Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Getting appytude

Finally did have a lesson on Sunday, it was from someone who is very young and very inexpensive but I think it went well.  I really am not sure how long I will be able to take lessons from her before I outgrow her knowledge but we're going to try.  I should be able to extract good info from her until at least the start of show season.  If nothing else I can afford to take a lesson on both horses almost every week which is something I've never been able to do.  And I can say that on Monday my legs HURT.  I admit, I am pretty out of shape but man.  That's what I get when I don't ride much for a few months, nothing a few hard rides won't fix I suppose.

True to form, the TWH was an angel who tried really hard to do what I asked for.  He was loved by the instructor for his honesty.  She really wanted him to break from a canter to a trot, one of the items on my wishlist.  I advised I had to teach him to trot and he's not balanced with much steering but we tried.  We failed, but we tried.  I'm going to insist we work on something else next time though, that goal is more of a wish as I have a gaited horse and a trot is not natural for him.  Baby steps.  At least he is fun in that he really tries to do what you ask, it's so nice to have that sometimes.

The Appy was the complete opposite and was accused of giving me the middle finger on a regular basis.  Yep, that's my baby.  If I asked him to do really hard work then he would be pissy.  If I let him relax he would be pissy.  Gotta love appytude.  Am going to try putting him back on Isox to see if that helps, as he was still stiff even at the end of our ride, but even the instructor didn't think it was due to pain.  He was being an *(@$ because he didn't want to work and couldn't see his donkey.  He started the ride pretty well, with a nice flowing trot and good gaits.  We changed direction and he became the pogo stick I am so accustomed to, he takes short, choppy strides that are higher than they are forward.  Worked on fixing that for most of the ride and finally got it at the end.  What you get when you ride him can be such a crapshoot, you have a 50/50 shot of having a good ride and you never seem to have input on if it will become a good ride or not.  Been living with this for 16+ years though, I'm used it.

3 comments:

  1. Aww I love Appytude too! I grew up with a stubborn, bratty Appy mare. Gotta love them. :) When do we get to see pictures of the cuties? I'm glad you found someone you can take lessons from for a little while.

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  2. Thanks! I don't know how to post pictures here, I guess I should look around and try graduate from Blogger kindergarten huh, lol.

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  3. It's not hard. I don't know if you are using the new or old version, but there should be an icon of a picture frame on your editor (where the font colors and sizes are). Just click it and a pop up will appear. Click browse, find the picture on your computer and click upload. When it's done the picture will come up, click done, the pop up window closes and there you go. That's the old version. I think the new version is similar though. Good luck! I can't wait to see them. :)

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