Canter leads lead the way

It's finally June, the wind is no longer howling and the indoor school is almost a pleasure to be in.

There were six horses and riders in L's last lesson – L was on Sultan, who looked a wee bit sleepy.

The instructor announced that the riders were going to practise their canter leads – I had no idea what that meant, but I was soon going to find out.

Apparently, being on the correct canter lead means making sure the horse is striding out on its appropriate leading leg when going into canter. The entire ride got their first canters all on the correct canter lead. Hurrah!

But they were just riding large so it was fairly easy – when a rider needs to make the horse change direction, such as going over a jump on a show jumping course, this can become problematic.
At the next exercise, the riders had to canter their ponies over a diagonal pole in the middle of the school, turn into the corner going into trot, then come off the corner on the correct canter lead.
L had trouble waking Sultan up on her first run, but having got him going, she carried out the exercise the best of the bunch, despite, so the instructor said, the need to give her horse "baggy reins".
Next the riders had to go over a series of poles set in the middle of the school. I was completely confused by it all, but the riders all checked their horse tack and seemed to know where they were going. Initially there was some confusion about the series, but the two lead-out riders eventually got their bearings and off they went, changing their canter leads as they went into the corners.
It looked like fun and was great to watch. The riders seemed exhilarated too.

By the time L took her turn, Sultan had more or less given up, having stood for a while on this warm afternoon. It took several sharp taps of her whip to get him going, and he didn't like it, so L got a sharp buck for her trouble. She very nearly lost all contact with her saddle and almost ended up flying right off. Yet she held on for dear life, got her riding boots back into place and kept cool under her riding hat. When she eventually got Sultan going she managed the exercise very well – a couple of wrong canter leads, but she got him back on the right lead with great efficiency.

At the end of the lesson everyone was exhausted, including the frazzled non-horsey mummy on the sideline, but there were lots of hugs and big pats for all the ponies and a very happy drive home for L and me.
Photo © J Venn