First Lesson Back

My lesson Friday went well. I left work early since I didn't take a lunch so I could walk Spyder and get the horse I was riding tacked up. When I got to the barn, I was told to grab Barbie, a palomino which I would swear is a pony, but she just made being a horse. The little girl that was leasing her had fallen off and broken her arm so I'm sure she needed to be worked. I know from when I rode her one other time that she's not the best for kids in the canter because she's a quick little thing. She's improved so much since last time, though. Her trot is so slow (she was probably an ex-western horse of the sorts), and her canter transition was better. I did have trouble getting her to relax because I wasn't relaxing, and she feeds off of rider energy. She hates when people are in her mouth and you basically have to give her her face to get her to lower her head and you can't play with the bit or her neck goes right back up in the air - the EXACT opposite as Spyder. It was good to get on something so different.

After controlling the trot, I tried to control the canter, but it's tough when you feel like you're being whipped around the ring! The trainer kept saying, "she's not going anywhere." I was just nervous from knowing how she was before and thinking about how I didn't eventighten up her girth myself before getting on. She's cold backed so she needs to be walked before tightening and would sometimes rear or buck if she wasn't happy so the owner did that for me. That made me feel great before I even got on! Since her transitions stink, we trotted a bunch and since we both couldn't relax, we had to come back down a lot before trying to get it again. It was work and it was different, but it was a "real horse." It felt nice to canter even though it was not the most comfortable of situations.

We then moved to jumping. It was just one jump which was a cross rail that moved up to a vertical (maybe 18"). Nothing big, but the horse had lost confidence in jumping, and I can't say I have much anymore, either. While I did have fun and we jumped a good 10-15 times working on rhythm and calming down, I couldn't help but think I was schooling the horse. Sure, I haven't ridden in forever so who am I to say that, but it crossed my mind. Heck, the horse schooled me, too.

I reconfirmed the 8th with the owner/trainer so that I didn't have to think about that, and I'm not sure I'm riding this Friday because of the Chesapeake. I'm still not sure if I'm going to watch or volunteer, but it should be a nice weekend for the ride either way. Details on Saturday's ride next. To throw in another thought, Spyder's injury and the trailer situation have been stressing me out a ton. I'm left to think about what happens if he doesn't heal. I regret this trailer and I'm not sure if I should fix it to get rid of it or keep it in hopes of a future with Spyder and traveling. Do I even want it at this point? I feel like I need to fix it either way to get anything for it, but what if it's bad news. This whole horse everything in my life just feels so wrong lately.