Riding Lesson 1

After months of annoying, begging, and bargaining with my parents about horseback riding lessons, we finally came to an agreement. We visited a local stable a friend told me about. It seemed very nice and well-organized, with friendly and experienced staff, and right away I decided that's where I wanted to go. So we gave them our number and they said they'd call when they could.
They didn't call.
So we went back.
Nobody was there, so we left a note.
Maybe they never saw it. It was in plain sight, but, who knows, right? So we called them again. Someone answered, said they were very busy and things were chaotic and they'd call and schedule a lesson as soon as possible.
We waited. And waited. And thought about going elsewhere. And waited. And when I was finally realizing they may not want our business and starting to look for somewhere else, they called.
Unfortunately, we were out of the house. So we called back a little later and finally scheduled a couple lessons. *PHEW*
And so I started my riding lessons this Monday. I put on my jeans, paddock boots, classy polo shirt, and tucked my gloves in my pocket, grabbed my helmet, and climbed in the car. We pulled up to the stable, and I got out of the car with my sister, butterflies in my stomach. One of the instructors greeted us, introduced herself, and was off and running. We waited for the horse I was assigned to while she finished breakfast. I tightened her girth (the belt-like strap that holds the saddle in place) and led her out to the ring. I lead the mare to the mounting block and climbed aboard (I was much better than I had been two summers ago). The instructor adjusted my stirrups and commanded about 10 things at once the whole lesson. Shoulders back, heels down, hands forward, elbows relaxed, toes out just a bit, look forward, pull back rein and give with the other, and so on. I was getting severely confused. She asked if at my previous lessons (apparently she thought I was pretty experienced. On the info sheet I had put my amount of experience. Three lessons about two years ago) I had trotted. I said yes. She asked if it was on a lunge line (basically a long lead line used for training the horse or beginner riders) or not. I said not. It might, just might have been a good idea to tell her that it was a group lesson and people were actually helping us around the ring, sort of leading us, at my last lessons when we trotted in two-point and posting. But, stupid me, I didn't.
So after I walk the horse around the ring, change direction, change direction again, and so on, she tells me to trot. I squeeze the horse's sides with my legs. No response. The instructor tells me to cluck. Okaaaay. Cluck cluck. Still nothing. Kick, she says. I do, but it's kind of hard with the stirrups, you know? So I kick, cluck, squeeze. Nope, nothing. No response. By now I'm almost begging the horse to trot and I'm getting a bit embarrassed. The instructor leaves to get a lunge, looking a bit annoyed. Well, I'm sorry, truly. I wish I could've gotten the horse to trot. Lazy thing.
With the lunge line the horse trots, of course. She's too smart- she knew me, a beginner, wouldn't be able to do it. Clever mare, she is. The instructor tells me to post (rise and fall with the 1-2 beat of the trot). I try, I really do. I could do it before!! But Monday was just not my day. The instructor tells me my sitting trot is great, but can I post? Answer: Apparently not. I finally get it a bit, but posting, keeping my heels down, toes out, hands forward, shoulders back, head up, and not falling off was kiiiiiind of hard. And by kind of, I mean really hard, not to mention scary. And I was hardly steering. The instructor kept the mare going in a circle. I just had to keep pressure on the right rein to make the circles wide. So basically I felt like a failure. *Sigh*
And so we trot. Then we slow to a walk (my favorite gait so far!! :) and she takes the lunge off. I walk the horse around the ring and then over some low poles. I dismount and we head back to the stable. The horse was being used again a little later, but the instructor had me take the saddle off and put it in the tack room.
So the lesson was pretty... okay.
The thing is, I knew almost EVERYTHING the instructor was telling me. At least, I knew the theory of it. The theory of how you should put the bridle on, how you should post, how you should dismount, and so on. I knew why you should look ahead (the horse can feel the weight shift), why you lead and mount from the horse's left (it's said that knights had to mount from that side because they had swords strapped to their left sides, so they couldn't lift their left legs over the horses), why you keep part of the bridle or halter on when transitioning between the two (so if the horse moves or tries to run, you can grab it) and so on. I've read enough books and seen enough horse tv shows or horse shows themselves, plus played enough games to tell you these things.
But I don't have the experience of actually doing it. Yet.
And I don't know how long I'm going to keep horseback riding lessons, but I at least have to give it some time. The longer to do it and the harder you try, the better you get. The better you get, the more fun you have. Meghan loves fun. So I'll give it some time. Starting with tomorrow at 9 AM.
Wish me luck!!