Wednesday, 2 May
Looks like we're not yet through with winter! The rain is back bringing with it the mud, forcing us back into the covered arena. It rained before the lesson, it rained after the lesson and it rained throughout the lesson!
Today my "victim" was Mefisto again. I think he's starting to recognize me, he really does! As soon as he sees me coming with his bridle he raises his head high
! I managed to convince him to lower his head but then he didn't want to open his mouth. It usually takes putting my thumb inside the horse's mouth to get him open up. Today I had three fingers halfway down Mefisto's throat, when he finally relented to take the bit - speaks volumes about my hands, doesn't it ;-)?
The class was all made up of forward going horses and the students, with one exception, were at my level or more advanced. There was only a student, riding Lezíria, that had less time on saddle than me.
Because of the good general level of the class and the smaller size of the arena, we had a more technical lesson. We started with lots of circle work in rising and sitting trot. Ridding Mefisto makes this work easier, but we still did choke a little on a right rein... Corners weren't a problem, Mefisto went willingly to wherever I pointed him.
Midway through the lesson we started with leg yielding. We would trot to a corner of the arena, turned into the AC centre line and yielded to the appropriate side. The first time I tried, Mefisto wrapped himself around my active leg like a creeper. More then yielding he ran sideways and we reach the limit of the arena too soon. Behind us Francisco was screaming "Leg, Pedro! Leg! Not spurs, leeeeeg!!". I was thinking that surely he must be wrong, I was positive I was not using the spurs. Next time around, as soon as I started to ask for the yield I looked down and back at my leg. Sure enough, when moving the leg back I had also moved it outwards putting the spur in contact with Mefisto's side! After all, I knew there was a good point for me having the shortest bluntest spurs possible ... I immediately corrected the leg's position and, sure enough, Mefisto stopped acting as if I had asked him to evade an oncoming lorry (maybe that was because I had stopped asking him to evade an oncoming lorry...). From then on, although my leg still had to be attentively corrected each time, we did the exercise well enough, to the praise of Francisco.
When we changed rein and started to yield to the left using my less effective right leg, things didn't work out that well. I still don't know why I work better with the left leg than with the right. I don't even know if (but I suspect that) the problem resides of the left leg tending to imitate the right, preventing this last one from working independently. After a trio of times, and with a special effort from me to relax the legs I managed to improve the situation, but not to correct it completely. We were never as good to the left as we were to the right.
The next exercise that we did also proved complicated. We formed a circle, and while the rest kept at it, each in is turn would leave the circle in canter, go around the arena doing a circle in the opposite side. Unfortunately this exercise forced us to keep going round in circles, and round, and round, and round... After a while Mefisto was so bored that I had a difficult time keeping him from falling to the inside - specially as I was getting pretty bored myself! And when our time would finally come to leave the circle he would do so only begrudgingly, wanting to remain with the others. That was precisely the idea of the exercise, creating a situation where the horse had to be cajoled into doing what we wanted. It was not just a matter of asking (which as we know can be hard enough) it needed correct and well supported aids.
The second to last try was the worse. Not because of the exercise, no... that went just fine! The problem was that half way through it my fly became undone! Now... keeping a horse in a circle without hands is still a little past my abilities. So, understandably, it was hard to close the zip, which due to the position of the legs, was broadcasting my underwear to the world! I managed to free one hand but was still unable to do the fly. Breaking up the class just to do it in front of everyone was not an option... I finally decided to cover it up the best I could with my shirt, and wait for an opportunity.
Soon after we broke the circle and cooled off the horses at walk, so I could correct this embarrassing situation.
Pedro Fortunato
Lisbon, Portugal
Looks like we're not yet through with winter! The rain is back bringing with it the mud, forcing us back into the covered arena. It rained before the lesson, it rained after the lesson and it rained throughout the lesson!
Today my "victim" was Mefisto again. I think he's starting to recognize me, he really does! As soon as he sees me coming with his bridle he raises his head high
! I managed to convince him to lower his head but then he didn't want to open his mouth. It usually takes putting my thumb inside the horse's mouth to get him open up. Today I had three fingers halfway down Mefisto's throat, when he finally relented to take the bit - speaks volumes about my hands, doesn't it ;-)?The class was all made up of forward going horses and the students, with one exception, were at my level or more advanced. There was only a student, riding Lezíria, that had less time on saddle than me.
Because of the good general level of the class and the smaller size of the arena, we had a more technical lesson. We started with lots of circle work in rising and sitting trot. Ridding Mefisto makes this work easier, but we still did choke a little on a right rein... Corners weren't a problem, Mefisto went willingly to wherever I pointed him.
Midway through the lesson we started with leg yielding. We would trot to a corner of the arena, turned into the AC centre line and yielded to the appropriate side. The first time I tried, Mefisto wrapped himself around my active leg like a creeper. More then yielding he ran sideways and we reach the limit of the arena too soon. Behind us Francisco was screaming "Leg, Pedro! Leg! Not spurs, leeeeeg!!". I was thinking that surely he must be wrong, I was positive I was not using the spurs. Next time around, as soon as I started to ask for the yield I looked down and back at my leg. Sure enough, when moving the leg back I had also moved it outwards putting the spur in contact with Mefisto's side
! After all, I knew there was a good point for me having the shortest bluntest spurs possible ... I immediately corrected the leg's position and, sure enough, Mefisto stopped acting as if I had asked him to evade an oncoming lorry (maybe that was because I had stopped asking him to evade an oncoming lorry...). From then on, although my leg still had to be attentively corrected each time, we did the exercise well enough, to the praise of Francisco.When we changed rein and started to yield to the left using my less effective right leg, things didn't work out that well. I still don't know why I work better with the left leg than with the right. I don't even know if (but I suspect that) the problem resides of the left leg tending to imitate the right, preventing this last one from working independently. After a trio of times, and with a special effort from me to relax the legs I managed to improve the situation, but not to correct it completely. We were never as good to the left as we were to the right.
The next exercise that we did also proved complicated. We formed a circle, and while the rest kept at it, each in is turn would leave the circle in canter, go around the arena doing a circle in the opposite side. Unfortunately this exercise forced us to keep going round in circles, and round, and round, and round... After a while Mefisto was so bored that I had a difficult time keeping him from falling to the inside - specially as I was getting pretty bored myself! And when our time would finally come to leave the circle he would do so only begrudgingly, wanting to remain with the others. That was precisely the idea of the exercise, creating a situation where the horse had to be cajoled into doing what we wanted. It was not just a matter of asking (which as we know can be hard enough) it needed correct and well supported aids.
The second to last try was the worse. Not because of the exercise, no... that went just fine! The problem was that half way through it my fly became undone
! Now... keeping a horse in a circle without hands is still a little past my abilities. So, understandably, it was hard to close the zip, which due to the position of the legs, was broadcasting my underwear to the world! I managed to free one hand but was still unable to do the fly. Breaking up the class just to do it in front of everyone was not an option... I finally decided to cover it up the best I could with my shirt, and wait for an opportunity.Soon after we broke the circle and cooled off the horses at walk, so I could correct this embarrassing situation.
Pedro Fortunato
Lisbon, Portugal
