I did not get to ride Cider last week, it rained.

So on Tuesday I called up Debbie to see who I would be riding for my lesson on Wednesday, and I found out she was still up at her mother’s and I would not get my lesson.  At least I found out before I got to the stable with the wrong tack.

I just got to ride Mia this week.  Luckily both rides were with ideal spring weather, sort of cool in the mornings (upper 40’s F), sunny, and rapidly warming.   On…

During my two rides this week I worked on my gripping muscles. Of course, before I work on my gripping muscles, I have to make sure that I do not end up squeezing myself out of the saddle. Concentrating on keeping my heels and my knees down, I did succeed at practicing gripping with my calf without ruining the basic security of my seat.

Sunday was a marvelous day to ride Cider, my only complication is that I accidentally took Mia‘s bridle (with the Wellep bit)…

Last Sunday was a marvelous Spring day—no gnats, sunny, warm, with a delightful breeze, and  Shannon's grass…

Last week was sort of frustrating.  When I called Shannon to ride on Sunday she told me that she and her husband had to finish a job, and since they run their own business I understood, small businesses depend on their reputations.  Good ones get the job done.  Then Debbie called me Tuesday to tell me I could not have my lesson because they were going to give all their horses their spring shots Wednesday morning.  Well, the small Dy’on blinkers I had ordered came quickly and…

Last Sunday, when I was talking to Shannon about my latest problems with riding Tercel, I asked her if she had seen racing blinker hoods for sale nearby.  She hadn’t, but then she remembered that she had an old “made up” driving bridle with blinkers that she had used for training ground driving with a horse she had sold many years ago.  Shannon dug it out of her tack room,…

Spring is here!  The Bradford Pears and Forsythia are blooming, and I can see the leaf buds are starting to swell.  I hope it lasts for a while.

I did not have a very pleasant ride on Tercel.  Grooming him was fine, I had almost no problems brushing his ears or putting the poll cap on.    He was a little antsy when I started my lesson but we walked around the ring and he was not horrible--UNTIL--a rude duck flapped its wings just after we passed it.  All of a sudden…

I rode all three horses this week.  That was good.  But losing an hour of sleep last weekend has made my mobility slightly worse, something that happens to me each Spring time change. 

Cider had obviously enjoyed her three week vacation.  Through the years I’ve ridden her I’ve noticed if Cider got an extended time off I essentially have to retrain her--this means halt, this means turn, this means back up, etc..  Now I know that it takes only three weeks for her to…

The last time I rode was three weeks ago.  The last time I rode Tercel was four weeks ago, though Debbie did ride him three weeks ago.  Today was the first day I could ride in weeks, Debbie’s ring was not too wet, it was above freezing, and it was only misting this morning.  A good day to ride!

When we got out to the barn Debbie had not yet turned out Mia, just in case I felt like I needed to ride her since I had been out of the saddle so long.  I guess she…

Wednesday was a nice sunny day, and more importantly for a quiet ride on Tercel, there was no wind.  When I got to the stable Debbie asked if I wanted to ride her wild man, I shrugged and said “Sure!”  So she went out to get Tercel while I brushed off the saddle pad and girth.  Several minutes later she came in riding him bareback with the lead rope tied make reins with the tale of how Tercel had moved to the remotest part of the paddock when he saw her, instead of coming toward…

It was cold on Wednesday morning, so cold that Debbie called me up to make sure I was coming.  It was down to 25° F, and a light breeze was blowing.  I told her it would really help me to ride since I was not able to ride either Friday or Sunday and my walking was getting worse, but if it was too cold for her it was fine, I could ride on Friday.  She told me to come on out.

When I got out to the stable the ground was frozen hard.  I…

Let me put it this way, I do not think I will have to “train” Tercel to elevate his forehand.

Nothing bad happened, I had a good ride.  But when I got to the stable Debbie was upset from seeing a medical treatment of her mother-in-law.  Fortunately the lady recovered, but she is very old and frail.  Debbie’s husband, as is proper, is at his mother’s side and everyone else has more work mucking, feeding, watering, and turn out, and everyone at the stable is sort of…

First the not so good news.  Mick’s owner changed stables and took Mick with her, so I am no longer riding Mick.

This week I started riding Debbie’s horse Tercel, a dark bay or brown Arab gelding, I think he is in his low teens.  Debbie got this horse a few months after I started riding Mia (around seven years ago), and I’ve been wanting to ride him ever since.  Debbie got him to be HER horse, she had trained him to saddle but his breeder/owner was not mentally…

I apologize to my readers for my lack of production this year, I just get so tired and discouraged that I can’t seem to write. 

At least I kept riding last year, and that seemed to take up all my extra energy.  I even made progress with my riding, Cider no longer reminds me of a pretzel as we walk and trot around Shannon’s small ring.  Thanks to Cider’s refusal to accept anything less than perfection, my body finally seems to have figured out how to keep centered in my…

Since I had noticed that Mick’s back felt better when I used a bit versus using a cross-under bitless bridle I decided to see if I could get him to move his tongue more while being ridden.  I had three choices from my bit collection, my egg-butt center copper roller snaffle, my regular Wellep bit and the Wellep Lever cheek bit that acts like a gag bit (these bits are no longer made, you can see them at wellep.com.)  Since I think…

Last week I offered Debbie the chance to see if my old German made dressage saddle would work for her Arab gelding Tercel.  This is an old calf-skin covered saddle I had found in pitiful condition in my feed store almost ten years ago.  It obviously had been ridden by someone in jeans (the leather jockeys covering the stirrup buckles were sadly worn,) and the saddle had obviously not been stored right because there were wrinkles in the calf-skin on the flaps, luckily not…

Mia, the nearly 30 year old Arab mare I ride, seems to be going through various issues as she ages.  Bits that used to be fully accepted start bothering her and she always lets me know in a few weeks if she wants me to change then.

Mia, in the past, has not particularly liked bitless bridles (old jumping caveson bridle, LG bitless, Nurtural cross-under bitless, Dr. Cook’s cross under…

Debbie, my wonderful riding teacher and manager of a big stable (38 horses or so) has a dream of doing long distance riding.  She has her horse, Tercel, an Arabian gelding, but since he is an Arab it can be difficult to find a saddle that FITS him.  If you are going to ride a horse long distances, a well fitting saddle is essential if you want a sound, usable horse at the end of the ride.  She already bought one saddle that ended up not really fitting Debbie or Tercel, and…

I have been thinking about writing this ever since I first ran into the idea that it is ALWAYS wrong to allow the horse to enter your space, an idea I found mostly in the modern aspects of Western horsemanship.  This seems to be tied into the idea of teaching the horse to “respect” the human.

All through the 44 years I’ve handled horses I have reacted strongly to any horse that rudely and suddenly invades my personal space.  My reactions range a sudden harsh scolding…

Well, I seem to have survived the summer heat.  It has been a challenge living without air-conditioning but I got a wonderful surprise, this summer I had a LOT more endurance when riding in the heat.  My youngest son, who has a BS in Biochemistry, told me that organisms have a mechanism when it is hot that protects the body’s proteins, and when the weather turns cold (or if a person is in air-conditioning a lot) the body stops doing this particular protective…

The heat has definitely arrived here in NC, not full summer heat and humidity yet but it has been a challenge living without air-conditioning.  Bless the person who invented the electric fan!  I have managed to stay cool enough so I am staying stable physically with my MS, but my memory is not as good as it is during cooler weather.

So Wednesday I forgot to do my final check-off of all the stuff I take to my riding lesson and forgot my Corrector pad.  If my saddle…