I Am Older

Unabashedly I am announcing that today is my quarter century b-day and while I still have to work a half day, I don't even care.

Here in my household, we celebrate birthdays more than we celebrate Christmas.

I'm not even joking.

Birthday's are a big deal and always have been to my family, and each family member who has an upcoming birthday is always treated like a king or queen a week or two prior.

BIRTHDAY WEEK, not day. Thats how we roll.

My b-day week kicked off wonderfully at a horse show and the gift of another class from my dearest Bangor, Destroyer of Worlds. He gets me.

Mostly for the week I've been getting away with stupid shit, getting to eat whatever I want and not feeling guilty about it and skipping the gym/sleeping in, also without feeling guilty about it and wearing slippers at work and no one noticing. Its a big week guys.

The only downside has been the temperature, therefore leading me to no horsey rides or visits to the barn and a slightly large amount of homework. I went out last night briefly ( more later on that ride), but otherwise The Beast has been stuck inside and not being ridden...ooops. Therefore, I have a wonderful weekend planned with my S/O, mostly revolving around my 4 favorite things; netflix, coffee, horses & food.

Essentials.

S/O also surprised me  by shipping a brand new Horseware IRE blanket, medium weight, to my house. It was like the Christmas I didn't have, but better because BIRTHDAY.

I may or may not have sent him a link to it, along with this sports bra I also like, but he chose correctly.

Bangor wins. He gets me.

Honestly, I don't think he knows how much this blanket actually means to me, but I am really excited about it. Now, I only have one more to replace and one to try and fix on my own!

ignore psychopath horse who wouldn't stand still

After I received the precious in the mail, I went out to Walmart and bought a ridiculous amount of luggage tags. They were a dollar so I literally cleared out their stock. That night I meticulously labeled them and then stared at my genius.

Just a few for example purposes

I know, I didn't invent this use for luggage tags, just really excited about getting my blankets labeled. *shivers*

muddy fucking rags

Adulting things that make me happy.

I also bought a new whiteboard from walmart with extra stickies, hoping that works for the time being. I'll need to lock away my markers, since there seems to be a marker gnome in our barn, but hopefully I can get notes to our workers across a bit better with COLORED markers and a larger board.

In addition, BFF extraordinaire gifted her Precious (aka Baby Jesus saddle) to me as a loaner until I can find  saddle that fits B and myself to purchase. I am DEAD. This is such a huge gift, just to trust me with such an expensive and glorious hunk of animal skin. It fits me gloriously, so I am hoping it will fit B. 

such pretty very wow

Baby Jesus fit Jackie's horse Isis very well and she is built quite similarly to B, so here's to hoping! I love having a BFF who's into horses and also loves me lots.

Quick update on Bacardi...he was a fuckface last night when I rode, but I'm not even mad about it. Poor fellow has been stuck inside with no turnout an he was losing his marbles. Just standing in his stall and crossties he was breathing fire...

is that...HAY, you have human girl?

Hoping he's a bit more settled today for my BIRTHDAY RIDE YAY!

What Do Wednesday: Winter Riding

I don’t know about most of you, but winter has officially hit (finally?) and in full force. We were lucky and actually had legitimate weeks of winter with low 50’s-60s and I was questioning life in general. Not to worry, winter is back to normal. This last weekend was our first real snow and temperature plummet (-10* windchill) and it has not really let up since then. Bacardi is snug as a bug in his (torn up) rugs in the barn ready to settle for a long winters nap. Yesterday was special getting to work on time and this morning it was brutally cold with a windchill of -15*. Ridiculous.

Getting to work is questionable but necessary, but doing other things like running errands, gym time and riding time always get shoved aside when the roads are bad. I live out in the BF of nowhere and its especially treacherous just getting into town where all the cars tend to pile up because people can’t drive. I adore my Honda Pilot for many reasons, but the handling in snow and ice has to be one of my favorites. But that doesn’t mean I willingly want to put myself at risk for stuff and things.

