Lesson with Harvey

The sun is just coming up, shining on the pond and making the grass glitter as I walk across it to feed the horses. The air is clean and fresh, a dog barks, the lone goose is resting, watching my dog and I as we pass him. Actually more watching my dog than me as he likes to round up the geese when he sees them, me, well, not so much, not really into running.

I am a bit early today as I need to get back to the house and get Brooke up to go for a lesson with Harvey. Usually getting her up is a chore, getting her up on a saturday almost impossible but when I yell up, "Hey Brooke do you want to get ready and go for another lesson with Harvey?" there is a moment of silence and then "What should I wear?". No groaning and moaning, her feet hit the floor and she is ready before me. Unusual. Katie opted to go to Kara's and spend some time playing with her at her spot on the lake.

It was a nice drive, we passed the time singing with radio, Tim Horton's breakfast and of course a "French Vanilla". At one point she says her tummy is bothering her, nerves, I remember them well. We get to the barn and Harvey is just walking out with a lovely palamino gelding. "Grab the last horse on your left, throw this saddle on him."

Now normally, Brooke getting a horse ready is an hour long affair but she is improving, I only got one horse brushed and stall cleaned before she was ready. What a nice horse, really nicely muscled gelding and I forgot to ask what his name was and so did Brooke.

So Harvey is riding the pretty palamino, Brooke is riding the dark sorrel and Molly[Harvey's wife] is riding a grey stallion. Let me tell you something about this stallion, he is beautiful and not just a little bit, I know that my camera is in the car, surely I can get up there and get the camera before she is done riding. [I think Pepper would really like for him to be the father of her baby someday.]


I climb up the hill, ran through the alley, found my camera, ran back through the alley and down the hill, sat down, turned on the camera, low battery, I am hoping it will last long enough to get a few pics. Hit the button to take the picture and the camera shut down, not even off, not even closed, just quit working totally. Lucky for me I happened to see Katie's camera in the back seat pouch when I was up there to get my camera so I ran up the hill [did I mention that I don't really run?], through the alley, grabbed the camera, ran back through the alley and back down the hill just in time for Molly to get off the beautiful grey stallion "Lizard". Never got his pic but no matter, I was really here to watch Brooke and try to remember a few of the things that Harvey is trying to help her with.

So he gets her to walk around for a bit and then jog/trot and finally loping, loping and more loping. Circles please. Lots of circles.

Things we need to practice:

Sitting straight in the saddle;
You can tell she leans because the saddle horn shifts to one side or the other. This is not good because the horse is constantly trying to get himself back under you and it is easier for you to correct him as apposed to taking a header over his shoulder. Good to know.

Be a little more aggressive when turning;
If he doesn't turn when you lean the rein on his neck, apply leg pressure. You apply the opposite leg to the direction you are turning ex., left leg pressure to go right. Apply pressure not kicking. Kicking does bad things he said there were 2 of them and I already can't remember what one of them was but the other was it would cause a problem and you just don't need that.

Sit up straight with legs back more;
Brooke sits back too much in the saddle, with her legs at the girth or forward. Her legs need to be a little more back so that she isn't cuing at the girth. So shifting her pelvis and trying to keep her legs under herself is our goal

If he doesn't stay still when you 'whoa' then back him up and whoa again, if he doesn't stay still when you 'whoa' then back him up and whoa again until he stands still when you 'whoa'.

I am sure there were other things he said but I just can't remember them at this point. Maybe tomorrow.

We had a good drive home, picked up some electric fence and a few Harvey's burgers. Good drive, managed not to get a ticket but did not look forward to telling Katie I was using her camera........