Today while I was doing the portraits of Stephanie, we were up in one of the pastures.  I had spent time letting all the horses get used to my camera before I started crouching down to take shots.  At one point I was crouched down and I felt the very distinct nuzzling of a horse on my neck.  I looked up and saw Three Socks, a horse I had fairly instantly fallen in love with when I walked into the pasture.

Three Socks is three years old.  He’s very curious, very sweet, and very willing.  Three Socks is also for sale and there’s actually a potential that I could afford him because Tracey would be willing to work out a payment plan.  I know that I would have to hold off on him for a little while, build my savings account back up a bit.  However… I plan to ride him the next time I’m down in Fayetteville and see how I like him.

I’ll say this… Three Socks can remain his “real” name, but his stable name will change if, for example, I bought him.  Don’t know to what, but I’ve never been one for obvious horse names.  Bet you can’t tell how many socks Mr. Three Socks has!

We shall see…

I missed the first week of the summer session because I was in Washington.  I also missed this Tuesday because of continued car issues.  I have spent the last two days at the farm, working with the girls and getting to know each of them.  It’s been an incredibly rewarding experience so far and I can’t wait to go back next week.  It is a program that is doing incredible things to help at-risk girls.  It is also working with some incredible horses that might have had different outcomes had they not been rescued.

It’s going to be a big growth experience for me as a counselor, as well as a rider.  They told me today that I would need to become Parelli level 1 certified, because it is part of the grant the program recently received.  Parelli is a system of natural horsemanship that focuses on building a strong and positive relationship with your horse on a deep level.  I’ve always believed that the horse is such an amazing and important part of my reason for riding.  Yes, it’s fun to jump or do a dressage test… but the real reward is what you build with the horse.  Parelli really stresses the horse and your relationship with the horse.  I’m excited to begin learning the system and strengthening myself as  a rider.

So much to look forward to as this opportunity continues.

I got focused on photographing pretty quickly.  There’s something about the atmosphere at barrel races that really gets me excited and motivated.  It was made more exciting by the fact that we were also racing against some weather that was rolling in and looking truly scary.  About halfway through the show I hear the announcer mention Bob, my friend/riding instructor’s husband as the videographer.  This is typical; Bob has been videoing the EZ Run shows for quite some time.  Then I hear, “We also have a still photographer.  Kate Moynihan is right down here by the second barrel.” At first I was so stunned that I lowered my camera and looked up at the booth.  I hadn’t expected them to do it, and it was incredibly overwhelming to hear my name.  They announced me once more before the show was over too!

I went up to talk with Elizabeth and Carol (the owner of the barn) after the show was over.  I thanked Carol for having them announce me, but I don’t think she’ll ever understand just how much that meant to me.  She, Elizabeth, and Bob have been some of my biggest supporters with my photography and it’s something that I will never forget.  As we were talking I told Elizabeth that I would have more lesson money for her on Wednesday when I came.  She asked why and I said that Wednesday is the last lesson I’m paid through.  Then she said, “I was going to mention… since I bought Missy do you want to just stop with the lessons like we’d talked about?” She also told me about what that would mean for the financial end of things.  If I hadn’t been sweaty and disgusting, I would’ve hugged her.

I have been incredibly lucky the last months.  Despite some difficult decisions, some hurt and pain, some serious stress?  I have been surrounded by people who go out of their way to build me up, who support my passions, and who will do almost anything to help me achieve goals.  Elizabeth is one of the most generous people I’ve ever had the good fortune to know.  The fact that she is willing to let me ride her horse is an incredible gift.  I’m still in awe of what a good friend she is, and I sometimes wonder how exactly I will thank her for all she’s done for me since I began riding with her.  Not only has she taught me more about riding, but she has built me up and helped me to see my strengths.  She has been a cheerleader always, about riding and about my photography.  She has been a friend that has said, “Anytime you need a place for dinner, just call me,” when I first moved and things were really bad.  She has inspired great things in my life.  I am lucky.

You can see the photos from the show HERE. Some favorites:

I love the motion of this horse.

Here’s Eliz and Missy.  They got first place in the 3D!!

I love this photo.  Click on it so you can see the expression on her face.  Her horse came in to the ring pretty wired and on the second barrel got a little zippy.  When she turned him he went straight past and broke pattern, but she turned him back… and ran over the second barrel!  Her attitude was amazing though; she just laughed and kept on schooling him.

