The next morning I woke up earlier and got ready faster. I was getting ready for my next lesson with Andrea. Poppy took me to the lesson after breakfast and stayed with me (while Ahmee continued the medication of the previous days) as I rode on Lulu yet again.
This time I did 10 times better. I had no issues directing Lulu, I had significantly less issues with my feet, and my muscles weren't hurting like crazy. Lulu and I were better able to judge from each others movements what the other wanted to do or what the other was thinking. Lulu was ready to trot, and I was ready to practice. When I shortened the reins Lulu felt it and started to pick up the speed before I even tapped my foot to her belly.
This time the ride was stable, the only issue Lulu and I had was that of endurance. Towards the end of the lesson Lulu and I were both tired from trotting, but we still managed to do a few "exercises" where Lulu would trot over several well-spaced logs that Andrea had laid down. To do this I had to go into jumping position, make sure Lulu was lined up, make sure Lulu continued to trot, and make sure my hands were on Lulu's neck to allow her to watch where she was going. Lulu stumbled only twice and only one of those stumbles was my fault. By the end of the lesson both of us were exhausted. Lulu wasn't trotting consistently, and I was starting to slack off with my hands (never move them when trotting). We walked around the perimeter, and then I got to put Lulu away. Lulu didn't want to stop though, she wanted to keep going up to the stables. I managed to make her stop, fussing at her a bit for not listening to me, but then Andrea told me to go ahead and take her up to him and then I could get down. I did this and put away the riding gear, then I went to the main desk and then back to the apartment with Poppy.
There are a few animal things I need to point out right now. Animals can tell when the weather is going to change. If you watch them close enough their behavior and what they do will give you clear signs of this. Watch the birds, if they start pigging out around the bird feeder in the wintertime then that means the weather is going to get ugly and you should expect snow. Watch the cats, if they go under tables you need to expect tornadoes and hurricanes.
Now, I haven't watched horses in a long time, in fact I haven't watched them much at all, but I knew by looking as the clouds that were way off in the distance, by feeling the wind for the first time since we'd been in Umbria and by feeling Lulu act gittery for the first time that a storm was coming and that it was definitely going to rain. Guess what, after about 4 o clock that afternoon it started raining, after dinner you could hear thunder and the rain pounding on the ground and roof. Poppy didn't believe me in the morning that Lulu had told me it was going to rain and storm. When it did rain and storm I didn't keep myself from saying, "I told ya so!"
Another something I want to say about animals is that I hold a philosophy about them: the animal chooses you, the pet chooses you. Humans do not choose there animals and when they ignore the animals that are obviously happy to go for them to instead pick an animal that is more flashy-then they're making a huge mistake. The first day I'd had a lesson in horseback riding I had tried to pet a cat. This cat jumped out of my reach and meowed at me. This day I took my third riding lesson, and I pet two huge, fluffy dogs. The first one was a white one and she was in the barnyard. She rubbed on me and almost followed me into the stable. Such a nice old doggie. The second one was a black Newfoundland doggie who was sitting just outside the main building. He was a sweaty. He walked right up to me and let me pet him and rubbed on me and licked my hands. I have to leave the animals for now to say that after the riding lesson I sent work/emailed, I went with Poppy to the grocery store, and I worked some more/hung out with Ahmee and Poppy for the rest of the day. We made sure to do tons of laundry and to eat up the remainder of our older cheeses during Happy Hour. We also made sure to plan out our next day (we all wanted to go for a ride in the countryside with Andrea and then we had scheduled to eat dinner at the restaurant down at the main building) and our Halloween day (I wanted to celebrate in some way, tehe, saving that day for later).
I had no problems, yet again, going to sleep that night.
No comments:
Post a Comment