I've been taking riding lessons for the past 3 months. Ever since we have been on the farm I have gone back and forth about getting a horse, but I could never justify one. Finally reading a blog I found the idea to take riding lessons for a number of years so that you will know what type of horse to get. So I looked around for riding lessons. The closest one to me was Benediction Farms (great name). I called and had such a lovely conversation with Elaine that I stopped by to see her place and meet her. She spoke Feldenkrais and that was it, I asked when I could start lessons. Oh incidentally she teaches dressage.
I had absolutely no intention of learning dressage. I thought it was fou fou. But I connected with this lady and her oldest student is 70! Well I have found out that dressage is not so fou fou after all. The skill comes from war. All of the fancy (to me) things that the horses do actually have a purpose in combat.
Well I quickly learned that I knew nothing about horse riding (sorry, Dad). Even though I haven't ridden in multiple decades, muscle memory still seems to exist. The hardest thing was to learn to ride in contact with the horse through the bit. The loose rein thing was really stuck in me. And I knew that I would have trouble with the heels down, toe pointed in position. But with Feldenkrais my body is starting to assume that position. At least sometimes.
It took 2 months but that silly minimalist saddle is now comfortable. I do love that weight or lack thereof. The horse I normally ride is Dancer. Dancer is close to 30 years old and is one quarter Clydesdale. He is 16 plus hands tall, which translates into - you can stand at his shoulder and not see over his withers. He is starting to lose some sight.
So my riding is coming along - the basics were really hard. But things like diagonals and changing diagonals have come easy for me. This last lesson I was practicing diagonals and Dancer kept moving from a trot to a canter. I was probably doing something inadvertently. Elaine thought I looked OK in the canter so she showed me how to ask for it.. I was cantering along, loving it and Dancer shyed. He jumped sideways and I realized I was coming off. I'm sure if there had been that big Western saddle horn I would have stayed on.
But oh well, that first unanticipated dismounted happened and it wasn't bad at all. I landed on the right "largest muscle in the body" in a fetal position. If I had remembered to slap the ground it would have been a pretty good martial arts fall. I sat on the ground and breathed through it for a few minutes and got back and did it all again, including cantering. Elaine thinks that Dancer's poor vision and the sunlight and shadows caused it.
This morning only that "muscle" is sore and I am quite proud of myself. Got that out of the way! I love riding especially cantering,
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