In MO, we had no choice but to get ourselves to the barn because we were on self care board. Usually, I was the person to volunteer to drive there and take care of all of the self-care beasts since My SUV was a muthafuckin badass in the snow. Here though in OH, I don’t even want to attempt to leave my warm and safe house, especially after what happened this weekend driving a truck and trailer on snowy roads.

What I’m trying to get at here is that when its truly wintery outside, I don’t go see my horse, or even ride.

15* feelings

It makes me feel like an asshole, but I hand over my hard earned money nowadays to get him cared for when I cannot be there. I still feel for the barn workers, since I’ve been in their place, but I do not envy them. Horses gotta be fed, regardless of the weather.

Speaking of, shout out to the workers at our barn, as they are wonderful and perfect. Blankets changes, leg wrap removal, you name it, they’ll do it. Love them.

This week I had actually planned on giving Bacardi half the week off because I have a group project for school (seriously WTF though, this is graduate level work, not high school, whyyy why why why) and he worked his bum off on Sunday at the show.

However, even if that wasn’t the case, he would still be getting most of the week off. I sure am glad I decided against the dressage show this weekend or I would really be feeling nervous about it.

The snow doesn’t even play a massive factor in this type of decision it’s the FREEZING cold.

Lets not judge the mud, it was too cold out to thoroughly groom all the places

While we have a gorgeous, well maintained and generally warmer than outdoors indoor, when the temp drops below 10* I find it completely pointless to even  attempt to ride.

Most people I’ve discovered from a poll on my Instagram have their lessons canceled if it drops below 25/30*, but here in the north, that would be a waste of a winter. We have a little more gumption and hardiness when it comes to the cold.

My rule of thumb is if I can’t feel my toes, or am having a hard time tacking up because my fingers are frozen or my legs are so cold I can barely creak around, chances are my horse won’t appreciate being ridden. Also if the air hurts my lips and throat when I walk outside, chances are my horse won’t appreciate being ridden.

Damaging the windpipe and lungs on a horse in the cold is a real concern for most riders and they tend to take it a little too far by stating “NO RIDING BELOW 30*”.

Thirty degrees? That’s almost balmy.

For us up here, we are used to this and our horses are used to this and taking off a full 4 months because its below 30* is insane (if you have an arena, riding outside in a frozen field is not fun, I can attest to that).

For me, even if its below freezing but above 15* I still want to do SOMETHING. Anything. Especially if he has been stuck inside because of weather. Gotta loosen up that body somehow.

I try to keep the warm-ups long, the workouts easy but the brain movement high. This means doing lots of fundamentals that we all don’t school as often as we should. Like halts, walk work and lateral work at the walk and some trot.

You can still have a productive ride and barely trot and not canter at all.

For myself and my horses, I would never jump when its below 20*, or even do much canter work, since that’s just too cold to even unstick my young old person joints and ride properly. Plus, the ground is cold and it just seems too jarring and he air is cold and its all just COLD. But some fundamentals never hurt anyone and riding time is still accrued.

So dear readers, what do you do? Where do you live and what are your practices for riding in winter? I am especially interested in those from the south, like TX and SC, and those from the extreme north, like Canada. FEED ME YOUR SECRETS. I must know.

Snowflake Series II: Batshit Crazy

 Yesterday was...interesting. Eventful would be a better word, plagued with vehicle and rig issues only exacerbated by the weather. I had hitch troubles, got stuck twice, almost got T-boned and my 4WD wouldn't turn off, so I had to drive home going 30 MPH so as to not fuck up the truck beyond help. It was stressful beyond all coping.

I need to watch the weather more carefully apparently, because I was the only one unaware that it was supposed to snowstorm the whole day, and if I had known that I don't think I would've attempted this show. I don't mind winter, but when it comes to hauling other riders horses I get very nervous with wintery weather.

