The last couple of days have been a bit of a blur. Work elements have been much the same, horses coming in and out, and regular lessons going on. Each time coming away feeling like we've achieved something, and progress has been made. A long nap on tuesday afternoon to try to catch up with the sleep I've been needing. And a blustery, rather unproductive, ground work session with Buddy in the afternoon.
On Wednesday morning the wind had died down, so I decided to do some schooling with Buddy before I got on with the rest of the day. By keeping the exercises simple and not expecting much after Tuesday's session we actually got through quite a lot and the ride felt productive and enjoyable.
My usual client for the morning, messaged to say her horse had thrown a splint and was unable to work, but her husband was keen to take the lesson with his horse instead. Obviously that meant that the plan I had for the lesson would now be a bit null and void, although I can use it when the horse is better so not a waste of a plan. I needed to think on the spot to make a new plan. I already knew a little bit about the new rider, but still - as I always do with a new client - asked them a few questions about their 'big picture' for the future, and what they feel they would like to work on to get there etc.
He was very pleased with the new things I've given him to work on, and keen to find out my availability for future lessons. So fingers crossed that's another regular client for me. Getting new clients and keeping them coming back to you, is the biggest element of getting a successful business going in my opinion. The only problem being that so many other parts of having a business seem to soak up the time, and if you want a social life too.... well, let's just say 24 hours in a day never seems like enough.
So then Wednesday night I did my first paddle outing without Keith. After Sunday's success I'd been keen to get my next session booked in somewhere, and Sam suggested she was free to paddle in the evening, so we arranged to head up to Knightwick. We put a post on the club facebook page and Jaimie also joined us there. When we got on the water Jaimie stayed at the weir to play on the main wave, while Sam and I had a warm up by paddling upstream to find little Bob. As the water levels had dropped the paddle upstream had got a little harder in a couple of places but luckily there was still just enough water over little Bob to have a play. Feeling confident now with something so inviting, I even had a go at ferrygliding backwards. It was far from smooth, and probably not much of a ferry glide at all, any 'bigger' water would probably have turned me over and kicked my ass, but Little Bob is very kind and forgiving. Having had a few wobbly attempts backwards, going forwards again felt like a breeze.
We didn't stay for long there, as we didn't want to leave Jaimie alone for too long, and I can't stay at the level of Little Bob if I'm going to be doing any paddling in the Alps. The paddle back down was quite quick with the water flowing well. Running down through the weir still had my heart rate up, but each time I go this is getting a tiny bit easier. Starting off with some ferry gliding and S turns lower down, I gradually made my way up closer and closer to the wave, with tips from Sam and Jaimie as I went. A couple of times I had so much to think of going in to and across the flow, I forgot about the eddy line on the other side, and had a couple of wobbles as I crossed over to the slack water. I also had to go through the explaination with Jaimie as to why I can't look where I'm going when I ferry glide, as many years of horse riding have given me an unusual response to trunk rotation, which doesn't help me at all in paddling. Thus making many of the things I have to think about twofold.
Starting to feel quite confident and having a big grin on my face for quite a bit of the session so far, I was encouraged to try going up further and getting on the second wave, I did this a couple of times with a good brace to save myself from capsizing on the exit the second time, and at some point getting a bit stuck in the stopper. I now can't remember if this was on the same attempt as needing the brace, scary moments tend to cause you to lose all concept of space and time. Then I went that step further and tried for the main wave. (I hope I'm getting all this terminology right, I'm sure I will be corrected at some point if not!)
J: So you see that rooster there, you just want to go in there and keep paddling forward, then your edge will take you out along the wave.
L: Wait, a what? A rooster? What on earth is one of those?
J: Where there is the white top to the wave on this side about a metre out.
L: Oh right, ok... *I think I see it; maybe...*
J: So just padle in there and you'll pop over the crest in to the wave. Then you can just do a little paddle backwards to come out... (nb. we had discussed several ways to get out of the wave and they all sounded horrible and I couldn't get my head around any of them)
L: Ok... *Deep breaths - Head for the rooster?, don't forget my edge, watch the angle, last paddle stroke in the flow, look up stream, don't fight the boat.... breathe.... was there something else... here now, too late... ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH*
Then, I did it!!! I got past the second wave, over the crest and on to the first wave. The view in my peripheral vision, of the nose of the boat just dipping in to the green tounge, and making that cool little splash, was beautiful. It looks pretty damn cool when the others go in to surf and play, but absolutley awesome on your own boat!
