Back in the saddl-no wait.

Riding Flash on a gorgeous September day

"Flash, Flash, 'hundred yard dash!" In the above photo you may notice that my legs aren't hanging down very far even though I'm riding a pony and I'm fairly tall.  That's because Flash is er, very well padded.  (so are my legs for that matter, so that's not helping matters any)  Flash is the go-to beginner/assessing skill level lesson horse.  Since he was ridden (and won shows) in English and Western, he knows it all.  Now, whether or not he wants to DO it all is up to his mood and the skill of the rider.  

Mounting up after having some nasty past experiences had me standing on the mounting block with a black hole in my stomach.  For me at least, the moment just before mounting is the worst.  Oddly enough, I've never really had a bad experience with a horse acting up when I was getting on, (well, no worse than walking off, which I really hate but I'm not particularly anxious about) but there I am, internally freaking out about hopping on a practically snoozing pony.  

Another ironic thing is that I'm FINE when a horse is acting naughty under saddle for certain things, which I'll get into more with Goblin later.  In any case, Flash was an excellent way to get back into riding since he absolutely had more "woah" than "go", but wasn't a complete jerk about taking advantage of you if you didn't know what you were doing (great for T., since she was pretty much just starting out with riding) and he only got really frustrating when we had gotten comfortable enough to want to push ourselves into more advanced moves.  Plus, having just one mount and two riders meant that Flash would start getting really sick of our shit and the second rider would definitely suffer for his lack of enthusiasm. That brings up his other nickname, "the thighmaster" since you had to constantly squeeeeeze to keep him moving, especially if there was some tasty grass growing on the edge of the arena.  Or if he felt like saying hello to C. in the middle of the arena.  Still, he was a good for both me and T., and good to get us back into riding fit.

Starting up (again)

So I mentioned in my first post that I'm a re-rider.  What that means is way back when, I used to ride as much as I could and absorbed everything thrown at me, then had a long period of no riding where I lost all that tone and muscle memory.  I had a few periods of getting back into riding, but was doing another hiatus when my friend T. found a lady who gives lessons.  She invited us out to check out the barn before jumping into lessons (point in her favor).  T. had no formal lessons and in fact only rode a few times, but her dream was horseback archery and I couldn't really say no to that.  T. wanted me to come along to the barn since I had more experience and could spot any red flags.

We pull up to a barn that has a house on the property, geese, chickens, dogs, ducks, and guinea fowl.  Good de-spooking material, there.  Unfortunately, when we get out we see C, the trainer, leading a filly with a huge gash going from her chest to her shoulder.  Apparently she found her in the paddock with no signs of how she managed to do that.  T, being a nursing assistant, and myself, with no qualms about blood/gore, watched while the vet cleaned the filly up and stitched her wound.  Fortunately no muscle was damaged and it was located in a good spot to drain.  It was good to see that C. had a good attitude in an emergency. 

We do take a look around the barn and I like what I see.  Large paddocks for the horses to move around on, no halters left on them, plenty of shelter and rolling terrain to get exercise.  Also some cows in another paddock, so there's even more things for a horse to get used to.  They have a variety of breeds, from appy ponies to fancy warmbloods.  We find out that C. used to rescue racehorses, give them time off and then train them up to find homes until the price suddenly skyrocketed on them once breeders/resellers figured out they could get more money from people who wanted to help keep racehorses out of killbuyer's hands.

We meet Flash, the beginning lesson pony who is a rather rotund Appaloosa gelding.  He was C.'s show pony and was the "been there, done that" go-to guy for beginners and assessing skill.  Since Flash knew everything and was lazy as hell, he was great for beginners and re-riders like myself who needed a kick in the butt on getting back some riding muscle.  More on that later...

Let's see how this goes...

This is a common theme for me.  I ride horses, which means there's an element of unpredictability.  Each time I go for a ride, in general I expect certain things to happen, but the specifics are fluid.  When introducing something new to myself or the horse, I add in an extra amount of "who knows?" as to how things will go, which is probably part of why I don't get too upset when things go sideways.

A little about me-

I'm an adult re-rider.  When I was a teen I took lessons in western pleasure and trail, with a smattering of english thrown in.  I had a pretty good foundation slapped onto me, and was a good enough rider that I was eventually moved on to the more problematic horses, like the overweight mare that was brought in that no saddle would fit, or the mare who had been "cowboyed" by a couple of yahoos that only went at the "haul ass" speed, and in only one direction.

Then came college, and the long hiatus from horses.  Eventually I managed to get a few lessons in, and leased a horse for a short time.  Then it happened...My first bad fall from a mare that I was exercising.  I was using a just purchased used english saddle that the owners of the mare had bought, and none of us realized that the stirrup leather was dry rotted.  Posting at the trot, the leather snapped and I end up on the ground faster than I could react, startling the poor mare who was quite confused as to why I was not on her anymore.  It was winter and the indoor arena dirt was frozen, so landing on my hip gave me some long-term issues.  (Did you know that when muscle gets hit really hard, it can bind up to itself?  I didn't, and had a very unfun time with a chiropractor getting that somewhat worked out)  Add onto that a bad trail ride where I ended up bucked off a horse I didn't know bucked when asked to canter (and the "trainer" neglected to inform me of that fun fact) and another fall from a mare I was leasing due to a bad saddle fit, and I got pretty anxious about riding.  I no longer had the glue like seat from when I first started, and wasn't as fit as I used to be.  I still had that core of knowledge, and could manage even a rank horse on the ground, but would feel sick to my gut at the prospect of mounting up.

Another break in riding due to circumstances changing, and I pick up a new love...Archery.  I'm an instinctive shooter, which means that I don't faff around with sights and such, I just look at my target, adjust a bit, and shoot.  I have a pair of fiberglass recurve bows and a couple of bows (currently in repair) from Hungary.  Between archery and a weekly exercise class, I started getting back in shape.  Add in riding lessons that my friend T managed to find for us, and I'm starting to finally feel good about riding again.  I helped that we were started off on "Flash", the appy pony that inspired the bit of doggerel "Flash, Flash, hundred-yard dash!" for his distinctly un-speedy ways.  ;)

 For almost a year now I've been riding a Pintaloosa mare, Goblin, who has her own quirks, including being deaf.  We introduced our mounts to archery with pretty good results, but decided that more training with consistent movement is called for.  T rides Josie, Goblin's mother, who has a lot of nervous energy and will speed up into a jackhammer trot if she doesn't know what to do.  Goblin has the opposite issue, and will slam on the breaks when given half a chance when she's in the mood.  Neither of these are conductive to a good time with archery, and neither is the endless winter we're going through for that matter.

So now we're current.  I'm still a big chicken at times, and still kinda out of shape (especially without getting my weekly ride in, or better yet multiple rides a week), not shooting or riding as much as I want, and have all sorts of ideas for where I want to go.  So let's see how this goes.