I love this picture..as you can see, it is taken down the isle of the stalls in the main barn...which by the way ..is the best set up I have ever seen for a training barn.
After I finished riding Oliver they brought up Jose. You can see him behind me.
Jose is named Jose because his registered name is Oh Say Can You See and one of grooms had trouble pronouncing it and would say Jose Can You See... so the barn name of Jose just stuck.
To give you an idea of how tall Jose is.. I mount Oliver using a 2 step block. Here I am mounting Jose standing on top of a 3 step block..and he was still higher than Oliver!
Jose is a really beautiful Saddlebred. He has a funny expression on his face in this shot.. but I think we were doing the last tightening of the girth while it was taken!
We started to walk. Even after only 1 ride I totally trust Jose.
I included this shot because it shows how the riding arena isle goes around the stalls and then comes out into an open area.
We trotted and this time I did post the trot. It just took some concentration.
I also cantered Jose and then.....and after all of my offering, I finally got Elly to try riding aside. Elly is a very experienced and elegant astride rider..so I knew she could easily ride aside too.
The smile says it all. She gave me a huge compliment saying that she had new found respect for what I was doing. ...grin..
3 comments:
Oliver is a handsome HANDSOME man, and you look great!
One thing that I'm curious about and would be interested to hear your thoughts would be the presence of helmets in side saddle riding? I know it varies by discipline and I'm not a preachy helmet person, just curious of your thoughts.
In my experience, the lack of helmets is a Saddlebred thing, like in the Western riding world. I got laughed at when I asked for a helmet the first time I went to get on a Saddlebred.
That said, those are some stunning Saddlebreds, and some great shots!
Helmets are a common site with the kids riding today and are accepted in any adult class..but hardly ever seen (on adults) I own a helmet and wear it when working a horse I do not trust.. I can think of 1 horse that I own that I would never step into the saddle without a helmet!!
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