Dec 4 - Loping Bareback and... falling....

Soooo... Loping bareback.... not easy for me. lol. I don't have the best of seat to begin with so getting on bareback and trying it doesn't help. However it was my ONE goal this semester i REALLY wanted to succeed in. However... my hips having been giving me a TON of trouble and are constantly in pain so going bareback definitely makes it worse. So this friday I finally got the guts to try to lope. And well... with Chester it takes a lot of energy to get him to lope with a saddle on so bareback was worse because i was trying not to fall off and trying to give him a ton of energy to get him going. It also doesn't help that he has like 5 different speeds at a trot. And when he goes to his fast trot its almost impossible for me to stay on while bareback. I finally got him to go into a couple strides of lope but he wouldn't stay constant at it.

At some point he actually took off and loped when Emily and I took off together pretending to chase someone down! It was SOOO AWESOME!!!! I can't wait to be able to have a confident seat while loping because I know it will be absolutely awesome! However... haha then my accident! When i got him into a lope at one point he suddenly decided to take a VERY sharp turn (without me wanting him to) and slow down to his fast trot and well... I didn't stay on. So I fell right off and hit my head really hard! And was really dizzy and lightheaded and my head was pounding... Raquel was there and had to help me stand up. Well I wanted to get back on Chester just to say i wasn't scared to get back on... so she helped me on again. However... there was NO WAY I was going to move while on him. My head was swimmming!!! AROUND AND AROUND AND AROUND! (I believe I might have had a slight concussion but I was alright by monday even though I pulled something pretty bad in my neck and had a headache all weekend) But hey... its my own fault! I knew what I was getting into! Sooo.... to those who wear helmets while riding good for you your smart... unlike me lol. But I'm fine now and I'm glad I tried it! It was totally worth it! :) :D :D

Dec 3 - Side Passing/Side Stepping

Today Dawn and Russell taught ways to improve with side-stepping and side-passing. Dawn helped give us ways to work with our horse better on the ground before getting in the saddle. We went on the wall and would pressure the hip then the should and back and forth. Chester tends to walk forward when I presssure his shoulder so Sylvia came in and advised that I pressure his head more and it really started to work. He moves slowly but he did better as we kept practicing it.

The saddle... was a complete different story. Russell showed us how to use the wall to help prevent our horse from wanting to move forward all the time. My problem was that I really couldn't get him to turn his hip around at ALL! He just kept running me into the wall. I started getting really frustrated. I was frustrated because I knew it was my inadequacies that prevented me from teaching Chester the proper way to do things. I have a really awkward handle on the reins when I work with horses. My hands are usually almost ALWAYS off balance and I can't quite get how to hold them without making a fool of myself. So was having difficulty with that. Russell helped me as best he could but I think he could tell i was getting upset with myself so didn't push too much.

After class was over I really wanted to see how I could do it better so Russell got on Chester for me and was able to determine how he doesn't turn his shoulder in like at all so he said to try to just going in small circles and getting him to turn his shoulder and then his hip out that before moving to the wall for side-passing. Watching him and the control he had over the reins really helped me understand that I just have to have patience and not get upset with myself because I am still learning.

This lesson was definitely one that tried my patience and my own feelings of inadequacies. I know that I am still learning but sometimes when I look at how quickly other people seem to get the hang of things it just weighs me down but I can't have that attitude. Having that type of attitude will just make my learning capabilites even worse and won't help Chester learn either.

Below is a video of Chester rolling and just really happy after working hard or playing or whatever you wanna call it.

Dec 1 - Loping Circles

Today I really practiced getting Chester to lope circles. His circles definitely need improvement and he still makes mistakes. When going to the left, he still wants to change direction right at the door out of the arena. I made sure to really focus on where the circle was and I also kept driving him forward, not letting him slow down because that is when he tends to decide to suddenly turn around. Just by continuing doing it over and over he totally started to improve. Below is a video of Chester and I loping a circle to the left and it was the first time he loped the full circle and I didn't have to correct him a whole lot! It was AWESOME! :D :D

Nov 17 - Taught Barrel Racing

Today was my day where I got to teach my class a certain topic and I chose Barrel Racing. I still don't know everything about Barrel Racing and I know that I have a lot to improve on but it was a really great experience all the same. Because I wanted the others to know more of what a "barrel" horse looked like I ended up using Indian Joe who one has a lot more go than Chester and also has done Barrel Racing before and is fairly good at it.

