But anywayz, farrier was sick this week and hasn't gotten out to put new shoes on the pony, and his feet are really long, so we gave him a break and my trainer let me ride her other project Henley. She got him out of a "trash lot"; he's an ex racer who finished his last race so far behind that they didn't even count it as a finish... lol!!
"I do not care about your futile attempts to take a picture- MUST. EAT. CAMERA"
The last time I rode him, there were about five other horses in the arena and I had never ridden him before; I got on and started riding around (after my trainer telling me that he was the sweetest most dead broke horse ever) and suddenly, Mr. Henley, is prancing around getting all hyped up every time a horse passes him. And then before I known it we did this awesome Vienna school maneuver where said horse rears straight up into the air, me holding on the best I can in the saddle and leaning forward so as not encourage any tipping over, and then doing some kind of crazy leap off his back where I land on my two feet with his reins in my hands, ha! Anyway, turns out he just had never been in an arena with that many other horses before and my trainer didn't think about it since he's usually so calm. HE WANTED TO PLAY!! With every horse that passed him by. And he just couldn't control himself, lol!
Well, today went a lot better.
He's also for sale (sad days) but I really enjoyed riding him. It had been so long since I had been on an ACTUAL horse, with you know, HEIGTH! And he has this huge swinging stride, where, I mean its comfortable, but at the same time, with every post you're basically swung into outer space unless you restrain yourself from going there. Complete opposite of the pony, who is basically the easier horse to sit and look pretty on ever.
And, Henley actually required LEG. Which is my weakest link, I hate "kickers." I like sporty things that need gentle leg pressure and a quiet ride into the bridle, where you have all the gas you need. I hate creating energy. But anyway, Henley wasn't that bad, he just wasn't as forward and readily into the bridle as I like. And every time you think your head "man I'm tired" he goes "oh man me too" and breaks down to a walk (ugh! mind readers!).
But all of that aside; I had a really great lesson. He really made me work on keeping him bent with my outside hand firm (I'm a cheater and have a bad habit of over-use my inside hand), and made me work on sitting upright and controlling my body. (The pony is a different kind of control; he's super sensitive but you have to have a lighter more forward seat, since I'm so much bigger than him. Its not as easy for him for me to sit deeper like I normally would. Even when I do "sit deep," its more like just a really deep two point, not a true three point.) So the point was, it was nice to work on my actual "three point" seat, sitting up, sitting tall, shoulders back, controlling the horse with my tummy and thighs and half-halts and all of that good jazz. And Henley is a little sloppy into the canter, so he really made me ask precisely and correctly. The first few times we just did this horrible running trot into a canter, but determined to get it right, I focused on sitting back and allowing the canter with my seat and hands (but keeping him in his frame and bent) and asking correctly and precisely with my legs, and we got the canter really well in both directions after that.
But that was fun, hopefully I'll get to ride him again. :)
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