Riko

The last several weeks, I've been riding Flyer. Last week, he was kind of a jerk from the get-go. I went into his stall to groom and tack him and as I started brushing, he immediately tried to kick me. I smacked him and growled at him and he stopped, but then he tossed his head most of the ride, tried to take the bit and drag me forward several times, while simultaneously speeding up, and was definitely unnecessarily full of himself. I told K he was being a jerk and she had just schooled another horse so she said, well, if I need to get on him, I'm ready. :-P I managed to get him more responsive, but it was challenging because he really likes a light contact and a ride from the seat, but when he was tossing his head, I was giving him a hard half-halt and a kick. It worked for a bit and then he'd forget and we'd start over. 

We ended up trotting a single jump several times while the rest of the group moved up to courses, and then finally trotted a small jump course before calling it a night. The big thing was forcing him to keep his body slow and his brain in his head! K mentioned afterwards that she had needed to school him 2x that week for being a turd, so at least I know it wasn't just me!

Sunday, I had a make-up lesson with the other K (due to having to cancel for work...Hurricane Irma took the majority of my FL teammates out of commission for several days and it was a crazy week even once they were all back online!) and she had me ride Winslow. 

I still have a new appreciation for him and I was actually kind of excited/relieved to be on him and not have to have my guard up! He was really good and after a long (and difficult!) warm-up involving a lot of 2-point and posting with 1 stirrup and 1 hand, we worked on a 1-2-1 grid that steadily increased from 2 ground poles and 2 cross-rails to 4 verticals, the last one finishing about 2'3".

Yesterday, it was back to my regular lesson, and I was feeling sore from Sunday. I stretched my legs a bit as I watched the group before me go and caught up with the girl riding Riko in the 5:30 lesson to let her know he was going again at 7 and she didn't need to go crazy hosing him off.

I don't know much about Riko breed-wise, but he is a giant! I believe he's 18hh+, chestnut with flaxen mane and a big stripe. Normally on a 16-16.3hh horse, I can see over their backs, even if it's just a little bit...but not him! It was a long way up, and a looooong way down! 

He's very sweet and cuddly and was really a lot of fun to ride. I felt like a little flea up there, but looking in the mirror, I realized I actually fit him quite well! K said she liked me on him, so I wouldn't be surprised if she keeps me on him for a while. She said he used to do Grand Prix jumpers, and pulled a suspensory so was laid up for a while, brought back and then hadn't been used for about a year, so now he's in the lesson program and they're bringing him back up to fitness slowly. The whole group worked on a ground pole course so we could focus on equitation and distances, but probably mostly because Riko isn't quite fit!

I'm not as sore as I thought I'd be today, but I'm going to do a little walking to stretch out and hopefully I will be able to get myself motivated to workout tomorrow!