Week of February 18:
Well, usually this week I would have ridden Riley on Tuesday and Wednesday, and had a lesson on Friday. Unfortunately, none of that happened! I have been sick on and off this semester, but last Monday I felt absolutely horrible, and had to call out of work on Tuesday. I did manage to do night check, but didn't get a chance to ride because I was just feeling so dizzy and achey. By Tuesday night I was starting to feel better, so I planned on riding Wednesday morning. So I go to leave, and hello flat tire!! I was SO disgusted. Thankfully it was only a $12 fix, but by the time it was all said and done, I didn't have enough time to make it out to ride and get back in time to prepare for my afternoon class SIGH!
On Friday, I usually have my group lesson with Ali, but I had planned over a month ago to travel to the Heather Blitz clinic at Cutler Farm in Massachusetts. It was a wonderful learning experience, and I kept joking with the two women that I went to the clinic with about how hard we had "ridden" all those horses all day! After nearly a week of no riding, it was the icing on the cake, and I was just dying to get back on Riley and get to work.
It seems like my illness is STILL not gone....just when I started feeling better, now it is chest congestion and sinus headaches. Great! But I couldn't help but see if I could ride today (Sunday), and Becky said that I could, so I am planning on going soon to ride. Next week I will ride on Tuesday (and maybe Wednesday if I can), have my lesson on Friday, ride Saturday night, and then have another lesson on Sunday to make up for last week.
So, that's it for now!
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Monday, February 4, 2013
Practice Ride, Sunday
Today, I rode Riley for my practice ride. I had a lesson on him on Wednesday, so I wanted to practice some of the things Becky had me working on during my lesson, one of which was a three-looped serpentine at the canter, with no change of leads. My biggest problem during my lesson on Wednesday was that once I started the first loop of counter canter, I started to tighten in my hips and didn't follow the motion of Riley's canter, which didn't help him at all in carrying on with a nice, fluid canter, or in changing his bend. Once I was able to follow more through my hips without holding, the counter canter portion of my serpentine improved some.
Anyway, that's one of the major things I tried to replicate during my practice ride. I found that the same thing happened-- at first I was tight and the counter canter started to fall apart. Once I was able to stop holding so much, it was better.
During my next ride, I plan on practicing this more, and also working more on lateral work.
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