Goyani Day 2

Pat spent the morning with our European and UK Instructors (including one from the USA!) sharing his vision and our mission, and fielding questions on the upcoming new levels program DVD sets.

After that, those who had brought horses played with them in the lovely, huge, all-weather arena here at Stoneleigh Park.  The weather was not very nice :(  Cold, windy and rainy, but thankfully not that way all afternoon.

Walter arrived before noon and we met for lunch and discussed the afternoon's objective... to get to know the horse and see where we were at.  After watching the instructors for a while, we jumped in the car and drove to an indoor arena at Warwick College, about 25 minutes away.  All our instructors came to watch too.

Carmen Zulauf was already there with Goyani, warming him up gently on the ground.  She said he was a little tired so not to expect too much zing.  No problem we were going to start more gently anyway with day 1.

Walter immediately complimented Carmen on her horse as he watched him trotting around.  Then it was time to saddle up and for me to ride.

It wasn't a long session but Walter wanted to see what we had.  We spent a lot of time in the walk, and then some walk-halt transitions.Then some trot and trot-halt-trot transitions and a little movement towards collection, activating the hind leg with trot-walk transitions which don't really take you to the walk, but just before you walk you're trotting again.  It really engages the hind leg and keeps you on your toes!

Then a little canter, and even a halt-canter transition just to see what we had, and some canter-walk-canters.  Goyani was so lovely, he really tried to do what I was asking and a few times didn't quite understand.  But by the end of the lesson we felt quite together and a lot more in tune together, and of course that's when Walter ended the lesson.  The secret is to ride for tomorrow, not to squeeze out everything you can each day, and then the horse gives you more tomorrow.

Goyani was so sweet.  He reached around for a scratch and to connect, and after I dismounted we unsaddled and he had a lovely roll.

Walter fielded a few questions from the instructors and then we headed off to dinner.  I feel quite good with what we accomplished today.  It didn't look fancy but Goyani and I started to find some harmony together and some steps toward collection.  Walter was happy too.

So tomorrow it will be interesting to see what Walter has in store. Even when he says "we take it gently" it is still more than I do!  I keep having to remind myself that sometimes I just don't ask enough. The key is to go to the limit, but not over the limit.  It's a privilege to be coached to ride the horse the way Walter would.

More tomorrow :)

Nitey, nite.

Linda