Lesson on Gatsby, and some amazing news :)

Today was a lesson riding Gatsby, I was soo excited there's something about this horse that just makes me want to ride to my best ability. I groomed him and brushed him until he was all soft and shiny which wasn't easy because he's legs are not clipped so they tend to get covered in mud. Then it was time to get on Gatsby and I had got a lesson to myself as Jaimie-leigh wasn't there. We decided that I was going to work even harder on my canter work and get Gatsby and me really working. 

The lesson started off really well, with Gatsby walking on a loose rein really stretching out, and Fiona asked me if it was okay with both me and my mum if she could use pictures of me and Gatsby riding for her business cards and posters, of course we said yes and it was funny because Gatsby started nodding his head as if he was saying yes too. We then started picking up a contact and he started working in a really nice outline, you could see his muscles working and he felt soo good! He felt so much kind of in control and relaxed and calm. He was going so well in trot that we decided that we weren't going to do as longer walk warm up as planned but we did spend an even amount of time on both reins. The trot work was okay it was better on the left rein as this is my rein and at the minute is Gatsby's stronger rein which is odd because his stronger rein used to be the right rein because we used to have the problem that are good reins weren't the same! The left rein I could get him in to an outline and I got some really nice trot work out of him, he was in an outline and balanced and looking really good even if I do say so myself. We then talked about how I was going to go about cantering with Gatsby and I said that I wanted to build on from last week and do a full circle. To start with I was causing him to start rushing and not going with a nice 'lift' in to canter. I was then getting better at keeping him balanced I was able to pick up a better canter and had a couple of really nice canter transitions where I was lifted up and relaxed and just generally calm. We also had a few where he was being a pain and didn't want to canter, so I kicked him a bit harder and he didn't like it and let me know that he didn't like it by throwing in a couple of bucks in but it didn't bother me. We then finished on a good note and had him walk around on a loose rein for a while. He was then being used in the next lesson, so I helped the girl who rides him get on and sort her stirrups out and then I went to leave and Gatsby tried to follow me out of the school which got a 'Don't go Amber' off the girl who was riding him I thought that this was really sweet and so happy with it. 

During the lesson I spoke to Fiona about helping out during the holidays and I am going to be going up on a  Monday morning with Elaine more than likely and helping out and she's said that more than likely I'll get a 'you can ride Gatsby for 40 minutes on your own doing whatever you want' this was really exciting for me. She also said I suppose you'll want to come to a few competitions with me too and I said 'Yeah' really excited. It seems like I am finally getting where I want to with my riding and am also making great friends along the way. Fiona is also starting a pony club team, which she has asked me if I would like to be on, it's going to cost me £25 for a year membership and then it will be £10 for two hours in an evening once a week, sometimes it will be riding other times not. We will then be able to do competition and there will be a dressage team and I triathlon thing (not sure if I have spelt that right but I am just so excited). It's not super expensive either making it affordable and something that I will be able to do. So I am going to spend some time researching about the Pony Club membership things tonight.

Here's some pictures :) 

Looking down together at Bliss the dog.

Looking the same way again, I love how we are both colour coordinated black and pink on me and Gatsby is black so I am matching him!

Both looking to the side,  no idea what we were looking at but we are doing it together, it made me laugh when I saw these three photographs.

Until Next Time 

A Girl With A Dream.