We had a short lesson tonight, since some twits across the road from the stables started in with the firecrackers. Sara decided to err on the side of caution, since the lesson is mostly kids and a couple of the horses are a bit skittish about fireworks. Plus, a storm front was moving in, and they were a little "up" anyway. (Except for my pal Peyton.) So we knocked off 20 minutes early, and we'll make it up on Demonstration Day.
Peyton, the little twerp, was being a Pill. He started off with a nice walk, and we were doing some sort-of-serpentines along the rail, practicing the steering finesse. Then things got stuck. He would trot only under strenuous exertion (from me), start off with a power trot or a stride of loping, and then, when we tried to cut across the arena (instead of running down the kid in front of us), would sputter into a walk and wander to the right with me trying to get him back to a trot or turn him to the left. He almost wandered into Sara #2 (junior instructor) twice. I don't have the leg strength right now to encourage him enough, apparently. So Sara (#1, the boss) got on him for 5 or 10 minutes and they had a little Come to Jesus meeting. She had to work at it too, so I don't feel too bad.
But, after their little talk, I got back on, with a crop just in case, and he was much better. The other five students went into the indoor and I stayed in the outdoor with Sara. She showed me how to ask him for his smooth little "Really, I'm a Quarter Horse" shuffle-trot, and we did a couple of laps like that. Very nice. Then we went in with the others, saw half of an obstacle pattern, and had to go in to escape the pre-Fourth idiocy. (The stables are inside the city limits, where fireworks are hypothetically banned. But the cops can't be everywhere, so it happens.)
So, hopefully on Monday he'll still remember all this and so will I, and we can try getting down to business for our last 3 rides.
Things to remember: Toes up, heels down, legs back, back relaxed, shoulders back. The key to the WP trot is to hold the reins out to the sides a bit and just "tickle" his mouth, to ease him from the hunter trot down to a jog. Also, every horse in the barn knows what a carrot being snapped in half sounds like, and will start begging for one shamelessly. And, if/when I have another horse, the stirrups will be "poled" anytime it's on the rack. A broom handle through the stirrups will work wonders and make your ankles like you. My ankles aren't really happy right now. Too much torque. It's enough to make me consider an Aussie stock saddle.
Other notes: the Kleen Kanteen may be raved about, but it's not insulated, which I dock it a point or two for. I started out with half ice, and in 90 minutes it was luke-warm. :(
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