I rode Keenan today!
Hooray, we're on our way back! Sarah told me yesterday that we can start lightly hacking Keenan this week and if all goes well, we can ease him back into working! I hopped on him today and it felt so good to be back on my boy. His stride is so smooth and it just feels so right to canter him around again. I can tell he's still stiff and he was rarin' to go, but I'm just glad to be together again!
Also:
Had a really great lesson with Bijou tonight. She had a week off last week while the gang was at Country Classic and the vacation really did her some good. She was a joy to ride tonight, and at a few points, I even had her moving in a nice hunter-y frame.
Last night during our flat lesson (I rode Tamara's Thoroughbred gelding Cloudy), Sarah said something that made me feel like a million bucks. We were doing pretty uncomplicated flatwork, but Sarah was really critiquing our equitation. She tends to do that after shows because she's had a chance to see her clients put into practice what they've been learning and also what they need to work on. So we were trotting around, creating a connection with our horses and getting them into a nice working frame. Sarah was talking about basic points of equitation and how important it is to make that connection - when a horse is moving properly and using himself correctly, it tells a judge that the rider is doing his or her job. Sarah said that it's not a coincidence that the riders who win equitation on the flat are the riders whose horses are moving in that round, working frame. "That's why Missy wins all her eq on the flat classes [she forgot that I came in 4th in the last one]. She knows how to get her horse to use himself correctly. That's why she's at the top of her division and that's why she'll be moving up next year." It meant the world to me that she would say that. My mom has told me about the nice things Sarah has said to her and I have overheard Sarah's comments to people like the horse show vet about how well Keenan and I go together, but to say that out loud in a lesson made me glow inside. I so look up to her and it makes me feel so good to hear her praise.
Hooray, we're on our way back! Sarah told me yesterday that we can start lightly hacking Keenan this week and if all goes well, we can ease him back into working! I hopped on him today and it felt so good to be back on my boy. His stride is so smooth and it just feels so right to canter him around again. I can tell he's still stiff and he was rarin' to go, but I'm just glad to be together again!
Also:
Had a really great lesson with Bijou tonight. She had a week off last week while the gang was at Country Classic and the vacation really did her some good. She was a joy to ride tonight, and at a few points, I even had her moving in a nice hunter-y frame.
Last night during our flat lesson (I rode Tamara's Thoroughbred gelding Cloudy), Sarah said something that made me feel like a million bucks. We were doing pretty uncomplicated flatwork, but Sarah was really critiquing our equitation. She tends to do that after shows because she's had a chance to see her clients put into practice what they've been learning and also what they need to work on. So we were trotting around, creating a connection with our horses and getting them into a nice working frame. Sarah was talking about basic points of equitation and how important it is to make that connection - when a horse is moving properly and using himself correctly, it tells a judge that the rider is doing his or her job. Sarah said that it's not a coincidence that the riders who win equitation on the flat are the riders whose horses are moving in that round, working frame. "That's why Missy wins all her eq on the flat classes [she forgot that I came in 4th in the last one]. She knows how to get her horse to use himself correctly. That's why she's at the top of her division and that's why she'll be moving up next year." It meant the world to me that she would say that. My mom has told me about the nice things Sarah has said to her and I have overheard Sarah's comments to people like the horse show vet about how well Keenan and I go together, but to say that out loud in a lesson made me glow inside. I so look up to her and it makes me feel so good to hear her praise.
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