Post by em&ed on Apr 21, 2007 8:48:11 GMT 1
well after my 'chickened out' thread I have still been building up to try and ride - and thanks to all who gave me a boost (virtual kick up the ass!) When, before I knew it, i'd booked a lesson! so then I knew the chances of riding would be fairly high, like 99%. I told instructor (K) about my boot getting stuck in stirrup and then hoss not standing at mounting block... so we started off lunging - which I always do to check he's not explosive! or more like, to see if he is listening to me - then after about 10mins we went into the other half of the school to "The Mounting Block form Hell" and we walked to it, stopped give big praise and stroke. circled away 10m then stopped before it, stopped at it, big praise and repeated this for a while introducing extra stages, ran stirrups down - then I stood on the block - and each time he was fine... problem came when I was told to gather reins as though I was going to get on - then I found reverse gear! So 'K' said to go with him and make him walk backwards...reverse psychology and all that.... this happened twice and hoss thought 'stuff that' and stood like a statue next time round! so then 'K' says next time you come round if he stands still - just pop on and walk a few strides then you can jump off.... "Yeah - I can cope with that" I thought. Got to the block, statue mode again, so I popped on.... walked a few strides and 'K' says "Well now you're on you might as well stay on!" and I was conned! lol... but we went on to have a fantastic lesson with about 20 minutes of walk and trot including some over poles 
BUT... then she says at the end "stay on and we will walk back to the yard" my first thought was "it's all concrete -If i come off I could break something... " I know a lot of you will identify with this thought pattern - think what can go wrong first, before thinking that you might actually enjoy it! So 5 minutes later we were back on the yard and I had a big cheesy grin from ear to ear ;D
that was thurs - so now i need to try again this morning
BUT... then she says at the end "stay on and we will walk back to the yard" my first thought was "it's all concrete -If i come off I could break something... " I know a lot of you will identify with this thought pattern - think what can go wrong first, before thinking that you might actually enjoy it! So 5 minutes later we were back on the yard and I had a big cheesy grin from ear to ear ;D
that was thurs - so now i need to try again this morning
but I was looking forward to it instead of dreading it... so that's good news in itself! but it was cos the indoor school was all locked up and no staff in sight to open it. So i lunged in the outdoor school instead - there's always tomorrow. Don't like riding in the outdoor since we had 'an incident' lol. I'm not normally a fan of lunging and don't want to start a debate but I must say since 'K' has been giving us lessons - we started at square one, with groundwork, eddie has been a lot better behaved -he actually listens to me - then i know the theory is: it is usually replicated when riding. My instructor is brilliant - had slight reservations about having a bhs instructor, but i can't fault her and a lot of stuff she says is actually quite ih. Sad that we're moving out of the area in two weeks though and we will probably have to start over at square one 
yes if anyone find out how to switch off the "what if...." voice in your head - pleeeeeease let me know! lol
