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Saturday, January 19, 2013

Nineth Lesson!

I had a weird day today. Or maybe everyone is just distracted lol. It wasn't a very bad day, for sure :D

I think I can expect all the horses to 'misbehave' on my first ride on them. Scheduled with Ruby, but rode Flicka today. Apparently, he's a really easy horse to control and a very good boy. But he stopped a lot, bucked a few times (or is it called pig root?), didn't trot when asked to at first, etc etc. Trainer says they're testing me, and I suppose they are. Silly horsies xD

So at first, Flicka stopped everytime I tapped him with the whip, which is kinda weird lol. Needed Mazlan to slap his whip on the ground before Flicka trotted. After a while though, seems like Flicka trots at a few heel taps. I really do hope it was just him getting used to me and not because the front horse started trotting ._.

Oh yes, when I was brought into the main ring, I was told to join the 2 Korean girls who go for lessons at the same time I do every Saturday xD Zoffer is their trainer and since Zoffer and Mazlan are friends, well. Both trainers for 3 students LOL! It was pretty fun joining them, tbh. Maybe it's because one of the girls is a bit whiney and baby doll kinda person XD I think it's more because the trainers are just as fun though!

After my ride, I got to give Wind a bath again. Unfortunately, since Zoffer was busy (he was the one eager to teach me how to bathe horses lol), I was taught by one of the stablehands and he didn't teach me shampooing lol. I also stepped in Wind's shit while giving him a bath! D: Dang horse >.<

After his bath, I took him back to his stall... and didn't have the strength to latch it back properly :D He managed to push his gate loose and proceeded to groom the horse next to him, Messi I think hehehe. Another horse managed to get out of his stall too lol. It was while I was feeding the horses carrots, he suddenly appeared behind me... was pretty surprising! He's the one with a really huge swollen fetlock and was always laying in his stall when we visited the stables. I suppose he's feeling much better now!

As for what I learned today, I learned that my sitting trot is DEFINITELY improved. I was so bendy! XD But I think my rising trot needs work. Everytime I try to rise, I had to bend forward to push myself up... That's not good! :( Still need to find something to pad up my ankle area inside the boots too. I'm thinking maybe ankle supports. Sponges did not work at all lol.

Flicka also managed to scrape my right leg on the fence. He kept refusing to change direction and turn around. Had to pull him till his nose was at his shoulder >.> I suppose he couldn't see and so walked sideways into the fence. By tonight, there will be a HUGE black lump on my shin *ow*

Scolded mum today haha. She took a horse out to graze around the perimeters of the club. And she still had plenty of time  to take a video! But she didn't for who knows what reason. Both Mazlan and Zoffer say I lean forward a lot. My mum agrees wholeheartedly. Guess what? I don't feel like I'm leaning forward at all. To me, that position is what I feel as sitting straight. When they tell me to lean backwards so that I look like I'm sitting straight, I feel like I'm gonna lay down on top of the horse rather. I need videos to tell what my progress is and to see  what the heck everyone is talking about! Mum says I can imagine how I look and I can try forever, but I'll never actually know what everyone is trying to tell me. It's really frustrating when my parents just don't understand anything I say :( If I could, I would've just put the camera on a stand, set it at the side of the ring and recorded -.- Mum is all like "You're not proficient in riding yet, why should I take a video?" She makes me wanna headdesk. I'm not looking for a perfect video, mum! I'm not in a competition! I wanna see my own fucking progress! :(

Meh, other than that video argument with mum, I suppose I enjoyed myself today. I definitely can't wait for next Saturday lol. Also, my joints. They're killing me. D:

2 comments:

  1. No, you're totally right, it's next to impossible to see what you're doing if you can't actually SEE WHAT YOU'RE DOING. This is why dance studios always have one entire wall covered in mirrors - and when they are rehearsing the kids for their competition pieces, they strongly encourage the parents to video them as well, both to help them practice (without practicing the wrong steps!) at home, but also because even with a wall full of mirrors, it is easy to get too caught up in thinking about the dancing and not pay attention to yourself in the mirror. With the video they can watch it and not be thinking about the steps but actually focus on what they look like and see what the teacher means when she is giving corrections.

    Judges at the competitions give running commentary during each piece (privately recorded, not for the audience to hear), and some of the competitions even video the kids and provide the video along with the audio commentary, so that they can see EXACTLY what the judge is talking about. The teachers where I used to dance were SO much happier when that happened, because every time you dance a piece you will do some things differently, and the kids don't always give as much weight to what the judge says if they can't specifically see it as well, because they hadn't made (or noticed) that particular mistake before.

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    1. I know! D: I used to wonder about the mirrors in dance rooms and even in gyms when I was really young. Then someone told me that those mirrors were to see what you were doing and everything immediately clicked. Back in high school, when I was in the drama club, we did full rehearsals where we got taped sometimes too. Even in kindergarten, the teachers sometimes took videos of our dancing and made us all nervous when they said "Now, we shall see who has been doing silly moves!" XD

      It makes so much sense to me but apparently, mum just doesn't get it. I don't know, maybe it's because she's never actually danced, while my entire childhood has been doing activities that need 'perfection'. She's been doing acting at her church, but I'm not sure if they encourage 'perfection' the way schools do. Afterall, their audiences are friends and people of that church, the concept of image isn't really there.

      Wow, judges do that? :o That's pretty awesome. I've never been in a dance competition before, only choir competitions lol. School concerts usually just have video but no commentary. Even dancing competition type movies don't show the participants getting any sort of video xD

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