Chessington 25

20th August 2010

Chessington Equestrian Centre, Chessington

It was my first private lesson since I started the group lessons, and my first private lesson with Diane since my initial assessment back in May. The first thing that springs to mind is that half an hour feels incredibly short now! I was on Patchwork, who I'd requested, and he is probably the yard favourite horse, being so good and easy to ride, and incredibly comfortable - in trot, you just feel like you're floating, so a nice choice for a stirrupless/reinless lunge lesson! We worked on my position, where I need to sit up and on my seat bones rather than hunched forward a bit and on the front of my seat. It made me realise thought that I sit much better without stirrups, as I naturally sit tall and stretch my legs down in order to keep my balance. Guess if I do enough stirrupless work that position will become second nature, whereas at the moment as soon as I get my stirrups back I tip forward again. Diane gave me some tips that I'd not known before, and having been in the group lessons where there's less focus on you, had not been picked up. Mainly that my legs are in the wrong position and I use the bottom of my lower leg rather than the calf to give leg aids. Having done that for 3 months, when I tried using my calf yesterday it was almost ineffective, as the muscle is so weak. I'm also a little frustrated that I've spent the last 3 months relearning to ride, and now I find I've been doing it all wrong and have to start again. As well as my position, we worked on downward transitions using my seat and legs (as I had no reins!). This was actually much better than the only previous time I'd tried this, and by the end I was getting the transitions pretty much on the marker. Sometimes, anyway. There was a definite improvement by the end of the lesson, but of course without the very regular riding, I'm probably going to forget a lot of it before I next ride in the school. I'm hacking out tomorrow, so I can practise bits then. With regards to sharing, I'm still disappointed, but it's not the end of the world. Nothing has changed from how it is now - I can still ride Tom in lessons/hacks, and if things work out with Ernie, great, and if they don't, I can work on my riding and in a few months maybe I'll be ready to share Tom. Que sera and all that...v