First riding lesson

of 2010, I should say. But I was so excited I could hardly sleep last night!

Anja (my show-jumping next door neighbor) came over and told my man a spot opened up in a group lesson and I could come to Gut Luchtenberg Friday morning. My man wrote me a note:

Riding. Friday. 9:30. 9:00 Grooming.

I was so curious, What, huh, what kind of lesson, and what kind of horse? One of those giant German horses? Oh no! And most of all, what if I cannot understand the riding instructor? I was pretty worried about that. And what if she's mean and yells at me in German for being an idiot American who doesn't know anything!

(In the German language if often appears that I know nothing because of the language barrier, when in reality I know more than nothing.)

So this morning at 7:45 AM I walked next door in my newly oiled Ariat boots and halfchaps, and my grippy Irideon breeches. (No way was I gonna wear spandex on leather!) I had my helmet in hand. I felt like a rider again.

The riding instructor arrived and introduced me to the other ladies. One, Ulrike, was especially kind to me. I was just anxious to get my horse and get started so I could get a long warm up but that was not to be. We all headed to the mare field together and found our horses in the farthest corner.

Black and Beautiful

My mare, Amanda, was gorgeous! She was jet black and sweet-faced.

We took our mares to the barn and groomed them. The more I brushed her, the more like satin her coat shone. It was unreal! She has very good manners and I didn't have to yell at her (I heard some cussing in German coming out of the other stalls).

She had pretty tack to match her prettiness, I wish I had a photograph! She had a burgundy pad under her black dressage saddle, and a simple french link bridle (no flash, hooray!) with a purple browband. I didn't know what to do with this odd martingale thing that wasn't a martingale. What could that be? Another lady showed me how to toss it over her neck until we were ready.

I have to admit I was annoyed at first when the riding instructor corrected me for not holding onto my reins while I tightened the girth in the middle of the arena, where my mare stood still half asleep. She wanted the reins hooked thru my arm as I worked but that mare was not going anywhere. I was a little worried that I would be micromanaged in every way.

I needed a mounting block, embarrassing to say, even though the mare is only about 16 hands. That is still bigger than I'm used to and I'm not at all fit right now.

Then the instructor affixed the martingale, which wasn't - it was draw reins of some sort, but no, side reins?!!! (Sort of a mix of both. From girth underneath, between the forelegs, thru the bit and connected back to the girth under my knee.) Crazy. All the horses had them on. And later when I asked why, they said it's just a rule, all the school horses wear them. I was appalled because drawreins are a handy tool to use sporadically but not permanently, and draw reins are not fixed - you hold them. How would a student ever learn to ask for roundness if the horse has no choice? If I continue riding there I will have to insist that they be taken off at some point. (I understand that it allows students to focus on other things, but still..)

I started riding off and realized I hadn't signed a release waiver in case of injury. I stopped and came back to the instructor and she said in Germany it's not necessary because everyone has personal protection insurance (I do) and every horse is individually insured. Aha, I see. (Even dogs have insurance, Anja said that if I'd like, she can submit a claim because her dog killed my cat! I said no thank you.)

We started doing warm up without stirrups and stretching our arms around. I find that arm thing ridiculous but good we didn't have to do it too long.

So here I am riding this pretty mare and it was as I feared - she's a typical school horse with dead sides and not much steering. AGH am I spoiled, I rarely had to look for the gas pedal on Baasha, our problem was getting stopped.

After 15 minutes I was sweating and exhausted and I had to come to the center to rest. Pitiful. The mare kept trying to follow the other horses, if they were on one end of the arena during "free riding" time, she'd just veer across and I'd be turning her right, and she'd be turning left - kind of like you see Shetland ponies do, they just harden their necks and blast whichever way they like. I'm used to ultra sensitive Arabians, oh dear.

I had to whine to the instructor. "She won't go forward, and she won't turn. She has no gas pedal nor steering wheel!" The instructor said I need to be sure to lay the outside rein on her neck to block her shoulder, and raise up my inside hand high, and try to use my weight. For a moment I thought, "Oh, it's not her, it's me?" but later I thought, "No, it's her. I've never had this issue with other horses!" I'm the type to put the blame on me before blaming the horse, but not this time.

I could do serpentines easily with her - when she wanted to. But when she wanted to be with her friends, the rider became a passenger.

Finally the other ladies told me, "It's our fault that she does that" and I see that perhaps enough students have simply followed the other horses with her that it's a habit.

But I love this free riding we were doing - almost having multiple collisions, but remembering "left knee to left knee" as someone came toward me. It gave us time to work on what we wanted. I worked on steering but didn't get far before a change was called for.

It's called "Departmentalizing" (Abteilen?) where the riders all do the same thing. All leicht trab (rising trot). All hand wechsel (change hand). All circle (I think the word is the same.) I am not sure it's such a good thing because the horses copy each other and don't listen to the riders as closely. Then there was the cantering.

