It was a rather nice summer day when I came out for my lesson on Wednesday. I was really appreciating the wind helping me cool off since the technical fabrics work so much better when there is a breeze. Debbie and I groomed and tacked Tercel up, and Tercel let me brush his ears out more, he did not enjoy it (sour look on his face) but he did not put up too much of a protest. Tercel even was good as Debbie led him out to the riding ring, tightened his girth, and led him to the mounting block. I got on and started walking.

THEN Tercel noticed the wind. Up went his head, I stopped him to let him look around so he could see that nothing was creeping up on him. I sent him into a walk again, concentrating on keeping my contact nice and even. I could FEEL him under me, tense and ready to react to any horse eating monsters that may appear. He was looking for wolves, he was looking for lions, he was looking for hyenas, and I think he was looking for any stray Tyrannosaurus Rex that might drop in from 65 million years ago just to eat Tercel. He was pretty good, he stopped when I twitched my little fingers a few times and he consented to stay in a halt until I told him to move on. Luckily my pair of the Dy’on blinkers had come in and I had put them on my bridle so he was not worried about what was behind him, but to the front and to the side? Danger, hungry carnivores, carnivores who specifically wanted to eat Tercel, were hiding all around him. I did not relax much on Wednesday!

Finally it got too much for him. I was passing the dreaded judges stand when something moved in front of him and he startled and started to run off. I stopped him, and then walked again concentrating on big curves around the jumps, changing directions and his whole body flexion, asking him to keep his head down and his nose out front. He did not startle again, but I was getting very tired since I could not relax my position. Head up, heels down, frictional grip with my upper calf, and keeping my full attention on Tercel so he would not catch me off guard, no comfortable slouching in the saddle for me on Wednesday! After a few more soft halts I asked Debbie to ride him since was worried that if I kept riding him something would set him off again and I would have to ride even longer so he would not come to the conclusion that all he has to do is startle and spook and then his rider gets off. We had both noticed earlier that at 20 minutes into a lesson that Tercel thinks he has done enough and is ready to quit, so we are keeping him working the full thirty minutes of my lesson. I got off, gave Debbie my helmet, and then I watched her ride him around the ring. He did not relax under her either, always looking around for that stray dinosaur, but at least there weren’t any more spooks and Debbie got to stop riding him at the right time, in reward for doing something correctly.

I do not know if I have gotten Tercel resigned enough to having his ears handled to put ear plugs into them. I have read that there are ear bonnets that have some soundproofing, but I have not found where I can buy anything like that yet. I did put the regular ear bonnet on Tercel and it did not seem to help at all. The sound of the wind just seemed to get Tercel super alert for danger. Everything around him was peaceful, the ducks were happily swimming around the pond, the heron did not show up, the dogs were not running around, and the cows were peacefully eating their grass. The only thing that could have aroused him was the wind, and Tercel was READY to bolt from any danger. I am very glad I had the blinkers on the bridle so Tercel was not worried about something appearing behind him. Without the blinkers I think I would have had a very exciting ride instead of just a mildly exciting ride. Horses. Debbie decided that she needed to ride Tercel when she was giving her lessons that afternoon, so I lent her my Stubben Siegfried and Corrector pad so she could ride in a hunt seat saddle during the lesson.

On Wednesday Debbie told me that she thought Mia had improved enough so I could start riding her again, since Debbie was going to ride Tercel at the same time and she could evaluate Mia’s condition. So on Friday I brought out my favorite saddle, my 36 year old 17” Crosby Wide Front that, unfortunately, is not really that wide, and my smaller Corrector pad with two shims in the back pocket of the pad (to make the saddle more level for me.) I had not ridden Mia for seven long weeks, so I told Debbie I was going to just walk for the first four rides. I started walking her around and Mia coughed some, little “surface coughs”, not the deep wracking coughs she had seven weeks ago. During my ride I got around 5 surface coughs, and then she stopped coughing. At first Mia was up on her toes, excited to be in the ring again and ready to express her opinions of anything that had changed in the last seven weeks, so at the far end of the ring I stopped her and let her look around. Then Mia settled down and we just walked around the ring and around the jumps as I practiced my two-point and then relaxed back into the saddle. Luckily I had already introduced Mia to the blinkers when I first got them so she was not worried by them (that is the bridle I use on Tercel and those blinkers are going to stay on it!) I even got Mia to lengthen her stride some but I did not ask for much, she is around 30 years old and horses that old need to be brought back into fitness gradually after a vacation. After around 25 minutes Mia indicated that she was starting to get tired so I got off, really happy that I got to ride her again! If I had to I could ride Tilly when my MS gets worse, but Tilly’s natural walk is around 1 ½ to 2 MPH unless I use a LOT of leg, while Mia’s natural walk is around 3 MPH and I don‘t have to use my legs that much to get her to go faster. I much prefer riding Mia!

As I watched Debbie ride Tercel around at a walk she told me that she did ride him during her lessons Wednesday afternoon and that he did pretty well. She told me that she was going to ride him on the St. Jude’s ride she runs, so I lent her my Stubben over the weekend. She has a Western saddle that fits him, but like me, Debbie finds jumping saddles to be the most secure, especially since she does not have to worry about the saddle horn getting in her way.

Today I rode Cider, and my ride on Mia must have straightened my seat out because Cider was not imitating a pretzel today. At first a swarm of little black biting flies were bothering her so she wanted to trot. After three trots and me using my fly whisk a good bit the flies seemed to stop bothering her as much. Before the trots Cider refused to keep contact since she wanted her head free to deal with the flies biting her breast and upper legs. After the trots she was more willing to keep contact at the walk. I did not notice the time go by, and Cider started “telling” me it was time to quit when my 30 minutes were up. I asked her to continue on and I rode around the ring a few minutes until I looked at my watch and realized my time was up. Cider has an extremely accurate clock in her head. Just like with Mia, I do not have to be on high alert every second I’m riding Cider so two out of my three rides this week were not very tiring, otherwise I would not be writing my blog today since I would be sleeping.

Have a great ride!
Jackie Cochran