Tuesday, May 15, 2012

May 15th - 6:26pm

Another day of riderideride with the addition of two lessons! Martin's back at the helm getting the horses, Rodrigo and myself ready for upcoming shows. They do the young horse series here so on a day to day basis Martins focus is the series horses. The series 1 horses are the 4 going on 5 yr olds and the series 2 horses are the 5 going on 6 yrs old. The series 1 horses start the year at just under 1 meter and finish the year with the championship (if they qualify) at 1.15. The series 2 horses go from 1.15-1.25 I think. We have six or seven series 1 horses and four series 2 (Luli, Nixon, Puchini and Benito). Skyline and Twilight aren't registered so they cannot do the series. They're sale horses though so they're still high priority. I ride Geologo (a super cool 1.30m horse in rehab), Pastrocito (small grey with funny mane), Herodes (fat grey) and Lion (super tall bay) pretty much everday. After I just get on whatever Martin tells me.

Today included a ride on the very lovely Virtoso. He's this amazing 4 yr old stallion. Big chesnut with four socks and a blaze. Moves great, rides great, jumps great. He was Bernie's favorite horse here. He's a Voltaire baby and is just amazing in the saddle. Had lessons on Herodes and Pastrocito early in the day. Lots of little critiques but the main thing I took away was pay attention to and manage the details. Don't let the horse keep an inside bend on a straight away, if you're going straight get straight if you're turning then bend. Find the pace you want by getting more than you need and less than you need. Then you know what you have to work with as well. Support whatever distance you pick. I generally see a longer distance which is not very good to start with then compound the long distance by not trusting the horse will jump and not supporting it. So we chip. Hard. Thankfully Herodes is a good boy and jumped even when I messed up. I like Martin's lessons. They're to the point and demanding without being crazy. Have a lot to learn here in a short period of time!

In the afternoon, Martin's friend/instructor Mono came over and they rode the series 2 horses. I warmed them up and Martin jumped. Mono is a Grand Prix rider here that Martin takes lessons from mostly on getting more competetive in the ring. And I swear he's crazy. Even though the lessons were in spanish I listened and watched while warming the next horse up. It seemed about 50/50 whether Mono had something serious and profound to say or whether it was just him being crazy. Like before, crazy crosses through any language barrier apparently! Hoping my spanish is better before I meet him again because I want to know what he's saying! 

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