I thought Lord don't let us canter today cuz I can barely make this overgrown Shetland trot! But we cheated. While we were in Abteilen (I think that's the word), the first rider takes off "gallopieren" until she's at the end of the line. Then the second rider, and so on. I thought "There's no way" but my mare did it. Aha, she knows this copying routine. It's not my canter cue at all. (A canter cue that was zapping all my strength before she finally relented and cantered.) Thankfully her canter was not hellish (like another school horse's). The instructor was lavish with her praise and never corrected my position at the canter, woo. (She did correct me at the trot whenever I was posting on the wrong diagonal, oops.)

Almost the entire time I felt that my mare was downhill. How could she not be with her head in place like that?

The riding instructor kept calling out to me instructions in English and I'm not sure that helped. Her English is OK but I need to hear the German words for things so I can learn them. At one point I had to stop and correct her because it really bothered me that she kept calling it "lope." I said, "We don't say 'lope' - that's Western. We call it 'canter'" and she felt stupid and said "Oh, I watch too many Western lessons!" I bet the Germans find it odd that we have different words in the same language, for the same exact things, depending on your riding style.

There's a certain thing you have to yell if you want the short end rail by the bleachers so you can take a drink of water. I have not caught what it is exactly.

The other ladies stopped halfway thru to drink water and I wished I had mine but more, I wished I'd picked a shirt that didn't show all my sweat. In the large arena mirrors I could see my back was completely soaked, and under my arms and boobs, too. Horrible, had I forgotten that I sweat during riding lessons?

The riding instructor wanted to know the English word for the various arena patterns - I don't know, do we have a general word for serpentines, circles, figure 8s, etc? I guessed patterns but I'm not sure. They call it "Hufschlag" meaning the tracks you ride in.

I told the riding instructor how difficult this mare is to move and she said "OK to be honest I had to give you the laziest horse because I didn't know your level." AHA.

Well I know how to give a horse a gas pedal, it will just take me a few minutes (and about 30 swats with the crop).

During the next "free time" I got to work.

How to get your gas pedal back - from my old Dressage trainer Deborah Nelson

Transitions and repercussions. Oh, you knew that. Well, it worked on Amanda. I asked for 5 steps at the walk, long relaxed ones, and then I gave her the trot cue I would like her to respond to. That is a little vibration of both calves at the same time, with a little heel squeeze too. She ignored it. Whack with the crop (I think I kept hitting the saddle pad due to her lack of reaction). We would trot 10-20 paces on a loose rein, I wasn't about to constrain her during this lesson. Then I would sink down in my seat and she'd say "Thank God" and walk. Beautiful down transitions! Then I'd walk 5 nice long walk steps and then give her my cue to trot again. Whack when she ignored me. The thing about warmbloods*, this lesson seemed to take a lot more cicuits of the arena than necessary. A sensitive horse would have gotten it after perhaps 2 whacks. This mare took forever. I need to get thru her schooling horse haze into her real mind underneath.

(*I don't actually know if this is typical for warmbloods, but I know it is not a hot-blooded breed characteristic.)

Finally she sprung to a trot when my calves vibrated and I reached forward and rubbed on her neck.

There we go, we have a gas pedal now. Anja came to watch and got to see me literally cruising at a trot on the laziest horse in the barn. I was doing lengthening on the long sides and collecting on the short sides and she was FLYING down the long sides, it was great! She was actually "hearing" my cues! The riding instructor noticed and said "Oh my, she's running!" (Her English isn't so great.)

But then the hour was up, time to cool down. Oh well, we got that worked out at least.

I was happy that I wasn't the only one covered in sweat - one other lady ran a towel thru her spiky hair to dry it.

I agreed to sign up for 5 lessons (they're so cheap it's unreal - my trainer in Seattle charged 50 per hour, this is way less).

Then Ulrike bought me a cappucino from the Reiterstube (lounge) and we sat around and talked for a while. One other lady from the lesson (didn't catch her name) and Anja were also there, it was nice to be in a group of ladies chatting about random things. Ulrike was trying to give me ideas of where I can work - they seem to want me to come back to their lessons and I said it's a matter of money and I have no job. Anja even said she'd talk to some people she knows who work for an American company. It's nice when people try to help.

Ulrike was saying how difficult English is and I said, "At least we have one word for 'the.' I bought 5 goldfish recently and named them 'Der, Die, Das, Den and Dem' (the, the, the, the and the)." They laughed and admitted I win, German's harder.

Oh, and it was very nice when Ulrike said, "It's obvious from watching you that you can ride.": ) That felt good after all my nervousness.

Anja pointed to her new boots, she has these lovely tall riding boots that have a tie system going up the side with a dial, so the calf is adjustable. Ulrike asked what they cost - guess what - 600 Euros!!!!!! With boots that expensive, I don't want to know what her saddle cost.

Then they invited me to their "Friday morning riders" dinner party! It's only in tentative planning right now but I would love that. I need more contact with people and these ladies seem nice.

I will be so happy if I could do this regularly. I'm ready to give up my monthly Thai restaurant outing for it: )

___
Though I didn't have my camera today, I had it the first time I visited Gut Luchtenberg.