michele put out two ground poles, one at 3:00 and 6:00 of a 15 meter circle, and had me trot over only one pole at at time while riding a correct figure and maintaining a proper bend at the trot and then the canter in both directions over one pole and the other. As my aids became clearer and Clover came through to the bit, Michele had us cantering over both poles--no problem for Clover, who's used to jumping gymnastics. In fact, I had to steer her away from the pole we weren't using in an exercise; she'd gravitate towards any pole to go over if I wasn't sharp with the aids.
Last night, I watched the video of the lesson and saw how much stronger I need to be with my core--abs and seat. My overall seat is improving, legs, arms are getting better, but as I get older, my strength is ebbing away. Riding by itself is no longer enough to keep me fit for riding (go figure)--especially riding once or three times a week (in the winter), not if I'm getting ready to do an event at the end of April. I have to supplement the riding with strength training and cardio, and get back into a regular yoga routine again. Goodbye, youth.
Anyhoo, Michele, my instructor, certainly understands the occasional unavoidability of lowered expectations in the winter here in the northeast, so by those standards we did pretty good. By the end Clover was forward and fairly steady into the bridle, thanks to some pole work after we'd warmed up. I didn't lunge her before getting on, only because it had gotten so cold that I needed to get moving, and if I stood around lunging I'd be too stiff to have any kind of a good ride. So we warmed up on a very loose rein, just going forward and gradually taking up the contact and working from the rail down to a 20 meter circle and eventually to some spiralling into and out of a 15 meter circle at the trot and canter, with some leg yield on the circles thrown in for good measure.
Once we warmed up, Michele put out two ground poles, one at 3:00 and 6:00 of a 15 meter circle, and had me trot over only one pole at at time while riding a correct figure and maintaining a proper bend at the trot and then the canter in both directions over one pole and the other. As my aids became clearer and Clover came through to the bit, Michele had us cantering over both poles--no problem for Clover, who's used to jumping gymnastics. In fact, I had to steer her away from the pole we weren't using in an exercise; she'd gravitate towards any pole to go over if I wasn't sharp with the aids.
Last night, I watched the video of the lesson and saw how much stronger I need to be with my core--abs and seat. My overall seat is improving, legs, arms are getting better, but as I get older, my strength is ebbing away. Riding by itself is no longer enough to keep me fit for riding (go figure)--especially riding once or three times a week (in the winter), not if I'm getting ready to do an event at the end of April. I have to supplement the riding with strength training and cardio, and get back into a regular yoga routine again. Goodbye, youth.
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