First Lesson

The lesson schedule came out last weekend and this semester I will be riding every Monday evening. The other riders in my lesson weren't on the team last year but seem like a nice group of girls. We are a walk-trot/beginning walk trot canter lesson which is the first of the IHSA levels. The IHSA levels for flat classes are walk-trot, beginning walk trot canter, advanced walk trot canter, novice, intermediate and open. There are also IHSA levels for the fences(jumping) classes which include novice, intermediate, and open.

For the first lesson the weather was hot and muggy. The temperature was in the 90s and it was humid so we did a fairly easy lesson so the horses wouldn't get fatigued. We worked at the walk working on our two point and vertical positions which are good form exercises and Jerry worked on the basics with our new riders such as proper hand and leg position. I rode Derby this week who is one of our older horses. The other horses being ridden in our lesson were Porschea, Hope, Irish, and Blue.

The new riders did a great job in their first lesson and seem to be excited to ride again next week!

This weekend we have our team kick off party so this year's bigs/littles will be revealed and next week I will go into more detail about how intercollegiate horse shows work.