E and I were able to make a trip out to Black Walnut Farm on Wednesday. It's only about 12 minutes from the house, and is on one of my most favorite streets in town. The property is surrounded by wheat fields and rolling hills that lead up to open land. Very pretty.
The owner, Anna, invited us to watch a lesson and then gave us a tour of the facility. She has one boarder leaving and consequently would have space for us. It was wonderful to watch her work with a girl a bit younger than E; she was patient and kind, and not a minute of the lesson was wasted. Even during warm up/cool down she asked questions about tack and animal.
Her boarders have access to a "break room" complete with bathroom, fridge and lockers. There is an indoor tack room as well. Everyone is allowed to use both the indoor and the outdoor arena. Horses are given a 12x12 stall with bedding and have daily turnout into small individual fields. Board includes feed (grain too), daily mucking and daily hoof picking. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? Unfortunately, the price is 5 times what we are currently paying - and consequently too much for my budget. We would probably be okay if we had only one horse, but with another in the works, it's just out of our reach.
E and I do plan to take lessons, however. We both really liked Anna and think we could learn from her. Her focus is English, which would be a big change for E. But I know that I would like to learn to ride both Western and English and E has expressed an interest in English as well.
E's first lesson is scheduled for next Thursday. We will bring Curly out and since we don't own an English saddle, E will ride Western. Anna would like to see what E knows and perhaps offer some suggestions for improving both her riding and her horse's training. It turns out that although Anna is considered an English instructor these days, she began her riding in Western saddles and didn't learn the second discipline until she was an adult. Anna said we could also borrow an English saddle to try on Curly - who knows, maybe he'll like it!
Friday, March 27, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Morning thoughts
Just a super quick post this morning - it's already time to get the girls up to start the day....
I've been thinking lately about what I want to do with riding, other than chaperone E on trail rides. Without actually having ever tried it, I wonder if dressage would suit. The control and precision appeal to me at some level. And I know that the speedy pursuits of Western gaming and rodeo DON"T appeal. :-) Neither does jumping - those people are insane too!
Anyway, I'll be calling a local riding instructor who specializes in English forms of horsemanship today. I'm actually kind of nervous to expose my beginner self to another rider! So silly....
I've been thinking lately about what I want to do with riding, other than chaperone E on trail rides. Without actually having ever tried it, I wonder if dressage would suit. The control and precision appeal to me at some level. And I know that the speedy pursuits of Western gaming and rodeo DON"T appeal. :-) Neither does jumping - those people are insane too!
Anyway, I'll be calling a local riding instructor who specializes in English forms of horsemanship today. I'm actually kind of nervous to expose my beginner self to another rider! So silly....
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Mounted Orienteering
(The following post is being written by dear daughter E!)
The day started with mom waking me up at 4:30 a.m. - it was horrible. I hate getting up early. We got all our stuff together, went out to the barn and brushed Curly. My friend's mom picked us up at 6:00 and it was supposed to be a long hour and a half truck ride to the trail site. We made a couple of wrong turns but got there by 8:15.
There were a lot less people than I expected - only 5 trailers or so. We got our horses saddled up and started riding off to find plate number 10 first. In orienteering they give you 3 clues (like "320 degrees west from the culvert") and we would have to put our compasses on that and walk a straight line. The lines from the 3 clues would cross and that is where the plate would be. On the plate there were 2 words like "swift antelope" and we would have to put the first word from the plate on our map to prove that we actually found the plate.
Number 10 was in a little valley and was pretty easy to find - mostly because I didn't find it! Curly was kinda antsy and wanted to go faster than I wanted him to. The next few plates were a little harder to find. One was inside a tractor, another was taped on a water tower and one was hidden behind a post. By that time Curly had calmed down mostly. It was really rocky and there were a lot of badger holes we had to look out for. Curly actually stepped in two in a row. It was also very hilly - I'm now sore from having to lean in the saddle as we went up and down them.
It started raining when we were looking for plate number 2. It was a really deep valley and the plate was down at the very bottom of it. The trail started to get muddy. Then on one side, the valley had a sheer drop, covered in rocks, about 50 feet, and the other side was too steep to climb. So we had to do down this trail that wasn't much wider than our horses. Then the trail just stopped suddenly in front of us on a cliff. I was really scared at this point. I kept thinking about how bad it hurt when Curly fell on me.
So then everyone decided we should get to the top of the ridge. I had to lead Curly up it. He was drenched in sweat and tired. All the horses were, actually. We got to the top and decided it was too wet and cold to finish the last 3 plates. We were the last ones back to camp and we had been riding for over 5 hours.
Then we found out that we didn't have to go all over those valleys and ridges and stuff. It would have been easier if we had come back to camp and gone around from the beginning of the trail. Oh well. It was still really fun. I found out later that this was one of the hardest and longest rides of the year.
I really want to do orienteering again. Next ride is in May at Bennington Lake. Should be much easier.
Mom back in: Sure hope we have a second horse by then 'cause I really want to try this sport out. :-)
The day started with mom waking me up at 4:30 a.m. - it was horrible. I hate getting up early. We got all our stuff together, went out to the barn and brushed Curly. My friend's mom picked us up at 6:00 and it was supposed to be a long hour and a half truck ride to the trail site. We made a couple of wrong turns but got there by 8:15.
There were a lot less people than I expected - only 5 trailers or so. We got our horses saddled up and started riding off to find plate number 10 first. In orienteering they give you 3 clues (like "320 degrees west from the culvert") and we would have to put our compasses on that and walk a straight line. The lines from the 3 clues would cross and that is where the plate would be. On the plate there were 2 words like "swift antelope" and we would have to put the first word from the plate on our map to prove that we actually found the plate.
Number 10 was in a little valley and was pretty easy to find - mostly because I didn't find it! Curly was kinda antsy and wanted to go faster than I wanted him to. The next few plates were a little harder to find. One was inside a tractor, another was taped on a water tower and one was hidden behind a post. By that time Curly had calmed down mostly. It was really rocky and there were a lot of badger holes we had to look out for. Curly actually stepped in two in a row. It was also very hilly - I'm now sore from having to lean in the saddle as we went up and down them.
It started raining when we were looking for plate number 2. It was a really deep valley and the plate was down at the very bottom of it. The trail started to get muddy. Then on one side, the valley had a sheer drop, covered in rocks, about 50 feet, and the other side was too steep to climb. So we had to do down this trail that wasn't much wider than our horses. Then the trail just stopped suddenly in front of us on a cliff. I was really scared at this point. I kept thinking about how bad it hurt when Curly fell on me.
So then everyone decided we should get to the top of the ridge. I had to lead Curly up it. He was drenched in sweat and tired. All the horses were, actually. We got to the top and decided it was too wet and cold to finish the last 3 plates. We were the last ones back to camp and we had been riding for over 5 hours.
Then we found out that we didn't have to go all over those valleys and ridges and stuff. It would have been easier if we had come back to camp and gone around from the beginning of the trail. Oh well. It was still really fun. I found out later that this was one of the hardest and longest rides of the year.
I really want to do orienteering again. Next ride is in May at Bennington Lake. Should be much easier.
Mom back in: Sure hope we have a second horse by then 'cause I really want to try this sport out. :-)
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