Today was cloudy and kind of windy,\u00a0 and I didn’t ride until the afternoon.\u00a0 As if my getting on a horse made the clouds part, the weather changed abruptly and it turned sunny–a bit hazy, but not cloudy.\u00a0 Too warm for my warmer riding tights, so I wore the lightweight denim ones.\u00a0\u00a0 Sure enough, Rags is shrinking a little in his belly–he girthed up at 4 holes on one side, 3 on the other.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mounting is still not smooth, but OK, and I’m practicing on the old western saddle on the one really strong stand.\u00a0 It will come.\u00a0 We headed out into the near meadow, partway up the east end toward the east trail to the highway, but not onto that trail.\u00a0 Came back, did a weave through the young bur oak row, then out over the rock crossing of the old ditch, up the rise to the dry woods (Rags wasn’t bothered; he’s done that before) across the front of the dry woods and back down…he anticipated turning onto the trail but I insisted on exactly where.\u00a0 Turned east again on the near side of the old ditch to cross at the rock crossing, and go back up to the horse lots.\u00a0 Today he did not stop anywhere with his previous “That’s enough, we should quit now” attitude.\u00a0\u00a0 Nice change.\u00a0\u00a0 Got off with the aid of the top rail of the portable stall…that’s really working and I could get my leg smoothly over the cantle and\u00a0 his rump, no touching.<\/p>\n
That took up 15\u00a0 minutes.\u00a0 Rags wasn’t eager to be tacked up, but then willing for everything else.\u00a0\u00a0 Tomorrow will complete his first week back under saddle, and will be a 15 minute ride again, but on a different route.\u00a0\u00a0 The goal for week two is gradually increasing across 5-6 rides to just under 30.\u00a0 Week three to 45.\u00a0 Week four to 60 minutes.\u00a0\u00a0 I need to find the book of mine that has detailed conditioning schedules to be sure 15 minutes\/week isn’t too fast an increase but that’s really individual from horse to horse…what is the work load like for this particular horse.\u00a0 He’s got a sound back and good loin coupling, but bow-legged in back involved both stifles and hocks…so I’ll keep an eye (and feel) on that as the rides lengthen.\u00a0\u00a0 He’s very comfortable to ride at a walk…it’s not sluggish or hurried…and thus is a good platform for me to practice my position and use of aids.\u00a0 We will do some work in whatever horse lot Tigger isn’t in…poles to walk or trot over, side pass over, go between, etc…but these first rides are intended to be pleasant and not very demanding, even relaxing (since relaxation is one of the foundations of training.)<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, my body’s also relaxing, the muscles that first get sore and stiff from riding stretching out, joints adjusting, and so on.\u00a0\u00a0 Balance is improving once I’m up and we’re moving.\u00a0\u00a0 One of the next steps for me is being able to “float” over the saddle at a walk without adding any pressure on the reins, and balance that way for increasing lengths of time.\u00a0 There are two basic positions for that–one is standing upright in the stirrups (something I could do at all gaits on Ky, including gallop) and one is inclined forward, balancing right over the horse’s center of gravity.\u00a0 Finding the balance took me awhile when I was learning to ride in an English saddle, preparing to learn to jump.\u00a0 And it will take me time again.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s much easier to post to\u00a0 trot than stay in two-point or half-seat, but if you’re riding fast you need to stay up without having to lean on the horse’s neck or use the reins for balance.<\/p>\n
Today’s ride was especially pleasant–a balmy temperature, a light wind, just enough sunshine, a horse that felt relaxed and willing.\u00a0\u00a0 Tigger gave me sad eyes when I got back, and I said “You know, if you were willing to be saddled again, and learned to ground drive from the halter, I could ride you and we could go places…but you need to show me, because we both know the last time you had a saddle on, you got hurt.\u00a0 You did it to yourself, but I know what you remember is being scared, bolting, then hitting the fence, falling backward, and being hurt.”\u00a0\u00a0 “Gimme cookies,” said Tigger and he got some, along with some petting, which he allowed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today was cloudy and kind of windy,\u00a0 and I didn’t ride until the afternoon.\u00a0 As if my getting on a horse made the clouds part, the weather changed abruptly and it turned sunny–a bit hazy, but not cloudy.\u00a0 Too warm for my warmer riding tights, so I wore the lightweight denim ones.\u00a0\u00a0 Sure enough, Rags Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,16],"tags":[49,17],"class_list":["post-1058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-horses","category-life-beyond-writing","tag-horses","tag-life-beyond-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1058"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1059,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1058\/revisions\/1059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}