Impromptu lesson with Gail!/Lesson with S/HOME for the holidays :)

I decided to make this all one big post because I waited too long and don't remember all of the details about my lessons. So,

For a couple of weeks now, since we had the chiropractor problem that we originally thought was a behavioral issue, a local rider named Gail has been riding Limerick once a week. Her rides are a training ride of sorts and remind him of his job/improve his responsiveness. I have to say, other than the minor issue with the spurs, he has been fabulous since she came into our lives! I'm starting to get my confidence back (in both myself and him) from all of the negative things that were said about our suitability for each other, and this week has been full of great rides. He has been consistently responsive, willing, happy about life, and we seem to just be in sync with each other.

CVF girls :)

Our lesson was just on the flat, as I was scheduled to have a jumping lesson with S the next day. She asked me to start out by taking my feet out of the stirrups and letting my legs hang long, all while asking Limerick to walk on just with my calves, which was so hard. If I did it a certain way, I would get awful thigh cramps, which were not fun at all! I apparently rely on my heels too much to ask him to go forward... I also learned that I don't have nearly enough calf muscle. Then, G asked me to rotate my entire leg from my hip in big circles, all while maintaining my balance in the saddle and not using my hands to stay up- also hard, mostly because she made me do both legs at once!

Then, I got my stirrups back and started to work on circles of various sizes, getting Limerick to listen to me and figuring out how to prevent him from pulling me forward. I knew that I had been leaning forward a lot lately to try to keep him round, but sitting back helped a lot more and I didn't feel like I was going to topple over the whole time... shocking, I know. In fact, I think I actually got him on the bit and kept him there more than I ever had before (as in for the longest period of time on consistent contact). It was an awesome feeling and she cleared up a lot of things that I was unsure about. For example, if Limerick resists the contact and I get a little bit rough with him, therefore pissing him off... I never knew who was right in that situation, but Gail would say "you're right, he's wrong," which gave me confidence in my judgment and my abilities.

We worked a lot at the trot and canter. Trot mostly involved poles set up in a circle, which was fun and challenging. G made me first aim for the outside stripe, then the middle, and then the innermost stripe, testing my ability to be accurate/steer. Can I just say that we owned this exercise :) Then we moved to the canter, once again doing circles of various sizes and reminding me to sit up/back.

The next day, I had a lesson with S, which you've already seen pictures of. She was running late and it was starting to get dark, so we did quick WTC flat work and then moved on to the jumping. Lims was awesome, responsive, and overall really good! He had some funny moments in the corner of the ring... S's dog was yapping its little head off at the cows in the bordering field, but other than that he was great :) The pictures pretty much say it all, so I would refer back to the following post. I also mentioned last time that the gate that we jumped was two feet three inches, and I didn't get scared at all!!!!! I know, that's a relatively small jump, but it was the highest I've jumped in a very long time, so I'm proud :)

As the title mentioned, my finals and assignments are finished and I'm now home for Christmas! Limmers is all settled in at my home barn and I have my first lesson back tomorrow with my home trainer, E. I promise I'll update with actual coherent details this time, as well as maybe with some pictures or videos. This also means that I now get to ride with Hillary and Houston every single day, which is maybe the best part about coming home for so long!!