Monday, September 17, 2012

September 17th - 9:11pm

Another great day at Rancho Pampa. Started off warming up the series one horses for Martin to school. I was on the darling Mauro (love him!). Ended up on Twilight next and Martin had me take him through the grid. I thought first time through felt great with him right there infront of me and everything just perfect. I came around to where Martin was standing and he was just like "what the heck was that!?" I literally had nothing to say. I had thought it was pretty decent! Martin continued with "usually I have to be yelling at you 4 or 5 for you to get it like that!" So relieved that I wasnt nuts for thinking it was good and quite proud of myself for getting it right first try. But since quiting when it was great the first time wasnt an option the jumps got higher and we kept trying. Continued to ride well but was considerably less perfect as the jumps went up. Finished well though and was still happy. I asked Martin as I was walking out if Id managed to make him smile the first time through. At one point several months ago he told me if I manged to make hin smile at the first jump it was either time for me to go home or start as an actual rider. Dont know whatd Id do if I actually made him smile but alas I didnt have to deal with that today. Apparently I just confused him with my sudden bout of good riding. Guess that means Ive got to kick it into high gear to try to ride well more often and quit leaving people confused when I actually do get it. As the day went on I also took Cor Lit and Luli through the grid. Both had decent moments but neither were excellent. Martin pointed out some flaws in my basic lower leg position in my two point so going to start adding more work in it at the walk, trot and canter. My leg it steady and whatnot but I have a difficult time keeping my seat out of the saddle while bringing my shoulders over my hips. Particually inbetween fences when I dont have much time to react. Which is exactly when I need to be able to do it quickly and natually. Still so much to work on with so far to go. Its great to have the constant stream of instruction though. Whether it be while Im just hacking Navratilova and Holendesa or while Im in a real lesson with a series horse.
On a totally different note, I was also able to ride one of the new horses today. Martin went to San Luis over the weekend and picked up 6 horses that were there to be broke. Four were Classic horses: Bellini, Kir Royal, Boss and Montana. Then the filly Sintonia and another colt we had early this winter named Quantum. Martin and Rodrigo rode most of them today to see where they were and start them in our program. At one point, thought, Walter came over and told me to get tack on Boss and take him to the ring for Martin to ride. He said something about me getting on but I didnt totally understand or believe him. So pulled the little grey stud out and got him all ready. Meg was getting another horse ready while I was getting stuff for the colt. I told her that I thought I might be getting on Boss after Martin. Apparently my eyes were about bugging out of my head as I said it. So got him ready and carted him out to the ring for Martin and was promptly told to get on. No prep, no nada. And I did. Kind of shows how much trust Ive developed with Martins instruction. Hes yet to throw something my way that I couldnt handle so no questions asked I ended up on Boss. Martin said to take it slow, feel him out and let him know what I thought. After fifteen minutes or so we'd done all three gaits and Boss had shown himself to be a quite, easy going kind of guy. Nothing outrageously good or bad, just nice. Id have been quite happy to quit there but since today was the day to try him out (and potentially give Katie a heart attack) we had to jump him. Just over a little cross rail but normally this type stuff falls onto Rodrigo's list of things to do. Today, though, it was on mine. Needless to say there was a lot of critique but honestly Im just proud I got the job done. The horse did his w/t/c on my terms and jumped what I pointed him at. Again, a long way to go but one step at a time!

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