In which I ride the $410,000 horse
Oct. 16th, 2006 08:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
diaryofariderSo Phoebus's owner is looking for someone to share expenses for him, however my fridge (on the fritz and probably needing replacement), garbage disposal (is being replaced ATM, hubby cracked the cold water pipe though so that saga continues), and sick cat mean I'm not in a position to be that someone. Peggy tells me not to worry, she has some nice broodmares I can start riding- actually I've been wanting to ride them anyway- Valhalla, a really really lovely dapple grey mare, and Fontana, a super tall bay warmblood who I half want to ride just because she's so tall that she intimidates me a bit, but I think she could be way fun.
Anyway, I had a really good ride on Phoebus- Peggy worked him 3 times last week and so things have been good this week. She didn't say much to us during the last lesson, other than praise and the occasional "outside rein" reminder. I worked Phoebus on lots of transitions, shoulder in, leg yield, and a couple of squares. I've also been working on transitions within the gaits (trot and canter anyway- he is not a fan of lengthenings yet- he'd actually rather collect for me), halts, and reinbacks. The right lead transitions are still better, and we were about 80% acurate. He was really good, but his owner came out just after I'd decided he'd had enough and started cooling him out. He wasn't thrilled to go back to work but he wasn't too bad- but his owner commented "Boy, he just doesn't want to do anyhing." I don't take this as a good sign, but I try not to take it too personally. If he doesn't think it's worth anything to him for me to work his horse it's fine- I'm glad for the months I have been able to. It looks like I'll still be able to ride him in the clinic so that's nice- I've ridden before in one on a mare I had only ridden about 5 times before and it was still a good experience, but pretty...challenging. :)
At any rate, I asked if I could ride one of the mares after I was done with my lesson, but Fontana's foal isn't weaned and Valhalla needs her feet done, so Peggy told me to ride Sue's off the track Thoroughbred stallion, Deputy Dakota.
Deputy is the leggiest horse I've ever seen- he is a tall bay with little ears and a kind of dainty looking head. He apparently sold for $410k as a yearling at auction, and he never raced. He had lameness issues that kept him from running, and his owner has decided to start learning to ride horses instead of just owning them, so she's having him retrained in dressage. The horse hasn't been sound enough to ride untill just recently, so he doesn't really know anything. At any rate, I get him tacked up (he's girthy as heck- the first time I tacked him up for someone I just did the girth up as tight as I want to ride, and he laid down in protest--just up and folded his legs and crumpled in a heap-- so much for the horse of kings...) and take him outside under Peggy's directive to lunge him.
Now, I'm not a good lunger. I'm not the world's worst, but I come from a background where you only lunge horses that are too hyper, or that haven't been backed yet, and since I never broke a horse and didn't have any hyper horses, I very rarely lunged a horse. Also, I never rode or handled a stallion until this year, and that on a very limited basis.
So I lead Deputy outside, and start him off on a circle. He seems okay for about 10 seconds. Then he starts to buck and canter- not a big deal, but suddenly he stops and faces me. I cluck at him, tug on him- he backs up. I yank, he yanks. This isn't going well. I calm him down, walk up to him, start him off again. Same thing. I try shaking the whip at his hindquarters, but he knows I can't really reach with him facing me, and he continues backing up. I dig in my heels- he's tall but not THAT big...but he's still way bigger than me and even though I'm almost sitting on my butt he can still drag me and we start plowing the arena. We do enough for a small crop and I get him stopped, walk back up to him, start him off again- same thing. I know it's my fault for not keeping him moving forward, but I'm just too slow and uncoordinated and somewhat intimidated just because he's a stallion and I'm not sure how to be firm without starting a huge fight (like the one I'm currently involved in). Sue is watching and I swear and tell her how much I hate stallions. I ask if he's always like this or if he just has special love for me, and she says that he usually does buck and kick and act silly some but it's normally after at least completing several circles. I send him off again and he starts circling at an uneven canter, whinnying to the other horses. I KNOW this is a no-no, so I manage to get after him and yell at him and whack him for that. Good thing he can't actually run that fast and I can chase him pretty well. He might use me to dig furrows in the soil halfway to the mountains, but by God he's not going to chat with the mares while he's doing it. Eventually I get him quiet and start working on just doing a few steps forward, stopping, praising- and then Sue says Peggy wants him in the indoor. I bring him in and he's completely well behaved for her. To be fair, I take him and lunge him on the other side after she's done one, and he's fine for me as well.
Time to hop on- Sue calls encouragement "May the Force be with you!" and Peggy asks "You have a will, don't you?" as I climb up the mounting block, and STILL have to struggle to reach the summit of this leggy thoroughbred's back. Peggy tells me he's not spooky but that he has no steering.
