Well, I had one of those lessons on Saturday. You see, I have a horse in training at Bluebonnet Farms. He is getting a very late start as he turned 5 this year and is only now being broke. Here he is as a weanling being shown in the Texas Futurity:
With that training, I get a riding lesson every week. I cherish them. I think about the last lesson I had until Wednesday.... okay - my sore muscles keep reminding me of it! .. but then when the soreness starts to fade, I start getting excited about the next weekend lesson! I started the lessons only riding their lesson horses so I could get my riding muscles back into shape. After 4 weeks of that, I started to trailer Oliver up there and ride him aside again. Sandy, the head trainer of Bluebonnet Farms, divulged to me that she used to compete aside! Oh - how thrilled I was to hear that!!! She has been front and center every time I ride sidesaddle and I am just ecstatic about that!! Once my sidesaddle lesson is over, I still ride a lesson horse astride and am still learning new things... are you ready... for the first time, Dora (the Assistant Trainer..and amazing equitation trainer!) made me ride without my stirrups. I am 49 years old...FORTY NINE! Do you know how painful that is...
Yeah - lets just say that this week I may be thinking about my last weekend riding lesson until Thursday.. or maybe even Friday!
After you get over the sheer horror of it, you will find how helpful it is. On New Year's I took off my stirrups and hung them in the tackroom. Then two weeks later, I bought a taller mounting block and retired the saddle for the winter. It took my three weeks to let go of the mane. But when Spring finally arrived, and we headed outdoors, I sort of regretted having to put the saddle back on.
ReplyDeleteI was forced to ride without them for 2 months when I was a teenager. It didn't hurt that much then, I'm no so sure how well I'd fare now. The good news is it makes riding bareback a breeze by the time you get used to it!
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