Mystic

Today, I got to ride Mystic. She's a 14.1 hh haflinger. This means she's technically a pony, but she's "stocky".

Today Julie walked me through a beginner dressage test. Test A here. The hardest part was getting on the centerline to end (I kept overshooting). And halting with Mystic straight.

I also learned to turn on the forehand. This involves getting the horse to pivot her hindquarters with the front legs as the pivot point. It's easier to avoid moving forward when there's something in front of you, like the picture below.

Mystic's favorite part was the free walk. She certainly enjoyed stretching her neck out. In fact, I think she knows what the words mean, as she'd pull on the reins and snort as soon as Julie said it.

Thursday evening next week as Julie is busy over the weekend. Not sure who I'll be riding.

Overheating

This morning started with me interrupting poor Hawk at breakfast.

At least I was nice enough to clean his feet for him.

Then there was a trip down Julie's driveway to the dressage arena.

Hawk didn't really want to go where I was telling him, although we're not doing too badly here.

Standing beside Julie in the middle was vastly more enjoyable than walking or trotting around the outside of the arena in his opinion, so Julie put us on a lunge line and we practiced trotting. Posting trot, sitting trot, around, and around, and when we finally stopped, I got to find out just how out of shape I really am right now. My body let me know that it was planning on passing out unless I took a break.

After a few minutes of sitting with my head between my knees, and most of a bottle of water, I was ready for more. Hawk is being very patient with me here.

For the rest of the lesson we worked on geometry. Unfortunately, this isn't the kind I was good at in high school, this was the type where Julie asked me to make a circle, and Hawk and I managed an odd star shape. Hawk apparently doesn't like turning to the right (he was bought as a jumper, not a dressage horse according to Julie). Going the other direction I was able to make a much better approximation of a circle.

Next week (on Saturday as Julie isn't giving lessons on Sunday), I'll probably be riding one of Julie's ponies. She decided that while I am tall, my legs aren't overly long, so it will probably be ok.

I also found out that Hawk's owner is looking for someone to half lease him. Someone to pay half his expenses who would be able to ride him 3 times a week or so. Apparently half his expenses would probably work out to about $200 a month (Julie wasn't sure how much his shoes were). While I'm not ready for something like that at the moment, it was good to get an initial idea of how much something like that would cost me... Now I just need a raise... a really big raise...

Riding Again!

That is Hawk, a very nice horse owned by a girl named Hilary. Hilary is probably half my age, which certainly made me feel old.

Hawk is quite a bit smaller than Anna's horses, but was the only horse big enough for me that my new teacher had available for less advanced riders.

Despite the slouch here, my instructor, Julie, did actually praise my posture.

Yup, trotting is still much harder than it was when I was a kid. Though a lot easier than when I started with Anna.

Anyway, I'll be going back next week.

Can't end without a picture of the dog. This is Chaos.

I get to go riding again!

Trying to get started again. Going to be riding at 8am this Sunday, June 3rd. I'll be riding Hawk. Hopefull I won't have forgotten too much in a year and a half.