To start, loading the horses was miserable. It had rained all night and then began snowing sideways by 6 AM when we were loading and as I was walking Bacardi out to the trailer I couldn't help but think how fucking insane this was for all of us to be doing in a snowstorm on a Sunday.

Regardless, of all that, I had took it upon myself to braid his tail up like a polo point since he took the liberty to shit all over it the last time, brushed the excrement off his butt (thanks B), wrapped his legs and off we went.

What a nice thoroughbred booty

patiently waiting

Bacardi was great and walked right in and we were all loaded up with  the EME crew's ponies and off we went in the sideways blowing snow before the crack of dawn. Luckily at this point it was still 40 degrees but the temp plummeted in the hour between when I arrived to the barn and when we shoed up on the show grounds. Literally by 11 degrees in one hour.

The horses were saints and stood in the freezing rain and blowing snow while we threw on saddles and sprinted into the barn aisles. We crammed 10 horses into the host's barn aisle while we booted up and bridled out beasts. In the 15 minutes it took us to do all of that, the horses were coated with almost an inch of snow. It was literal insanity.

Horse people are fucking crazy.

Bacardi handled it like a champ and acted so chill it was slightly disturbing, haha. Like, why aren;t you being a crazy horse?

We crammed all of us into the warm-up ring and he popped over everything with ease, save one refusal at a flowery oxer and I exited the ring to chill by the heaters. Yes, heaters. It was nice.

Also,  Bangor (my S/O) got me starbucks and it made me happy.

While the wind and snow whipped around us, we were all warm and dry inside. Love that host barn!

So majestic. My heart.

Yet again, because of weather and whatnot, we had about 10 minutes to memorize our courses. I signed up for the entire 2'6 division which is a power and speed, and then 2 classes with different courses AND a jump off for each.

Bacardi ROCKED the Power & Speed. I could've kicked it up a notch, but he was still a little distracted. He felt great though, and I was like "fuck yeah, my horse showed up today!". We cleared fence 11 and I slowed him down overjoyed with a perfectly clear round.

It was then that everyone starting screaming, "FENCE 12 FENCE 12 you MISSED it!!" Whereas I then proceed to be very confused and yelled back "WHAT FENCE 12???"

Apparently there was a fence 12 that I completely didn't see on the sheet and I missed the last fucking jump on a perfect round.

WHOMP WHOMP.

See video HERE. (lol watch until the end)

I still ended up 3rd because he was quick, but looking around confused for what seemed like over a minute didn't exactly help our time, haha.

Second course was...nonexistent. I had memorized the course perfectly and was yelling it to my barn mates while they were riding.

Dragon

When it was my turn, I started with the jump -off instead of the actual fucking course.

Course TWO that I failed to do correctly. COOL.

No video for that since it lasted all of 15 seconds.

I was legit actually really mad and steamed in a corner for about 5 minutes like a spoiled brat.

To be fair, its $20/class and I am not rich and I was annoyed I fucked up twice in a row and didn't even get to do the second course.

I got over it quickly though and memorized my next class, which was a different course and a different jump off.

B was exceptional and nailed it. Despite being a bit sassy and flipping his head a little, we cleared everything and made it to the jump-off. He LOVED it when I let him gallop in-between fences and despite taking the longer routes because I forgot the third fence for a split second, and he's not some tiny pony that can whip the turns (yet).

I was pleased, and we ended up second out of a large class.

Video HERE and HERE (jump off)

After that I was a little bummed we had only jumped in 2 classes. We had come all this way to practice and my S/O could see I was a little upset. In true gentleman fashion, he offered to buy me a class in the 3ft division for my birthday, since its my birthday week.

God, he's perfect.

Don't worry, he didn't actually hate his life entirely 

I was overjoyed to be able to take my horse in the 3ft division. I chose the class I had royally screwed up by jumping the jump-off instead of the regular course.

