I hope no one was deceived by the misleading title :-D, no nude pictures here!
Friday, 19 January
Today was definitely the best lesson ever! We were an exceptionally large class for this time of day, with a total of six students. There was me on Montera, André on Astérix, Carlos with Lord, two other newer students on Juby and Catraia, and finally a lady that has a grey mare stabled at the school. This lady wanted to work her horse, so she ended up joining our class, giving Francisco (and the rest of us) a hand by setting the pace.
The weather as been betterish so, for the first time in a long while, we had all of the arena available. The ground was still lousy on the side affected by the rain, loose and deep, but usable non the less.
I had quite a hard time keeping up with the grey mare on Montera. Each step of the other took two of Montera's, so while some of the others were enjoying a comfortable sitting trot on their bigger horses, I was making a tiring effort to keep as still as possible on Montera's running choppy gait. At least keeping her close to the corners was easy, just a little check with the outside rein as we approached the corners to remind her that I was supposed to be making the driving related decisions, and a little inside leg on the turn itself. Circles, on the other hand, proved to be a little more complicated. With six of us, we would completely fill the perimeter with horses trotting tail to face. Lacking space it was easier to loose impulsion and control. On top of this difficulties, Montera kept trying to make a circle of smaller diameter than intended, so as to avoid the bad ground at the edge.
We had done the usual exercises at trot and walk, and were giving our mounts a break to stretch their necks, when Francisco froze contemplating something, did a quick head count and proceeded to announce that "I have something fun for you to do!" and promptly left the arena. That left everyone chilled to the bone, as you could sample by the amount of nervous giggles
! As much as I tried to half-halt it, my mind kept galloping ahead, in the middle of images of the implements of torture that Francisco had gone fetch. I made sure my helmet was properly harnessed and prepared to accept my faith.
In the end Francisco's sudden departure had nothing to do with the fun in our immediate future, and not only did it prove to be great fun, it was also quite harmless ;-). He wanted us to form up in pairs and simply trot around the arena - pretty simple isn't it? After all we'd all be doing much more complicated thing in single file, couldn't be that hard doing it in double file! Yeah, right!
We pared up at walk, but as soon as we started to trot, Astérix thinking André wanted him to get in front of the line (where they all hate to be - just like I do), shied and tried to back up, in the process pushing another horse into the railing. After the incident had been resolved we tried again, but this time we kept at walk for a while to get more used to it. Working this way is not only much harder, but it forces you to be more aware of what you're doing, besides having to achieve a finer control of the horse.
I started in the inside, where my responsibility was keeping the same distance from the front horse, trot along in a wide round trajectory and, on the whole, make life easier for my partner. The outside riders had to speed up during corners, or the inside ones would have to slow down to a walk to keep up. We would then slow our pace when going down the length of the arena to allow the others to catch up. After a while on a left rein we changed rein, still in pairs, an kept the exercise going with the roles reversed. Now, finding myself on the inside, my only concern was keeping position alongside Catraia. I had to make sure we were not too close, neither drifting too far apart. I also had to pay close attention to speed to make sure Montera and Catraia were head to head all the way around the arena.
All this work was a hoot, and we all had a great time. Montera was simply brilliant (maybe she was also thrilled with this change to the routine?) and after a couple of turns she understood what I was trying to achieve, and was most helpful the rest of the time.
When we finished everyone was satisfied, including Francisco. We had done remarkably well considering it was our first time at it, specially the two newer students that weren't even comfortable with the trot yet. Now the only thing left undone for the lesson to finish was canter work. We begun with solo work, with the rider in front cantering in turn to the end of the line. We all did it a couple of times and I was able to work well with Montera, getting into canter effortlessly and keeping a slow cadenced pace, comfortably resting on the saddle (with both feet on the stirrups).
