Wild Thing!

Today I got to ride Wild Thing... She's actually very sweet. and a LOT smaller than Kaibab or Gretsky.

But there was a catch... That's a bareback pad and a halter instead of a saddle and bridle. Um... I know I said she was smaller, but how' m I supposed to get up?

A leg-up from Anna got me past that hurdle, then it was on to more stretching. It's a little different without the saddle, and my hips were aching by the end of the lesson from hanging on.

Then I got to try steer and stop with my legs and seat (another reason my hips and legs were sore). While doing this, I was also trying to remember to sit up straight, stomach in, don't look down, legs long, toes up, stay relaxed... and who knows how many other things... as you can see, the toes aren't up.

I did get better as the lesson progressed. By the end I was pretty much the one in charge of where we were headed. But Wild Thing didn't give that halt away easily... she wanted to stop beside Anna each time, and if I insisted we stay on the outside of the ring, we didn't stop.

And finally, a shot of the mountains in the background. It really is lovely there.

Floating Horse

USEF Grand Prix Freestyle 6-18-2005 -- Melissa Taylor Yee and Succes
Originally uploaded by Rock and Racehorses.

Some dressage pictures from Flickr here. Several pictures show suspended horses. It's strange to see them floating over the ground. :)

Lesson 4

No pictures from today's lesson. I let my boyfriend sleep in. :)

Today I rode Gretsky again. I got to practice going from halt, to walk, to trot, and back down a whole bunch. The trot was mostly sitting trot, and though my blister from last week had healed, I now have two more. I really gotta work on not holding onto that strap quite so hard.

I didn't really get enough sleep last night, and was fighting back a headache. Next week I'm going to bed at 8. I spent all week looking forward to my lesson, I'm not going to feel under the weather for it again.

Lesson # 3!

I got to ride a different horse today, but no smaller than Kaibab (if anything Gretsky was slightly larger).

Gretsky was quite sure that SOMETHING around there was edible... my shirt maybe?

I got to do lots of stretching and moving around today (while moving). Touching my toes, reaching forward to touch the horse' ears, and stretching up... or maybe I was surrendering.

Gretsky has a much easier trot to sit than Kaibab, and we did a lot of sitting trot this week, which went really well. I do still need to work on keeping the stirrups where they are supposed to be though.

And then I got to trot while circling one arm back. Hopefully the blister on the ring finger of my left hand will be gone for next week. In my defense, the blister is probably because I managed to get some fiberglass in the palm of my left hand getting my cat off the roof on Thursday... so I was doing strange things to avoid having anything touch my palm.

And finally I got to feed Gretsky some carrots. FINALLY, something EDIBLE! He inhaled those things!

The Second Lesson

Second lesson was this morning. Thank you mom for the new riding pants, they were great. :)

Pia had to say hello to us again first. She even stood up on her back legs to lick my face when I bent down to say hi.

I got to ride Kaibab again. His trot didn't seem quite as bad this week, so the practice thing really does seem to help.

I even considered, at Anna's suggestion, letting go of the strap in front of the saddle. That led to my feet not staying where they were supposed to in the stirrup though.

Before we were done, Anna detached the longe-line, and I got to walk around all by myself.

Then we were done for the day. Good looking pants, huh?

So Anna was pleased that I remembered to be on the right diagonal when posting/rising trot, and I was pleased to get a pat on the back for remembering correctly.

I think I did much better today than last week, and if I keep improving this quickly, I'll be doing all sorts of fun things in no time! :)