My good friend Tracey, who has been so very supportive of my work, riding her amazing horse Willie. He is my second horse crush.  My number one love, Pacman, didn’t run Sunday!

This is Casey and Brooke, the daughters of Carol and Elizabeth respectively.  In this photo they were telling each other secrets.

It’s time to ride!

The icing on the cake is that these pictures turned out really, really great.  I’m not usually one to toot my own horn, but when I saw these images on my computer I knew that my clients would be happy because I was proud of them.  Really proud.

Some examples:

You can see all the photos from this shoot HERE.

I’ve received such amazing compliments about these pictures and feel so great about them.  This shoot really helped to boost my confidence level and I really cannot thank Tracey and Emily enough for their support of my work, as well as the wonderful day with them.  Not only did they hire me for this job, but they also took me on a fantastic trail ride after it was all over!

This is me on Princess, the giant Percheron cross that they let me ride.  She belongs to Mr. Jim, Tracey’s hubby.  She was used to having beginners and little kiddos on her, so I had to be a little stern with her when we first started.  Once she realized that I meant business, she was a great partner!  It was a great experience for me because I rode without my stirrups 90% of the ride simply because it was more comfortable than trying to reach for them! (your stirrups are a little longer when you ride western, and I just am not used to riding western anymore.)  I did discover that woods freak her out a little; it was made very evident by how far she jumped to the side when we were loping past!!

This session was a really wonderful experience and I’m feeling fantastic about my work.  I hope to book some more sessions over the summer and continue to improve my portfolio.  Emily has already asked that I do fall photos of Jeremy, and she wants me to do portraits of her as well!

And now I present: A riding lesson- a foray into photojournalism

I had a lesson on Sunday and my good friend Sarah came out to watch and take photos.  It was an eventful lesson.  I….

Rode without stirrups for the first time in approximately 9 years.  I also…

Flailed around a lot at the canter.  It wasn’t pretty (although Missy was).  After that I…

Got Missy to drop her head and look really pretty!  See, we do know what we’re doing occasionally.  Then I moved on to something more exciting…

….looking at this big jump and saying, “Are you sure I can jump that?” I was skeptical, as I have never jumped one that big on Missy.  Elizabeth said yes, so I said I’d give it a try.  The first try looked something like this…

Great right?  Look how happy Missy looks, look how forward her canter is.  However, look at my face.  You can see the problem there if you look closely.  There’s skepticism there, oh yes.  And I’m looking at the fence.  This was bad.  I don’t need to see the fence as long as Missy is pointed at it.  Looking at the fence gets us all off balance and it can make you nervous about how big the fence is if you’re not careful, and then bad things happen….

For those of you playing along at home?  Yes that is me almost taking the jump all by myself.  Thanks for noticing.  On the bright side it was almost; I did manage to keep my butt in the saddle, although I’m still not sure how.  Elizabeth was calling, “LOOK AT THE TREES!” But it was too late.  Missy knew I wasn’t ready, perhaps because I stopped urging her forward (hmm…), and she said, “Okie dokie, I’ll go this way.” I persevered though!

TADA!!!!!!!  Missy is happy!  I’m looking at the trees!  I’m focused but not making an atrocious face.  She cleared the jump easily and picked up a nice canter after.  Epic awesomeness.  After that we cooled down a little…

This required Sarah learning how to cluck her tongue.  It wasn’t an easy process.  After that we moved on to the final stages, and discovered that we may never get a photo of Missy, me, and Elizabeth all looking at the camera…

This was close.  Maybe the next one?

Hmmm… we’ll have to keep trying for that one.

I put all the pics from the lesson up on my shutterfly page.  If you have the password, check it out.  If you don’t and would like one let me know and I’ll make sure that happens.

I saddled up, all the while hoping that I would just have an ok ride.  I wasn’t hoping for brilliant or amazing or anything extraordinary (although it would’ve been nice).  I just wanted to ride competently.  We were riding in the ring, which is something I haven’t done in forever.  I think the last time we rode in the ring I was still flailing hopelessly and trying to remind my body how to post the trot!

