To read about Limerick's adventures in our group lesson yesterday, you can head on over to Hillary's blog, Equestrian at Hart :) The lesson involved me riding the lovely Houston for the second time ever, which was such a fun and different experience. I've ridden Limmers almost every single day since I got home for break, so it was a nice change. The biggest difference between the two, like I said in my last post, is totally their trots. Hill and I could never really agree on how exactly they're different, but luckily I think we both prefer our own horse. I said that my perfect horse would be Houston's canter (it's easier to sit) + Limerick's trot. Hill's perfect horse is Houston, exactly as he is :)
More than anything, riding Huer helped me appreciate how hard Hillary has to work to get him to look as good as he does. His head is HUGE and so heavy, requiring a lot of support from his rider. He definitely likes to be "held" and when he gets his head down really low, it's extremely difficult to get it back up, particularly with a mild bit like the KK snaffle. We mostly just did some trot and canter poles... nothing too challenging and mostly just to have fun and test out our new "rides." The trot poles were easy for us, but canter poles were definitely harder for me to figure out. Like I said, he likes to be held and supported much more than Limerick, so I had to find a good balance of adding leg and holding the reins. Limerick uses this as an excuse to break, but Huey needs it to stay balanced and to get a good distance over the poles. Getting him round was also nearly impossible for me, so props to you, Hill!
After the lesson, we went on a walk around the farm and Hue was a perfect gentleman, as always! We headed back into the indoor, where I asked him for some walk-canter transitions, which are so much fun to ride! Hill has done such an amazing job with Houston's transitions!! He's so responsive and quick for all of them and I even accidentally got some leg yields, which were also really cool to ride. Yet again, I realized how much work Limerick needs on transitions... I have a feeling they're all we'll be schooling for quite some time! That's ok though, I love having a goal to work towards :)
I'm making this a note to myself: work on
transitions until I'm bored with them and they're as easy and smooth as Houston's!!
If any of you have suggestions for ways to make transition work interesting, I'd love to hear them :)
Here's the video that my mommy was kind enough to take of our lesson:
And an assortment of pictures from the past couple of days:
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| Trying to eat "the Apple," AKA my iPhone |
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| PONY NOSE <3 |
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| His Christmas present, a carrot-flavored Likit :) |
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| Limerick's HUMONGOUS pile of hay |
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| His duds for our ride on Friday |
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| Huer <3 |
Yay! I would say that my perfect horse would be hurt the way he is with a little bit of limericks jump thrown in- since Houston's knees / body are typically on their way to the South Pole when we jump! Glad you enjoyed my sweet ride : P
ReplyDeleteSo we both have a little bit that we'd like to change :) Haha I love the Huester, but you already knew that!
DeleteA couple things you can do with the transitions:
ReplyDelete1. Do serpentines and instead of just changing bend in the center, change your gait.
2. Set yourself landmarks, and make the goal to get the transition before it. For example, trot at the brown jump, canter at the red lattice, ecetera.
Hope this helps!! And you did an awesome job riding Houston!
Thanks, both of those sound great :) He was certainly a different/challenging ride, but tons of fun!!
DeleteYou sounds like you had a good lesson and did a really good job :), looks like you both had fun. i agree with the above comment to do with serpentine thats what I do with Gatsby
ReplyDeleteIt was a GREAT lesson :) I'll definitely try it, thanks!
DeleteI agree with Shelley...
ReplyDeleteQuestion- is he slow to respond to you in transitions? Or what does he do?
I would stay that stopping (maybe a little back up) to make sure the he is listening and knows that speeding up at the trot (or whatever) isn't what you asked. I wear a spur and close my calf on Henry and if he doesn't respond, then a little spur it is.
Just some thoughts.
PS I love that you both traded horses! SO fun! :)
DeleteHe is extremely slow to respond and runs through them... however, some days he'll pick them up with no fight and have flawless transitions, even walk-canter, which tells me that on bad days he's basically saying f*** you to my leg!
DeleteI do wear spurs, but I've found that the only thing that really helps me is carrying a dressage whip to smack him with when he doesn't promptly respond. Thanks for your advice, very helpful :)
P.S. it was a TON of fun :)!! I can't wait to do it again!
Nice... Tell hIm who's boss :)
Delete