Riding with adults

Since 3 weeks I don't ride on the Saturday morning anymore. Annieka, my teacher, thought it was time to move to a group with people of my own age. So 2 weeks ago, I started on a Thursday evening. It was excited and new to me. I was given Mondriaan to ride and had to go and fetch him. His saddle was strapped on but the other stuff was not on yet. I had no idea how to put a bridle on a horse, so someone did that for me. After that I lead Mondriaan to the riding area and mounted him. I still have a hard time to mount him as he really is a big horse. After a walk and a trot we were given some assignments to work on. We worked all for ourselves. I have to get used to that, as I always look around to see what others are doing. I want to do things the right way, and I found out that some things didn't work out very well for me.



I also found out that Mondriaan really needs the work. He kept on running and it was hard to slow him down. He loved to trot and to gallop (last week he didn't even want to slow down from the gallop). He is a wonderful horse, but he needs the excersize. Now vacation time is here, he doesn't work as much as he is used to during the lessons, and it shows. But he still does a wonderful job. The thing is that I still have lots to learn. It is easy to get a horse from walk to trot and back, but other excersizes took me a while and Annieka really had to help me with it. Still it is great fun to ride with adults, instead of children. It is a totally different concept. After the lesson we had to take the horses to their stables, take everything of and feed them. Mondriaan really loves food and candy. He does everything to get candy or food. 2 Weeks ago I brought horse candy and ofcourse I gave him a bit. After the lesson, when I was back on the floor, I thought of giving him a treat, as he did so well. while I was looking for candy in my pockets, he laid his head over my shoulder to see what was going on. It took to long I guess, because he started to push me in the back after a short while. But I found some candy and I gave it. And tonight will be my 3rd time on a Thursday evening. I am getting used to it now, but it is still strange not having to ride on a Saturday morning.