Lessons

I have taken 2 lessons since my last post. Both of them have focused on getting my position back, getting my balance back and, well, getting back into the groove of it. 

I like the woman (we'll call her S) a lot, she's positive, insightful and she really seems to get where my head is at the moment. We had a long chat after my first lesson about what my goals are:

1. Saddle time, let's face it: I want to ride
2. Saddle time, I haven't taken lessons since 2001-2002
3. Figuring out how serious my passion still is. I know I still love horses, and I can't imagine my life without them or without riding. But, how far does it go beyond that? ie,
• Do I still want to compete?
• Do I want to ride more than once a week or once every two weeks?
• Do I want to ride often enough that a lease or half lease would be a good idea?
• And ultimately, do I still have the drive it takes that would justify me getting another horse down the road?

I was relieved that unlike the cowboy, she got that. She understood that my relationship with my horse changed because our situation changed, and that I need to sort things out and the only way for me to do that is to RIDE. He, on the other hand, thinks I just need to snap out of it. :) Maybe he's right, to some extent.

Anyway, the lessons started out with getting the shoulders to move, first in then out, and getting the horse to loosen up through the front end and come up from behind. The first lesson, it took me about 3 tries to get my body to communicate that to the horse I was on, and S exclaimed, "Ok, so you can ride! Good!"

From there, it went to reminding me to keep my hands up and let the horse come to me. The big one is keeping my upper body back - which I had less trouble with the 2nd time, in my saddle, but it's still an issue because my riding core is not strong at the moment. We did walk-trot-canter both times, but S and I agree that jumping is out until I am stronger and more balanced.

I left the farm last night feeling content, but exhausted mentally and physically. The riding I have been doing does not require much brain power, it just requires you to stay on! But I love that she is challenging me while recognizing my fitness boundaries. And, the moment that stood out last night was when she said, "Don't get mad at yourself because your muscles know what to do and you can't quite pull it together right now. You're doing great."

Riding will be kind of spotty for most of May, since I am trying to get down there after work so as not to lose any time with the cowboy. However, he is leaving Florida in early June :( and then I will be able to switch to Saturdays and be more consistent.