Erin's training :)

[stacey]

yay!! It was realy fun to watch too!
If your next lesson goes good i'd say Maria will put up a cross rail to jump over ;D

[Erin ♥]

hopefully

[Erin ♥]

Went for a ride yesterday, and I took Josie (Brandy, Duke and Dante were taken). She wasn't being overly bad but she wasn't being good either. She's in heat and I was in the big arena with 3 male horses and 2 male horses were being ridden in the small arena so she was a little all over the place and I couldn't really do much without giving in to her because when I walked her she wanted to trot to get to the other horses so I'd pull her back. But then she'd want to trot again so i'd have to pull her back. It was sort of a continuous circle. But i did get some trot and a little bit of josie canter out of her (she has her own special kind that the people that now her call trantering ). After about half way through or a little bit more of our ride Stacey whiched with me and she got on Josie and I took Duke. He was after being ridden alot at that point so I couldn't do THAT much but I did get to trot and canter him before we cooled out around the ponds. It wasn't the best ride but it was good . I think i'm comparing it abit too much to my last ride on Brandy. It was fun.

[oxmaybesoxo]

Trantering = the worst feeling! I use to ride a pony in lessons who "Trantered" also it was near impossible to sit too lol
Sometimes its not the great rides that make a good rider its the challangeing ones

[stacey]

Hehe Josie is a cutie though. I actualy dont mind her tranter

[Erin ♥]

I had another awesome lesson today I rode Duke and he was reallyy good! I got there around 1 o'clock and Duke was still eating his lunch. I went out to get him and brought him in but when I was almost back to the barn Maria said that he didn't get to finish all of his breakfast either so I brought him to the round bale and groomed him there . He reallyyy liked that haha. After I had him groomed I put two front polos on and tacked him up. When we got outside I got on and warmed him up, then we did a course of polls on the ground. That was fun but really easy. Then turned 2 of the poles into jumps and left the rest and we did that at a trot. Then we did the whole thing in two point and then fineally we cantered most of it . It was sooo much fun even though Duke was getting REALLY sick of it towards the end and he was trying to go away from it. He never refused though! It was alot of fun, even with the speedy pony! . After that, we went for a canter large in both directions and then cooled out bareback with walk races haha. We tied one and then the last one we won. Partly because I got back first and partly because Julia trotted haha. Anyway, It was alottt of fun!

[stacey]

You jumpeddd! yay
I knew you would today, thats awesome. Your advancing so much through out these last few lessons!
Good job Erin, your doing great

[Erin ♥]

Thanks It's alot of fun!

[Erin ♥]

Had my lesson today . It was alot of fun, I rode Dante He was good! We had a few little things but we fixed most/all of them so it was good! We got out and warmed up then we did ten minutes of constant trotting, posting, sitting, 2-point and no stirrups. We did good there even though Dante was being a bit slow. After that we went over poles at a trot and in 2-point a few times. Then we tried picking up canter over the second pole. We weren't doing THAT great with that up we did get it a few times! . After that we did canter over both of them starting canter before the poles. Then we cantered large and in a 20 meter circle It was my first time cantering a 20 meter circle and we did good! I was really happy with that and my overall ride! After going for another canter I cooled him out bareback and put him back in his paddock. Since I just put him in his paddock without bringing him in he didnt have a halter on so I had to catch him again without a halter to get it on him. Anyone who rides at equine knows how Dante is so this took a good 10 minutes with grain and 3 other horses chasing me trying to get it, haha, good times! I did eventually get him with a little help from Julia with a lead chain. Anyway, it was a really good ride!

[stacey]

Wooo!
im soo mad i missed watching your last few lessons But im happy they were good !

[Erin ♥]

Okay, I know this is really late but I didn't have internet so you'll have to put up with it .
Anyway, I had my lesson last Saturday instead of last Sunday because I was really busy on Sunday and I didn't want to cancel my lesson. I got there around 10:30 and found out Jovanah was teaching me, she told me that I could choose who to ride so i picked Brandy We mostly worked on cantering 20 m circles and we did pretty good with that, then we did a walk-canter transition and that was really good but thats all we did.

[Erin ♥]

Again, i'm late, but not by that much this time so I remember most of what happend in my lesson!

I got there abit late and found out that Jovannah was teaching me again and that I was riding Dante. He must have been in an alright mood since I caught him pretty quickly. I groomed and tacked up as fast as I could and then warmed up with transitions, circles and some trot. When we were good and warmed up we worked on cantering a 20 m circle. Me and Dante were good at that except the fact that when I asked him to canter he would buck. Silly pony. After that we worked on 2-Point at a canter and when we were doing that my ass would bump off the saddle alot, not hard or anything just enough to notice. So Jovannah got me to stop, fixed my position abit and got me to go out and try it again, I kept the position pretty good but it didn't help the problem so she shortened my stirrups a hole and that helped alot. After we did that for awhile and got good at it we added four poles in and you had to go into 2-point over each pole. We didn't do so good with that because Dante kept ducking to one side or the other but after moving the poles and doing it a few more times we got it .

