Lesson Update

I had my second lesson yesterday. I missed last last week's lesson, but this week was so great. I was so much more confident...that fear is leaving quickly and being replaced by respect. I'm sooooo loving this.

We spent a good 45 minutes in the ring, and only stopped because poor Lucky was being tormented by flies even though we sprayed him down. We went round and round the ring and I got to do circles in the middle of the ring, lol. I know this is all simple basic stuff but it's a big deal to me!

For some reason I kept getting my right foot through the stirrup so I'd have to stop Lucky, fix my stirrup and then readjust my saddle. All of that was good to learn. We also picked up the speed a bit and kept at a constant pace, concentrated on keeping Lucky's head up and I had to do all the "steering", stopping, commanding, etc.

Buzzy said he was tempted to take the lunge line off but said he just couldn't because it was only my second lesson. About 3/4 of the way through the lesson Lucky had a fly on his belly and he started kicking at it w/ his back foot and that kinda freaked me out a bit because I didn't know what was going on...it felt like an earthquake! LOL! But then I got my head back on straight, realized that was normal behavior for a horse, and went in some more circles. We did so many circles that I'm surprised I wasn't dizzy when I left.

My back is also doing great!! The only thing that bothered me was my ankles, lol. I think I'm going to start doing ankle strengthening exercises. Have any of you ever done anything like that? I know it sounds goofy, but I think it's a good idea.