Into the Wild Blue Yonder....

This was a very hectic week with Dave “gone fishin” in Canada – which means that it was just me and Indy at the farm, and we were busy! We didn’t get any riding lessons in unfortunately, but Indy and I had some great bonding time, so that makes it wonderful. Dave finally arrived home on Friday, so Saturday consisted of catching up on outside chores around the house like mowing, dragging, weed-wacking, gardening, fence-fixing, watering, etc. After a long day on Saturday, we celebrated Father’s Day by just lounging around in the beautiful weather. Dave gave me a couple hours in the late afternoon to play with horses, so I took him up on it.
Bug has been ridden in the arena for the past couple of weeks as I build my confidence in an English saddle, but I had enough of the arena…… boring. So I mustered up some confidence and saddled him up and took him out to gallop around the pasture and the hay field. Yesterday I scoped carefully for gopher and woodchuck holes, and we had the green light. As I turned the corner to hit the straights, I gave him a little leg, kissed to him and he broke into a beautiful canter. I was a bit nervous, but I quickly realized that if I just relax and sit the canter, it’s easy! I’ve been cantering and galloping Gunner out on trail rides and across the field, but that was different. I was in my big western saddle, on little 15.1 quarterhorse Gunner, who has a small stride. This time I was on Bug – 16.3, long-strided thoroughbred, in a little bitty English saddle. Wow. I felt great, and I think my confidence boosted about 2 notches. Plus, this new English saddle of mine is 5 times more comfortable than my western saddle even thought of being – And I have an awesome Circle Y western saddle that is pretty comfy on trail rides!!! Anyway, I went around and around and gave Bug a pretty good workout, and worked on keeping my feet quiet, my hands quiet, and my seat moving with him. It was awesome. I felt like we could have ridden anywhere, and being outside the arena fence wasn’t so frightening after all. I can’t wait to do it again. I’ve heard from the Eventing Radio show that many riders do their flatwork out in the middle of a field – and I can start to understand why. Instead of letting the fence be my guide, my seat was, and I felt that Bug was paying closer attention to where I was pointing him and looking than just following the fence line in a circle. – now I fully understand the “look where you’re going” instruction that Billie engrained in me. I’m very excited to do another lesson. If only my horse money tree would really bloom!