Day 4

So Day 4 is veing much better than day 3, I have to be at the barn at nine this morning so I got myself early so that I cold actually make to the barn on time for once and not at noon lol!!!!! I get there and there is a new face at the barn, she seemed a little shy and I am to so we worked around each other for a few minutes while we got our horses ready for our lessons, Alan ask if we have introduce our selves and both of us answer no, and he introduces us, and the girls name is Marina, whom is not a native of the Netherlands but from New Jersey, and that she has been over here for about a year now.
So we go to start the lesson and automatically Alan compared me to a duck sitting on the horse, so after my odd insult to how
I sat on a horse, he has me do all these exercise you create angels on the horse and by the way the horse is not doing any of the angels I am and they are so painful. Alan was explaining to me that American riders are very stiff and that I need to add angels. so what do I do I push my ankle down more and bend my knees and elbows more create more angel. Still not what he wanted, so he has me drop me outside stirrup, and suddenly my angel on teh inside improved, and what Alan really wanted or maybe a better way to express what he wanted was that he wanted dimension in my angels, and what I mean by that is if you were to draw a picture of something it is only 2D meaning it what you see, now take a picture of the same object and you will start to see them in a 3D type of way (hope I explained this well). So now that I understood what Alan was asking, he ask me to do the next thing to change the way I ride and how most people in America ride and that is to carry my hands higher than what I am used to so that is a huge change for me, some who rides in the hunters and everything is suppose to be smooth and sort of none visible. So I am quickly becoming frustrated with myself, it is a lot harder than I expected it to be to ride like the europeans, they use completely different leg muscle or the same one just in a way I am not used to using it. But Alan keeps telling me i am doing well and the lessons end, alan tells me to let Corrada go out for some grass and then to come back in and brush her.
So next is Smabo (THOUGHTS: love Sambo!!!!), now that he is feeling better, the swelling in his leg has gone done a bunch. But Alan puts me in a different saddle for Smabo because he has such high shoulders. And I guess this saddle puts my leg in a better position, I have a much better lesson on Sambo, he was such a good boy.
But as I was riding these two horses, and Alan was explaining that the way a horse should go,is like when you see them on a lunge line and that is their natural gate, and that is what they try to achieve over here and in the states we have a tendency to push them on their front feet instead of using their hind ends, then I had a revelation, as to why we have so many lame horses with no reasons at all, Alan also said that the horses can work being push on their front end for a couple of days but will go lame eventually if they do it for too long!!!!! Whether I actually found something relevant, the jury is still out and I would like your opinion on the matter.
So after riding and ending the day at the barn, i come back to the B&B, only to change and go for a jog, I found myself back at the barn talking with Steff. Her and I ended up talking for awhile, me entertaining her with my stories from the previous day. But somehow I ended p eating dinner with Alan and his family, where little Izzy was not feeling good. At one point she threw up at the dinner table, the Nanja and Alan are apologies profusely, Steff is used to Izzy being sick and with the family I live with, it just doesn't bother me at all. But Dinner was fantastic, this really good chicken, fabulous potatoes, and basil salad. Okay, I have jogged down the hill, and now I am full of food and it is raining out, so I go back to the canteen to talk with Steff some more, and finally gather the courage to jog back up the hill into my littel house and into a warm shower!!!!! And to bed for the night because the next day is my day off, YAY!!!!!