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Permalink Reply by Emily Walsh on January 6, 2010 at 4:30pm

So I had my third lesson yesterday. I have now started doing lessons once a week under the owner of the stable. She teachs mostly older people who will progress quicker then younger people, or people who want a lesson in a perticular time slot. I am working towards my level 1 english and there is an older women working toward her level 1 western in the same time slot.

So in this lesson we worked on using our legs to turn the horse instead of just turning the head, the sitting trot and the posting trot. So every thing was fine at the walk. The horse and me worked well and we easily walked around the track with me in control and giving him the right signals. (On my first two lessons this is what I had worked on under a different instructor in a different time slot, at that time I was only doing a lesson once a month, not one every week) Then came the trot. That was a disaster. So I did the sitting trot, my feet kept falling out of the stur-ups, the only way to keep them in there was for me to hold unto the top of the saddle(very awkward on an english saddle), because I had no balance I also had very little control of my horse. I could keep him close to the track but like all lesson horses, they like to cut the pilons. When the time for posting came I easily(and happily) fell into the rythem(for some reason when I started the trot I did like one round of sitting and then just did posting). Only problem was, when I did that I couldn't put as much pressure on my legs to keep the horse in the trot so more then once he slowed to a walk and I ended up falling onto his neck. The horse also would not trot unless his head was next to the other horses back/butt. So in the end, I just ended up improveing my control at the walk using my legs and very little rein. Next lesson I am switching to a different horse so lets see how that goes!

Permalink Reply by Jocelyn on February 3, 2010 at 6:17pm

I've been doing lessons for a year and a half, so I'm pretty used to the lazy school horses...and I've ridden my fair share of them (right now I'm riding one lots of much energy...=) ). My suggestion for you would be to push your heels down, that will keep them in the stirrups...I had the same problem when I started. And when your posting, everytime you sit, squeeze to keep encouraging the Horse to move forward.
Hope I help!!!

Good Luck! Keep Working Hard!