Luke threw a shoe before my lesson two weeks ago so I rode one of trainer's more experienced horses, Theo. This weekend I came in to the barn and Theo was waiting for me again. I had mixed feelings frankly, Luke and I are finally developing a good working relationship and things have been coming along in lessons. And, I have to admit it's a little secretly cool to get to ride the more 'difficult' horse of the bunch, who isn't used in other lessons. (don't get me wrong, Luke isn't actually Difficult in the real sense of the world, he's really a sweetheart but comparatively a horse that has an opinion and isn't afraid to share it with you.)
Theo is older and already knows his job - all the cues are nicely installed and he is more capable and comfortable in collection and 'dressage-y' things. I feel like I'm learning a lot from him, just different things than I was with Luke. Luke taught me to sit up and ride forward in tricky spots, and was patiently teaching me confidence. Theo is teaching me what a floaty sitting trot feels like (awesome).
In my lesson this weekend with Theo I was having trouble getting a nice bend to the left, he felt stiff through the neck and I felt like I couldn't get through to him. After multiple attempts to communicate what to do and my dismal failure, Trainer (who is super tall) came up and walked next to us and actually reached over and took the reins on each side (reaching up over this 16something hh horse), and had us walk along with him controlling the reins --- yep immediately Theo arched that pretty neck of his and had lovely bend to the left. It was so cool! Helpful, too - we started to get it sorted out at walk and trot (canter not so much, there our focus right now is just my posture, pony can do more or less what he likes as long as we're traveling the right direction as I try to sort myself out).
School marches on. It does not take time off for riding in beautiful fall weather.
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