Yeehaw!

Yeehaw my first blog post. And boy is my butt killing me. Went riding today in the nice weather. Very fun, challenging lesson. Most of the winter I have been working with my friend Nitro - a bay mustang about 14 hands high give or take. He is fun, likes to go fast when inspired and is a punk.. in a good way! But today I got to ride A.J., the other mustang - who is probably about 15.2 or so.

It is really nice to be able to ride and get to know the same horse for a while (especially if you don't own one!) But going from a smaller horse to a larger one (or vice versa) requires a big adjustment in how you use your muscles and the speed of their gaits... longer legs, faster gaits! So it was fun... but I felt like a wimp because I got tired really easily!!! But, I got to break out my new hot pink fleece saddle pad. WOO!

One of the things that I've realized riding as an adult (and not a kids being screamed at) is that, dammit, if you can't hold the half seat or your back is going to spaz out from trotting without stirrups - STOP for goodness sake, don't wait until your teacher tells you to stop. This of course, is after having pulled my back out as a result of the aforementioned trotting. Of course pushing yourself to try new things you didn't think you could do is how you become a better athelte - but not if your body is telling you it need more time/flexibility/training in order to try that something new.

Next riding goal for this summer...now that I don't lose my left stirrup at the canter any more...be able to canter without stirrups and/or bareback again. Such a freeing feeling to be relaxed, balanced and strong.