Horse riding lesson!

Yesterday, I had another amazing horseback riding lesson, and it was a lot of fun! When I was driving to the stables, it was snowing, which made everything look so magical. Upon arriving, I saw my little friend, Hannah, who was there when I first started riding. She had helped me get settled and showed me where everything was. It was nice to see her again!

For this lesson, I rode Rama, a wonderful horse. Rama was actually the first horse I cantered on at my new stables, so I was excited to ride him again. After I caught him and led him to the crossties, I gave him a good grooming to make sure he was clean and comfortable. One thing that was a bit off was the non-slip pad—it wasn’t positioned correctly, which made everything a little tricky. I realized I would need to pick a better pad for next time. Once I got Rama all tacked up and ready to go, I was good to ride.

Since it was snowing, there were only Hannah and me in the lesson. Our instructor, Ms. Joanne, couldn’t make it, so Megan took over for the day. Megan is a pretty tough teacher, but I know that’s how I’ll improve. We started with posting trot, and after a while, Megan had us work on a figure-eight pattern. It took us about 20 minutes to figure out the right directions, but it was actually really funny trying to get it right.

After that, we started walking, but suddenly my saddle began to slip off, likely because of the non-slip pad issue. It took a few minutes to adjust it, and then, not long after, Hannah’s saddle started slipping too! We both had a good laugh about it. We walked for about 5–10 minutes to get back on track.

Next, Megan had us practice taking our legs out of the stirrups and putting them back in while trotting. It was a bit difficult at first, but eventually, I got the hang of it. After that, we did a series of exercises, which Megan called "spiders" or something like that. We were supposed to do it in a trot, but I decided to start at a walk to make sure I had it down. Hannah, on the other hand, was able to do it in a trot, and she did great!

Then, it was time for cantering. Hannah went first, and she did an amazing job! When it was my turn, I didn’t feel as confident. My hands were on Rama’s mane, and my legs weren’t positioned properly. I also struggled to turn him around, so I ended up getting a bit frustrated, but I didn’t give up entirely. I kept trying to improve as the lesson went on.

Finally, after all the cantering, I did some more posting without stirrups, which was challenging but helped me build strength and balance. Meanwhile, Hannah, who’s been riding here more frequently, was jumping 2’3” jumps, and she was really impressive.

By the end of the lesson, I was tired but happy with my progress. I may not have been jumping yet, but I felt proud of what I accomplished. I’m already looking forward to next week’s lesson!