May 12, 2012

Finally, a Lesson!

Blogging was definitely not going to happen after my lesson on Thursday, what with packing afterward and getting up at 5am the next day so I could accompany my friend and trainer Nicole to her Crossfit regional competition.  No apologies for not blogging, it's been super, super cool, like a horse show but with people.  Really, really fit people.  Anyway, enough of a digression into my other life.  Pony time!

After skipping my lesson due to an after-work event two Thursdays ago, and the great catching event the Thursday after that, it'd been three weeks since we'd had a lesson with my trainer, and boy could I tell.  He was moving a bit slowly anyway, but just felt flat in general.  Where before I had been able to ask and keep him properly on contact, on Thursday I asked, got it, and then immediately lost it.  That sharpness wasn't there with my aids either.  And you know, I was totally okay with it.  It was my fault, and we'll get back to where we were pretty easily, I know.  Sometimes, when you're an amateur/owner juggling as many things as I juggle, this is going to happen.  It came at a bad time since we'd just made all that progress, but really, I'm surprisingly zen about it.  We'll get there, like anything else.


One thing that has been aggravating my last few rides is a new desire of his to lean on my left rein.  I have no idea why that direction is worse, but it is.  She says I'm dropping my outside rein and letting him go around unbalanced.  It's something I'm going to have to puzzle through, along with re-working the stiffness at the base of his neck, which has sadly come back as well.  My practice rides without my trainer just aren't as effective.

As far as my own riding goes, she kept nailing me for things that I haven't had trouble with in months - my left hand going flat, my elbows going out, stiffness through the elbows.  It's not like I haven't been riding, I have, but I haven't been riding with her, which means the occasional reminders I need to correct those bad habits aren't there, and they go unchecked and get worse.  I need to become more autonomous, but then, that's why I have her, right?

Sorry this is a bit bouncy, she gave me so many good things in that lesson that I didn't get down quickly enough and have now forgotten, and I'm going on just a few hours of sleep and a bunch of free samples of protein shakes and paleo bars!!

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