Stone Valley Equestrian Center: #1

Chapter 7: Practice Makes Perfect

"Let's space your horses out and walk on the rail as if we were going drill work," Lisa, the conditioning instructor called out.

It was 9:05, and I was on Cal for conditioning. Harper rode Baylor, Alex rode Risky, the Halflinger, and Grace was on Luna. We were 5 minutes into the lesson, and I could already tell that Lisa was not one to mess with. She had her hair puled into a tight bun and she barked out instructions without taking a breath. Although she was strict, she knew what she was doing. I ignored Alex the entire morning so he couldn't make any more creepy remarks like he had done last night.

I lunged Calypso before I got on because I could already tell he was up. Now that I got a lot of his energy out, he was cooperating nicely. I planned on working him really well to condition him for the weekend, because I was going to give him the day off tomorrow. I'd do whatever exercises we did today with Hope later in the day because I was going to ride her in the cross country lesson tomorrow. Then, I would work both horses on the weekend. I was coming back out in the evening because I had 2 classes today. I wasn't really upset because I didn't have any tomorrow.

"Walk like you're actually awake, not the zombie walk or the crawl," Lisa eyed us.

Instantly, everyone added leg and the horses moved on with a more forward walk. When Lisa was finally satisfied with our walking, she had us trot. We did some posting, sitting, and 2-point before we had to drop our stirrups. Then, we did the same things. Every muscle in my body was hurting as I posted without stirrups. After what seemed like eternity, we picked up our stirrups and reversed, but it wasn't long until we had to canter in both directions without stirrups. Even though the flatwork seemed like hell, I knew that it was good for both me and Cal.

"Okay, we're going to work on a conditioning exercise. First, you will take that small vertical at a sitting trot and then halt. You will turn on the haunches to go to the trot poles, which you will ride at a posting trot. Canter off and take the grid, then sitting canter to the cavaletti," Lisa explained.

The fans in the indoor arena were turned on high and the air conditioning blew strongly, but we were all sweating. I was just glad we weren't outside.

"Grace, you go first," Lisa said, looking at her clipboard.

Luna surged forward into an impulsive trot.

"Slow down!" Lisa bellowed.

Grace settled Luna down and circled her at the sitting trot, her seat unmoving. They soared over the little vertical and halted square just strides away from the jump. Grace steered Luna with only her legs and did a perfect turn on the haunches. The rest of their exercise went well, and then Alex went. He had some trouble with the turn on the haunches, but other than that, he did pretty good.

"Stella and Calypso!" Lisa barked.

I trotted Cal at the vertical and he popped over it effortlessly. We halted square, but it took all my strength to turn him with just my legs. I pointed him at the poles and he trotted them with a lofty step. A little too lofty. In fact, he trotted the last two poles as an oxer.

"Circle him around and do that again! I said trot poles, not spread poles! What part of that can't you understand?" Lisa yelled.

I circled Cal and this time held the reins taut and kept my leg. We landed and cantered towards the grid, a crossrail bounce to another crossrail and then a two stride to a vertical and a bounce to an oxer with a rolltop. We did the grid perfectly and then cantered the single cavaletti.

"You did better after the poles," Lisa said, which I took as a compliment from her.

"Harper, you're up," Lisa called.