My only hitch during the lesson came when we cantered a little all at the same time. The second time around, as I was inciting Montera to go faster to catch up with André and the grey mare's lady, probably unnerved by Catraia closing behind (she is very unsocial and tends to bite and kick the other horses if allowed to), Montera suddenly blew out of the track, straight for the opposite corner. She was going quite fast (faster even than what I had wanted her to), I tried simply pulling on the reins and that had no results. Half-halts to purposefully disrupt her balance and convince her to slow down were not having any effect so far and we had already crossed the arena. We were about to cut in front of the first to riders and possibly disrupt them (or even collide with them) so I had to do something fast. In the end a recent discussion here about turning a runaway horse surfaced in my mind, and in the spur of the moment I decided for it. I turned her sharply - a little too sharply for safety's sake - left as we were on a left lead. Forced to turn at speed we did a rotation almost in place, in fact it felt as if my body never left the same place and just turned around. We leaned dramatically inside during this "exercise", offering quite a spectacle for the audience. Even if ill performed the manoeuvre worked like a charm - convinced that I was a raving lunatic Montera though it better to do my biddings and cut the crap. We even found ourselves exactly on our place in the line, at the appropriate slow canter!
The lesson came to an abrupt end shortly after. We were back in trot and about to go back to walk for the twelve of us to cool down when, right after a corner, the line suddenly stopped. The grey mare's saddle had somehow slipped to the outside and the lady had barely been able to avoid a fall. She managed to stop her horse immediately, and by leaning on the railing she was able to do an almost, but not entirely, graceless dismount. The rest of us looked like a major highway car wreck, all over each other. We fanned out of the corner and I positioned myself a little way off, turned to face the others. Francisco and the lady spent some time checking the saddle, but I have no idea of what the problem was, because I was too enthralled ogling Juby. It was late already, and it has been rather cold for the last few days, so horses and riders were producing visible steam clouds with every breath. But Juby... he was breeding deeply and out of his nose were coming two huge plumes with around one meter each. The words "fiery steed" kept resurfacing in my mind (although that's hardly the appropriate way to describe Juby's temper !). It was the perfect image for that strange mixture of power, grace and control horses exude. After checking the saddle Francisco gave one final speech, I've no idea what about, as I was still entranced by Juby. How I wish I had a camera with me then!
Pedro Fortunato
Friday, 19 January
Today was definitely the best lesson ever! We were an exceptionally large class for this time of day, with a total of six students. There was me on Montera, André on Astérix, Carlos with Lord, two other newer students on Juby and Catraia, and finally a lady that has a grey mare stabled at the school. This lady wanted to work her horse, so she ended up joining our class, giving Francisco (and the rest of us) a hand by setting the pace.
The weather as been betterish so, for the first time in a long while, we had all of the arena available. The ground was still lousy on the side affected by the rain, loose and deep, but usable non the less.
I had quite a hard time keeping up with the grey mare on Montera. Each step of the other took two of Montera's, so while some of the others were enjoying a comfortable sitting trot on their bigger horses, I was making a tiring effort to keep as still as possible on Montera's running choppy gait. At least keeping her close to the corners was easy, just a little check with the outside rein as we approached the corners to remind her that I was supposed to be making the driving related decisions, and a little inside leg on the turn itself. Circles, on the other hand, proved to be a little more complicated. With six of us, we would completely fill the perimeter with horses trotting tail to face. Lacking space it was easier to loose impulsion and control. On top of this difficulties, Montera kept trying to make a circle of smaller diameter than intended, so as to avoid the bad ground at the edge.
We had done the usual exercises at trot and walk, and were giving our mounts a break to stretch their necks, when Francisco froze contemplating something, did a quick head count and proceeded to announce that "I have something fun for you to do!" and promptly left the arena. That left everyone chilled to the bone, as you could sample by the amount of nervous giggles
! As much as I tried to half-halt it, my mind kept galloping ahead, in the middle of images of the implements of torture that Francisco had gone fetch. I made sure my helmet was properly harnessed and prepared to accept my faith.In the end Francisco's sudden departure had nothing to do with the fun in our immediate future, and not only did it prove to be great fun, it was also quite harmless ;-). He wanted us to form up in pairs and simply trot around the arena - pretty simple isn't it? After all we'd all be doing much more complicated thing in single file, couldn't be that hard doing it in double file! Yeah, right
!We pared up at walk, but as soon as we started to trot, Astérix thinking André wanted him to get in front of the line (where they all hate to be - just like I do), shied and tried to back up, in the process pushing another horse into the railing. After the incident had been resolved we tried again, but this time we kept at walk for a while to get more used to it. Working this way is not only much harder, but it forces you to be more aware of what you're doing, besides having to achieve a finer control of the horse.