We warmed up at a trot, did some large circles in all four corners of the ring.  This went alright… usually figures are a tremendous challenge for me.  I just can’t see circles while I ride, and end up making ovals (or squares, or triangles).  Today they were pretty round.  After that we worked on the large ring and started working Missy’s head down.  We did some great work on that, not perfect, but great.  There were some definite rounds that I was feeling pretty spectacular about how she was reaching and bending.  We even got her dropping her head super low to give her back a good work out.  After that we were both exhausted!

With all the trot work out of the way Elizabeth said that she wanted to do some canter work.  She wanted me to canter one half of the ring, come through the center and drop to a trot and then pick up the canter again going the other way.  It was figure eights at a canter… minus the flying lead change in the middle of the eight.  Elizabeth wasn’t sure that Missy knew how to do them, and I knew that I couldn’t.  *grin*  I was a little apprehensive about the exercise; I’ve attempted it before with varying success.  (read: I usually sucked at it).  We started out and the first two times around the figure eight weren’t so awesome.    The canter was nice, but I was  struggling to get Missy to drop down to a trot in the center of the ring.  Then when she did it was so jostle-y that I was having a  hard time getting myself together to ask her to canter.  UGH.

Just as I was about to pull up to a walk to ask what I needed to do differently Elizabeth called, “When you ask her to trot, tense up your stomach muscles.” (HA!  Stomach muscles!!) When she said it I was making the turn to come through the center of the ring, so I tightened my abdomen and tightened my reins a little.  Missy dropped to a trot almost instantly!  As soon as she did I bent her the other direction and asked for a canter.  We picked it up and then did it again!  As soon as I had that feedback about my tummy, I got it.  We did some awesome work at that, and then we were done.

After the lesson Elizabeth and I were talking.  She and her hubby are going on a little vacation that is incredibly well-deserved.  She said that they would be back on Wednesday and that we’d have to talk about the next time I can ride.  She asked if I’d want to not take lessons anymore and I must’ve kind of looked at her strangely.  She said that I don’t need lessons anymore, and that instead of taking lessons I could just pay her to come and free ride.  WHOA.  I told her I’d be fine with that, although it’d be super strange to not have someone calling instructions to me.  She said that I would be able to ride more often for the same price since I wouldn’t be paying for instruction.  She said she’d double check with Carol, who owns the farm, and let me know.

It might sound odd, but I never really thought anyone would tell me, “Hey you don’t need someone teaching you how to do this.” I’m very well aware of my areas of weakness when I ride, and I am also aware of my strengths.  I am finally able to see that I am a very competent rider.  I may not always be super pretty, and my equitation is kinda bleh sometimes… but I am aware of myself when I ride, I bust my butt to get my horse to improve.  I know that Elizabeth would never let someone ride Missy in this way if she didn’t trust their ability a whole lot.  Either that or she’s just sick of hanging out with me, and this is the easiest way to be rid of me!

I left the barn feeling so positive about myself.  That’s what riding gives me… a sense of pride in myself.  Riding is hard.  You are in control of an incredibly powerful and big animal.  You are responsible for your own safety and the safety of this amazing animal beneath you.  If you do things wrong, it typically looks bad or feels bad or ends bad.  When I ride I usually end up feeling empowered.  That’s how I felt today.

Thank goodness for riding.

This just isn’t what I wanted my life to be like.

When I was growing up I fell in love with riding.  I was never astonishingly great at it.  I was always a competent rider though.  I paid attention when anyone was riding.  I was always trying to learn.  And above all else I cared about the horses.  I wanted them to improve and get better and excel every time I rode.  I was never one that looked especially gorgeous when up in the saddle.  I’ve always flailed a little bit, because it’s my nature.  But I’m aware of what I’m doing, I know and understand how to get the best from a horse.  Sometimes it takes me longer than others, but I never give up.  Riding is the thing I love most in this world.  More than music, more than writing, more than taking pictures.  It is what I love.

I had a horse when I was a teenager.  My family gave him to me as a Christmas gift.  He was up for adoption, and I had been training him for months prior to getting him.  His name was Ollie, and I loved him a tremendous amount.

(Yes, I used to ride in wind pants.  We did crazy stuff back in the day).

Ollie was over 16 hands tall and had been raced on the harness track briefly.  As a result of that, he had a pre-existing injury that we weren’t aware of until long after my family adopted him.  It made him pull up lame after almost every ride, rendered him unable to be trained over fences, and eventually led to our having to give him away because I couldn’t ride him.  It was incredibly difficult, and I still miss him.

