Exciting News!!! A little while ago I made a video application for a training bursary from Stonehouse Solutions and was lucky enough to be selected to recieve help towards training costs for the winter season. I'm so happy and excited to be given this opportunity!!! I chose to spend most of the bursary on lessons with Ruth Baxter a well known and very well qualified riding instructor and coach. I had my very first official bursary assisted session tonight and I've decided to write reports to keep track of my progress through the winter.
I was freezing when I started my lesson tonight. We started off looking at walk/ trot transitions, asking Shadow to move forward promptly when given the aid until Ruth was satisfied that Shadow was listening to my leg more. The next thing we did was making me use my rising in in trot to control the speed of the trot, making sure that Shadow listening to me again and not just charging round, normally Shadow is quite lazy, but because she'd had a duvet day today she really was quite forward and I had to stop her rushing!!! To help sharpen us up and make sure Shadow was concentrating on me, Ruth had us trot, do 1 stride of walk, then trot again. We only briefly touched on canter, shortening and lengthening and tonight Shadow really seemed to enjoy this and did really well.
After this Ruth had Shadow and I work hard on perfecting our leg yield, which turned out to be hard because Shadow seemed to believe she was a snake!!! I learned that when I turn down the 3/4 line I need to make sure Shadow doesn't take charge and just fall out to the track through her shoulder, so I needed to correct her and make her wait. We took it in steps where I turned down the line, got her straight, then asked her to move sideways in trot just a few steps, then straight, then sideways so that I had control through the whole movement. I was pleased with how this got better but then Ruth gave us a particular piece of work where we had to leg yield to the track, then where you hit the track you had to canter. We did eventually get it more or less spot on, but it took time and some corrections on my leg position. What I did find was that after this Shadow gave me the most amazing trot I have ever had on her, I loved it!!! We cooled down then chatted to Ruth and I told her that I would like to work on transitions within the paces, and be more aware of what the horse needs from me (encouragement) and when she needs it, so I don't have to leave her to sort herself out so much and start helping her. Thank you so much to Ruth Baxter for taking the time to teach me and I just want you to know that I appreciate it.
Over all, Shadow actually went well, and I got the best trot I've ever had from her, bless her! Would be happy to recommend Ruth to anyone!
Finally thank you to Stonehouse Solutions for making this possible by choosing me for your training bursary.
An old photo as we had a camera malfunction during the lesson.
Xoxo Showjumperchick
