Fadedwords

I had a riding lesson yesterday and Jake decided to come with me.  I was pretty excited because it’s rare that I have anyone interested in seeing me ride (other than Bethany, but I usually ride too early for her!) and I knew if Jake came I’d have lots of pictures.  I haven’t had any pictures of me riding since he first came to visit me in Alfred in 2006.  I had a little pep talk with Missy when I went to get her from the field and asked her to please try to help me look good, since we did have a photographer on the premises.

She didn’t disappoint me.

We rode in the big pasture, and at first I was a little worried that it would be like my last lesson out there when she got totally wild and crazy.  I didn’t want to have pictures of me simply hanging on for dear life.  So I told myself that I would not let that happen again.  And I didn’t.  We started out long trotting up the one side that she really likes to go fast on, only we came away from the barn.  This helped a little but we moved on to a smaller circle to do some real work.  Missy was fighting bringing her head down at first so Elizabeth offered to hop up and let me watch what she was doing.  I always like it when she does that, because I’m a very visual learner.  I watched for a minute or two and then we switched back.  I just needed to be a little firmer with my aides, and Missy started to really settle in to her work.

After doing this for awhile we moved up to the top of the pasture where the ground poles are set up.  The goal was to get her to go over them with her head still down like it’s supposed to be.  We didn’t really succeed completely at a trot (we got close!), but we had some nice moments.

After all that work there was only cooling down left to do.

It was a wonderful lesson, filled with so much positive feedback from Elizabeth.  Any lesson that I hear as much of, ‘That’s beautiful’ or ‘Don’t change a thing, that’s perfect!’ is a lesson I leave with a grin on my face.  This horse is a wonderful partner, and I’m so excited I have some pictures to share with friends and family.

You can see a great deal of photos from my lesson HERE.  Thanks to Jake for coming, braving the heat, and taking such lovely pictures.