No steering required

I'm still having trouble figuring out this whole posting thing. I'll be in sync for a few strides and then I completely fall apart and begin to just bounce along. Not very pretty and not very comfortable!

Trying to find a solution to my issues, I rode Cathy's horse Traveler on Saturday. Traveler is a very calm quarter horse who has packed many children around. He's about as opposite of Zoe as you can get in quite a few (important) ways, the most important of which for me is that he's not super responsive and hot. I had to actually kick to just get him moving at a walk, and finally resorted to using a crop to get him to pick up a trot. My legs were so tired after my short ride on him because I had to apply constant pressure to get him to go where I wanted - so much work! I found that I much prefer Zoe's reactive, seemingly psychic ways! I also discovered that I prefer to ride a horse who is "uphill" rather than downhill like Traveler; I felt like I was going to just slide down his neck whenever he put his head down!

After my ride on Traveler (in which I didn't practice posting much because it was so hard to get him to trot!), I pulled Zoe out. By this time my thigh muscles were worn out. And guess what - my ride on Zoe was one of the best I had had so far! My hunch is that the usual tension in my legs was missing, so she was happier. We trotted around a bit, but I was finding it difficult to steer and post at the same time (she still wasn't keeping a steady pace). At one point Zoe did take off into a canter for a few strides, freaking me out, but I managed to slow her back down and continue on.

On Sunday, I decided to try longing her in the arena (the round pen was occupied) and discovered that she definitely has that skill. I was able to control her speed and direction fairly easily. When another barn resident, Angelia, heard this she offered to longe Zoe while I was riding so that I could practice posting without worrying about steering. I was nervous, but soon found that this was a perfect solution. Zoe kept a better pace and stayed on a nice circle and I had time to figure out just what the heck I was supposed to do (not that I did ever get it totally right for more than a few seconds!)

I will definitely be using this method again soon!