Let's Talk Real Horses

I am exhausted. But I am pulling myself to the keyboard to tell a little about how my lesson went today.
So as I previously said, I went an hour early to clean my saddle. I just got my saddle not so long ago. I'm know at least two other people have owned it before me, but its not so shabby and really comfortable. Unfortunately,  when you oil a saddle, it makes the leather darker. But my leathers are brand new and thus are very light compared to the saddle.

My Saddle After Cleaning

 So my saddle cleaning bucket contains (A bucket, obviously) two towels, a washcloth, two sponges, soap, and oil. If you were wondering. So I dragged my saddle out to the wooden fence outside, in the hot weather and cleaned and oiled it and my leathers. Sadly, as you can see, my leathers are still a few shades lighter than my saddle. I finished in a good time frame because I didn't have to wait long before I could find out which horse I was riding and start getting ready.
While I was getting my horse prepared I noticed he was grumpy, he has in fact, been grumpy for a few weeks. My instructor question about his grumpiness and I replied and she showed me how to handle it. She gave him a kick and told me to hit him, grabbing a crop if I needed it.* He was much nicer getting ready after that.
The lesson itself was mostly tough, repetitive, flat work. By this I mean no jumps. But I did get to jump a bit at the end. I was the only one, which is a proud moment. Not the jumping, the being more forward in my class. For a good portion of my riding I have ridden with people who are much more advanced. Its not fun always being the under dog so I enjoy my moments of top dog-ness. It very good lesson. I hadn't eaten dinner so I got tired and hungry, but it was good.
After the lesson, getting the horses put away was much more dramatic. See, I rode my lesson with Girl 1 and Girl 2. Girl 1 was riding a horse that she didn't particularly like. I happen to be fond of that horse, but such is relationships. She kept coming over and ogling the horse I was riding like he was the perfect angel. But as I was getting his equipment off, he was being a bully. I tried to cheer him up but when I was pushed a bit to hard I smacked him hard* and told him to knock it off. Girl 1, Girl 2 and Girl 1's sister looked at me like I was the worst person in the whole world. Because I had yelled at the perfect angel. Awkward. Anyway, I told my instructor that he was being mean and I smacked him and she was all "Good for you."
But it was overall a good, long day of horseness, followed by Wendy's. In other news, I'm going to the zoo tomorrow!

*All these methods does not hurt the horse. Horses are big animals of muscle. You can get fairly tough to a horse and it will still be comparative to a fly. Especially the jumping horses. The methods are used not to hurt the horse but to remind them that you are higher in the "herd" than they are. If they tried to do that in the wild to another horse, they would get bit and/or separated from the rest of the herd until they behaved. It was very important to stop this horses habit because he was threatening to bite. A biting school horse is very dangerous for both the stable and it's riders. On another note, this horse was not lashing out because of pain or discomfort. He was just being a bully and trying to get higher in the "herd" hierarchy.  I promise no horses were harmed in todays lesson. The only thing hurt was maybe an ego. Like a teenager who was told no.