Christmas Books

I did not get to ride this week. Part of the reason is that I am being super cautious about the Covid-19 pandemic, and the other reason is that, for once, winter came to NC just after the Winter Solstice. It is 20º F here right now at 9:30 AM. No snow, just bitter cold.…

I Miss Riding

The COVID-19 shut down now looks like it may last for months, not weeks. I want to get close up to a horse to groom, I want to get close up to a horse by riding, and I want to get close to a horse by taking care of it after riding, but, alas, fate is dictating otherwise.

This is a true bummer!…

Trying to Bring it All Together

The past few months have been a time of discovery for me, discovering just how badly my multiple handicaps affect my position, seat and aids when I ride horses. Between my Pegasus Butterfly saddle, the “rider's push-ups”, the Equicube getting my shoulders right, the Rainbow reins, and the old type Wellep snaffle bit, I discovered how abysmal my riding was and,…

I Put My Feet “Home” in the Stirrups

I find that trying to do the “rider's push-ups” is quite challenging for me. Until my lesson on Wednesday EVERY TIME I did a “rider's push-up” I felt like I was teetering forward and back in my stirrups, my right stirrup still felt 2 holes longer than my left stirrup, and I had a great fear of falling head long over my horse's shoulder. In order to get my…

Is My Right Leg Shorter Than My Left Leg?    

Last Sunday, for my ride on Cider using my new Pegasus Butterfly saddle, I added both the ¼” and 3/16” bridging shims to my Contender II BOT/ThinLine pad.  This made the pad thicker, which meant Shannon had trouble getting Cider’s string girth to the bottom hole of the billet straps.  If we had used any girth but a mohair string girth we would have been in real trouble, but since the string girth has some stretch to it Shannon finally got…