It was pretty funny when my time came to go, I kept saying, "rollback left DO NOT JUMP 4" over and over, and I think I was so concentrated about not missing fence 2 that I rode like ass to fence one and we pulled a rail.

Video HERE.

Minus the rail, Bacardi was more than game and I was so so so so so so happy (SO HAPPY) with him. Every mistake was fully mine and he was really on point all day. Terrible weather, rushed tacking up, crowded ring, crowded waiting area and more crappy weather...he was a star and handled it with grace. He also nailed every lead change, which I wasn't even trying for but thats a win! If you stare really hard at my shitty ass grainy video's you might be able to see it.

How to make a 17.1hh horse look small...be me

"Did I do good? Do you have treats, can I has them?"

Only "complaint" I could have at all was his head flipping near the beginning of each round and semi-awkward transitions, but I wasn't angry about it. I was riding aggressively and he was excited. He was in my hand and listening, so I was happy.

Overall, a great show day and another Snowflake Series in the books. Our EME team did amazingly well. Two of our riders were Reserve Champions in each division and another of our riders ( an ten year old who kicked ALL our asses-shes in the pink) was Grand champion in the 2'6 division.  I love my EME barn family!

Just a few of our EME riders

The drive home was, horrific, freezing, white knuckle terrifying, but that is behind us.

I wrapped B for the evening and blanketed heavily since the low tonight it absolutely awful. He will get a few days off then we will work some more on dressage for a while.

Just happy with my horse, and thankful I made it through the shitty weather and that my thoughtful and sweet S/O (Bangor, Destroyer of World's) was there to support me. All the accolades!

Life <3 comment-3--="" nbsp="">

Custom Courses and Tailors

Another small update before the Jumper show tomorrow and then temps PLUMMET to almost subzero, so I'm thinking day off until Thursday. Gives him time off to recover from traveling and shoe, and allows me to get some HW done, yay.

Schooling yesterday over courses was a little disconnected and I never quit could put my finger on it. He's been a little squirrely lately, but this was different in a strange way. Unlike previous months, he really seemed into the jumping part of it, he was just...distracted. Riding at night is always weird for him and he finds shadow monsters in every corner.

I felt like I was dealing with a severely ADHD child and directing him was challenging. I figured it was my riding, as most mistakes are, but it was still a frustrating ride.

He was jumping everything nicely the first few times I popped him over to warm up. I was happy that most people take Friday nights to go out and end their barn time early and I had the arena to myself! Took the liberty to rearrange the jumps a bit. I had set up a course with many options for rollbacks or bending lines.

I know y'all love the janky-ass depiction of my courses. You're welcome. The vertical on the lower right hand side was a skinny by the way, same as the one in-between the over and vertical. It was a curious setup and left a lot of room for options. I kept most of them between 2'6 and 3ft since we are competing in the 2'6 divisions tomorrow.

We went through several courses a few times and he was just looking everywhere &bnot paying attention at all. It was like we were up on a jump and he was like "AH SHIT I jump this NOW, or NOT, or do I, WHAT DO I DO". The arena was a bit crowded and he seemed confused on which jump we were going for next, which I think was the biggest issue; I wasn't being clear enough with my riding.

He was relatively lovely, listening in the turns, rocking back after each jump and jumping each fence well. However, randomly, he would just refuse something. No rhyme or reason as to occurrences or specific fence, he would just be like "Nah bruh" at the last second.

FRUSTRATING.

After a few run through's, I was getting pissed, since this is our biggest issue and would really like it to stop happening. I generally try to train him the way I want to ride him forever, and this is with light aids and a light touch. Apparently this wasn't aggressive enough for him. No only that, I was concentrating on packaging him a little too much before each fence, I believe.

For one round I rode SUPER aggressively. Like sitting back 3 strides out, legs on, really FORWARD ride into my hands and he sailed over everything effortlessly and without a pause.

OK then. Heard that.