When we both got that a couple more times we did a course. You had to do the 20 m circle, then go over 2 of the poles again to get to the corner, then go across the diagonal with a pole, coming back to the trot and then pick up your canter again to switch leads and then do the circle with the poles in the other direction. That was pretty simple and we did pretty good with that. The first few times Dante ducked out on some of the poles again so we tried it at the trot and got it. After doing that and getting the feel of the course we tried it at the canter again and got it that time . The other girl in my lesson, Julia, was having a bit of trouble with Josie so I let her hop on Dante and try and she did much better with him so then I cooled out Josie instead by hand walking her around the pond so she wouldn't take off with me back to the barn.

There will be a few pictures in picture place once I get the energy to upload them and put them up. haha.

[Erin ♥]

I had an awesome lesson today! I got there really early for once and found out I was riding Sunny. I hadn't ridden him since last summer and that was only like walk and a tiny bit of trot. Plus, once he came back I heard quite the few stories about how he was bad at the canter and he would rear sometimes etcc. and then on top of all that I watched his owner ride him a few times and he would rear with her and would stop dead from a canter so lets just say I was a bit on edge with him.

Anyway, I got him from his paddock and brought him in. He was really clean though so it only took me like 10 minutes to groom him. There was still about 25 minutes untill my lesson so I just stuck him in a stall with some hay and let him chill there for awhile untill it was a little closer to the actual lesson. After about 10 or 15 minutes I took him out and tacked him up and then we went out.

When we got out and I got on we warmed up with just walking 10 m circles in the four corners. When we were good and warmed up we did it at a trot and first I was a little tense but when I figured out that he's just a big baby I relaxed and we were fine then. After that we did some sitting trot and Sunny didn't know what to think of that but we were still fine. When we did a little bit of that and got comfortable with the sitting trot we went back posting and then went sitting for the 10 m circles. After doing that and getting good at it we gave the ponies a break and then Maria told us to go back posting trot then sitting trot and the ask them for a canter. Again, I was abit iffy but I did it and it was awesome He has a really nice canter! The pase was kind of all over the place like first he would go slow, then faster, then really fast, then slow down again but it was still really nice!!!

After doing that in both directions we went on just half the arena and did 10 m circles in 4 of those corners. At this point Sunny decided that he loved the wall and he loved to squat my leg into it so I switched my crop into my outside hand and corrected him when he did that but when we got that straightend out we did good with those . We did that for another while and then we cantered on our own halfs of the arena and it was abit shakey at first but Sunny was still really good!! . We then switched directions and switched halfs of the arena and did the same thing in that direction. By this time Sunny was getting sick of it and he was shaking his head and just overall not liking what we were doing, the fun went right out of it for him so I quickly showed him that I was still boss and got him to do what he was told and he did it near perfectly so then I just told Maria I was going to give him a break and cool him out then instead of going for another canter.

All in all Sunny was an amazing superstar and I was sooooo proud of him! I really hope I get to ride him again before he goes back because I really did learn alot and have alot of fun!

[stacey]

Its good that you like Sonny! He is an absultly gorgeuse horse
Glad you had a good lesson on him!

[Erin ♥]

I had 2 lease rides from volunteering and since I'm going to clarenville/fortune for the next few days I took one thursday and one today.

On thursday I rode Duke. He was good. He wasn't very happy with staying on the rail but that was fine, he's not that hard to correct. We didn't really work on anything in particular since that was the first time i've ridden in about 2 weeks so I just concentrated on my position at the walk and trot and just went for a few relaxed canters.

Today I rode Dante and he was AMAZING. I was sooooooooooooooooooo proud of him, I think i'm still beaming! haha, I went out to get him and he was perfect. Stood still and everything! He did pin his ears but thats still amazing compared untill what he usually does. I brought him in, groomed and tacked up quickly and brought him out. He was being half annoying when I went to get on because he kept moving but i'm pretty sure he just wanted to get going, his ears were pricked and he seemed really happy when we actually started to warm up. Again, I worked on my position while I was warming up and it seemed sooo much easier today for some reason so after we were warmed up we quickly moved on to some other stuff, but not forgetting to keep a good positon the whole time. We did some 20 m circles and concentrated on making them round. Again, that was good!

After that a lesson came into the arena and they were on a lunge line in one end of the arena so I stayed at the other end to give them enough room. While down there, I worked on getting him to listen to my leg abit better because I noticed he was sort of ignoring it. He picked up on that pretty fast so we did some no stirrup work at the trot, also good. Then we did some canter and he was good other then the actual transitions where he'd give a small buck, as usual. haha. After that, we did some more no stirrup trot and then some more canter at the end. I was sooo happy with my ride and how Dante did, I cooled him out bareback and brought him in to pick out his hoves, put on some hoof flex and stick a halter on him just in case he decided to not be so good for the next person who had to get him from the paddock.

I was sooo pround of him! He's after getting soo much better with being happy! haha.
I'll update again tomorrow after my lesson!