Pandora... Oh, Pandora.
She's super pretty, and really sweet... but she's a butt. She gave me a really hard time today.
Grooming her was kind of an adventure. She's just so tall! I could barely reach up her back. She was great while I was grooming her, but she really didn't seem happy about tacking up. She kept trying to walk off. Not only that, but we had to put a different bridle on her, because hers was all weird. The bit was hanging way low for some reason. She seemed really unhappy about all that.
I was excited to ride her, but honestly I was also really nervous. Pandora is just so huge! It's a little scary. DeDe took her around the round pen a couple times first, to show me that I really needed to push her, because she's so strong and so huge that she can easily do her own thing if I didn't show her I was in charge.
That's something I have a really hard time with. I want to ask the horses nicely to do things for me. I don't want to kick them, I don't want to yell at them. It works with some horses in some cases... like Porsche and Lola. They want to go forward. But Pandora really really doesn't. Pandora needs to be pushed, and hard.
I was constantly kicking Pandora, through my whole lesson. I just couldn't kick her hard enough to get her to pick up her feet. DeDe told me that part of my issue was that I pulled on the reins at the same time as I kicked her, so I confused her. Eventually she got me a riding crop to smack her with, but I couldn't seem to do that either. I don't know if it was just the way I was holding it, but I couldn't hit her very hard. More likely it's that I was afraid of hurting her... which is silly.
Getting her to stop was an adventure. I had the same issue with the reins that I have with the kicking and the crop. I had it with Porsche and Lola, too. However, because Pandora is so strong and so big, I got over it quickly. I feel much more comfortable with yelling at her to "ho"and pulling hard on the reins now.
I trotted for the first time today too. I was a little (read: a lot) nervous about that. The last time I trotted, when Lola took off on me, I felt really insecure. I definitely felt insecure when I trotted on Pandora, too. DeDe said that Pandora has a pretty smooth trot, but still... all that bouncing makes me feel unseated. I kept wanting to hold the horn, but then I couldn't steer or stop, which was kind of scary. I felt really proud of myself for stopping her on my own, with the reins and yelling at her, while trotting. I that may have been my biggest accomplishment today.
Or it might have been getting her to trot in the first place... I had to keep wimpy-smacking her with the crop and kicking her and yelling to get her to go! I really want to work on my confidence and my take charge-y-ness over the next few weeks.
I don't have as many pictures today, since I didn't have anyone to take them while I was riding, but I did get a couple of Pandora in her stall.
Since it's Friday, I hung out for a while at the stables. DeDe gave me some extra time in the saddle since it took so long to tack Pandora up, and then I stayed and watched to next lesson, helped the kids groom Lola, helped lead Luca from his stall to the round pen and back. We had a little bit of an adventure with Lola, too. She used to be abused, and we assume that they whipped her face and head, since she has scars there. When DeDe was taking her out of the cross ties, she freaked out. She pulled back and practically sat down on her hindquarters until the cross tie broke, and took off running to her stall. DeDe went and caught her, and everything was fine after that. She said Lola doesn't like things around her face, probably because of the abuse.
On another note, I hurt myself somehow! I think I scraped my arm on the saddle while dismounting. Pandora's so tall that I guess I was clinging to it a little bit.
Oh, Pandora... You're so pretty! Why are you such a butt?
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