Well that was an exhausting weekend! Hope you enjoyed the racing focus of the theory session. Rihanna did an excellent job of explaining pace. Our unridden group ran an unmounted Ride to Time session, perhaps the first time that's been done!
With the first practice being to run a measured distance and set your average speed
Then Rihanna asked you to vary your pace so that you could cover the distance in a different time, perhaps faster or slower.
Learning how to count time in your head, and feel how fast you are travelling are really important skills to learn, even on the foot.
Being able to control your horses pace is a vital skill for show jumping and eventing, but even if you never do these activities, being able to control the way in which your horse moves will improve your riding skills drastically. Think of it as the next step after you have mastered your balance and basic aids. Once you become skilled you will be able to steer, drive your horse more forward, bring the horse back simply with your seat bones and balance. It's really a wonderful buzz the first time you feel that you can pick your horses exact pace and speed.
The practice for picking the pace for harness racing was perhaps a little amusing to watch!
Welcome to Ryan who joined the program for the day
We saw some great fun in the "racing arena" And some very brave riding from Lily off the lead on Bobby. Well done Lily!
And well done to Sarah Prass, one of our wonderful helpers, who managed to keep up with Bobby the Ex Racehorse!.
A very nice 2 point seat from Cossy:
RWOH 3rd November 2018
Thanks
Stuart
