It was so hard (I have to admit…for me) to learn how to lope.
At first, it was riding the horse Rimrock. He is tall, bouncy and huge. I tried to lope him but immediately, I felt a sinking feeling. I watched others lope around the ring and it was my turn. I asked him to walk forward and followed Christina’s instructions to lope.
He picked up his head and he began jogging faster and faster. Faster and faster. It was so bouncy I felt like I was going to fly out of the saddle any moment. I was flopping all over the saddle until it was the end of my turn. I was tired and exhausted from bouncing around, but still, I petted Rimrock for trying.
I read hundreds, maybe thousands upon thousands of words about riding and there were parts about loping/cantering. Not one would tell me a tip, show me a thing. I knew there was only way to get loping was to try it.
Lessons after lessons, I would be riding and never seem to be able to get the horse to lope off. First off was my cue unclear. Then it was my hand too high, restricting the reins, then I was restricting myself.
A lesson on Shamrock would show me. He was a very experienced lesson horse and he loved to show off. For a bit, it never happened to me. Until one day. He leapt into a lope happily and I had the ride of my life…for then and I sat on the horse, finally feeling the smooth and even gait.
However, that wasn’t the end of it.
Loping is one thing.
Loping with a “whitherless” horse is a nother.
It was a rainy day, horses were moody. And me-trying to lope on the whitherless horse-Chevy? The odds are low. Every single time I loped the saddle were tipping over and I felt like I couldn’t stay in the saddle. I had to stop every time to righten my saddle.
For some reason, I couldn’t find a way to straighten my saddle and distribute my weight over both seat bones. That day, we loped over and over again. Multiple times he was feeling too grumpy to lope and gave a small buck. I didn’t know until I watched the later videos.
But that wasn’t the only problem.
I had the problem of leaning back too far after I could get the horse going. Especially on Easy. I rode him multiple times and he was the first horse that would shoot of at his first chance for me. And he did when I asked for a lope. When I lean back too far, my bottom would come popping out of the saddle and slamming back down.
Week after week, maybe even possibly months. I kept having this problem. One day, I could lope Chevy properly without the saddle tipping. It was a good achievement, but next time, I wanted to lope properly.
Lean forward I was telling myself to lean forward, even if it felt weird. I was put on Tonto and when it was my turn to lope, I leaned forward and I was actually loping without slamming my bottom in to the saddle! My form wasn’t exactly correct. It felt more like I was standing in my stirrups and having Tonto lope under me and me not moving with him, but it was a goal that I had reached.
Next week, I improved even more. I was given the smooth-gaited Flyer. I asked for a lope and he did. It was so smooth it felt like floating in a forward motion. It was so smooth I wanted to feel the loping feeling. I cued the lope even more and he picked up the gait even more. I could finally feel the feeling of a lope.
This is mainly why this post is coming out today instead of yesterday.
