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What a year of walk lessons gets me
I cantered this week.
Oh, I’ve cantered a few times since I started riding again, but for the past year or so the majority of my lessons have been spent at the walk. This is fine with me, because the walk is endlessly fascinating and, if I ever feel like I’ve “got” it, there’s that minor thing called a halt to humble me again. Why is stopping the hardest part of riding for me?
But this second lesson I’m taking every week is with another trainer, in a group, and it should be a great complement to my very technical-minded walk lessons. And, as I’ve always known they would, the walk lessons paid off.
We walked through the corner, shoulder in, canter off. I expected, to be honest, to be thrown around like a rag doll because I figured I’d loose my position in the upward transition and would spend the rest of the time trying to regain my seat and such. Instead, even with the horse doing one of the most powerful steps up into the canter that I think I’ve ever ridden, I was right there and from the first stride felt like I was ready to do… whatever. Anything. Everything.
And in the second. And in the third. And into the downward transition.
It was such a cool feeling.
The two lessons will be a good complement for each other, I think. One lesson at the walk, to keep reinforcing and progressing in the mental/technical aspect of things, and the other lesson with more trot/canter work to apply the walk lessons to other gaits.
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Comments
I love the walk. Seriously, it is so good for the horse, your body, your balance. Tesoro and I have been working on one step. Walk one step halt, one step halt. So good for precision. But cantering is pretty dang fun too. http://halt-near-x.com/images/smileys/smile.gif Congrats on your progress.
On Aug 4, 2007, risingrainbow said:
How cool! I love cantering. I swear it’s the hardest gait to teach the horse to do collected but I love it. So glad you did so well on your first attempt!!