Lesson Recap

My husband asked me if he could tag along to my lesson, which was moved to Saturday afternoon this past week. I said sure, and asked if he wanted to take pictures and practice with his new camera. He was like, hell, yea, that will be fun! "Sweet!" I thought, "And I'll get media, along with him not getting bored!"

Waiting for the mounting block. He really is a good looking horse!

Our trot to the right is a lot nicer than our trot to the left!

We started our warm-up as usual, trotting and cantering in each direction. K pointed out that to the left, Riko is tricking me into holding my right aids so that he can dive to the left and evade my left aids asking for bend. She told me release my right aids a bit and to pony kick him a couple of times on the left to get him to bend. He finally gave in and felt like less of a 2x4 going left. To the right, he is so pliable and giving -- but the right is also my better side, so I think my strengths are compounding his weaknesses. Isn't that always the way? 

Not where I would've put the focus of the shot, but I like that he is trying to be artistic, and it's a really cool shot regardless!

Cantering, right lead. Riko looks so happy

It was pretty hot in the outdoor arena on Saturday afternoon, so we took several walk breaks in between to let the horses (and let's be honest, the humans, too) catch their breaths. Once we had cantered a few laps in each direction, the 8 of us (Sheesh, it was a huge make-up lesson!) lined up on the long side of the arena to do some jumping. 

I released, I stayed with him, I remembered to breathe!

I need to release a bit more when he's being good, though!

Happy ears!

For the first trip, we trotted in and cantered out of the cross-rail line on the opposite side of the arena. Then, we cantered in and cantered out. Riko was polite and honest both trips and I was pretty thrilled with myself for staying with him/out of his way on both sides of the fence, releasing in the air, and most importantly, remembering to breathe! 

K did mention after our second trip that my left leg came up and I goosed him when we landed after the second cross-rail, which is why he got a bit sassy with his head when he landed. So on our third trip, I really focused on keeping my heels and legs down. Also, the third trip added a vertical on the quarter line with hay bales underneath it. I stayed in 2-point and asked him to bend left around my leg as we turned, and then counted my strides and asked him to whoa a bit about 3 strides out. I was prepared for him to launch over it just to be dramatic but was pleasantly surprised when he added a stride for me and took it like a perfect gentleman. K was like, "Yea! That was great! I really like how he waited!" I really did, too!

I was kind of bummed that Martin missed the shot right before this!

Me telling him he's a good boy and him saying he knows

Martin told me on the way home that K commented, "I really like her on him. She works the sh*t out of him!" Which made me chuckle. I truly enjoy Riko. He has a great personality on the ground, and he has been really, really good the last few weeks!