horseback riding | Horsegirl on a Journey

I found a bunch of photos from October 2012 and they made me smile, remembering the warmer days and longer evenings. On this day, we played all over the ranch, making games wherever we went.

Rocky meets me at the gate to my pen:

Warming up with Stick to Me on line and transitions, with the occasional Touch It:

Relaxed about saddling:

Practicing keeping my eyes forward while mounting:

Follow the rail, Freestyle:

Posting trot, preparing to sit down for a halt:

Dismounting at the barn:

Rolling together after a good session:

Are we fit to ride?

Today’s ride included several short trot transitions — literally 5 to 20 strides of trotting between longer walking. I notice that I am worried about whether he is going to trip, especially on the downhill part of the driveway. However, he didn’t stumble today, so I’m not sure why I was getting more nervous.

I hope my misgivings are related more to the process of starting walk-trot-walk transitions, hitting up against my own lack of strength, stamina, and most importantly, balance. If that’s the case, then I will continue to improve, and so will Rocky’s ability to move without tripping.

I’ve decided I will ask Erin to do a couple of training sessions with him, and see what she thinks. She rode him once years ago and he was perfectly smooth, so it’s possible it’s just me.

Hm, how interesting.

We are up to 45 minutes now, and will stay at that duration for this week and probably next week. I want to increase the amount of minutes we are trotting without taxing him (or me!) by also increasing the length of time we ride.

Go us!