Makes sense a bit, since this is how Yankee liked to be ridden at first. He was never a "cruiser" until recently. Annoying, since hand holding over an entire course is a pain, but while he's young and still figuring it out I can do it and don't mind. I want him to learn that its his job to lock on to the fence I point him towards and take the initiative to gets over with minimal interface from me (yes, I know jumping requires two bodies- but it should not require aggressive hand holding through the entire course forever).

With this style of riding, we completed two more rounds without mishap and he was loving it. Soaring over the jumps and landing with gusto. He was still coming back to me and taking the rollbacks with lovely balance, but seemed to like the extra support and confidence I was giving him.

I am going to try and ride my best like that tomorrow, but I still have this "weird fear" of falling off while jumping. Its only happened twice in my entire life over fences, but its not something I like to experience and his wishy washy refusals eeeek me out. The funny thing is, my riding seems to directly correlate to his performance and lack of refusals. Funny how that works.

Also, as a quick sidetone, I got his new Stubben I bought him in December back from the leather tailor finally and it is perfect!! Those gentleman at my shop do a seamless job and are so friendly and accommodating. They finished 4 days quicker than expected and quoted me too high, so that was a nice surprise when I went to pick it up that I didn't owe anything on top of my deposit.

Hello, its me.

Ooooo, sexy bridle. I really love this thing. Well worth the $135 I've put into it. The leather is supple and soft, I adore the mono crown, the buckles are gorgeous and it fits him perfectly now, especially behind his ears. YAY ETT!

Now I just have to get some bridle tags for all of his shit. I've been perusing Easy, but what I want to know from you all, is who do you get your tags from and why?

He's to riding well tomorrow, staying warm and maybe bringing home some satin!

Sassy Pants

Quick little update here about Mr. Bacardi and the pants he's been wearing lately.

If the headliner isn't a hint, he's been a sassy lil bitch the last few days.

Not "Bacardi bad" sassy, just sassy in general.

We spent the beginning of the week working on flatwork and some very rudimentary skills like halting. LOTS of halting. Far too often do I forget to school walking and halting. It was FRIGID so I kept it easy on the lungs and joints, but still wanted to do some work.

Wednesday and Thursday was gridwork exercises. I couldn't change what was set up because of lessons, so my only option was gridwork. Not my first option, since B has struggles with grids for a while.

Wednesday I was  incredibly sore from Crossfit and rode like shit. Like actually barely rode well at all. My upper body and abs were trashed and you kind of need those parts to be mobile when jumping. It was my first week back to the gym after my shoulder injury and superflu, and even though I cut the volume in half & sandbagged the workout, I still trashed my lats and pecs, ugh.

Wednesday he was a sassy lil shit and took advantage of the fact that my half halts were weak and almost nonexistent and decided to run through every fence. Literally. He knocked them all down gleefully. I was frustrated, he was having fun, and there was no good schooling happening. I cut the ride short and ended with a few good transitions.

Thursday I felt better, but so did B. He was RARING to go and literally ignored every single aid of mine to pleaseslowdown so I switched him back to his waterford. I generally dislike using tools to help me, but he was just laying on my hands, exploding here and there with joy.

YAY I'M A HORSE

It was almost funny, but I was still like "OK B, we have a Jumper Show Sunday and this will not work, oh no no no, this will not do".

There were two grids alongside each long end with a 5 stride to a vertical. Away from the stalls he was OK. Just OK. Like, kind of listening to my seat and half halts and rocking back through the bounces and not rocketing through the 5 stride and making it a 3. TOWARDS that stalls though...disaster. He was just too exuberant. Which to be honest, made me happy, because 7 months ago he seemed to really be terrified of fences and poles. But really, blowing through grids does nothing good for anyone.

Because I don't have paint on my Mac, BOO

At first I tried just staying out of his way and just staying centered and letting himself carry himself and figure it all out on his own. He's a wittle bebe and sometimes they just need to not be fiddled with. So I would work on getting a lovely lofty canter at a 20m circle and then point him towards the grid and just hang on and hope he doesn't fuck it up.

