My second lesson, Schlaufzuegel

My second lesson was on Gina, another big mare with opposite issues. The first thing she did when I put her in her stall to groom her was to snark at me bigtime over her hay. I tied her short to the wall so there would not be a food issue. Then she stood there with her ears pinned at me, and her head as high as she could hold it, and she just glared. I glared back and poked her with the brush. Don't look at me like that! She looked at me like she was daring me to push her. I started grooming and she squealed at me and snapped. I whacked her and wondered how on earth such a horse could be used for schooling. I realized the brush was too stiff for her, she was irritated by the brush, so I was very gentle and quick, but when I asked her to move her giant body over so I could do the other side, she kicked underneath herself angrily at my hand touching her side. Great, she's fighting me in the stall--I wonder what she'll do undersaddle.

I asked my friend Ulrike, "Is Gina always like this or is it me?"

Ulrike came over right away and talked to Gina, cooing at her and trying to comfort her. Then Ulrike saddled her herself - I told her I didn't want to get kicked.

I was able to put the bridle on, but I spent forever asking her to drop her head for me, because I simply cannot reach that high and she wasn't relaxing for me. I saw her eye finally change and she dropped it just enough for me to get the bridle on.

I took her to our riding instructor and said "She hates me" and the instructor said, "Maybe she's having a bad day." Later Anja told me, "It's just Gina - she is so sensitive, she can't stand to be touched. She's not a cuddly horse."

I got on and started warming up and realized it was just like riding Baasha. Wonderful! Gina was extremely sensitive to my weight and leg, and extremely bendy too. I love that! The instructor warned me, "Don't put your leg back behind the girth, she won't take that."

But then the chaos ensued. I don't know why I am having difficulty riding in arenas with 4 other students, perhaps because we're all doing different things and going different directions, it's almost impossible not to collide. There was no structure to this lesson, it was mostly just freetime so I had horses coming at me from all sides. I learned that Gina is claustrophobic, everytime a horse went by she'd pin her ears, and once a horse swished its tail and she leapt sideways to avoid it. So Gina and I were both intimidated into doing very little, I was trying to stay in the middle, and I was constantly looking around me trying to figure out when I could turn or trot or something. At one point I got yelled at for walking on the rail - "Yield the rail if your'e only walking!!!!" The many different rules of yielding are not habit for me. It's left-knee to left-knee when passing an oncoming rider, but only if you are both going the same pace - if one is going slower, that person yields the rail. Transitions make these situations even trickier.

This other student on the big nasty grey thoroughbred had so many issues - balking and bucking, that she had to get off and a trainer had to come ride the TB. I'd seen that horse bucking last week, and just suddenly slamming on the brakes for no apparent reason. I made a mental note to refuse if offered that horse.

So the trainer gets on the grey, and tunes it up by cantering nonstop for about 15 minutes, which made it even harder to avoid collisions and I just tried to "hide" from her as best I could.

Then the trainer gave the horse back to the student and the student did OK after that.

Ulrike rode Amanda, the mare I had last week, and it was fun for me to see how another rider handles her laziness. Poor Ulrike had to whack her a lot, and use all her strength to get her to move. Amanda sure looked pretty though.

The other student was on this little Haflinger with the roughest gaits, I felt so bad for her bouncing all over the place! But the mind of that horse was good, he tried hard and didn't fight. I'd take him over the grey!

The instructor told us to canter and Gina knew what to do from routine, I barely touched her and she sprang into a canter. It was hard for me to remember not to over-cue her, thanks to my experience last week, so at one point I asked her to canter and she bucked me forward onto her neck. Both of my feet got shoved all the way into the stirrups. The instructor shouted in English BE CAREFUL!!!!!!!!! and I was annoyed at the bucking so I squeezed and made her canter several laps as fast as she'd go.

But coming back to that trot - oh my, this horse is so comfortable! She floats and your body doesn't even want to post it, you want to just sit deep and enjoy the sitting trot. It's not often that I enjoy the sitting trot, but Gina makes it fun. I had to remind myself not to sit the trot too often.

Oddly, the instructor wanted us to go from sitting trot to rising trot alternatingly, but she wanted the sitting trot to be slower and the rising to be faster. My old instructor back home always taught that the rhythm/speed should be the same, that we should try not to lose the tempo as we sat down.

Before the lesson the barn manager (owner?) was hanging out with our instructor, so I figured it was a good time to bring up the sidereins. (Schlaufzuegel is what they call them.) I said, "So, eventually we will get to ride without them, correct?"

They looked uncomfortable, "Well we don't usually let students drop them."

I said, "But we're not beginners and we don't need the artificial aid."

The barn owner said, "If the students rode without them, the horses would hollow out, hurt their backs, and we'd have to take them to the butcher and buy new horses."

Uh-huh. If that was her idea of humor, well, who jokes about that kind of thing?!?

Then my instructor said, "Don't worry. You can take them off when I see that you are not USING them anymore. When they go loose."

I thought of this a lot as I rode, so I purposefully took up contact and asked for Gina's head. Since the sidereins are attached so tightly, I couldn't get her behind them enough to loosen them. And as I rode, I realized that I prefer to ride on a light contact, with almost loose reins. I have no need to ask for more contact when the horse's head is tied to its saddle, its head already on the vertical. Why would I ask a horse to give what it is already being forced to do? So it's a bit of a conundrum, isn't it?

Afterwards I wanted to talk to the other ladies about their rides. I'm sure the nice lady who drew the TB was not happy but I didn't get a chance. The grouchy lady who rode the Haflinger actually answered my questions and appeared to even smile as she talked to me. That was a first, she usually won't look at me when I say "Guten Tag" to her. Ulrike was exhausted from Amanda, of course.

I wanted to buy Ulrike a coffee but Anja came over and yelled "Let's go, you can talk next time, I have to get home!" so off we went.

I paid for a group of 5 lessons and I know which horses to avoid. I really did have fun riding Gina and even Amanda once I got the gas pedal back.

I am more and more bothered by the prospect of never losing the sidereins though. I know that it is not the end of the world if horses do not round up for us, if they go around head high, that's just another challenge of learning to ride different horses - learning how each horse needs to be requested for collection.

What are the real reasons unerlying this barn's trend? Vanity? They want the horses to look pretty for audiences? Laziness? It's easier on the instructors if that whole asset of teaching is omitted?

Health? Their reason that it's unhealthy to take them off could hold water if it were only one or two horses, but not ALL of the horses.

I'm curious how widespread this phenomenon is in Germany. I'll have to tour a few more stables and watch a few more group lessons to find out.

I am not anti-draw reins - I have a set of my own. I used them sparingly. I also have elastic side reins for lunging. However there is a big difference between a leverage device I hold in my hand as I ride, than that device being tied to the saddle while I ride.

I just realized I should have the riding instructor or another trainer demonstrate to me how to ride with the sidereins loose. That is, without Gina's mouth touching her chest horribly behind the vertical. I'm curious to see if it's possible.

And I wonder if they've ever heard of something called a running martingale: )