It's all French to me...

But seriously, it is.

If you haven't guessed from the title (Bit dense, aren't you?) I'm in France now. I'm also feeling rather... overwhelmed.

I'm at the English lessons and club stable and so far out of my element that ... well, I don't actually have a hyperbole or example for it.

I've had a few (very, very few) English lessons in my childhood and I've ridden a couple of horses English style, but I am by no means of any imagination, an English rider.

So during my first lesson, on day one while trying to learn and remember all of the new things, when the instructor started the lesson with the words: "How's your French?" I felt like a complete fish out of water- hey, look at that, I found a phrase for it after all!

My response: "Non-existent."

Much like my technical English riding abilities.

I'm pretty much self taught and I'm have a serious issue with self confidence about my riding abilities and being watched. I don't even like being watched by my own mother. It makes me tense up, lose concentration and forget everything I know.
I hate showing horses to people. Over the years I've gotten a bit better about it, but yesterday most of that went out the window. I spent most of the lesson watching the others and being completely fine about that.

 It also didn't help that my blood sugar was down, I couldn't hear half of what he said (partial hearing loss in an ear) and half of the lesson was in French. But mainly I just felt incredibly overwhelmed and uninformed.

Trying to do a dressage leg yield towards the fence isn't exactly my forte.

Probably the way the other girls would feel if I put them up on a quarter horse and asked them to do a rollback or a sliding stop. (Not that I can actually do a rollback)

It's a hang up I have to get over, and fast.


That said, both of my hosts are incredibly knowledgeable horse people and very skilled. I have a lot to learn.