I’ve ridden tons of horses in my life.  I rode almost every horse that ever came in to the barn I learned to ride at as a child.  In college I rode a great deal of the horses in our program.  I rode a handful of the horses in Alfred when I lived there.  I’ve ridden both of the school horses at my current farm, and several horses at the previous barn.  I like riding different horses.  I’ve clicked with only a small number of those horses.

Lately I am struggling with the fact that, while I love riding with Elizabeth, I know that I don’t necessarily need lessons anymore.  Yes, I am always learning and I can always improve… but I struggle with the idea that this is very likely how it will always be.  While I was at the show I looked at these adults who have their own horses and who were going in to the ring and doing what they came to do… and I realized that that’s where my life is supposed to be.  That’s where I wanted it to be.  When I was 17 years old I looked forward in my life to when I was 29/30 and wanted to be in a place where I was making good money, starting a family, and able to afford to have a horse again.  And I’m nowhere even remotely close to that.  As I sat at that show looking at all these people who are where I wish I could be, I found myself feeling sad and frustrated.

I am in a position right now where I am barely making ends meet.  I am barely able to afford to ride, and the only reason I’ve been able to do it up until now is because my friends have paid for it for me.  I know that my financial situation is not going to drastically change anytime soon.  I know that for the next few years if I want to ride, I’m going to have to take lessons… whether or not I truly need them or not.  It’s my only chance at being on a horse.

And that sucks.

I see other people who are able to afford the things they love.  And I know I happened to pick something that’s a little more pricey than most.  But I am so frustrated and saddened by the fact that I may never have the financial resources to have a horse.  I’m frustrated that I can’t go out after work and just hop on and feel all my cares and stress fade away, as it does the one day a week I do ride.  I’m sad that the thing I love most is perhaps always going to be out of reach.

And I just want life to be different.  I want to be able to buy a horse and board it, so I can go out to the barn and saddle up and ride… and then go home and do it all again the next day.  I want to be in a place where I feel like my life has been successful.  And I don’t.

Then when I think of this I wonder if maybe I shouldn’t just stop riding all together, because I always come back to this place.  I know that I will always want a horse, always.  I’ve wanted one since I was 5, and probably before that.  I know that desire isn’t going to go away, not after 23 years of wanting it.  So I always end up wondering if I’m not just making it harder on myself than it needs to be.  Yeah it’s great to be able to pay to ride someone else’s horse once a week (or every few weeks), but if I always come back to the fact that I am financially incapable of really having what I want, and being in that situation reminds me of it every time?  Why should I keep doing that to myself?

*shrug*

I guess I’m just depressed and discouraged today.  I wonder if they have a filter for computers that blocks out horses for sale?

Today we were working on canter transitions the bulk of the lesson.  In one direction we had no troubles.  In the other it was terribly difficult.  We finally got it after picking up the wrong lead about 20,000 times.  After we’d finally gotten it we started working on jumping.

Walker is a pretty amateur jumper.  Most of the other kids who ride him are doing crossrails, an dhe’s pretty funny going over those.  He always is hesitant and doesn’t really know where to put his legs or anything.  I’ve jumped him quite a few times and had OK results.  Today we started with a cross rail and he jumped it well.  After two times over that Elizabeth put up the cross rail so it was bigger and h went over that well too.  Elizabeth put up a low straight rail (about 1′) and we went over that twice.  He was doing so well that she added another rail on top.  I didn’t ask how big it was, because I knew that it would psyche me out.  I would just end up thinking that Walker couldn’t jump it, and then he’d fulfill that expectation.  So instead, I got him moving in a nice forward trot and went toward the jump.  He soared over it!  Elizabeth and I were both screaming and saying, “Holy crap!  He jumped it!” So I decided to try again.  As I asked him to trot he picked it up and then picked up a canter without even being asked!!  We went over it two more times with the same enthusiasm.  Elizabeth and I were both blown away.

Before I left I said that I felt like I knew what I was doing today.  Elizabeth told me that he jumped the fences and took care of me because of my awesome attitude, that I had gone into every jump believing that he would jump it… so he did.  She said that I took care of him, supported him as he jumped and stayed out of his face so he could do what he needed to do… and that I rode him confidently.

Lessons like this feel good.  It’s the biggest jump I’ve gone over since I started back and I know I jumped it well.  Very awesome.