1 stride away from the grid his ears perked and he CHARGED.

ME

*Crash *clip *clip *crash, land, WHEEE IM A HORSE!!

OK, so that was a bad idea. Upon landing he bucked with joy and I was mildly unseated and we proceeded to careen around a lap until I was situated. That was a fail.

The positive note to take away from our flailing was that he was actually listening to my seat  (if I wasn't precariously tossed on his neck) AFTER the jumps and BEFORE and was going round in this glorious, lofty canter. I was overjoyed that his canter has made such improvements in the last few months.

Previously, we could jump once fence, then we would need a lap or two to re-group.

Now if only he would do these grids with a sense of self preservation and not dive forward and try to kill us.

Knowing he was new to this, I thought then that maybe he needed a little bit of help.

Going forward, I politely would ask him 2 strides out to PLEASE BALANCE back with a push from my seat and a strong half halt.

Bacardi

He did not appreciate that one bit. Again, crash, crash, topple, boom went the poles.

I asked again, PLEASE Bacardi be sensible and lets not run through this and die.

CRASH CLIP CLIP JUMP AWKWARDLY.

Ok so half halts still not working great.

I was at a loss at what to do from here since I didn't want to confuse his little self by asking for a halt after the grid before the 5 stride.

Eventually, I ended up doing more flatwork than jumping and worked on an extremely collected canter after a relaxed trot transition then I would ride him VERY into my hand before the grid and sit back a little bit while giving him support in my rein instead of just letting him figure it out alone.

Think, using one's seat to push the horse as far into the hand as possible and try and keep it there.

It was exhausting and he let it be known that he did NOT appreciate me asking him to be civil,  and showed it with some serious tail flippage...

but eventually half obliged and once we went through each grid once without knocking one fence down, I called it a day.

He was still raring to go, but our cooldown I kept simple and relaxed.

Today I am hoping I can move the fences around to more of a course, since he seems to be better over singe fences. Grids just get him excited and flat, the exact opposite of what is intended. There are no lessons after 7PM, so I have a good 2 hours before my Friday plans to get a course set and practice some height and coursework before Sunday's show.

With Yankee it was so easy...he rarely rushed through grids and was worse over single fences. Funny how different all the OTTBs can be!

Lawd, the struggles of training a baby over fences!

What are you favorite grid exercises?

Full Metal

**This post contains photos of non-helmeted riders, please for the love of god keep comments about helmets to yourselves. We are all adults here, hopefully.

Normally, most of us try to keep our personal lives separate from the blogging/horse world, but I personally believe they are one in the same. I know for myself at least, most of my decisions revolve around my horse and his welfare and our plans etc. I also have a S/O who is wonderfully involved in my life and curious about my horse endeavors. Numerous times he has come out to the barn on his own free will to photograph or video our rides, he's been to our first show and he always asks how my rides went or how Bacardi & Yankee are doing. Its incredibly refreshing and adorable and to know he will always be there willingly to support me.

While I find it sweet & adorable and fondly refer to him as The Boy, I think he wants to be depicted as a super strong, manly man. While this is incredibly accurate, I will always think of him as The Boy on this blog, but since he requested a name change I will gladly honor that request since he has spent many hours at the barn with me willingly.

Quick backstory on my S/O; all through high school AND college he triple lettered in Football, Wrestling and Track and made the All-American team in 2014 for College Wrestling. He also is an avid and competitive crossfitter and shares my passion for the sport.

yeah Crossfit

He is way better than me actually, and successfully competes all over OH & KY. In addition, he is one of the strongest people I have the pleasure of knowing in real life and recently PR'd his deadlift at 625 lbs at a Powerlifting meet in which he destroyed competition and won easily.

Newspaper clipping from his win

Why is this important and relevant to riding you say?