The first moment was 'OMG I did it, I'm here, scary but so cool', in the next moment 'That looks awesome, and this feels OK'. Looking down to admire the wave was the second mistake, right after stopping paddling because I was so chuffed I got there, it felt like the end when it was not, in that moment I was not aware I had stopped paddling though. The following moment was 'oh crap!' the nose had turned in the flow as I'd been doing nothing to keep it straight, sucked in by the blissful feeling and a beatiful view my mind had gone blank, and then without any active paddling, it was all over and I was in, swimming again. This time I felt more frustrated that I'd been frozen in not doing anything by the mixture of fear and bliss, that I'd lost it before I'd really appreciated it. Nevermind, I will try again some time soon.
Although we were statring to loose the light, and we were all pretty cold by this point I had to ferry glide across a few times so I didn't end another session on a swim, and I'm not going to be paddling for another couple of days so that would be too long to leave it before getting back in the boat. Just the time emptying my boat gave me sufficient time to think on it and build up the fear, enough that the first couple of ferry glides felt all wobbly again. A few more and I felt like I was in a better mental state to end the session, and as I couldn't feel my hands anymore, time to say enough was enough. Although I had the swim, and I know I will be a little tentative the next time I get on the water, I do feel fantastic about what I achieved in the session.
Feeling rather achy this morning, and not wanting to have a frustrating ride because I'm not really up to it, I decided to take Buddy for a little walk across the road and in to the woods. We got over to the bridle path, and a little way along it before we turned back. It took a while, but I just kept my patience and tried to keep him calm and moving. He planted several times, and I had to wait for him to feel ready to move forward again. He really isn't a very bold horse, and it takes him such a long time to get used to anywhere new. Downside for me is that while I'm taking big steps forwards in my kayaking, my riding seems to be getting gradually more rusty.
Time to buy a second horse??? 😂😂😂😂😂
On Wednesday morning the wind had died down, so I decided to do some schooling with Buddy before I got on with the rest of the day. By keeping the exercises simple and not expecting much after Tuesday's session we actually got through quite a lot and the ride felt productive and enjoyable.
My usual client for the morning, messaged to say her horse had thrown a splint and was unable to work, but her husband was keen to take the lesson with his horse instead. Obviously that meant that the plan I had for the lesson would now be a bit null and void, although I can use it when the horse is better so not a waste of a plan. I needed to think on the spot to make a new plan. I already knew a little bit about the new rider, but still - as I always do with a new client - asked them a few questions about their 'big picture' for the future, and what they feel they would like to work on to get there etc.
He was very pleased with the new things I've given him to work on, and keen to find out my availability for future lessons. So fingers crossed that's another regular client for me. Getting new clients and keeping them coming back to you, is the biggest element of getting a successful business going in my opinion. The only problem being that so many other parts of having a business seem to soak up the time, and if you want a social life too.... well, let's just say 24 hours in a day never seems like enough.
So then Wednesday night I did my first paddle outing without Keith. After Sunday's success I'd been keen to get my next session booked in somewhere, and Sam suggested she was free to paddle in the evening, so we arranged to head up to Knightwick. We put a post on the club facebook page and Jaimie also joined us there. When we got on the water Jaimie stayed at the weir to play on the main wave, while Sam and I had a warm up by paddling upstream to find little Bob. As the water levels had dropped the paddle upstream had got a little harder in a couple of places but luckily there was still just enough water over little Bob to have a play. Feeling confident now with something so inviting, I even had a go at ferrygliding backwards. It was far from smooth, and probably not much of a ferry glide at all, any 'bigger' water would probably have turned me over and kicked my ass, but Little Bob is very kind and forgiving. Having had a few wobbly attempts backwards, going forwards again felt like a breeze.
