Going slow

A week ago I had a private lesson with Sarah Lorenz.  At the beginning of the ride I described Zoe's new habit - picking up this hoppy-trot thing after about 10 minutes - and that I was pushing Zoe through it to smooth her gait out.  Sarah watched and decided that really what I needed to do was a) keep Zoe mentally engaged during the whole ride, and b) slow her down rather than push her through the moment.  Slow down?  Not so easy to do!

Sarah's take on the behavior is that Zoe gets bored and fed up with trotting, so she tries to take off into a canter.  I, being the rider, need to take control (Huh, where have I heard that before?) and make Zoe go at the pace I set.

So we did lots of 20m circles at a s-l-o-w trot (almost a Western jog) and whenever she tried to take off, I just kept it slow, slow, slow and made her bend to the inside.  Part of the exercise was to spiral in and then side-pass back out to the larger circle, all while maintaining her bend.

Gradually, over the past week, Zoe and I have had better and better rides.  On Thursday she only tried her hoppy-thing twice!  My mare may be stubborn, but in the end I have more perseverance.  :)

Monte update:  His new owner, Laurie, is conditioning him for a 25 mile endurance ride that is taking place in October.  He seems to be thriving and enjoying his new life.  It is her goal to redeem his reputation and show everyone what a great little guy he is.  I couldn't be happier.

New teachers

Every once in a while a new instructor will come out to our barn; I've been trying to take advantage of this by taking a lesson if at all possible.  And yesterday it was possible!  I got to ride with Sarah Lorenz from Stone's Throw Farm. 

Thursday (the day before the lesson) had been BEAUTIFUL!  Seriously, I couldn't have asked for a more glorious afternoon - the sun was shining but it wasn't too warm, there was just a slight breeze and the footing in the arena was great.  Friday, however, did not continue in the same vein.  The wind was gusting, the temperature was dropping and the clouds were spitting rain the whole afternoon.  But I was determined to ride....

I came home early from work (like 9:00 am!) because of a crummy tummy.  I was feeling a little better by the afternoon and with the help of my friend Pepto Bismal, I decided I could make it through a lesson. (Besides, I can always leave my horse safely with the instructor if I need to dash to the latrine.  It's a bit more difficult to leave a group of students when I'm teaching!)

I always get irked when Zoe finally settles in half-way through a lesson so I gave myself extra time to get ready and planned to ride for about 20 minutes before it even began to make sure I had Zoe's full attention.  The gusting wind was not helpful, however, and Zoe - being the super-reactive mare that she is - was a nut-case from all the thumping and moving around of the junk pile that sits next to the round pen.  I decided that I really did not want to ride an out-of-control pony, so I ended up just leading her around the barn yard while we waited for our lesson to begin. So much for being proactive.....

The lesson went fine in spite of my rushy-spooky horse. Sarah had me working on trot-walk (and then trot-halt) transitions, first in a small 15 m circle and then in a larger circle.  My directions were to ride the trot at a slow, steady pace and the moment Zoe began to rush I was to transition to the walk (or halt).  Sounds simple.... :)

We will continue to work on this exercise.  By the end of our lesson she and I were beginning to achieve a better pace and smoother transitions.  But there is still so far to go. Sarah commented that I did have a challenging horse (To which I replied that she was actually being pretty good at the moment - that got some raised eyebrows!).

I'm hoping to ride with Sarah again next Saturday.