This is completely accurate- we attempt to travel in a straight line and veer off to the quarterline. I start to get a feel for the horse and eventually we trot. He's surprisingly couch backed- his trot is the flattest I've ever experienced but with a bit of leg and encouragement he starts to step through, soften in the bridle and get a little round. We do some circles and he starts to bend in his body. It was a pretty typical ride on a green horse - I didn't do too much with him but he was very good, and in the end he didn't feel different from any other horse. He really enjoyed being praised and had a pretty good attitude. Sue seemed happy with us and told me to get him going well so she can ride him. Funny to think that it will be an accomplishment to get a horse that costs twice as much as my house going well at walk/trot/canter. :D
Anyway, I had a really good ride on Phoebus- Peggy worked him 3 times last week and so things have been good this week. She didn't say much to us during the last lesson, other than praise and the occasional "outside rein" reminder. I worked Phoebus on lots of transitions, shoulder in, leg yield, and a couple of squares. I've also been working on transitions within the gaits (trot and canter anyway- he is not a fan of lengthenings yet- he'd actually rather collect for me), halts, and reinbacks. The right lead transitions are still better, and we were about 80% acurate. He was really good, but his owner came out just after I'd decided he'd had enough and started cooling him out. He wasn't thrilled to go back to work but he wasn't too bad- but his owner commented "Boy, he just doesn't want to do anyhing." I don't take this as a good sign, but I try not to take it too personally. If he doesn't think it's worth anything to him for me to work his horse it's fine- I'm glad for the months I have been able to. It looks like I'll still be able to ride him in the clinic so that's nice- I've ridden before in one on a mare I had only ridden about 5 times before and it was still a good experience, but pretty...challenging. :)
At any rate, I asked if I could ride one of the mares after I was done with my lesson, but Fontana's foal isn't weaned and Valhalla needs her feet done, so Peggy told me to ride Sue's off the track Thoroughbred stallion, Deputy Dakota.
Deputy is the leggiest horse I've ever seen- he is a tall bay with little ears and a kind of dainty looking head. He apparently sold for $410k as a yearling at auction, and he never raced. He had lameness issues that kept him from running, and his owner has decided to start learning to ride horses instead of just owning them, so she's having him retrained in dressage. The horse hasn't been sound enough to ride untill just recently, so he doesn't really know anything. At any rate, I get him tacked up (he's girthy as heck- the first time I tacked him up for someone I just did the girth up as tight as I want to ride, and he laid down in protest--just up and folded his legs and crumpled in a heap-- so much for the horse of kings...) and take him outside under Peggy's directive to lunge him.
Now, I'm not a good lunger. I'm not the world's worst, but I come from a background where you only lunge horses that are too hyper, or that haven't been backed yet, and since I never broke a horse and didn't have any hyper horses, I very rarely lunged a horse. Also, I never rode or handled a stallion until this year, and that on a very limited basis.
So I lead Deputy outside, and start him off on a circle. He seems okay for about 10 seconds. Then he starts to buck and canter- not a big deal, but suddenly he stops and faces me. I cluck at him, tug on him- he backs up. I yank, he yanks. This isn't going well. I calm him down, walk up to him, start him off again. Same thing. I try shaking the whip at his hindquarters, but he knows I can't really reach with him facing me, and he continues backing up. I dig in my heels- he's tall but not THAT big...but he's still way bigger than me and even though I'm almost sitting on my butt he can still drag me and we start plowing the arena. We do enough for a small crop and I get him stopped, walk back up to him, start him off again- same thing. I know it's my fault for not keeping him moving forward, but I'm just too slow and uncoordinated and somewhat intimidated just because he's a stallion and I'm not sure how to be firm without starting a huge fight (like the one I'm currently involved in). Sue is watching and I swear and tell her how much I hate stallions. I ask if he's always like this or if he just has special love for me, and she says that he usually does buck and kick and act silly some but it's normally after at least completing several circles. I send him off again and he starts circling at an uneven canter, whinnying to the other horses. I KNOW this is a no-no, so I manage to get after him and yell at him and whack him for that. Good thing he can't actually run that fast and I can chase him pretty well. He might use me to dig furrows in the soil halfway to the mountains, but by God he's not going to chat with the mares while he's doing it. Eventually I get him quiet and start working on just doing a few steps forward, stopping, praising- and then Sue says Peggy wants him in the indoor. I bring him in and he's completely well behaved for her. To be fair, I take him and lunge him on the other side after she's done one, and he's fine for me as well.
Time to hop on- Sue calls encouragement "May the Force be with you!" and Peggy asks "You have a will, don't you?" as I climb up the mounting block, and STILL have to struggle to reach the summit of this leggy thoroughbred's back. Peggy tells me he's not spooky but that he has no steering.
This is completely accurate- we attempt to travel in a straight line and veer off to the quarterline. I start to get a feel for the horse and eventually we trot. He's surprisingly couch backed- his trot is the flattest I've ever experienced but with a bit of leg and encouragement he starts to step through, soften in the bridle and get a little round. We do some circles and he starts to bend in his body. It was a pretty typical ride on a green horse - I didn't do too much with him but he was very good, and in the end he didn't feel different from any other horse. He really enjoyed being praised and had a pretty good attitude. Sue seemed happy with us and told me to get him going well so she can ride him. Funny to think that it will be an accomplishment to get a horse that costs twice as much as my house going well at walk/trot/canter. :D
