E ended her 4-H ride last night sobbing in the tack room of our horse trailer. Monte spooked as a few too many riders (in his mind) came up on him, and although she stayed on, she didn't get him to stop immediately. (She'll have to practice quick stops in the near future.) We already knew this was an issue for him, but I think her tears stemmed from frustration, some fear and some feelings that had been building throughout the night.
Not being a perfect rider on the perfect horse, mistakes were made by both E and Monte. These were pointed out to her frequently and after a while, she felt like she was under a microscope, with every move being analyzed. And she didn't feel that all the riders in the arena were receiving such scrutiny.
Made my heart break to see her so upset.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Nervous Nellie
It's been a month since I've been on the back of a horse so E and I took a quick trip out to the barn today so I could ride. As we progressed in the tacking-up process, I became more and more nervous about climbing on - which kind of surprised me. But I made myself go ahead anyway. It helped my confidence a little that he performed well in the round pen prior to saddling up.
Once we started, I kept Curly to a walk, which he then frequently tried to turn into a stop. He was not minding my (admittedly often imprecise) cues and made me work at steering him. But I persevered and ended up where I wanted the majority of the time. I could see that I need to work on being more consistent. I found it hard to keep all the things I needed to do in my head. Riding is hard!
I was happy that he didn't try to catch up to Monte or try to break into a trot when E and her horse passed by at a faster speed. Of course, I should have known he'd stick to his walk; it's not exactly like he enjoys going fast or doing arena work in general.
Curly was sweaty when we finished but I think the heat of the day had more to do with that rather than the intensity of our riding session. :-)
At the end of the short ride (25 minutes), I was still nervous but I had shown myself that I could do it....and that I wouldn't necessarily fall off. Overall, a success.
Once we started, I kept Curly to a walk, which he then frequently tried to turn into a stop. He was not minding my (admittedly often imprecise) cues and made me work at steering him. But I persevered and ended up where I wanted the majority of the time. I could see that I need to work on being more consistent. I found it hard to keep all the things I needed to do in my head. Riding is hard!
I was happy that he didn't try to catch up to Monte or try to break into a trot when E and her horse passed by at a faster speed. Of course, I should have known he'd stick to his walk; it's not exactly like he enjoys going fast or doing arena work in general.
Curly was sweaty when we finished but I think the heat of the day had more to do with that rather than the intensity of our riding session. :-)
At the end of the short ride (25 minutes), I was still nervous but I had shown myself that I could do it....and that I wouldn't necessarily fall off. Overall, a success.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Bath time
A clean Monte, sporting his new fly maskToday was bath day for our boys. Curly has not had a hose-down for at least a year now and Monte, being white, looked like he hadn't had a bath for over a year! The initial rinse water was muddy brown when we started but with a little soap and elbow grease, both horses were shiny and clean in no time.
And as is usually the case, we were almost as wet as the horses by the time we were done.
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