As I had figured, my instructor had already forgotten about keeping me on Murphy for a while. Well, that or she wasn’t able to use him for our lesson today. Either way, I ended up with Sammy, the other Irishman in the stables. I think this was the first time since our not-so-successful lesson together between Christmas and New Year’s, when too little exercise + cold weather + firecrackers had Sammy what felt like half a meter above ground for much of the lesson. As a result, I was feeling a teensy bit nervous, and given the cold weather & snow I was expecting some friskiness today as well.
Once we got down to the arena, it turned out I was right, as Sammy was feeling a bit tense and a bit testy. Of course, that could have been my nerves affecting him, though he’s usually calm and dependable enough that he isn’t greatly affected by the rider’s mood. He is, after all, the oldest horse in the stables these days, and a reliable horse even for beginners. Reminding myself of this helped a little, but I was still rather tense.
I also found it impossible to get the same seat on Sammy as I had achieved on Murphy the week before, and I realized that Sammy’s soft, broad and rather comfy saddle may be nice to sit in, but only as long as you sit improperly. Whenever I managed to feel my seatbones against the saddle, I found that my behind lost touch with it. After the lesson, I asked my instructor about this, and she noted that Sammy’s saddle is one of the cheapest they have, and cheap saddles tend to be higher and broader in the front. Unfortunately, because of Sammy’s broad back, its the only kind of saddle they can get for him that fits him well without costing a small fortune. I am just amazed I haven’t noticed this before, but I guess that shows just how much I have changed (or tried to change, anyway) my seat these last months or even just weeks.
The exercise for today was, again, a continuation of our preparatory work for turns on the haunches. Because both I and Sammy were feeling tense, the warm-up wasn’t particularly satisfactory. He worked well enough at walk and trot, but once we started cantering he got a bit too forward. He’s never been good at relaxing when he sees other horses cantering or even trotting when he isn’t, and I had to work hard and not becoming too forward myself when slowing him down. Because I couldn’t find a good seat either, I also didn’t get to work him much with my seat, and he definitely didn’t get his hindlegs properly engaged.
Still, once we moved on to the actual exercise, things improved a bit. It was done mostly at walk, with short stretches of trotting, and after he initially became too lazy, I then managed to get at least a bit of work from his hindquarters. He also did quite well with the trotting now that I was sitting it. The turns worked nicely too, but he’s quite good at turns and lateral work, so I was able to move a step ahead of some of the rest by starting to ask for a bend through the turn. This also helped slow him down as he was quick to pick up on what the point of the exercise was and tried to hurry through it, often by pushing his inner shoulder around too fast, something he can’t do when he’s correctly curved around the inner leg. I also ended up getting rid of my whip, and as soon as I had done that, I realized I should have done so right at the start of the lesson because he relaxed quite a bit. I had thought of it from the start of the class, but I had felt like I was just being too much of a sissy about him being just a touch frisky. Next time, however, it goes right off if he’s feeling unusually energized.
All on all, no great results during the class, but it was good to try out the ‘new’ seat on another horse. And I do need to switch horses now and then, or I get even more nervous about riding the one’s that are taller than Murphy. Besides, Sammy is an old favourite, and I am happy to get the chance to ride him now and then for as long as he remains at the riding school. Its just so sad that he isn’t allowed to jump anymore, because he really loved doing that.