My set up: I asked the class to read an article about rates, pockets and bend. And then before obiviously starting I asked if anyone would care to try and explain what each one was. I then demonstrated each of them while riding Indian Joe and basically had them split into groups (because there were two patterns set up) I know that I learn better just by practicing and having someone watching me telling me what I can improve on, so that is what I tried to do for everyone as I watched them. Some that were strongly with their horses moving into the barrel too much I helped them give their horse a bigger pocket and also work on leg pressure getting them to keep their shoulder away and swing thier hips around. I think it went really well, and when people came up to me asking questions, I made sure to answer them as well as I could and if I couldn't figure it out a group of us would discuss it together until we came up with something that they could try to work on whatever their problem was. It seemed like everyone really enjoyed it and were having a lot of fun.

At the end of class we then had a "stump race" where two people go at once and whoever finishes first wins. That was a lot of fun I could tell everyone really enjoyed that. Even some that only wanted to trot thier horses around the barrels raced each other which I thought was wonderful because they still had a chance to try the race out.

The evaluations I got back from everyone gave me some really good feedback. I realized that I was nervous at first and everything was kind of confused and I definitely need to clarify that better. I also realize I didn't ever tell them when a good time was to actually the rate the horse and explain that each horse will be different. I did learn though than many people liked how I watched everyone going around the barrels and would point things they could improve on and were doing good.

I think the idea of having each student teach something was a great idea and I'm glad I got to teach something that I love and can show everyone my love for it even if I am still learning about it.

Below is a video of me riding Indian Joe around the Barrels, this was a slow lope or a fast trot not when I went all out with :)

Nov 16 - Helped Teach Barrels in Basic II Class

Today in Basic Class, Randy had me help teach barrel racing in preparation for teaching the 347 class the next day. At first I was really nervous about having to teach but as I warmed up to it I really started to enjoy it more. I showed everyone the pattern in a large group first and also explained what a pocket is - the distance between your horse and the barrel as you come into the barrel and out of the barrel - and rate - the speed you and your horse are going while rounding the barrel and where you would slow your horse down to get around the barrel - then we split into two groups and I helped with one of the groups. The first few times we just walked around the pattern then we trotted between the barrels and had them walk around the barrels when they reached them. Eventually we brought it up to a lope and a trot around them. I really focused and watched as each person would go around and gave them different tips to help them move around the barrel better. They did really well! It was SOO much fun!!! I LOVED TEACHING!! Everyone seemed to be really enjoying themselves and a couple of the kids would ask me clarification about the pocket and the rating.

After a while of having a split group, we put out the full barrel pattern and timed each other on doing the full barrel run. We made sure to remain safe and not let them go all out but stay at a controlled lope. It was such an awesome experience to be able to see how much fun they were all having and their faces light up when they understand something and learn something new. I loved my first taste of helping teach a Basic Class.

Now Chester during it did AMAZING!! He was really responsive and really opened up while coming around the barrel. When we did the full run he didn't do too bad at the lope. I think I do still need to work on him turning that hip out and around the barrel and not cutting into while coming out of it.

Nov 14 - Barrel Practice

So for Open Riding time on this Saturday I wanted to try Barrels with Chester for the first time before I taught it. I quickly realized that he likes to throw his shoulder into the barrel when going into it. After realizing how close he would push into the barrel I made sure to give him a really large pocket while entering a barrel. Sometimes he would go out to wide but he started to get better by the end.

To help him keep his shoulder out of the barrel I focused on putting presssure on his inside shoulder trying to get him to not turn into it. Then I started to just trot around the barrels with him and Realized that I have to rate with him EXTREMELY LATE because of how slow he moves.

He definitely has a lot of work to do with Barrel Racing. But I'm glad I did it with him because I love barrels so much. It's one of my favorite things to do with horses! :) He did better than I expected and I could tell that he was slowly improving and listening to me as well.

Nov 12 - Straight Lines, Leg Pressure, Lead Changes

Today we talked a lot about lining your body up with your horse and having them follow your body to feel where you are going. I ended up practicing going in a straight line and keeping my focus ahead of me and going through my phases - shifting body, leg pressure and then reins when necessary.

At a walk Chester did fairly well, I had to go through the phases fast but gently and he was able to pick it up w/less pressure the more we practice with it. I then tried going in a straight line without using the reins and sometimes it worked really well with just shifting of my body and leg pressure. Other times i had to pick up the reins just slightly to have line up with me again.

Trotting however was a complete different story I had to use a lot stronger phases then when just walking. I decided to grab the carrot sticks to use as a bigger phase I wouldn't rely on the reins as much. Starteed working really well when just walking but of course when trotting it all went downhill from there.

I learned a lot and was really focused. I could tell that Chester was focused on me as well and I could feel the improvement as we went along even though we did have some difficulties.