Lesson #2 Hard Work Pays Off From Jul. 18, 2018

I was nervous and excited for my second lesson at the new barn. It had been 3 weeks! I thought there was no way I could of improved and if anything I thought I’d be worse because how can I possibly improve without practice!

I rode the same mare again. And while grooming I wondered if I would still be out of breath with shaking legs by the end of the ride again. 

 After I got on me and my instructor promptly agreed to keep talking as much as we could since it helps me relax and breathe. The poor thing had to listen to my babblings for 45 minutes. Let me just say, she deserves every penny I pay lol.

The first half my stirrups were a little too short but I had already lengthened them twice and didn’t want to interrupt the lesson again. I have long legs and she does too. And even though she is taller than me our legs are the exact same length! Thankfully she stopped me and lengthened my stirrups quite a bit. Felt 100% better! 

Of course I still had to work on my hands, legs, and breathing but I was catching myself earlier and correcting them faster so that’s some improvement.

If you follow me on Instagram you’ll see a short video from the lesson. I can see my leg position has already improved!

I have known years now that I tend to pinch with my knees quite a bit. I’ve worked on it in the past. But she worked on it more with me. 

She also got to see how TERRIBLE I am about rushing fences. And I’m not talking about a normal 3 foot fence. Nope! I’m talking about even the itty bitty cross rail that’s barely 1 foot high! Lol. (P.s. I haven’t jumped in years so i was super excited) So naturally I had to tell her about my first horse that also attacked fences and what a disaster we were haha good times....

Something that has annoyed me for a long time now is how at the canter especially in a two point my lower back... flops.. And to be honest I find it disgusting when I watch videos. So I asked her about it and she told me it’s because my core isn’t strong enough yet. So yes more core work to come in the gym!

But my BIGGEST victory of the day was the fact that I didn’t get too out of breath. Yes, I was hot and sweaty but I was not exhausted like last time. I was not the reason we had to stop this time. This time it was the old sweet mare that gave out first haha. I can’t tell you how happy it made me that my cardio is paying off!!

Overall it was another great lesson. Well worth driving an hour each way. In just two lessons I have already seen and felt some improvements and I’m very excited for what not just the next lesson holds but what the future over the course of time will improve.