Yesterday I finally got a chance to ride Q. It's been many weeks since I've had the opportunity - seems like a child always decide to ride whenever I'd like to...and being "mom" I always let them have the horse.
But not yesterday. I borrowed a saddle from a friend and hopped on his back, with the thought in the back of my mind that today might be the day I finally lope. There were five other riders in the arena, all more accomplished than I. As our trainer called out directions for us, I attempted to follow along - and could do most things, except for the special turns and side passing. When she called out for everyone to lope, however, I chickened out. Q, who had been trying to be at the front of the pack the whole lesson, saw his buddies start to speed up and decided he wanted to do that too, even though I had not asked for a lope. I shut him down within a stride or two - and he wasn't happy about that and gave a little buck. As he started to hop around, I immediately grabbed the saddle horn....and then remembered that I had to pull back on the reins to stop him.
When the trainer had me get off to check his saddle (and to give him a little attitude adjustment) I discovered that my legs were very shaky. It's scary when the horse decides to take a little nutty! But I got back on....and then kept him to a walk for the rest of the lesson.
I know, I'm a great big chicken!
But it was fun, none the less.
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