Riding Shi
Sep. 11th, 2011 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
siglinde99I took Shi over a jump course today. It was "interesting". Shi is a sweet Canadian who is still quite green. She is easily distracted and aids have to be constantly and steadily applied. Otherwise, she will see a butterfly, or another horse, or a duck, or just get confused, and her rhythm (and direction) go to hell. This was only my second time riding her, and it was better than last time, but my abs are sore from all the concentration!
She loves to canter through the jumps, but she doesn't know how to keep herself gathered up to get the height, so I got very tired trying to push her forward "just enough" while keeping her head up and slowing her down so the propulsion would come from her rear end (aka collected). At one point she veered wildly and then tried to jump some high crossed poles that I was quite prepared to let her refuse. She knocked them down, of course, but I stayed on. She was close to perfect the second time through. We did all the jumps at a trot, though she was allowed to canter out. It was a reasonable compromise, at least until I master a collected canter with her.
Up until now, I have been riding horses that schooled me. They were mostly old hands who knew the commands. Some would do what you wanted whether you got the aids (instructions given with hands, legs and seat for non-riders) right or not. Some wouldn't do what you wanted unless you got the aids right (much better way to learn, thoguh very frustrating at first). Shi is the first horse I have ridden where I am the one doing the schooling..
She loves to canter through the jumps, but she doesn't know how to keep herself gathered up to get the height, so I got very tired trying to push her forward "just enough" while keeping her head up and slowing her down so the propulsion would come from her rear end (aka collected). At one point she veered wildly and then tried to jump some high crossed poles that I was quite prepared to let her refuse. She knocked them down, of course, but I stayed on. She was close to perfect the second time through. We did all the jumps at a trot, though she was allowed to canter out. It was a reasonable compromise, at least until I master a collected canter with her.
Up until now, I have been riding horses that schooled me. They were mostly old hands who knew the commands. Some would do what you wanted whether you got the aids (instructions given with hands, legs and seat for non-riders) right or not. Some wouldn't do what you wanted unless you got the aids right (much better way to learn, thoguh very frustrating at first). Shi is the first horse I have ridden where I am the one doing the schooling..
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Date: 2011-09-12 12:27 pm (UTC)