Riding 101

Last week I was invited to go and watch my niece and nephew's first English riding lesson. My niece was so very excited. She was all grins and giggles. She was too cute. When they got there they got a "how to tack" up demo. The man on the right is Michael. He is the trainer at The Stables at LeBocage. The Stable is building a new barn and it's going to be really nice. But anyway, back to the lesson. After the tack up demo it was off to the riding ring. She is just too cute. The little pony is named Etcha Sketch. A big old softy pony. Etcha Sketch goes to big A rated shows and does really well. A quick demo of how to sit and where your leg should be and they were off. This is her posting. She did so well. She would post all down the long side and then walk on the corners, then back to posting trot down the long side. She was a trooper. She did not complain one time about being tired. Michael would tell her to walk and take a break and she would just continue trotting. I loved her posting. I wished I had my video camera. She really tried so hard to get it down. Here is Aunt Michelle and Cowpokette watching. Cowpokette looks like she wants a turn. Then Cowpokette decided to take a little siesta. Don't mind Aunt Michelle's arm, make sure you are comfy. Here is my niece doing her two point position. She is so cute up there. Oh, I can't wait for my daughter to be old enough to take some riding lessons. I am so excited. My niece kept on saying she wanted to jump. At the end of her turn, she got a quick correction of how her legs and feet should be, and her helmet got some fixing. Then it was my nephew's turn. There was a helmet fitting and then some mounting block instructions. My nephew made it very clear that he was not going to jump. He was just there for lessons on how to better his balance. He is too cute. And they are off. My nephew is sometimes a bit more nervous or cautious, but that day he did really well. His Mom and I were really impressed. A demo on how to do the two point position. A little note not to sit like a turtle. He really tried not to look like a turtle. His two point position. Then on to posting trot. He did a great job posting. He didn't even mind the pace that Etcha Sketch was setting. He did a great job. He took a quick break for a little pep talk and then pack to the rail for some more posting trot work. He really was quite the trooper. I am sure that took all sorts of muscles to do. Plus ponies are not normally the easiest horses to ride. They can be bouncy at times. After it was all done he was still smiling. She loved it too. They are going back today for lesson number two. I can't wait to hear how that goes.
My nephew got to ride Etcha Sketch back to the barn. He deserved that little ride for all that hard posting trotting he did.