It's happened. Your daughter wants to ride horses. Maybe she saw someone in a movie, or she found some old copies of The Saddle Club, but there's no escaping it now. She needs to ride a horse, and she might literally die if she doesn't. My brother just went through this, forced to enter the world o[...]
It seems like just days ago she was born, and now she's hit another milestone - her first pony ride!!! She's been born in another way: introduced to the wonder of riding. Naturally, she has already been around horses, since she lives on a horse farm, but I have never let he[...]
I read an article a few months ago, Is My Relationship with My Trainer Normal? It annoyed me greatly at the time, and I thought about it again recently as I've been searching for a new trainer, and customer service has been on my mind a lot. To me, this article basically amounts to a traine[...]
This last weekend was as action packed as any horse-obsessed person could want. It had all the excitement of a lesson, baby horses, moving hay, and a horse show! I need an extra day off to recover from this madness. Today's topics - Lesson and hay. I was half-heartedly looking at n[...]
Holy mackerel! A post actually about riding! I don't think I've done one of these in months! Because I haven't ridden in months! Yes, what I said in the previous sentence is true. I haven't ridden since I started my new job, because I don't have lights at home, and it's dark all the time. On the[...]
I have discovered the most amazing riding discipline. I am shocked that I never attempted this before, because it is so amazing, I am now obsessed. Clearly since I wrote it in the title of this post, we all know that I'm talking about Polo. Next time I'll try to make it more suspenseful and dramatic[...]
The above picture cracks me up. It just looks so casual, like I'm not even moving, just relaxing - "Oh hey guys, what you are up to? I'm just sitting on this horse here, I'll probably be finished about noon." I feel like I'll never shut up about these dang lead changes. I still don't have confir[...]
It was time for another try at getting Berry's lead changes. Super skilled rider hopped on her again for another attempt. I warmed up Berry and we started the lesson, working on lengthening the trot and the canter. Since lengthening the canter sometimes felt like galloping, this was quite fun! It[...]
We were on what felt like the millionth exercise to teach Berry and I lead changes. We started going down the long side, circling, leg yelding back to the rail, and asking for the change. The leg yeld was easy. The change was not, and wouldn't happen. I could sense Berry's annoyance. I ended up aski[...]
I had an amazing ride on Saturday. Berry was so perfect, she was like an old school horse. She is clearly better at this course/jumping business than I am, and I am so thankful she doesn't take advantage of my floppy self. (although I've been promised lots of no stirrup work, so floppy will soon be[...]