Today was the first day of AS 347. In class we were each assigned horses to ride for the day. I was given Tina, a bay mare. We weren't really given much instruction, or told how to do things such as saddling, or picking their feet. We also weren't told how to warm our horses up, to get them ready for us to ride them. I believe the reason we weren't given instructions is because Brother Twitchell wanted to see where each of us are in our skill and knowledge levels. In upcoming classes, I would guess that he’ll tell us more about what he wants us to do. After we got on, he had us walk the horses around the arena, and then trot. Throughout this, I think he was probably watching us to see how we handled the horses, again just getting an idea of our skill level. At the end of class he had each of us go around the arena separately at a walk and a trot, and Sylvia recorded us the whole way around. It makes sense to me that this would be so we can watch ourselves to see what we need to fix, and also to compare it to where we are at the end of the semester.
Something I noticed that I do, and I’ve known that I do it, is that when I ask for a trot, I bump them back immediately. I think the reason for this is because I feel like they’re going to start going too fast. I trained the horse that I used for 5 years in 4-H to jog very slowly. To get him to go that slow, I bump his head after the first step or two that he trots, and he slows down. Tina is not trained that way though, so I think I was just confusing her when I bumped on her head. It’s a good learning experience for me to ride different horses that are trained different ways, because it will give me a wider variety of skills to use.
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