Monday, June 25, 2007

Riding Lesson #6

AKA the last one, at least for now.

I thought this weekend about signing up for another round - the "day camp" is this week, then there's another two-week session and another camp. However, it's freaking hot here now, and going to get hotter, which is why I wanted the first session. Also, DH took pics at Friday's lesson, in between wrangling the Burrito, and, well, I need to lose weight. That's not news, but looking at the pictures makes it look worse. Oy. I've gained 40 or 50 pounds in the past 15 years. And I can only blame about 15 of that on El Burrito.



Those pics are of me on a little QH mare named Katie, who I rode Friday. They prove that I slouch too much, I need to lose weight, and I get very red-faced when it's hot out. All things to work on.

And I do mean little when I talk about Katie - she's maybe 14 hands, at a guess. Her withers were about level with my shoulder. We did really really well together. I shortened my stirrups a couple of holes, and my posting was greatly improved. Katie and I got lots of compliments on how we looked. We did a lot of trotting Friday, enough that my foot cramped up for a minute. The end of the lesson was a course over some poles - two separate poles, a pole on the curve, then a straight line back to a pair of poles, then halt. Sarah and Tiffany both said we did great, so my confidence and ego got a good boost. :) I wish I'd gotten to ride her more. She had a nice trot - not as fast as Libby's power trot (a strange thing for a WP horse to have) but not the pokey kick-every-stride trot of Bergen or Sonny. The only real problem we had was that when I'd remember to take a better grip on the reins (instead of holding them too loosely), I usually forgot to also lengthen the rein and Katie would think I meant "slow down" when I was just trying not to drop the rein. We got that taken care of and were good to go. She didn't need a lot of leg or rein cues, which was great also.

DH and Burrito came to watch, since I didn't get to go to our demonstration that was scheduled for Saturday. DH took pics while wrangling El Burrito, and someone else brought a friend along who took pictures. El Burrito got to pet his first horse, and I took more pictures of some of the other horses after we were done.

2 comments:

wrnglrjan said...

You look great! And what a pretty little horse. I've got a soft spot for the little ones (maybe because I'm 5'1" and they fit me better).

I fail to see how needing to lose weight is a reason to stop riding. Maybe better not tell me, since I need to lose about 40 lbs and could stand to lose 60. Posting is awesome exercise, by the way.

I'm glad you did it! Aren't you?

Christi said...

I'm very glad I did it (DH asked if I was glad he made me sign up). I wish it had lasted longer, I wish they did lessons other than during the summer, and I wish the heat didn't put the whammy on me like it does.

Which is why I'd like to lose some weight before going another round. DH's heat tolerance changed a lot when he lost 30 pounds (which he's gained back), and I think it would help me. And, I can't help it, I just have this knee-jerk thought every time I see those pics of me, that geez I look more blob-like than a pair of women 20 years older than me.