Wednesday and Today

   I will start with an account of what happened on Wednesday during my riding lesson and then move on to tell about what I did today. I have lessons every week on Wednesday. I really do enjoy them. They are a nice little break from school. It is especially nice when the sun is setting and you are walking on your horse at a nice leisurely pace. So now on to my lesson.

   Wednesday started out a little chilly, but after a little while it got a little better. I went to the barn where I have lessons and went and got the horse I would be using his name is Skylar. He is a beautiful Paint. After I got him out I led to a place where I could tie him up and brush him and put on his tack. Once this was done I led him into the arena where I could ride him. I have a tendency to not check the cinch on the saddle to make sure it is tight so that the saddle will not move or anything like that when I get on. It has happened to me more that once. So I knew that this time I would make sure I would check it. Well, I almost forgot, but I did at the last minute remember to tighten it. After I got on I realized I forgot another thing. I forgot to put my spurs on. Skylar is a really nice horse but he can also be lazy. So then I had to get my spurs on and get back on. I did that and began riding. As I was riding I was thinking wow I can feel the wind in my hair. How odd because I usually do not feel that. Well, I did forget another thing and that was my helmet.It did seem like a lot of getting on and getting off. It is definitely great exercise to get on and off a horse.So after I made sure that I did not forget anything else I got on once more and stayed on until the end of the lesson. During the lesson I learned how to turn on the fore end and the hind end. It is not as easy as I thought it might be. We also did the usual trotting, loping, and at the end, galloping. After the lesson ended my teacher let me help her lunge a couple of horses that she is training. I really do enjoy lunging. I asked her if I could come back on Friday to help with the horses and anything else I could do.

   When I came back to the ranch today I brought a friend along. We got the nice task of sweeping cobwebs from the stalls and  ceiling. It is not a bad sort of job if you have a friend to talk to while doing it.Once we finished the first row of stalls we stopped for the day and went on to another job of helping feed a couple of horses. I asked my teacher whether it would be okay if I could ride Skylar today. She of course said yes. It is nice to have a teacher who is willing to share her horse even when we are not in lessons. She also let my friend ride him. I grabbed Skylar and did the usual routine: brushing, cleaning out his hooves, putting on the saddle and bridle. After that I got on him and rode him around. I did the usual with him as I would do in a lesson. I made him walk for a little bit and then made him trot and lope. He was really not  wanting to obey today. I got off so that my friend could have a turn. let him go at his own and first, but it did seem that Skylar really did not want to obey. So then I suggested that I put him on a lunge rope and see if he would obey with my friend. And also so that if anything did go wrong (like him bursting into a lope) I could have control. Nothing did go wrong so I had my friend jump off, and I lunged him as I should have at first. That went okay for the most part. I did get on him and rode him around to see if he was more obedient. He was until I got off. My friend I must say did a great job with such a funny horse. I hope that he will want to come back to the barn with me in the future.

Horse Riding

This blog is for my adventures in my horse riding. When my sister was gone a few years ago in South Africa for almost 7 weeks, my parents  signed me up for horse riding. I was a little nervous at first, but this was not my first time riding a horse. I rode a horse for a day some years before at a church camp. My teacher, Samantha Johnson, is a very nice teacher. So anyway I went to this first lesson very nervous. As soon as I met the teacher I knew I had nothing to worry about. In this blog I will tell you about my time every week. I have recently in the (last 2 months) begun again to ride and to be taught by my teacher again. To begin with this past weeks lesson. This week when I got to my lesson I brushed the horse that I was going to be using, and I also put on his tack. It is to me a great achievement that I am able to do all of this all by myself. I then lunged the horse around the arena. When I got on the horse I began slow. Then as I got used to being on again I began to trot, then lope and finally gallop. That was the first time I galloped on purpose. I believe that galloping is far better than loping. I used to think that loping was nice and smooth, but going at a gallop is far better. I can hardly wait for the next lesson.