Hello, I this is my first post and I want to begin by saying what a great resource this forum has been for me as a beginner, thank you New Rider people!
I'm sorry this is a bit long, I had my fourth riding lesson today and I'm afraid it was very frustrating. All of my lessons have been on the lunge so far, there are two of us in the lunge lesson - my daughter and myself, and one instructor. Mostly it has been going ok, however, today the horse my daughter was on was trotting a lot more slowly that the one I was riding, so of course we kept catching up to her, and my horse would go back to walk.
She is a lovely responsive sweet old mare, and the reason she was slowing was there was nowhere to go, the instructor kept telling me to use the crop, she kept saying don't be afraid to use it. I said that she was slowing because we were right up to the horse in front who was trotting realllllly slowly, so she told me to keep steering her to the outside of the one in front. Well I tried to, but we would get up level with the other horse with the lunge rope in the way and seeing as we were trotting faster... well you can probably imagine - so I was pretty bemused as to what to do.
I don't know how to make my horse trot more slowly, and when I tried to slow her a little she would go back to walk, and then the instructor would tell me to use the crop again, and I felt I didn't need to because as soon as I ask this horse to trot she trots! but we start to bump into the one in front! It isn't that she doesn't listen, in fact I felt that she was doing her best to do all I asked.
Well after doing this for an hour, constant stop start stop start Oh my I was so frustrated I was nearly in tears~ there I am thinking that on the lunge lesson as a newbie I am supposed to be concentrating on my rising trot, getting the correct diagonal, my balance, form etc and instead I am having to speed up, slow down, steer to the right and the poor horse is doing her best ..... I asked if it might be better for me to go in front seeing as mine trotted faster, but the instructor said that the other horse wouldn't trot if we did that
Sorry this was so long, I didn't mean to vent so much, but I would like to know if this is normal for a beginner lunge lesson, and what could I have done differently? Next week we are joining a group lesson for part of the time, but if we are on the lunge again for the other part is there anything I could do differently, am I not understanding something?
I'm sorry this is a bit long, I had my fourth riding lesson today and I'm afraid it was very frustrating. All of my lessons have been on the lunge so far, there are two of us in the lunge lesson - my daughter and myself, and one instructor. Mostly it has been going ok, however, today the horse my daughter was on was trotting a lot more slowly that the one I was riding, so of course we kept catching up to her, and my horse would go back to walk.
She is a lovely responsive sweet old mare, and the reason she was slowing was there was nowhere to go, the instructor kept telling me to use the crop, she kept saying don't be afraid to use it. I said that she was slowing because we were right up to the horse in front who was trotting realllllly slowly, so she told me to keep steering her to the outside of the one in front. Well I tried to, but we would get up level with the other horse with the lunge rope in the way and seeing as we were trotting faster... well you can probably imagine - so I was pretty bemused as to what to do.
I don't know how to make my horse trot more slowly, and when I tried to slow her a little she would go back to walk, and then the instructor would tell me to use the crop again, and I felt I didn't need to because as soon as I ask this horse to trot she trots! but we start to bump into the one in front! It isn't that she doesn't listen, in fact I felt that she was doing her best to do all I asked.
Well after doing this for an hour, constant stop start stop start Oh my I was so frustrated I was nearly in tears~ there I am thinking that on the lunge lesson as a newbie I am supposed to be concentrating on my rising trot, getting the correct diagonal, my balance, form etc and instead I am having to speed up, slow down, steer to the right and the poor horse is doing her best ..... I asked if it might be better for me to go in front seeing as mine trotted faster, but the instructor said that the other horse wouldn't trot if we did that
Sorry this was so long, I didn't mean to vent so much, but I would like to know if this is normal for a beginner lunge lesson, and what could I have done differently? Next week we are joining a group lesson for part of the time, but if we are on the lunge again for the other part is there anything I could do differently, am I not understanding something?
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