I actually got to ride on the mini trail twice this week, and both time I was riding an Arabian!

Wednesday morning Debbie called me saying they were going to be fixing the footing on her ring, big equipment, lost of noise, etc..  Since I was still suffering the effects of a head cold (BAD NEWS for us with MS) I was willing to wait a day.  So I got my lesson on Thursday on the Arab gelding Mick.  The fence on the far end of the riding ring was completely down, and the…

Last week I finally got my leather snaffle.  Since I re-started riding Bobby I have been thinking hard about what might be irritating his mouth.  I read the ad about those super pricey titanium bits and I was looking for an alternative that I could afford that also was temperature neutral and did not have any electric currents or magnetism going through the bit.  I was really excited to get my leather snaffle, at least until I measured the mouthpiece, 2 centimeters wide and…

I finally got my RS-tor last week, and I did not waste any time putting it on my saddle.  The name of this wonderful piece of gear is pronounced “arrestor.” 

Due to the effects of my Multiple Sclerosis I have lost the confidence I used to have decades ago about my ability to stay in the saddle.  Faulty balance, weak and quickly tiring muscles, lack of coordination, my…

It is getting cooler now in NC, so I am hoping that I will continue to recover from my trip to MD three weeks ago.  Every year it seems to take me longer to recover. 

Wednesday I rode Mick for my lesson with Debbie.  I warmed Mick up for around ten minutes, the poor guy was stiff as usual, and the fact that Debbie’s horses are now spending the night in the stalls  means that he had been standing in his stall for many, many hours.  I had done the circular massages on…

First, I admire and respect a lot of people who train horses.  Training horses can take a lot of bravery, knowledge and skill.  Trainers are IMPORTANT, good ones can clear up the confusion of the horse, show the horse how to move better, and train the horse to be obedient to the rider.  Good trainers can also humanely train a horse for many of the specialized games that people like to…

Last weekend we took a LOOOONG trip, from here in the southern part of North Carolina to the panhandle of Maryland.  Cary had a show in Frederick, Md., which meant, of course, that I got a lesson at North Fork!  I like doing these once a year lessons at North Fork, after days of having to sit up in the car, sit up at the stamp show, getting up early, going out to eat and then driving around 20-30 minutes to North Fork I am TIRED.  My exhaustion causes my body to not work as…

When I started with my first horse over 40 years ago horse training was sort of considered an esoteric activity that only adepts could do.  Most people sent horses to trainers because only trainers had the equipment and the secret knowledge necessary to train horses.  After several months at the trainer’s place the horse came home, hopefully knowing enough about carrying and obeying a…

Last week Debbie asked me if I minded her training a horse she had in for training during my lesson.  I told her I did not mind at all.  I LOVE seeing Debbie train a horse, she makes it look easy!  During the weekend Debbie called me saying she wanted me to shim the Corrector pad so the mare would be more comfortable under saddle. 

So on Wednesday not only did I have to shim up the Corrector (since the mare has a rather flat back I used all eight shims,) I helped…

The buzz-bomber flies are out.  Thank goodness for fly spray.  Out at Shannon’s I saw two horses out in the pasture doing two-barrel kicks just to shake these nasty flies off their backs.

It is hard to believe it is August down here, usually in August we get our biggest heat, this year it has been rather pleasant in the mornings with nice cool breezes.  This week I did not melt in the saddle!

Bobby looked just as pissed off as usual when Shannon caught him and…

I did not get to ride today, just before Shannon was going to pick me up I started to hear rumblings of thunder, and then it started raining.  I was not especially disappointed, my ride on Bobby last week totally exhausted me because I had to use so many of my muscles so often.  After I got home I wrote last week’s blog, went to sleep for three hours, and it took me a few days to recover completely.  Of course in an ideal world today would have been the day Bobby responded,…

I approached today’s ride on Bobby much more optimistically than I did last week.  I wasted an optimistic mood.

We seemed to start off all right, at least until the first corner.  From there on Bobby decided to pull every evasion out of his bag of tricks.  First, he took exception to the bit, curling up under whenever he wanted to disobey my aids.  After a minute or so I went in to Shannon and she tightened his cheek pieces a hole to see if that would improve…

I must confess that I approached my ride on Bobby today with sort of a hopeless feeling.  So I spent the grooming time giving his head a good scratching, hoping that if I made him feel good he might be more cooperative.  Bobby is always such a good boy during grooming and tacking up, he puts up with the indignity of the spray bottle, and he is very good during tacking up.  Shannon has him trained so she can tighten the girth without having to hold the reins at all, and Bobby…

I got to ride three times this week. 

Mia was an angel, since Debbie had a cantering lesson in the main ring I rode in the other ring with two girls exercising their horses.  Mia was so good, she stayed at the walk each and every time the horses galloped (yes, gallop, not a canter) past her, she did not flinch when the horses were galloping towards her.  Her whole attitude was--“I’m in my thirties, I don’t need to run around any more!”   I was sort of limited with…

In the last two weeks I’ve only ridden three times, instead of six times.  Car repairs, seeing my grandson, jury duty for my husband, just one thing after another interfering with my riding, plus I have been working with a new bit.  Of course the universe does not cooperate perfectly when I want to try out a new bit, this is normal for me, at least it happened once before. 

Since the horses I ride had been “voting” for the Mullen mouth snaffle, and then “voting” for…

It is cooler down here this week, instead of the temperatures going up to 105° F they have been only getting up to 99° F.  Next week we will finally cool down to normal, the upper 80’s, a cold front is due to come through.

Wednesday, for my lesson, Mick started off really stiff.  I have been giving him massages with my little hand held roller massager before I ride, he really enjoys the massages but they don’t seem…

First, my deepest sympathy to all the people and horses out West dealing with the wildfires and heat, as well to the people and horses in the Mid-West and Mid-Atlantic regions after the horrible wind storm.  My prayers are with you.  However bad it is here in NC, it is much, much better than what you are going through.

I didn’t get to ride much this week, in the earlier, cooler part of the week our minivan was at the repair shop so I could not get my lesson. …

We had a nice spring, until the day before the Solstice, then wham, 90° F or above every day.  No more springtime weather for us down here in the South. 

On Wednesday I told Debbie I would not be able to do much more than a walk.  As usual Mick was stiff right behind the saddle so I did my usual warm-up of gradual turns and the three speeds of the walk.  After 15 minutes Debbie looked at my face and decided what I needed was to go on a trail…

Bobby is a Pony

After not being to get down off of Merlin without help I woke up last Sunday REALLY reluctant to ride him.  I couldn’t get Shannon on the phone to tell her I had to switch to someone shorter for the summer, so I took two bridles and three girths out to the farm.  Luckily I got there before Shannon had caught Merlin and she cheerfully agreed to let me ride Bobby, her British Riding Pony, who had been donated to her program because he had had…

I had some excitement riding this week.

Wednesday stuff was a bit disorganized at the barn, Debbie had gotten stuck in traffic and would be a few minutes late.  One of her teenage students kindly got, groomed and tacked up Mick for me, and this wonderful girl came out to the ring with me, helped me mount and hung around watching me until Debbie got there.  Mick was pretty stiff, so I just walked around for the first 15 minutes, some circles, some one or two loop…

Off of Merlin, that is.  Obviously I eventually got down, but this is a problem from my Multiple sclerosis that I’ve not run into since I was diagnosed.

From long before I was diagnosed, I had started sort of vaulting out of the saddle when I wanted to get off.  I had no problems with this method until, several months ago when I got hung up by the cantle trying to vault off Mick the first time I rode him.  So I started practicing getting off the normal way since I had…