Mapping

The most important picture in my life

This is Tank. He was an Appaloosa gelding I rode the summer after my sophomore year of high school. He wasn't particularly athletic, or smart, or even what I should have been riding at the time, but for some reason I loved this horse with all my heart. He left the barn shortly after that summer, and I haven't seen him since. While this photo may not look like much, it was one of a roll of film taken close to the end of that summer and not developed until after T left. Unfortunately, something went awry while processing the film, and this was one of only a few frames that turned out "legible." In this digital age, it is difficult to keep in mind that we were once held at the mercy of our film. Therefore, this picture represents not only the memories of that summer, but is a reminder that even with photographs, what we see through our lens is not always what we get. Thanks to Tank, for teaching me this, among other valuable lessons.

For good measure, this is Rex. He is a jumper but is laid up with something to do with his fetlock, I don't remember, but I walk him sometimes when I'm at the barn. He's a total sweetie, when he's drugged anyways. I hear he has some steering/brakes issues in real life though. He looooooves being curried, esp his face with one of those jelly scrubbies. He is GINORMOUS, I can barely even lift the saddle up that high. We walked for an hour and a half this Saturday.

Good lesson Saturday, wooooo

To start with: cutest poneh ever, y/y?


Outside line, vert to little oxer, lovely little grim face


Then a light rollbackyish turn to the white gate, then back over the red white and blue going the other way


Then we did the little liverpool, I was worried/anticipating so we left a little long and I'm way ahead


White gate again, good pony


Liverpool again, that's better


RW&B again


This is a fairly accurate representation of how uneven my legs get


Coming over the RW&B going the other way, you can see part of the rest of the course: Outside line (RWB vert to oxer), white gate, RWB again, back up the quarterline to the liverpool, then around on an angle to a bounce


Bounce. Felt much better than last week when it was only 2 elements; thinking/writing about it helps make the improvement for the next week. I like bounces 'cause eventually by the 2nd or 3rd element I can make myself not throw myself ahead of the motion


Last part of the bounce again


Pretty good all in all. Rather than holding my hand all the way through like the beginning of the summer, trainer is making me do the course, then tell her what went right/wrong and then fix it the next time. Which is hard for me to do, I'm really, really bad at "feeling" things in many ways, but I guess that's why she's having me do it!

I'm 5'2"ish . He's a cutie pony, I really like riding that size haha.

TL;DR coming up, scroll past the text for pictures of pretty pony horse

Tuesday before last I had an....interesting lesson. It was finally cool that day, in the 70s, so how'd we celebrate? Putting up the jumps and having me beat up the pony after his week of being used for day camp, durrrr! I have a slight (er, big) seeing-turns issue, so we did an exercise where we cantered to a single somewhere btwn the midline and the far quarterline on the left lead, straight line halt, turn right and trot an outside line going to the right. After we got that down, we did a little skinny on an angle, and trainer was like, K, now come around to your outside line (the other outside line). I was like, whaaaaaat?! because those jumps were still up from the last person who'd lesson and they were like a legit 2'9" vertical-to-an-oxer, which is certainly not big in the real world, but is definitely higher than I've jumped in the past 2 years or so.

Obviously, the combination of me leaning way forward and the pony not having done much work the week before, as well as not having jumped that big in who knows how long meant we did not go over those jumps the first time. Or, ya know, like the 6th time either. So, after trainer put the first jump back down to a baby vert, took the back rail off the 2nd, made me dig my left spur into him because that's the side he kept running out to, gave me the you-have-to-get-mad talk, told me she knew I was freaked out about the jump height and that's why she hadn't pressed it til now, gave me a stick and made me whack him with it like 4653839 times, and said "one more try and then I'll get on and fix it," we FINALLY got over it, and it felt great! No pics of that time, unfortunately. Did it a few times until I felt exhausted; the last time through he evn did it in the right number of horse strides lol. Did the little "ooh that was fun" buck after the line too.

