Valley of the Mares

Last Saturday was fun fun fun... I rode Valhalla in my lesson. She's a compact, very pretty dapple grey mare. I would have bet $20 she wasn't over 15.2, but Peggy swears she measured her herself and she's 16 hands. The mare doesn't appear to have high withers, but I think she must because she really doesn't seem that big. Peggy got on and warmed her up, and explained that she tends to suck back and needs to be coaxed into accepting contact on the bit and going round. I got on her and walked a bit on a long rein. "Longer," Peggy said, "Then take up contact and GENTLY feel her mouth". I barely touch her mouth. "Too much." Crap. I loosen the reins a bit. We start trotting, and it's really more of a jog- I feel like I'm on a quarter horse in a pleasure class. I urge the mare on with leg and a cluck. She moves forward a little and I play with the bit, and after a while she starts to trust me and settles on the contact. She gains some confidence in me and we do circles and cross the diagonal. Peggy yells at me to quit clucking, and I'm embarrassed to find out that I've been clucking in rhythm with EVERY stride. I give Valhalla a walk break, trot some more, and ask for canter. She does some fast hollow trot and breaks into the wrong lead (to the left- with Phoebus our left lead was nearly always fine so I actually feel a bit relieved). I pull her down and ask again and get the correct lead. Peggy tells me to sit quieter and leave her alone, and the mare relaxes a bit. I bring her down from the canter and suddenly Viola, she has this big beautiful trot- it's positively gigantic and we're flying. "Go with it," Peggy calls, "Bend your knees!" I let her go and because she's so compact I can sit this trot. I praise and pat her. I would never have guessed she had this in her. I get a big dumb smile on my face and take her across the diagonal. BOOM BOOM BOOM. We pick up the canter the other way and with all this energy the transition is cake. We canter and it's decent, trot again and it's the big energetic trot again. I let the mare walk and rest, and she yanks on the reins as I let them out- so much for being afraid to take contact ^_^). I ask for the trot again. She acts claustrophobic and so I give her some rein, and Peggy tells me to quit letting her go hollow with her nose in the air, and to put her in shoulder-fore. I take up contact, ask for the frame and for more energy. Peggy tells me to quit running her off her feet, and I think "Um, this is about 5 gears below the trot she was doing 5 minutes ago" but I do what she tells me and we work a bit at the small trot on shoulder in and finish up. After I got off I couldn't help telling Peggy "I LOVE her." and she laughs at me and says she figured I would. She asks me if I want to try Fontana today too and I say, "Sure". After the next 2 lessons I bring the big bay mare out.
Fontana is 17.1 hands- that's 5'9" at the withers. I'm 5'7" so the top of her back is about even with the top of my head. She is perfectly proportioned though, so when she is outside she doesn't look big at all. It's only when you have something that you can compare in scale that you realize she's ginormous. I've never been on a horse this big (Leroy at 16.3 felt large to me). I climb up on her from the mounting block, and at first I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose a leg as she seems intent on mashing it into the wall- she wants to hug the wall close and I am having a hard time moving her over with my calf against her rib cage (I have long legs so it's rare for me not to have my leg farther down- usually my heel is below the horse's belly). About a dozen trips around the ring and I start to get used to her.
I feel like I'm a goddess on this mare- "Minions, kneel before your queen! Let all bow down before me!!!!" My back is straight, my shoulders are back, my legs are long and my head is up with my eyes looking ahead. Peggy's saddle also fits me much better than Phoebus's did.
When we trot Fontana has a long, smooth stride, and she immediately goes into a long hunter frame. She's on the bit but very low. As I ride her and accidentally cut a turn too sharp, I find she has no trouble balancing and she takes it nicely. It dawns on me that she is extremely well trained. We do a bit of shoulder in and she acts annoyed that I'm not riding it as well as she's performing it. I pat her in apology and we trot some more, and I try to get her to come a little more forward and more up in front. She shortens her frame a little but seems annoyed- I get the feeling she's the kind of horse a person can get on and win a hunter class with little effort because she knows her job and she'll do it well if you just leave her alone. Now here's this new rider suddenly asking her to do something different. She actually pins her ears back and I nervously ask Peggy why the mare seems pissed off. "She's just getting tired," Peggy says. "She does this with the other mares too, but they just ignore her. Sierra actually bullies her." (Sierra is the small 20 year old swedish mare). I still don't want to get in a fight with her- for all that I'm getting used to her she's still frigging huge. We walk for a while, then I trot her a little more and call it a day. I cool her out and slide a long way to the ground.