3 lessons in 4 days

I went from not riding for 2 weeks right after Christmas to accidentally scheduling 2 makeup lessons within 3 days of my regular lesson! Makeup #1 was Saturday, makeup #2 was last night, and of course, my regular lesson is tonight. I haven't ridden 3 days in a week in a LONG time. I actually thought it would feel a lot worse than it does, so I'm excited to be feeling stronger, and I'm using this activity level to get back to my workouts, probably starting on Thursday.

Makeup #1 
This lesson was supposed to be with K, but her mom hurt herself on the ice that lingered after our snow storm, so a new instructor, C, was covering her afternoon for her on Saturday. C's style is a lot like K's, but she's very soft spoken and I had trouble hearing her. I found myself looking around to see what everyone else was doing several times. The lesson was mostly on the flat. It was me and a bunch of kids under the age of 18 but I was happy that I was able to keep up with them without having to walk and catch my breath! We did a lot of strengthening exercises, like posting for 2 and sitting for 2, posting for 3 and sitting for 2, posting the canter, etc.

We did end with a pole course and a small cross-rail. Riko was feeling fresh. He wasn't bad, but he did launch himself over one of the ground poles during our turn cantering the course, and I immediately halted him and then trotted the rest of the course, like K has had me doing. He doesn't get to act like that.

Makeup #2
This lesson was with the other K. I haven't ridden with her since maybe September/October...the last time I had a makeup lesson. She's tough, but she's fair and I do like her teaching style a lot. I think she really liked me on Riko, because she commented that I should lease him.

This lesson was a complete flat lesson, and Riko had been schooled pretty well in the morning, according to both Ks. It showed...his attitude was definitely a lot better than it has been and he was really great and a lot less sassy. This lesson had a couple of other adults in it, but was still largely teens. I find the instructors are tougher on the kids, probably because they are showing and helping maintain the name for the farm when they do.

K likes her students to warm-up by trotting in 2-point and alternate putting your hands behind your back to stretch your shoulders and build your core. Then she'll have us go to posting trot and alternate hand behind the back and opposite foot out of its stirrup. Phew. The last time I rode with her, I walked several times during the warm-up and was pretty sure I was going to die if my lungs and muscles didn't catch up with me. This time, I kept up for the entire class! I only walked once when I didn't quite hear what she said (geez, am I going deaf? Maybe it was the wind, lol) -- and the girl on the pony in front of me started walking. Apparently she needed a breather, because everyone else was trotting, so I had Riko trot again and carried on.

We did a lot of transitions from walk to trot, walk to canter, trot to canter, working on breathing into the transition to make it smoother and organized. It was such a great reminder and Riko really responded when I exhaled as I asked for a downward transition. Toward the end of the lesson, we were doing 1 last walk to canter transition, and he started to pick up the wrong lead (brat) and I must have adjusted my body just right in a split second because he lifted his front end and picked up the correct lead. It felt pretty cool and was a nice uphill, collected canter.

Not sure if today will be another flat day, but I'm excited to see if Riko is still in such a great mood!