Hey, how ya’ doing?  I hope well.  I know I shouldn’t look at websites that have horses for sale, but sometimes I really cannot help myself.  And most of the time I don’t even find anything that looks good!  So that has to count for something.

However, today I was looking at a site and I found a horse that is gorgeous and would really work well for me, and looks like a good mover.  This one, unlike Remy (second horse down!), is even close enough that I could go try him out!  And my riding instructor knows his owner.  How perfect is that??  He’s also even less expensive than Remy, at $7500!  BARGAIN.

GFGs, you should go look at Granite Ghost, or Deuce HERE.  Go to the “For Sale” page.  He’s the second horse on the page, black with a gorgeous white blaze on his face.  He’s 16.2 hands tall!  That’s exactly what I need.  Don’t let the western saddle fool you, because to me it looks like he’d be a great hunter prospect.  Also, I’ve been thinking about trying my hand running barrels, and this guy would be a great way to start.

This is how I look at it GFGs: Eventually I’m going to run out of lesson money.  I can’t, in good conscience, keep accepting money from friends to pay for it.  If I had a horse of my own I wouldn’t need to pay for lessons!  I could just go ride.  So I’d need enough to buy Deuce, as well as enough to pay for his board until I could get a second job.  I’m not even asking you to send 100% good fortune my way… just enough to get me through until I can pay to feed him with money from a second job.

Reasonable, right?

Think about it.

Love,
Kate

I had a riding lesson yesterday that I had been looking forward to for a long time.  Thanks to some bad weather on the weekends, and then my back going out, I hadn’t ridden in over a month.  I had missed it tremendously and was ready to get back up there.  I was somewhat dreading it as well; lengthy absences from riding make it a bit more painful when you start up again… and I’m not a big fan of my body hurting.

It was chilly out yesterday, but it was sunny and not windy at all.  I got to the barn and we got Missy ready.  We’re excited because my instructor is planning to buy Missy, and it will be a great thing when she does.  Elizabeth is an amazing rider, and Missy always looks stupendous when she’s in the saddle.

When we first started we just trotted around the whole big pasture.  Usually this is cause for great excitement.  Missy loves to long trot in the pasture.  I was surprised when she was a little bit slow-pokey.  On the flip side, I was glad she wasn’t tearing my arms out of the socket trying to get the bit so she could fly around the field!

Elizabeth said after that we were going to work on getting Missy to drop her head.  This is something we work hard on with Missy.  She was trained to carry her head incredibly high and has many years of that bad training ingrained in her brain.  It’s hard work to get her to do it, and in the months since I began riding I have not been able to consistently get her to work that way for me.  I have been able to get her to give that to me for some steps, and for partial circles in the ring.  I have not been able to get her to give me that beautiful head down, on the bit, forward and light motion for the whole side of the field at all.  I certainly have never gotten her to do it at the canter.  It is difficult because it requires so much of my body to get her to do it.  It requires me to have my inside arm keeping constant tension and pulling back elastially on the rein through my elbow and my outside arm to be spread a little wider than usual, also keeping steady pressure.  My hands must be up and forward to allow her to drop her head and reach for the bit.  My hands also sometimes have to see-saw a little to get her to give to what I’m asking.  My arms cannot be tense through this whole thing… they must give and take with her.  My shoulders have to remain back and relaxed.  My whole upper body must remain relaxed actually… tension in that part of my body makes Missy more tense, and causes her not to flex and bend.  While my upper body is doing all of this, my lower body is busy too!  I usually start working with her on this at the sitting trot.  This is because my seat is driving her forward.  This is done by keeping my stomach and lower back relaxed and deep into the saddle, moving with her and pushing forward.  My knees remained closed on the saddle, and my outside leg maintains contact to keep her moving forward.  Meanwhile, my inside leg is bumping her to get her to bed and not get overbent.  My inside seat bone drops a little bit to get my leg longer on that side, so she knows I want her bending around that leg.  All of these parts must do exactly the right thing, with the right force, at the same time… and I must correct things as I feel changes in her, or she will not maintain the bending and the forward motion.  If she starts to slow down and get heavy beneath me, I have to ask for more with my legs an my seat.  If she drops her head and is moving well, I have to give more with my hands so she can drop her head down into the bit.  It is absolutely exhausting, and I had never really gotten it in all my previous lessons.  I’d felt inklings of it, but I always lost it nearly as soon as I got it.  FRUSTRATING.