I started in the inside, where my responsibility was keeping the same distance from the front horse, trot along in a wide round trajectory and, on the whole, make life easier for my partner. The outside riders had to speed up during corners, or the inside ones would have to slow down to a walk to keep up. We would then slow our pace when going down the length of the arena to allow the others to catch up. After a while on a left rein we changed rein, still in pairs, an kept the exercise going with the roles reversed. Now, finding myself on the inside, my only concern was keeping position alongside Catraia. I had to make sure we were not too close, neither drifting too far apart. I also had to pay close attention to speed to make sure Montera and Catraia were head to head all the way around the arena.
All this work was a hoot, and we all had a great time. Montera was simply brilliant (maybe she was also thrilled with this change to the routine?) and after a couple of turns she understood what I was trying to achieve, and was most helpful the rest of the time.
When we finished everyone was satisfied, including Francisco. We had done remarkably well considering it was our first time at it, specially the two newer students that weren't even comfortable with the trot yet. Now the only thing left undone for the lesson to finish was canter work. We begun with solo work, with the rider in front cantering in turn to the end of the line. We all did it a couple of times and I was able to work well with Montera, getting into canter effortlessly and keeping a slow cadenced pace, comfortably resting on the saddle (with both feet on the stirrups
).My only hitch during the lesson came when we cantered a little all at the same time. The second time around, as I was inciting Montera to go faster to catch up with André and the grey mare's lady, probably unnerved by Catraia closing behind (she is very unsocial and tends to bite and kick the other horses if allowed to), Montera suddenly blew out of the track, straight for the opposite corner. She was going quite fast (faster even than what I had wanted her to), I tried simply pulling on the reins and that had no results. Half-halts to purposefully disrupt her balance and convince her to slow down were not having any effect so far and we had already crossed the arena. We were about to cut in front of the first to riders and possibly disrupt them (or even collide with them) so I had to do something fast. In the end a recent discussion here about turning a runaway horse surfaced in my mind, and in the spur of the moment I decided for it. I turned her sharply - a little too sharply for safety's sake - left as we were on a left lead. Forced to turn at speed we did a rotation almost in place, in fact it felt as if my body never left the same place and just turned around. We leaned dramatically inside during this "exercise", offering quite a spectacle for the audience. Even if ill performed the manoeuvre worked like a charm - convinced that I was a raving lunatic Montera though it better to do my biddings and cut the crap
. We even found ourselves exactly on our place in the line, at the appropriate slow canter!The lesson came to an abrupt end shortly after. We were back in trot and about to go back to walk for the twelve of us to cool down when, right after a corner, the line suddenly stopped. The grey mare's saddle had somehow slipped to the outside and the lady had barely been able to avoid a fall. She managed to stop her horse immediately, and by leaning on the railing she was able to do an almost, but not entirely, graceless dismount
. The rest of us looked like a major highway car wreck, all over each other. We fanned out of the corner and I positioned myself a little way off, turned to face the others. Francisco and the lady spent some time checking the saddle, but I have no idea of what the problem was, because I was too enthralled ogling Juby. It was late already, and it has been rather cold for the last few days, so horses and riders were producing visible steam clouds with every breath. But Juby... he was breeding deeply and out of his nose were coming two huge plumes with around one meter each. The words "fiery steed" kept resurfacing in my mind (although that's hardly the appropriate way to describe Juby's temper !). It was the perfect image for that strange mixture of power, grace and control horses exude. After checking the saddle Francisco gave one final speech, I've no idea what about, as I was still entranced by Juby. How I wish I had a camera with me then!Pedro Fortunato
