Well, two weeks ago I got to have a lesson at the present incarnation of my old horsie alma-mater, North Fork School of Equitation up in Jefferson, MD. I got there early, and got to see Karen Fenwick, who runs the school, give a group lesson. This was interesting, it was a pretty big lesson, 12 people, from college age kids to a lady who looked like she was in her sixties, with physical shapes running from thin and sleek to quite plump. There was even a MALE…

I am now faced with a minor problem with my riding. I am finally at a point that I can consider riding at an intermediate level more when I ride with my riding teacher, Debbie. It has taken me 3 YEARS to get to this point, because I have had to grow new neurons to replace those taken by the MS. Due to Debbie's wonderful teaching I now have a pretty stable lower leg, my knees are often in the right place, my shoulders are working properly, and I've even managed to…

The end of summer, and the beginning of fall. Beautiful cool mornings that turn into blast furnace afternoons. This time of year can be difficult for me while riding, the cooler morning temperatures mean it is too cold to wear my ice vest, but as my core body temperature rises during my ride the outside temperature is also rising. This means at the beginning of my rides my body works pretty well, but during the ride my nervous system deteriorates, and the horses…

This morning's weather was marvelous, just in the 60's F when I rode. No ice vest, no Cool Cap. It felt odd.

After my last ride on Cider two weeks ago I put a lot of thought into how I could improve things. The first thing I did was change from the Wellep Lever Cheek single jointed snaffle to the regular Wellep Full Cheek single jointed…

I got to ride Mia twice this week, but, since Debbie wrenched her back badly, I didn't get a riding lesson. So I worked on things in my position that Debbie had been getting after me about, mostly making sure that my lower leg did not go too far back. Debbie DOES NOT like seeing the whole girth when I am riding, she wants my lower leg right…

Last Sunday's ride on Cider did not go very well. I have been trying the Wellep Lever Cheek snaffle on her, seeing if I could use the bit while my hands deteriorated in the heat. At first everything went well, I used the bit through two stretches of 18 days of highs over 90 F and on Sunday we were into the third extended stretch of heat and high humidity. Two weeks ago I noticed that Cider was not reacting as well to the bit. On Sunday she lost all patience with…

Captain Federico Caprilli of the Italian Cavalry, the originator of the modern jumping seat, left very few writings, just around 22 pages, that introduce us to the thinking of this revolutionary equestrian thinker. It is very easy to read these articles quickly and to sit back and go--oh yes, I know all that, but I find that deeper study has wonderful rewards. All the quotes in…

This week Debbie was gone to some big show, so I had to ride by myself Wednesday. Waking up vaguely nauseous I got to the barn, groomed and tacked Mia, and with my husband's help got to the arena. Remembering my thoughts about last week's ride, we started off at a gentle walk, with SOFT contact, following every move of Mia's head. Mia rewarded me with a good walk, moving right on out with minimal use of my legs. Then two flocks of ducks started sparing in the…

Lulled by previous successes, I started to make a serious mistake last week when riding Mia at Debbie's last week.

As you know, I have been doing an experiment this summer, seeing how long it will take for the two ladies I ride with to tell me that my hands have gotten too bad for a bit. Part of the reason is that I wanted to see for myself if the Wellep bit is truly an advance in bit technology or just another gimmick.…

It has been SOOOO hot and humid this week. One of the few good aspects of my MS is that when it is hot I am guaranteed not to work the horses too hard for the weather conditions. I can't do much more than walk with an occasional short trot. This weather is not good for vigorous athletic pursuits, and with the pollution it isn't good for the lungs to do deep breathing, for both horse and rider.

I have been working on keeping a…

Summer is hard for most people with MS. The heat reduces the effectiveness of my nerves, and when it is really humid then my body can't cool down and my core body temperature just goes up and up. Since my ice vest was causing days long muscle cramps I switched to the system that works by evaporation, but since the humidity is so high the cool vest does not evaporate very well and I just get hotter and hotter.

I…

This has been a horrible week for riding down here in sunny NC. Temperatures up to 101 F (ca. 38 C), high humidity, and all the smog from the big Northern cities flowing down to make the air a blackish yellow soup. Definitely walking weather. Why wear out the lungs?

When I first started riding Mia she was a timid mare, and she shied gently at the most inconsequential things, both in and out of the ring. I knew that part of the…

Forty years ago today I got my first horse. My father had inherited a little money from his mother, and decided that I needed a horse, finally. We had trail ridden in South America for four years while I was in grade school, I did not learn much about how to ride properly back then, just posting and using the reins clumsily to turn and stop. I never stopped hanging onto the pommel when cantering. Of course I thought I knew how to ride until I started reading…

A year or so back I was searching the Web for unusual horsie sites and I ran into horsetrainingresources.com, run by Charlie Hicks. Though most of the stuff on this site is for the Western rider (reining emphasis) and is based on older American horse training, I signed up for his e-mails since I am willing to learn from any source. I am VERY GLAD I did so.…

I just got to ride once this week, and I am having to get used to getting up a half-hour earlier so I can escape the worst effects of the heat. It isn't too easy for me to change what I do, and getting up earlier is among the things that I find hard to adjust too, but anything to escape the heat.

My ride went pretty well, Mia seems to like the Wellep bit fine, even with my hands deteriorating in the heat. No contact or light…

Today Shannon asked me to come out early, 8:00 AM because today it is HOT and HUMID. I am so glad she did as it was in the upper 70's F when I got to the farm. Later on today it will be in the mid 90's F, and the humidity is about 90%. A real North Carolina summer. At least we are getting rain this year, lovely thunderstorms that have driven away the danger of going back into our years long drought.

I had gotten the Wellep…

This week I got to try the Wellep single jointed snaffle bit on Mia. I brought both Mia's bridle with the JP Dr. Bristol and the bridle I used on Cider last week with the Wellep bit so that Debbie could make a choice. After listening to how Cider reacted to the bit Debbie decided it would be worthwhile to try the Wellep bit on Mia. Debbie had a little trouble getting the bit into her mouth, Mia saw it and did not know what to think of it, just that it was a…

The first part of this month I read Elwyn Hartley Edwards "Complete Book of Bits and Bitting". On page 50 I read about a bit I had never seen or read about before, the Wellep bit. Mr. Edwards called it the first new method of making bits since 400 BC. I was intrigued, I am always looking for stuff that makes the horses I ride more comfortable and for bits that help make up for the limitations of my hands. Going to the web I found the site…

An absolutely wonderful thing happened on Wednesday when I rode Mia.

After our usual warm-up of two speeds of the walk and threading our way between and around the jumps I prepared for a trot, shortening the reins, getting my heels down, and then I politely asked Mia to trot. To my utter amazement, Mia trotted off the first time I asked her to! After 18 months of urge, urge, urge before she would shuffle off in a slow trot, she…

Ah, summer is coming, and this week we got a foretaste of what is coming in a month or so. It has been so muggy that in the morning it almost looks like it is raining, and the heat just adds to the misery. This weather is not doing my MS symptoms much good, my left hand started to drop things and my fingers started working against each other instead of cooperating. I was sort of worried about riding in the heat (I go through this each year), but once I got up on…