A family visit, and a lesson

My sister, Becky, and her "man friend", Bryce, came out to the barn today. Bryce is from Texas and apparently has a couple of barrel horses down there. I'm pretty sure he just got them because his "then girlfriend" was into it. Anyways.. I'm not sold that he knows a lot about horses. He said one of his is 17.4HH. BAHAHA!

Annnnywho! Becky wanted to just get on Kazi bareback for a bit. So, I hopped on and made sure he didn't have any tricks up his sleeve. Of course he was fine, so I let Becky get on. Once she got situated, I bridled Bones and got on him bareback too. We both just moseyed along. I trotted and cantered a tiny bit, then we both got off.

We talked for a few minutes about her potentially leasing Kazi. I'm all for it.. it's just a matter of convincing her! Lol. They left, I fed Kazi, and saddle Bones.

Bones and I rode up the driveway. (Side note: I talk about the driveway a lot, so I'll describe it. From the barn, there is the main driveway that leads to the road. This driveway is around a quarter of a mile long.. maybe a bit longer. From the main driveway, there is the neighbors driveway (their house is the burnt down one in the background of some of the pictures.. I'll write about that some other time), and the driveway that leads to the pine woods trails. This driveway is probably an eighth of a mile long.) Over the winter the gravel must have been pushed to the side or something, because there was barely any of it on the driveway at all. It was slightly muddy, which made the footing softer and more forgiving. I had an hour before my lesson, and wanted to do a quick ride working on my posting. So, we rode back and forth on the driveway that leads to the pinewoods. We switched from trotting to cantering, and switched which lead we were on a few times. When we were cooling down, I wanted to take the opportunity and walk in between the "monsters" that we had issues with the other day. At first he was apprehensive, but after a couple of tries he walked through nice and quiet. Then we went back to the barn, un-tacked, fed him, turned him out, and headed to the other barn for my lesson.

I was running about 15 minutes late, so when I got there I didn't waste any time getting the horse I was riding tacked up. Today I rode "Lites Out" aka "Lites". He's a tall (16.2-3 ish), 18 year old TB. Since it was Meghan (instructor) and I's first lesson together, today was mostly about evaluating where I am at riding-wise. We worked at the walk and trot today, mostly posting trot. She said that I have good hands, and a good seat. Almost immediately, she noted that my heels need to come further down. I knew this.. it's hard though! ;P My lower leg also needs to become more secure. Those are the two things that I mostly fault myself on, so I think it's good that I'm at least aware of my faults! Lites is a lazy, slow-moving guy! Lol By the end of the lesson, I felt that my heels were a bit better, and my leg was a bit more secure. And, to me, that's a success! 

I asked Meghan what it is that I should work on until our next lesson, and she said the think "heels"! I'm going to do some ground stretches, to stretch my calves.. and really work on it under-saddle.

I told her that my ultimate goal would to do eventing, and she seemed optimistic about it. I'm pretty excited to continue working with Meghan, I think it will be a good thing for me (and my horses)!

I don't have any new pictures, so here is one of my favorites of Bones!