Tuesday’s lesson, which came after a day spent in hard drive hell (and this post has been delayed by more computer problems, ugh), was a nice break from dealing with a mess but otherwise not terribly useful. I was on Hedvig, and the exercise involved transitions to canter. Hedvig, bred to trot for generations, has some issues with cantering. Such as still need quite a running start to get into it. That wasn’t easy when the exercise involved canter when you came off the last corner on the short end, and then trot at the end of the long end. Plus, along one side, the canter should be counter-canter.
Still, I think I managed to stay pretty steady in my seat and calm in my aids despite failed attempt after failed attempt. And then Hedvig started to really fight with me every time we neared the point where she was supposed to start cantering. At one point, I tried to interfere less and let her do as she wanted, and she sped through the corner and launched into canter right after. She had figured out where I wanted her to canter, and was trying to tell me she needed to start accelerating through the corner. Smart cookie, and A+ for effort on her part.
Other than that, we had some sad news. Gamir, now 20, had be sold into semi-retirement, which he gets to spend with four other old friends from the stables. Well-deserved, but very sad not to have him around. And poor old Fleur will probably be put down. She had been rested for a long while for lameness, and came up lame again as soon as they tried to start her up again. She’s such a sweet girl, poor thing, and I will really miss her too.
For my own part, that means the last two horses I tend to ride will be gone, leaving me with just the ponies; Murphy (okay, so he is technically a horse, if barely), Hedvig and Nelson. Quite worrying, especially as any new additions are likely to continue the trend of being too large. No one breeds reasonably-sized horses any longer, and the stables admittedly tend to go for either ponies or bigger horses, so they can carry a wide range of adult riders.