I had my first lesson in a really, really long time last night. Usually another girl from the barn and I take lessons together which is fun. We can watch and learn from the other and half way through our instructor has us switch horses so we can get a feel for different ones. But last night I was solo which was great. I had the whole arena to myself.
The Pinecone was fantastic and he worked so hard. My instructor is having me school with two dressage whips so I don’t have to worry about switching over every time we change direction (Especially helpful when doing serpentines!) We did LOTS of 20 meter circles at the trot. We would do a 20 meter circle at A then continue on the rail and do another at E, and another at C. when we got to M she had me go up into 2 point and really get him moving out into a bigger stride then we would continue doing circles at A, B and C.
My instructor said that Piney is probably the prettiest mover in her barn. She then caught herself and said “well ONE of the many pretty movers at in the barn”. She said that even when he is being his normal pokey, lazy self he just really over-tracks and has such fantastic movement.
The Coneman has trouble going to the left, undoubtedly from years of going to the right at high rates of speed. So he tends to drift off the rail when going to the left. We worked hard on keeping him there. Whenever he started to drift she told me to make a lot of noise with my inside foot to push him back to the rail. It WORKED! Hahaha. I guess I never really thought about doing that. I always tried to use my hands. That’s another thing I need to work on…shortening my reins…I always feel like I’m smothering him if I have short reins, I think that goes back to my old horse. If I had tight reins on him, he’d FLIP OUT, must have been a western pleasure thing. But she assured me that he was fine with shorter reins and that I have quiet enough hands so he wasn’t going to flip out.
We Then went on to do our Intro A and B tests. I think they were his best tests yet! Too bad we weren’t being tested!
Gosh I love that big red horse of mine! He really gave 110% yesterday. He is quite funny in that when we were trotting my instructor was cheering “YAY PINECONE!!” he picked up his pace and really covered some ground. He really likes having an audience cheer him on! That’s why my instructor thinks that if we bring him to a show next year he’ll probably totally blow me away. She thinks that if he is at a show and there are loud speakers, and an audience and people and horses all moving around him he will just get pumped up and have lots more energy in the ring. Guess we’ll have to wait and see!!
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