Hope everyone has had a nice Christmas, and is enjoying the last days of this millennium (let's hope this time's for real 
).
Now back to the regular schedule...
Wednesday, 20 December
First thing I noticed when I arrived was that one third of the arena was gutted. All along the length there were long trenches dug in the ground, with the excess dirt set aside in small piles. Water was seeping from these piles and draining down the trenches. Presented with this scenario I was fearing for my weekly dose of riding, but Francisco assured me I'd have my fix. He had affixed a rope from one end of the arena to the other, with a loop and hook system in the end closest to the gate. The third affected by the rain was the one on the side of the entrance to the arena, so the rope had to be lowered to permit the transit of horses in and out, being stretched into place again when everybody was inside.
My mount was Asterix, and today was the first time I placed the bridle myself "This piecy goes above the two pointy thingies and this one in front. This other one goes around the nosy. This shinny piecy here goes inside this slobbery slot in the front end - and keep your fingers out or they might became shorter. And do try not to poke someone's eye out!". Asterix was anxious about the rope and shifted a little when Francisco raised it into place (after a due warning), and he would approach the rope cautiously at first. After a while he got used to it again (it was not his first time at the arena that day, so he'd seen it before), and although he kept a worried eye at it when passing close, he would not try to get away from it or misbehave in any other way.
I was the only one at the lesson tonight, so I had a pleasant private lesson for a change. Don't get me wrong, I prefer lessons with other students. Not only because of the social aspect but also because they present several difficulties a novice rider has to learn to deal with. An example of the "artificial" nature of lone lessons, was the ease of getting Asterix to make squarer corners. Walk or trot, sitting or posting he would go where I wanted him to, without the usual cutting-across-to-follow-butt I'm so used to (and am generally hopeless to avoid when the horses set their minds to it).
Half of the lesson was the usual walk and trot exercises, with circles and changes of rein. The second half was a lot more interesting! Francisco turned to me and said "Let's do some cantering?". I answered yes and grinned my best wicked grin }:->. The grin I usually reserve for those moments when I'm about to do something (that at least seems) stupidly dangerous. Not that cantering in the those circumstances presented any special danger (or Francisco wouldn't have me doing it), but looking at the size of the arena it sure felt exciting! Already small, with a total size I'd estimate as somewhere between 12.5X25 and 15X30 meters, the arena was accordingly reduced to 8X25 or 10X30 meters. The track Asterix and me would be treading would be made of two semi-circles with seven to nine meters in diameter, united by two straight lines with more or less ten meters of length. While this is certainly nothing for a more experienced rider, it was enough to get adrenaline pumping in me!
The cantering corresponded to my expectations. We would do those turns leaning in to what felt like 45 degrees. I'm never one to express strong emotions vocally, but this was the closest I ever got to shouting "Yeehaa!" at the top of my lungs! And when
things looked like they couldn't get more exciting... they did! We changed to a left rein circuit, and as Asterix prefers to canter on a right leg we started inverted more than once. That couple of inverted turns we did were about as exhilarating as whitewater rafting.
After the excitement had wore off I concentrated back on the work at hand. Trying to get Asterix to canter exactly when I wanted, without racing into it and on the appropriate lead, proved frustrating to both of us. After a while he was getting into canter without me even asking (I had used the same corner to ask twice in a row and he figured there wouldn't be two without a third) or he would resist slowing down after starting with the wrong lead. Considering the usual (and understandable) unwillingness to work of these school horses, I can only explain this behaviour out of irritation and frustration. With both of us tired, I decided we'd both earned our respective dinners and called it a day.
As usual I stayed around to watch an extra lesson Francisco gave to two first time students, and two others still on their first month. When it ended I explained to one of the new students how to take the saddle and bridle off Juby (a bit of a case of the blind leading the blind - but everything worked out in the end) while Francisco explained it to the other new student on another box. The (quickly becoming) usual routine of feeding, cleaning the last few droppings and closing up followed shortly. When everything was taken care of and Francisco went deal with the paperwork, I left... arriving home close to 11 PM - as usual!