Well. He has entertained the thought of riding a few times with me and proved to be a natural (of course) at it, in which I was blown away and pleased since I selfishly could then drag him along on rides and horse things without feeling horribly guilty.

Riding sweet LillyBelle

In Septemeber he told me that he has been entertaining the thought for a long time about becoming a knight.

Yes, a knight. Who jousts. Its a real actual thing.

At first I wasn't sure what to think because even though I had seen it at Renaissance festivals, I thought it was just randoms dads who got bored and decided to showcase a dead sport.

Nope, its a thing.

There are World Championships and everything, and we happen to live 30 minutes from the man who IS the reigning Jousting World Champ and was the host for the show on TV, Full Metal Jousting.

Shane Adams

We actually got to meet with Shane in September at the Renaissance festival and he asked S/O if he was serious about it and detailed how the training program started. While talking with him I learned that jousters learn how to ride Dressage first (yes, DRESSAGE) and then learn jousting, then learn how to ride with the armor. I was sold. Hell yeah Dressage! Apparently Shane has competed up to PSG and also used to be a hunter jumper, which is insane because he is a large human being.

I of course was giddy, knowing that my S/O might possibly learn Dressage if he wanted to go forward with Jousting training. Its hella expensive and requires a lot of time, obviously. This is where Shane looked at me and said "I need you to teach him how to ride. teach him Dressage" and then we discussed my past and Eventing and Dressage and it was intriguing.

There were two options, S/O work his ass off for 10 hours a day in exchange to learn the basics of riding from Shane on lesson at a time....or bribe me to teach him how to do more than putz around on a QH on the trail.

Um, obviously he chose me.

I was SO excited to get the chance to teach someone so important to me the basics of Dressage and how to gallop a horse etc.

The main issue was finding a horse for him. He's twice my size and in no way is Bacardi ready for beginners to be on his back, let alone someone his size. Sadly, perfect Miss Lilly sold and no longer is an option. Luckily, I have a few friends in the area and one of them just purchased a half-Belgian for her equally as green and large bodied S/O. She also is more than willing to let us use him for lessons! #winning

His name is Chewbacca and he's the cutest half-Belgian I've ever seen.

Literally perfect for the job and at only 5, he is stunningly chill regardless of what you do. We discovered that he is actually extremely lazy and the safest horse for teaching newbies.

Our first real lesson into the emersion of Dressage was this weekend and I wanted to focus on learning the dressage seat and feeling the gaits and recognizing when to correct.

I will never be a real instructor since I have a difficult time breaking down the art of riding into understandable and smaller parts. I really want to nit-pick every little thing, like seat, hands, hips, knees, shoulders etc and I know thats completely overwhelming for a new rider.

I figured that hardest part for him will be opening his hips and not sitting in chair seat and its imperative for dressage (and jousting) to have a deep seat and long lines. We really focused on just feeling the walk, each footfall and how the hips move through the gait and relaxing those hips open and rounding around the horse instead of what most green riders do...chair seat, tip forward and flail.

S/O was a great study and after learning how to get a lazy butt horse to move, really settled into a longer frame and worked on stretching through his heels and keeping his body aligned.

Its a bit harder in a western saddle, but for now I want him in that to have that horn for balance and security. In time I know his hips will open up and getting that leg long will be easier.

I also briefly covered the function of posting vs sitting trot and how to do each. Then we dabbled in a little bit of trot (think one lap) work to begin to feel the movement. He did great but as all new riders, had some difficulty, thus the short spurts. I wanted him to focus on correctly riding instead of just flailing about until he got it. So the second his leg came up and he felt unbalanced we asked Chewy to walk.

It was a great lesson, and I hope I'm teaching the correct way. I really want him to be successful in this endeavor and I am so grateful to be a part of something so cool!

Bangor: Destroyer of Worlds and his trusty steed Chewy

Do any of you have S/O's or Hubbies that ride too or are at least interested in your horsey world? I hope so :D