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Siestarama
Jul. 14th, 2004 09:11 pmThis weather is sleepy weather. Very, very sleepy. Lots of humidity, relatively speaking, and storms that hit everywhere but here, and today it went from 70s to 90s and back to 70s depending on where the clouds were. Ah, monsoons.
Keed is snorked with me because he wanted a long exploratory ramble this morning and I was too sleepy to do more than a short loop. Bo-RING! said keed, trying to get control of the steering and head off into the hills. I promised him a long ramble Soon.
Yesterday Capria got to give a friend a pony ride, which seemed to please both parties--nothing like your first ride on a Lipizzan to make you realize how truly wide they are. Later on, after nice visit, lovely lunch, quick run of errands, and race home ahead of a fairly strong storm, the lightning moved away and I was able to get Pook out for walkies. It became an Adventure when a pair of riders went past, one on a MARE!!!! while the herd was going bananas in the turnout nearby. He stayed comfortably under control, but there was much neck-arching, tail-flagging, snorting, and swelling up in general. Also, some null-g experimentation. Good practice, I said. He's headed for the shows not too eventually, and he'll have to deal with strange horses in large numbers.
This evening we had a ring ride. Bear in mind, this horse was supposed to be the one I handed over to the trainer to be trained and shown, complete with regular trips to trainer's barn to be In Training, and all the rest of the usual proceedings with stallions. Great plan, should have worked great...if Pooka hadn't Just Said No. He doesn't want anyone on him but me, he doesn't want anyone else training him, and he barely tolerates anyone else training me. This guy wrote the book on the one-woman horse.
So I'm finally accepting that yes, with my bad impostor syndrome and my equally bad lack of confidence about my riding (which I've had all my life), I really am training this horse. What's more--I actually can. I check in with Joni regularly, get input from Capria and keed, and listen to Pook when he tells me what he needs. And it works. Even if all my kinks and quirks keep telling me I'm no good and I can't ride and I have no talent and and and.
This evening was a good ride. The right-circle problem is pretty well gone. The left hand is mostly staying where it belongs and the hip tension that caused the worst problems has gone away. We're just riding figures instead of making a huge deal about them. Got down to a nice, wrap-around-the-leg walk volte (8m circle) with him starting to understand about bend, then did a half-volte which he thought was cool. Managed 20m trot circles without falling on our mutual faces or losing a shoe--he's still not sure about that but he's starting to allow as how I can actually help him balance. Trot in general is improving in balance and confidence.
And I finally Got It about keeping contact in the long and low (walk, not trot quite yet).
So it was good. He was a happy pooka. I was a happy human.
Keed is snorked with me because he wanted a long exploratory ramble this morning and I was too sleepy to do more than a short loop. Bo-RING! said keed, trying to get control of the steering and head off into the hills. I promised him a long ramble Soon.
Yesterday Capria got to give a friend a pony ride, which seemed to please both parties--nothing like your first ride on a Lipizzan to make you realize how truly wide they are. Later on, after nice visit, lovely lunch, quick run of errands, and race home ahead of a fairly strong storm, the lightning moved away and I was able to get Pook out for walkies. It became an Adventure when a pair of riders went past, one on a MARE!!!! while the herd was going bananas in the turnout nearby. He stayed comfortably under control, but there was much neck-arching, tail-flagging, snorting, and swelling up in general. Also, some null-g experimentation. Good practice, I said. He's headed for the shows not too eventually, and he'll have to deal with strange horses in large numbers.
This evening we had a ring ride. Bear in mind, this horse was supposed to be the one I handed over to the trainer to be trained and shown, complete with regular trips to trainer's barn to be In Training, and all the rest of the usual proceedings with stallions. Great plan, should have worked great...if Pooka hadn't Just Said No. He doesn't want anyone on him but me, he doesn't want anyone else training him, and he barely tolerates anyone else training me. This guy wrote the book on the one-woman horse.
So I'm finally accepting that yes, with my bad impostor syndrome and my equally bad lack of confidence about my riding (which I've had all my life), I really am training this horse. What's more--I actually can. I check in with Joni regularly, get input from Capria and keed, and listen to Pook when he tells me what he needs. And it works. Even if all my kinks and quirks keep telling me I'm no good and I can't ride and I have no talent and and and.
This evening was a good ride. The right-circle problem is pretty well gone. The left hand is mostly staying where it belongs and the hip tension that caused the worst problems has gone away. We're just riding figures instead of making a huge deal about them. Got down to a nice, wrap-around-the-leg walk volte (8m circle) with him starting to understand about bend, then did a half-volte which he thought was cool. Managed 20m trot circles without falling on our mutual faces or losing a shoe--he's still not sure about that but he's starting to allow as how I can actually help him balance. Trot in general is improving in balance and confidence.
And I finally Got It about keeping contact in the long and low (walk, not trot quite yet).
So it was good. He was a happy pooka. I was a happy human.
