Friday, May 21, 2010

5/20/10 Julie Goodnight Lesson #2

JG posted a Facebook link to her audio lessons with a discount. I was thinking about ordering, so I did. Here’s a capture & review of CD #2’s riding lesson. I rode it first, because while the downloads worked to my MP3 player, it didn’t recognize the IDs stuck on CD#1. Well enough.. Let’s get on with it.

It starts out with about five minutes of safety reminders & disclaimers. Probably the most entertaining remark involved “having the ability to ride your horse.” Okay, if you bought a riding audio lesson, and you’re lunging? Anyways..

The audio moves along to the actual lesson. Good, solid, warm up with a long time at the walk. The walk works through circles and straights, even down the diagonal once. Julie always reminds “Ear, shoulder, hip & heel”. Here, I made one neat discovery – I can feel Ransom’s inside back muscles lift in the walk. That was cool!

Progress to the rising trot. Julie wastes no time with circles and direction changes. There’s about three to four circles each way. But don’t get comfortable at the rising trot, because after nearly one trip around my arena, the audio calls for a sitting trot. Here is where I will get my “workout” in the lesson. I was listening to the audio for direction changes and body position reminders, but I also was pushing for a nice forward sitting trot in the background.

She then allows the horse to take a walk break. Here, I got a little disappointed. She introduces that “the canter is coming” in almost a dreadful voice, like it’s the “Big bad monster Canter! Oh No!” Goodness! For the disclaimers at the beginning “You must be able to ride at the walk, trot, and canter to continue in this audio lesson”, why make the canter sound so daunting? She even consoles riders afraid to canter that “you can continue this part of the lesson at the trot if you don’t want to canter.” Um, duh.

The canter part of the audio? Short! I got about a dozen strides of canter out of Ransom, followed by one canter circle, then back to trot. A few transitions in and out of canter from trot, but those come with about 6 strides. Change direction, repeat.

And the lesson ends about there. Bring the horse back to a walk, pat him, pat yourself, good ride!

It’s short… And I expected short, but I expected more intensity than I’ve been riding. I usually spend more time at canter, and less at trot. If the trot carries well, I push to canter. Shoot, if the trot feels lethargic, I push to canter, which usually picks the trot up nicely. I hoped for a more intense ride.

On the upside, this will serve as a great “refresher” ride, and will give Ransom and me a focused ride of low impact.

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