Pedro Fortunato
Lisbon, Portugal
).Now back to the regular schedule...
Wednesday, 20 December
First thing I noticed when I arrived was that one third of the arena was gutted. All along the length there were long trenches dug in the ground, with the excess dirt set aside in small piles. Water was seeping from these piles and draining down the trenches. Presented with this scenario I was fearing for my weekly dose of riding, but Francisco assured me I'd have my fix. He had affixed a rope from one end of the arena to the other, with a loop and hook system in the end closest to the gate. The third affected by the rain was the one on the side of the entrance to the arena, so the rope had to be lowered to permit the transit of horses in and out, being stretched into place again when everybody was inside.
My mount was Asterix, and today was the first time I placed the bridle myself "This piecy goes above the two pointy thingies and this one in front. This other one goes around the nosy. This shinny piecy here goes inside this slobbery slot in the front end - and keep your fingers out or they might became shorter. And do try not to poke someone's eye out!"
. Asterix was anxious about the rope and shifted a little when Francisco raised it into place (after a due warning), and he would approach the rope cautiously at first. After a while he got used to it again (it was not his first time at the arena that day, so he'd seen it before), and although he kept a worried eye at it when passing close, he would not try to get away from it or misbehave in any other way.I was the only one at the lesson tonight, so I had a pleasant private lesson for a change. Don't get me wrong, I prefer lessons with other students. Not only because of the social aspect but also because they present several difficulties a novice rider has to learn to deal with. An example of the "artificial" nature of lone lessons, was the ease of getting Asterix to make squarer corners. Walk or trot, sitting or posting he would go where I wanted him to, without the usual cutting-across-to-follow-butt I'm so used to (and am generally hopeless to avoid when the horses set their minds to it).
Half of the lesson was the usual walk and trot exercises, with circles and changes of rein. The second half was a lot more interesting! Francisco turned to me and said "Let's do some cantering?". I answered yes and grinned my best wicked grin }:->. The grin I usually reserve for those moments when I'm about to do something (that at least seems) stupidly dangerous. Not that cantering in the those circumstances presented any special danger (or Francisco wouldn't have me doing it), but looking at the size of the arena it sure felt exciting! Already small, with a total size I'd estimate as somewhere between 12.5X25 and 15X30 meters, the arena was accordingly reduced to 8X25 or 10X30 meters. The track Asterix and me would be treading would be made of two semi-circles with seven to nine meters in diameter, united by two straight lines with more or less ten meters of length. While this is certainly nothing for a more experienced rider, it was enough to get adrenaline pumping in me!
The cantering corresponded to my expectations. We would do those turns leaning in to what felt like 45 degrees. I'm never one to express strong emotions vocally, but this was the closest I ever got to shouting "Yeehaa!" at the top of my lungs
! And whenthings looked like they couldn't get more exciting... they did! We changed to a left rein circuit, and as Asterix prefers to canter on a right leg we started inverted more than once. That couple of inverted turns we did were about as exhilarating as whitewater rafting
.After the excitement had wore off I concentrated back on the work at hand
. Trying to get Asterix to canter exactly when I wanted, without racing into it and on the appropriate lead, proved frustrating to both of us. After a while he was getting into canter without me even asking (I had used the same corner to ask twice in a row and he figured there wouldn't be two without a third) or he would resist slowing down after starting with the wrong lead. Considering the usual (and understandable) unwillingness to work of these school horses, I can only explain this behaviour out of irritation and frustration. With both of us tired, I decided we'd both earned our respective dinners and called it a day.As usual I stayed around to watch an extra lesson Francisco gave to two first time students, and two others still on their first month. When it ended I explained to one of the new students how to take the saddle and bridle off Juby (a bit of a case of the blind leading the blind
- but everything worked out in the end) while Francisco explained it to the other new student on another box. The (quickly becoming) usual routine of feeding, cleaning the last few droppings and closing up followed shortly. When everything was taken care of and Francisco went deal with the paperwork, I left... arriving home close to 11 PM - as usual!Pedro Fortunato
Lisbon, Portugal