We didn't stay for long there, as we didn't want to leave Jaimie alone for too long, and I can't stay at the level of Little Bob if I'm going to be doing any paddling in the Alps. The paddle back down was quite quick with the water flowing well. Running down through the weir still had my heart rate up, but each time I go this is getting a tiny bit easier. Starting off with some ferry gliding and S turns lower down, I gradually made my way up closer and closer to the wave, with tips from Sam and Jaimie as I went. A couple of times I had so much to think of going in to and across the flow, I forgot about the eddy line on the other side, and had a couple of wobbles as I crossed over to the slack water. I also had to go through the explaination with Jaimie as to why I can't look where I'm going when I ferry glide, as many years of horse riding have given me an unusual response to trunk rotation, which doesn't help me at all in paddling. Thus making many of the things I have to think about twofold.
Starting to feel quite confident and having a big grin on my face for quite a bit of the session so far, I was encouraged to try going up further and getting on the second wave, I did this a couple of times with a good brace to save myself from capsizing on the exit the second time, and at some point getting a bit stuck in the stopper. I now can't remember if this was on the same attempt as needing the brace, scary moments tend to cause you to lose all concept of space and time. Then I went that step further and tried for the main wave. (I hope I'm getting all this terminology right, I'm sure I will be corrected at some point if not!)
J: So you see that rooster there, you just want to go in there and keep paddling forward, then your edge will take you out along the wave.
L: Wait, a what? A rooster? What on earth is one of those?
J: Where there is the white top to the wave on this side about a metre out.
L: Oh right, ok... *I think I see it; maybe...*
J: So just padle in there and you'll pop over the crest in to the wave. Then you can just do a little paddle backwards to come out... (nb. we had discussed several ways to get out of the wave and they all sounded horrible and I couldn't get my head around any of them)
L: Ok... *Deep breaths - Head for the rooster?, don't forget my edge, watch the angle, last paddle stroke in the flow, look up stream, don't fight the boat.... breathe.... was there something else... here now, too late... ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH*
Then, I did it!!! I got past the second wave, over the crest and on to the first wave. The view in my peripheral vision, of the nose of the boat just dipping in to the green tounge, and making that cool little splash, was beautiful. It looks pretty damn cool when the others go in to surf and play, but absolutley awesome on your own boat!
The first moment was 'OMG I did it, I'm here, scary but so cool', in the next moment 'That looks awesome, and this feels OK'. Looking down to admire the wave was the second mistake, right after stopping paddling because I was so chuffed I got there, it felt like the end when it was not, in that moment I was not aware I had stopped paddling though. The following moment was 'oh crap!' the nose had turned in the flow as I'd been doing nothing to keep it straight, sucked in by the blissful feeling and a beatiful view my mind had gone blank, and then without any active paddling, it was all over and I was in, swimming again. This time I felt more frustrated that I'd been frozen in not doing anything by the mixture of fear and bliss, that I'd lost it before I'd really appreciated it. Nevermind, I will try again some time soon.
Although we were statring to loose the light, and we were all pretty cold by this point I had to ferry glide across a few times so I didn't end another session on a swim, and I'm not going to be paddling for another couple of days so that would be too long to leave it before getting back in the boat. Just the time emptying my boat gave me sufficient time to think on it and build up the fear, enough that the first couple of ferry glides felt all wobbly again. A few more and I felt like I was in a better mental state to end the session, and as I couldn't feel my hands anymore, time to say enough was enough. Although I had the swim, and I know I will be a little tentative the next time I get on the water, I do feel fantastic about what I achieved in the session.
Feeling rather achy this morning, and not wanting to have a frustrating ride because I'm not really up to it, I decided to take Buddy for a little walk across the road and in to the woods. We got over to the bridle path, and a little way along it before we turned back. It took a while, but I just kept my patience and tried to keep him calm and moving. He planted several times, and I had to wait for him to feel ready to move forward again. He really isn't a very bold horse, and it takes him such a long time to get used to anywhere new. Downside for me is that while I'm taking big steps forwards in my kayaking, my riding seems to be getting gradually more rusty.
Time to buy a second horse??? 😂😂😂😂😂
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