It was a meh ride. I got Ruby again, which is great. But once again, they scheduled mum and me together with the same trainer and Mazlan decided to teach mum. So I got dumped with another trainer and his riders. This is the funny part. Two trainers with 3 sets of riders. Two of the riders are sisters, I suppose. They were in the same timeframe or session slot (whatever you wanna call it) with one of the trainers. So about 30 mins into our lesson, they went back to the stables. The other rider was also 1 hour, so I joined her and her trainer. It is quite irritating to be in a group lesson where the group isn't your level or people you know. Like, I wouldn't have minded riding with mum, eventhough she only just had her 2nd lesson, because I would've been allowed to do whatever the heck I wanted (aka, canter). With this alien mix of riders, I couldn't just canter off. I had to 'follow the leader' throughout my session. Read on...
Today, I learned why I had difficulties controlling Ruby when in the main arena. She's a follower. When in a big area, she loves following other horses and seems to dislike leading. My entire lesson was done in the main arena today. For a while, I DID wonder why I was put to the back of the 'horse procession'. Then the other rider, being lower levelled than me, had difficulties controlling her horse, so asked if I could go ahead, since I was having such an easy time. I tried but Ruby refused lol. Trainer too said that Ruby doesn't like leading. Silly Ruby lol.
Now, while I figured out that the other riders were lower levelled, I did not realise that they haven't learned canter yet. They were still learning how to rise to the trot omg. This is after the two 30min riders went back. I knew those two weren't able to canter yet, but I got confused as to why we didn't start cantering once they were gone... Then halfway through, we stopped so that the trainer could tell the other rider how to correct her rising when the diagonal is wrong O.O Wtf... she doesn't even know to sit twice to get back the correct leads?! That was the basics of what I was taught when I first learned rising trot... Omg. The moment he taught her how to sit twice, I knew. I was going to be doing rising trot for the rest of my lesson. We did a few sitting trots, but so few that by the end of the lesson, my legs were wobbly and I wasn't very pleased. We did rising trot way too much. This trainer sucks.
I wasn't the only one not pleased. Dad got SERIOUSLY pissed when he saw that all I was doing was 'follow the leader'. (Hence, no vids today) I learned nothing except that the other rider was not my level, that rising trot fucking hurts when overdone and that the saddle I was using was DEFINITELY not for me. I was probably not very balanced in my rising trots either. But trainer ignored me except when telling me to sit twice every now and again. I wasn't his rider, amirite? Well, go ahead, ignore me! Only tells me that you think I'm too good for you... BAH! I did try correcting myself though. Kept my heels down as much as possible. Kept contacts pretty well. Controlled Ruby SO easily it's laughable when compared to the other rider (she kept going off track). I would've had a better time if I were self-riding and if Ruby didn't insist on following. Maybe I should request to be dumped with the Korean girls instead of some stranger. At least I *kinda* know the Koreans. We're such regulars at the club lol. And they're only slightly above my level. So I'll be able to keep up with them easily.
We went back, trainer says theres no need to bathe Ruby, so I immediately took her out to graze. Found a HUGE patch of weeds, where she enjoyed herself. Today, I had a smart idea. Put my bottle, the bag of carrots and my handheld fan in a sling bag. Carry it around :D I could drink anytime I wanted and I had a fan. I can feed carrots and pet at the same time now because the bag of carrots are in the bag slung over my shoulder ^_^ Went grazing and I had the fan turned on the whole time. Malaysia is fucking hot :( I was worried that Ruby would be scared of the fan, but she wasn't even bothered lol. She was more concerned with the vast amount of flies attacking her legs, wounds and rump -_- No need a bath, my foot!
When we went back to the stables again, I took her to the bathing area and asked one of the senior stablehands if I could give her a short shower to get rid of the flies. He says to give her a full bath *thumbsup* I scrubbed her down thoroughly, all the way to her hooves, got wet plenty myself, then scraped off most of the water. Went to find a comb and meds for her wound on the withers. Came back and found flies back again. This time, not all over her, but on her wounds. Shooed them, sprayed iodine and poured some kind of white medicinal powder. Patted them so that they became thick and stuck there and ended up getting some on my finger :D But that's okay, because I also found a small but deep wound on her forehead O.O It wasn't there last week! I wiped off the meds that got on my finger (can't be spraying iodine in her face!) into the wound and it was enough to cover it. Damn, those flies must've eaten her flesh :( Poor Ruby. I found yet another wound on the point of her hip, applied there too. The one good thing about those flies? They led me straight to her wounds, especially the tiny ones. Gosh, I hope the meds I applied to her forehead dries up and becomes bright yellow and the stablehands see that wound. I don't think they noticed it or they would've done something about it. I knew I saw fly veils hanging around! Maybe I should've attached one to her before going off...
The flies in that area is getting out of hand, I'd say. I've never seen Ruby get attacked by flies so badly before. In fact, most of the time, you never see flies around her. She gave off the feeling of being very clean. Any suggestions about what I can do? Should I go to the manager and tell him that he needs to fog the area? Sure, flies are normal in every stable, but they're harmful to both horse and human and when they get out of hand, you really need to do something about it. If I see that forehead wound still surrounded by flies next time I see Ruby, I'm making it a big fuss to the stablehands :(
One things for sure, Ruby is a greedy pig hehe. Whenever I feed her carrots, she'd gobble like crazy! And want more! And she KNOWS I'll give her more until I have no more carrots, that silly horse. XD Oh she's wubable. Theres also one other thing about her. Dad says that while I was giving her a bath, he noticed her watching me VERY closely. I walked to the left, her head followed me to the left. To the right, her head went to the right. As if she was keeping an eye on me, watching my every movement o.o Kinda scary when typed out, but wow. Damn smart and alert, that one.
Warning: Descriptions might be graphic. If you don't like discussing the body, stop reading.
So, I kinda hurt myself again. As I said earlier, the saddle was not for me. I'm not sure if it's because it's just the shape of the saddle or if it's because I'm not deep-seating. Or at least... that's what Zoffer said. That I don't have the deep seat. Well, what happened was that I found the front of the saddle, where the rise was, to be extremely sharp. And high. Everytime I rose to the trot, I'd slam into it. Everytime I sat after the rise, I'd slam into it again. It's not on purpose either, I'm just doing what I do in all other rising trots. But for some reason, this one really hurt me. When I went home, I found a cut. Guess where? On my hood. Yep. It hurts. Sharp hurt. Yes, people, wince with me. :( Right now, I have no idea if I can ride next Saturday. We've already booked, but if it's not healed by Thursday, as the previous cut did, then we'd have to cancel my ride. I WILL go to the club though. If only to spend time with Ruby <3
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