trust

Although a little late in the game, today I finally got a chance to take a lesson with the barn's trainer. Haven't had a lesson since May, haven't had an intensive jumping lesson since last summer, so my expectations were set pretty low.

Trainer is super nice, we chatted a bunch while warming up. She just loves Pearl (don't we all?) and was excited to watch her go. We trotted around the whole arena first, and trainer talked about how she would like to see me slow P's step a little, to get her more to the point at which she'd be comfortable trotting at liberty. Slowing her down wasn't hard, but just something that didn't occur to me because I've gotten so used to her quicker trot, and don't normally have any eyes on the ground to tell me to slow it on down.

Next, we moved on to working on a small circle in the middle of the arena. We wanted to see what P remembered of her glory days, so we started off by walking a small circle, asking for bend with the inside rein, bumping with the inside leg in time with her inside hind to ask her to move her body. After a little face fussiness we got the message through in both directions, so we moved up to a trot. We worked on keeping the pace with the outside rein, and still insisting on bend with the inside aids. Trainer said that when she got fussy with her head, to just set down the inside rein on her neck so she would just fuss with herself. After a couple circles P had it down and was giving us some awfully nice, rhythmic, fancy, round, swingy, bendy trot. We started out right, and it was even easier going to the left.

We moved back to the whole arena for the canter. We started out to the right, which I was glad of because at the moment that is our better direction at the canter. We attempted to get the feeling of the same bend we had on the small circle at the trot, and came pretty close a couple times. Trainer pointed out that she was surprised the left wasn't our easier direction at the canter. P still prefers to pick up the left lead, but she definitely feels more balanced going to the right and trainer picked up on that as well.

I warned trainer that I was a crappy jumper, so we started off easy. We began by trotting to a pole-flower box-pole on the diagonal, actually the only jump in the arena we hadn't jumped before. We went through the poles off a left turn, then straight line halt in the corner. P was a little looky the first time through, but once she caught on that we would be jumping soon she was awfully perky. We worked on slowing her down in the corners and keeping the bend, which became more challenging the more times we went through and the more excited she got. Then we made it a baby vertical. P was very happy to be jumping, and trainer thought she was just adorable. We went through it quite a few times, keeping the halt in the corner. I got bounced out of the tack as usual, but maybe it doesn't look as awful as it feels because trainer didn't harp on it much. She said that I tend to sit back and ride defensively the last stride, and I should just roll forward and ease up into jumping position.

After riding through the single a few times, we added the outside line of verticals off a righthand turn. We came over the single, trotted in the corner, and since she was a little rushier that I would like we made a circle before trotting the line. Pony popped right over both fences and trainer was impressed that she had a lead change (although she did get a little extra excited about the swap the first time through). We did that a couple times, then added a long run to a single on the other diagonal after the outside line. As expected, she got strong and I got fidgety on the approach, but she sailed over it (trainer exclaimed over how cute she was, and Pearl was definitely on her game and very happy to show off). The next time through, I concentrated on looking past the corner of the arena (straight line halt) and just keeping her stride steady and not too quick and it felt much better. After that, we decided to canter the outside line, but pony had gotten the memo that we were supposed to trot in the corner after the first diagonal, so we just took an extra circle to canter both times through. A far cry from the run-her-into-the-wall pony we had over the winter! We ended on a nice note, with the second time cantering to the outside line and then keeping on to the single feeling much smoother.

Overall, I very much liked the experience and wish I had gotten a chance to get more lessons in sooner. Nice remarks from trainer: she said that P was everything she expected her to be just from looking at her in the paddock, and commented more than once on what a nice horse she was. I'm so glad I'm not so barn blind that I am the only one that thinks that! She also said that she seemed to be more of a one-person horse, and was great about just covering for my mistakes, which she might not do if she didn't like me so much. A very nice thing to hear, and I am so lucky to be that one person.

Poor halfway-shoeless pony didn't get ridden today, but I went down for a visit anyways. It was nice to just spend time with her on the ground (although 60 miles one way is a little far to make that a regular habit). I watched some lessons, chatted with BOs/fellow boarders (they had nothing but good things to say about the beautiful princess), cuddled with the pony (she loved it!), gave the dirty girlie

 a bath

 and handgrazed her along the pastures. If I lived close enough I would definitely do this more often, but unfortunately it's a little hard to justify to my parents. As a once-in-a-while thing, though, I had a great non-riding day and I hope my horse did too.