So then I went away the following weekend, had to work this past Tues, and finally rode again Saturday. First thing trainer says to me when I got there was, "OK, you're riding Cooper today." Cooper is trainer's nice horse, a real horse (Dutch WB) as opposed to lesson horse. I have been dyyyyying to ride this horse. He is GORGEOUS. And really big, esp compared to little Splishy the hony. Warmup was good, Cooper has the most ginormous trot and I felt like a little kid learning to post all over again. Now I know why everyone who rides him always makes him do a little joggier trot than normal; it's because his real one is so damn bouncy! I hadn't cantered him yet but trainer came out and we started jumping. Issues of the lesson: turning, obvs. He has a much bigger "turning radius" than the pony, and so we had some issues getting a straight line to the jumps (x, 2 strides to vert, 1 stride to other vert), but got there eventually. Since his canter is so big, he barely has to step over the jumps, and so I'd get all ahead again. Reason #251719 I love my trainer: after the first couple times through the line she was like "I know you're all worked up about riding Cooper, I knew you would be. You're not going to mess him up, and you're not going to look stupid. Just relax and have fun." That's pretty much the sum of all my issues, haha. And then it clicked, and it was awesome, and he has this beautiful floaty canter, and I finally was able to just chill and let him jump up to me. So then we added another outside line after the first, and had a few issues with the turn all over again, but not as bad as the first one.

Pictures!

Just a bit bigger than what I've been riding


Getting ahead again, oops


hey look, when I sit up and bring my shoulders back he actually turns!


Ew shoulders, I think I was about to canter here. Yuck. My whole body is like the size of his neck


Still getting ahead, and the stirrup slipped back, I gotta get used to that big old movement!

Whew, this has been/will be a good week for riding! Didn't lesson last Tuesday or Saturday 'cause either my trainer or I couldn't get to the barn (those are the days she is normally there). This week though, she was working day camp, so I came out Tuesday and Thursday morning. Tuesday was sooooo hot, like 95 (shuddup, all you Southerners, I'm not used to it after a month of 60s and rain!). Camp ended at 1 so I got on fairly soon after then, ie the hottest part of the day. Smart move, 'specially because I hadn't even been on a horse in 2 weeks! Warmup was good, we worked on me getting my leg more underneath me, and circles because those are often an issue for me. And we did lead changes, suhweet...rather, saintly pony did his auto changes and I sat there, haha. Then, since it was so hot, trainer told me my course and said OK go jump it all before you get tired. So we jumped it once, then mixed up the lines a bit for another course, and by then I was basically about to pass out (I'm kind of a pussy about the heat, combined with my random nausea and my tendency to not drink enough it's kind of a problem) so we called it a day and gave the pony a shower and sat in front of the fan.

So, I came out again Thursday (when my brakes went out ) for another lesson. It was a hair cooler and I made sure I was very good about drinking enough water throughout the morning (made me have to pee like crazy though). A couple of the camp kids were so kind as to take pictures for me. The pony was pretty good during warmup. Even though he's a chubster and he was already ridden that morning, he does surprisingly well in the heat. Earlier, I had watched one of the campers ride him, and was secretly and terribly pleased that he went better for me. I mean, not in a bitchy way, but I always assume I'm doing everything all wrong, and it was pleasant to find out I'm not. I was not entirely on top of my game, but not toooo terrible.

Warmup. Trainer saw this pic and was like, if only we could keep that leg under you! Well, at least we know I can do it on occasion


What my leg looks like when I concentrate too much on just pushing it back and not having it under...toes go way out.


That's better, though it seems to have creeped forward again. Pony is cuuute.


Canter. Foot too far in the stirrup, another thing that happens when I am tried/lazy. It does look a bit worse than it is tho, because boots are a bit too long for my tiny feet.


Eh, looking a little hunchy with the shoulders. I used to be too straight and upright, now relaxing so much I'm slouching.


Leg at the canter. Still bracing and pointing out, but better than the trot.


First jump of the day. Better about giving with my hands than last time, but heel/lower leg is not as solid as I'd like it to be.


Outside line, approached from a bending line from the end jump in the background.



Outside line the other way. Actually this might be a bending line, headed towards the little white gate angle in the middle.


Same X as the first. Looks like we launched at it a bit maybe, I don't remember.


Little skinny vertical. Approached on a circle-ish thing from the jump at the end, then made a bending line to a vertical that was part of an outside line on the other long side.


White gate, on a bending line from the gold and white X.


Yellow skinny gate again. I was leaning forward which I tend to do when anticipating, hence the longer spot.


Gold X again, looking for my white gate. This is the point at which we called it quits because I was getting pooped.




A pretty good lesson. I'm still having some issues with getting the right turns for my bending lines, but that's something that will only get better with practice. I love having the pictures; it is so helpful to be able to look at them and debrief and think "well this picture we look great, I remember doing xyz here." Thank goodness for the digital age! Now I know what to work on when I hack tomorrow, too. Thanks for not minding my ramblings. It's good to have a place to write it all down