Couple of riding pics

[Miss Z]

It's been a while since I posted some riding pics, but since my mum was accompanying me to the stables I thought she could snap a few shots for me.

Today I was riding a horse who's name, purely coincidently, is Tia. She's a lovely mare and I've ridden her quite a few times. Today we did an actual practice prelim dressage test. We did quite well, we had a couple of glitches in the canter at the C end of the school and we were slightly off the centreline a few times, but she's a nice mare to work with.

I know that people who know dressage well will be able to pick out a bazillion mistakes from the photos, but in my defence, some were on purpose! You see, Tia was schooled badly from a young age. You can't tel from the photos, but she is far more developed in muscle on the right side of her body than her left, as a result of riding on way to much bend on the right rein. Therefore, she has a lot of balance issues. In pretty much every pic she is not on the bit and my arms are very straight, but this is because she is quite heavy in the forehand and is just used to working that way. The problem may take a while to correct, and by a rider more competant than I. In a lot you will also see me put a lot more weight in my inside stirrup on the left rein, this too is to help her balance issues. I suppose we were both teaching each other stuff, really.

Anyway, pic time!



Well, this is Tia herself to start off, she's about 16.2hh and is a thoroughbred cross.



So we begin with the salute. Damn, I thought I'd got a square halt here, guess I missed the left hind.



Extended trot. She's quite good at this, her quarters are nice and low and she's stepping out quite nicely here.



Then extended walk. She was good in this pace too, the camera caught her on her not-so-good stride though, lol.



Then I collected it a bit more to medium walk. This mare has a fantastic flashy walk, my mum forgot where the video button was, I would have loved to have shown you!



Then back to trot. I love this pic, we were turning on a 10 metre circle I think, and you can see that Tia is improving in flexing to the left.



OK, no excuses here. I have a REALLY bad case of penguin feet in this pic! Good job Tia kept nice and straight!

More coming...

[Miss Z]

This was the stride of extended walk before the halt. I don't think I engaged the back legs quite enough here as she's stepping into the halt rather than doing it instantly. I didn't notice that whilst I was riding, guess this is something I'll work on next week.



Here is collected walk, you can't see Tia's legs all to well but you can just about see how she's lifting her legs up rather than out.



Preparing to change the rein B to K in collected trot.



Ack, I make some weird faces when I'm riding. I'd just lost my stirrup and was putting it back in after Tia shied slightly at a jump pole, so that's why my right foot is sticking out, lol.



And canter! Only one pic of canter as my mum couldn't get very many good shots of this faster pace. Tia has a lovely rhythmic canter, but as I said before, her balance is pretty bad, especially around corners. I basically had to keep the inside bend all the way around the school, as you can see I have my heel pressed against her side. At least here though it's easier for me to take up a better contact in order to keep the bend. This is one horse where it's easier to make her do a flying change than keep the correct lead! (Mum missed a spectacular photo moment when we did a huge flying change right in front of her )



Turning in diagonally, heh heh.



Then we had a loosening walk whilst my instructor talked me through how we'd done. Canter transitions needed more work, as did keeping the correct lead in the corners, when she is off balance most. But we were perfect at our circles at B and E, and our walk/trot and trot/walk transitions were exactly at the markers. So for our first actual test together, we didn't do too bad.

That's it, hope you enjoyed!

[lv4dogs]

Nice pics! I love riding. Is that her natural color on her back?

[Miss Z]

Nice pics! I love riding. Is that her natural color on her back?

Yep, she's just had a blanket clip.

[Alysser]

You and Tia make a great team, Zara!! Sure looks like a fun lesson, I love horse riding, it's so much fun, but it's really challenging to remember all the steps and such.

[Miss Z]

Thanks Alyssa.

Is it me or has Pet General been very quiet recently? It seems most threads in it are tiny . LOL, not to worry.

[buttercup132]

Looks good. lol I hate the faces I make when I ride too.
(pet general has been looking pretty dead latley)

[Vermontcat]

Beautiful photos!
You and Tia look very good together.
I'm always been impressed with Dressage and how you can get the horse to do so many different things with the tiniest of hand and leg movements.
Are you going to be in some horse shows this summer?

[Suki Wingy]

Looks good. I have to put my heel up too thanks to mr. Solo, I think I'll get some prince of wales spurs to take care of the porblem though. It's funny, I got excited when I saw the clip, I automatically associate partially cliping with the UK because I've never seen one here in America.

[Miss Z]

Beautiful photos!
You and Tia look very good together.
I'm always been impressed with Dressage and how you can get the horse to do so many different things with the tiniest of hand and leg movements.
Are you going to be in some horse shows this summer?

I would love to be, but unfortunately not many shows around here are geared to people who don't own their own horses. Plus, I ride once a week if I'm lucky, my dad pays for every fortnight but I have to fork out in between. My lessons cost around £1200 a year! However, my riding school stages some intra-school dressage competitions around Christmastime, perhaps if I keep working at it then maybe I'll be able to have a go at a prelim by then.

It's funny, I got excited when I saw the clip, I automatically associate partially cliping with the UK because I've never seen one here in America.

Yes, I suppose it is a very British thing, normally associated with hunter horses. I suppose it's more common over here to tie in with our weather conditions when the horse is at pasture.