Great Rides Last Week

[Roheryn]

I tried to post this last week--got the whole thing typed out and then my computer crashed instead of posting it! So I haven't been able to be online again 'til today, nor have I been at the barn all this week due to a bad cold!

Now that that moan is over ... I had two great rides last week! One was in a lesson, riding a friend's green horse who is bigger than my horse and doesn't have any more of a clue what to do than I do. We were trying to get him on the bit and he was trying too, but communicating with him was so different from communicating with my guy, who does know what you want but doesn't always want to do it. This guy was trying but he kept losing his concentration, and finally at the end of the lesson (about 40 minutes) he just gave up, like a kid in school who's been trying too hard with a hard math problem and just tosses his pencil aside and says he can't think anymore. I felt so great after the lesson because I'd been afraid to ride this big horse who hadn't been ridden in 2 days. So trainer rode him first, and then put us on the lunge line, and after a few turns I was saying, "OK, I want to do it myself now." He really did try, and afterwards I was all ready to go ride my guy in the big outdoor school and canter! But at my next lesson the ground was much too wet to even trot. But on Saturday I took my guy up to the big outdoor school (not in a lesson) and we actually rode around it a couple of times! This is very scary for me because the school is so huge and I kept thinking "He's gonna bolt" but he never did. Even when friend's horse shied, and my guy jumped a bit, I just sat through it because I hadn't been expecting it so wasn't tensed up.
All in all, two very good rides that really boosted my confidence, and I just wanted to write about them.
Now if the ground will just dry out, and my chest will just get uncongested, so I can get out to the barn and ride some more . . .

 

[Little Dolphins]

Sorry you've been sick, but it must have been nice to lie in bed and get a warm glow from the thought of your great rides- (better than the heat from your fever!).

Hot whisky, lemon and honey my dear; that'll shift the gloop!

Lovely to hear about things going well in the confidence dept. That's the kind of thing I need to read!!!!! So, Thanks, Roheryn

 

[Roheryn]

Thank you, Little Dolphins.
I did hot tea and honey and that helped a bit but the whisky idea sounds perhaps more effective. (Which works best--Scots, Irish, Canadian, Kentucky, or Tennessee?)
I got in a short ride yesterday and rode part of the way down the lane to the big school (with a friend walking alongside horse and me to keep him from bolting at neighbor's huge great loose dogs. I want to go back out tomorrow morning and try it again (I think the ground may dry out somewhat by tomorrow). I want to ride in the lane again, and trot. Yesterday I was grazing my guy and envisioning myself saddling up and riding out across the farm (the way I would have done in my young days)--and, in a way, that is what I did, just with a friend along to give me confidence.

 

[Whatanejit]

Oh well done!

One step at a time with regards to achievements and overcoming some problems are the secret to this riding success, me thinks!!

 

[Roheryn]

I agree! Yesterday I rode my guy up in the huge great school with a couple of friends. It was wonderful!!!!!!!! He was so calm. Then we trotted a bit in the small school. I am on my way out there this afternoon to try again.