Drop your stirrups?

Beginnings of a gorgeous sunset after my lesson last week

The last 2 weeks, I've ridden a cute little home-bred chestnut mare named Wilhamena --- seems they call her Willie for short, since it's kind of a mouthful.

I stepped into her stall 2 weeks ago and she instantly started testing me when I asked her to back up to position her on the cross-ties (they cross-tie most of the horses in their stalls). I made her do it, and she kind of looked at me, like, hmm, maybe you know what you're doing. She tried a couple of other sassy things while I got her ready, but eventually gave up. K told me as I was getting on that she likes to test her riders starting out, and I kind of chuckled and said, yea, she didn't waste any time testing me on the ground, so I'm not surprised! K said, she'll act green, but she's not, so don't let her fool you.

Once we got going, I decided I liked her pretty quickly. She reminds me of Mya, from Florida.

The group lessons here are anywhere from 4 to 8 people, depending on the week. But they are surprisingly organized. For a jumping lesson, we spend about 30 minutes warming up with w-t-c, changing directions, etc. and then the last 30 minutes taking turns jumping single fences and building up to courses.

Anyway, in preparation for a schooling show that weekend, they were giving everyone a little break from jumping, so I focused on trying to keep Willie straight as we did a flat lesson. There were 5 of us that night, and we worked on a large 3 loop serpentine, working on changing the bend, asking for leads, etc. Kind of a basic lesson, but always good stuff to work on for tuning up cues, etc.

Last Wednesday, we were back to jumping.

While we were warming up, K looked at me as I did my sitting trot by her spot on the rail and said, "When I say drop your stirrups, you don't have to. She's really bouncy and wiggly, but it's up to you." I was at the other end when she said, "Drop your stirrups." And I did try it, but I instantly felt like I was sliding all over the place, so I took them back. Maybe in coming weeks I'll have enough strength to keep my body steady and also keep the horse in a straight line!

I wasn't sure what to expect from Willie when it came to jumping, so I still focused on keeping her straight between my legs and hands, and also asking her not to invert her body around the corners. She's a fun little horse over fences. It took me until my 3rd round to kind of get her style and stay with her, but we nailed it that time, which of course, was the last round!

I'm curious to see if they will keep me on her or switch me around some more. It seems like, for the first couple of weeks, they were trying to find a horse that I kind of clicked with. When K asked what I thought of Willie the first night, I said I really liked her and she said, "Good, you did well with her." I don't mind switching horses, but at the same time, I kind of like to get familiar with the one I'm riding, too. It's fun either way!

I signed up for the summer session last week, which goes from the week of June 12 to the middle of August, so I'm at least guaranteed a spot through the summer. I like the atmosphere of this place, but it is taking a little getting used to with the seasonal "sessions" of 8-10 weeks. My understanding is, if I sign up for a session and pay in advance, I'm good to go. I've adjusted my budget so that I'm not budgeting weekly but basically every other month for my package of lessons. Same amount of money, different timing. But, I guess because they have one of the local equestrian teams there riding during the school year, so it gets a little crazy in the fall and winter.