Yesterday I got it.  We started working around the field and she was still being a little slow, and she was fighting a little with dropping her head.  We trotted 3/4 around the big field, and then turned and changed the rein and went back.  I had some good moments, but no consistency.  We made it back around the ring and turned again.  Elizabeth called out, “Sit even deeper than that!” I tucked my seat under me just a little more and adjusted my hands and arms slightly… and it was like a switch flipped.  It was instantaneous, and as soon as I felt the change in Missy I stored in my head exactly what my body felt like.  She dropped her head and I gave with my hands.  She began moving forward, not increasing her speed but moving out and stretching into the trot.  She was light and effortless and moving so beautifully.  Elizabeth was like, “THAT’S IT!!!!!” We went down the long side, and down around the end came around and went up the other side of the field and she kept it!  I kept having to adjust little things here and there, but she kept it.  She would start to bring her head up and I would work my rein a little more, or I would touch her with my inside leg… and she’d drop right back down.  Elizabeth told me to let her walk after we’d reached the other side and we were both so excited that I’d gotten her to do it.

We walked for a few minutes and then started up again.  I was a little nervous that I would lose that momentum with the break, but Missy came right back to work when I asked her to.  We went down the side and up around the other, with her bent and moving forward.  Elizabeth called out, “Keep pushing and see how long you can go.  Post to get her moving more forward!” Posting is when you rise and fall at the same time as the horse’s outside leg.  Typically when I start to post when we are working her head down, I lose everything.  It’s just too much to ask my body to do at the same time, because on top of all those other things I have to do I also have to use my thighs to propel me out of the saddle every other beat.  It is a whole lot to think about and coordinate my body to do all at the same time.  I started to post and for a minute we lost it, but then I got it back.  For some reason it finally all made sense to me… and I understood the importance of my inside leg when we were doing this.  Elizabeth kept yelling across the field how great we looked and to keep it up.  It was such an amazing time.

We took another break after several trips around the field.  Elizabeth and I couldn’t stop talking about how great Missy was being.  After the break Elizabeth said, “OK, now I want you to canter her down this long side and I want you to keep her head down where we’ve had it.” I replied with, “I will certainly try.” Missy is a very hard horse to canter on.  She gets incredibly heavy and you feel almost like you need to carry her around the field by constantly keeping your legs on her.  This is exhausting for you, and it makes her just race around the ring.  You also have to move with her completely, letting your arms follow the motion of her head, and letting your seat rock with her fluidly.  You can’t shift in the saddle or tighten your reins much because that will either make her break to a trot or race forward.  She’s challenging.  I have never gotten her to canter with her head down, moving forward and light.  Not once.  I was a bit skeptical about my ability to continue to get her to give me what I asked.  I signaled for the canter and she picked it up easily.  She had her head high and at first I was hesitant to ask firmly for her to drop her head.  Elizabeth called out, “Don’t be afraid to ask her strongly!  She’ll give it to you.”  So I relaxed my shoulders, spread my hands, and began keeping strong and steady pressure with my inside rein.  I tapped with my inside leg and… she dropped her head.  The change in her canter was monumental.  I didn’t have to work so hard to move with her because it was so light and so nice.  I didn’t have to touch her with my outside leg one more time as we cantered around the whole field.  I tapped occasionally with my inside leg to keep her forward, but that was it.  It was an incredibly awesome moment for me, because I have been working so hard to feel that from her.

Having a lesson like that is important to me on so many levels.  Getting back into riding after a long hiatus was hard.  It would’ve been hard no matter what, but I had a lot of extra weight that I never had when I rode before.  It made it difficult to get my body to do what I wanted it to do, so I have struggled with things that used to be so easy for me.  It made me feel like I wasn’t a good rider, and made me wonder if I should be riding.  It’s silly, but I want to be good at riding, and when I don’t do well I really have a hard time with it.  It’s not that I haven’t had great lessons before, but I had seen the way Missy has gone for Elizabeth and I so wanted to get the same thing out of her.  It was so amazing to feel the way she is when she is forward and bent and light.

I hurt today.  Everywhere.  It’s a good hurt though, because I know that I rode that horse well and correctly.  This pain tells me that I asked for everything the exact right way, and that I need to do it just that way next time.

I can’t wait until my next lesson.