horsies

[rm]

Well, I did it. I rode a horse. I apparently have really good form instinctively, and we did a lot more today than she thought we would and I apparently figured out some stuff it takes people months to get; we're working on posting now, and she basically thinks that if I get over the minor fact that I'm afraid of everything (and wow, do I suck at getting on and off the horse or what?) I could be really good at this. English sadle for anyone who cares.

Horse was named Emily, and she was white and dappled, and doesn't like going clockwise in the ring at all, but otherwise was very very docile.

I've my next lesson next sunday, also at Kensington, but I think I'm going to pay Claremont a visit and then figure out where I am most comfortable (there are pros and cons of both for me mentally, quite aside from the practical issues).

I hurt in places I didn't know I had. And among other things I still find it utterly hillarious that I'm doing this. Here's to another one of my completely cracked whims.

Overall it was a really nice day. Got a sandwhich at Le Kiosk on the way to the stables, and chatted with the folks there in French (while listening to bad French pop music) while the food was prepared. Without doing anything really extravagent today just felt like I wasn't struggling, like this is how my life is, just this weird ongoing adventure where I get to learn how to do all sorts of strange crap, and that's like my job kinda. It was nice. It was really fucking nice.

Meanwhile, I finally decided that if I could face horses, I could face Kim's Video -- but the one our household has a membership with is closed closed closed. I'm sort of relieved. Signing up for Netflix tonight.

Comments

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Congrats! Very cool! I used to ride way back when I was a teen, and loved it, but haven't since - I really enjoyed it and am very pleased that you enjoy it.

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

I'm impressed. Horses are huge scary beasts with too many hard feet and way too many teeth for me to want to get near them. And you actually rode one...?

[rm.livejournal.com]

For an hour. Steered her around the ring and in figure eights, practiced making her stop and go. Practiced getting on and off. And then h eld on for dear fucking life as my instructor ;ed her around in a trot while trying to get me to post (which is like impossible to do, and when you fail to do it, results in your pubic bone being brutalized by the momentum -- so there's incentive to get it right, but it's really hard.)

[pharminatrix.livejournal.com]

Cross-posting was always a chore. I used to ride steeplechase in high-school and got pretty decent at it. The downside to that was that with my improvement, I had to sacrifice my nice push-button mount for a large rough-seated thoroughbred named Widowmaker Bumper, because they wanted me to depend on the horse less for competency. Posting is annoying but a sit-trot is worse. And my teacher used to regularly deprive me of stirrup usage to shake me of dependence upon them.

Where are you riding and how much are lessons?

[rm.livejournal.com]

At the moment Kensington stables. That might change if I decide Claremont Riding academy is a better fit (those are pretty much the two options that are logistically unfucked up for me).

Kensington is $45 an hour.
Claremont is apparently the same for private.

Semi-private and group lessons are less.

And yup, I got hit with the no-stirrups thing today too, and I _hated_ it... total security blanket for me. I felt like I was gonna slide off the damn horse without 'em.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

That's brilliant, glad it went so well, sounds like you're a natural, I'm impressed :) Horses are lovely but I don't think I'd be brave enough to ride one (having ended up on top of something around 17 hands high as a small child at a local show thing, and it went *fast* and I wanted off right there and then preferablyu under my own steam!)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I miss posting. Once you get the knack it never goes away, feel the diagonal, and then lift.

I no longer find the lack of irons nervous making, in fact I sometimes frun them up and ride without, but I now have gaited horses (that locution still seems wrong to me, but there it is) and so trotting doesn't happen.

I'm still not as comfortable as I might be bareback, that takes more muscle than I have, and my usual horse takes close contact as a signnal to go faster (which is his normal inclination anyway) so I tend not to take him bareback on the trail.

TK

[rm.livejournal.com]

Talk to me about this diagnol thing... it wasn't put to me that way at all, and maybe a different explanation will help (the degree to which I can get physical things by thinking about them a lot when I don't have the opportunity to do them tends to be weird, but useful).

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I'll discuss all the gaits, of a standard, four gaited horse.

Walking. Four beats, each foot comes up, one at a time. A rolling motion, around the horse, front, opposite rear, other front, opposite rear; repeat.

Trot. Two beats. The front, and opposite rear come up together, and land the same. This is a diagonal. You choose one (the left, or right; determined by the front foot) and rise to it. You sit on the other. A horse will have a favorite lead, though it ought to change them when switching direction (i.e. in a left, or right, circle), and you should switch them as well, but outside the show ring this doesn't really matter.

Canter. Three beats. the two front and the joined rear. This is the rhythm of the gallop, which one learns to make by slapping one's hands together, on the way to the thigh, bud-a-bup, bud-a-bup. There are, perforce, four foot-strikes, but the rear come so close together as to not matter.

One sits this, and is lifted a bit, or not, depending on one's seat, level of comfort, and the swing of the horse. On a smooth horse, when sitting comfortably, it can be, remarkably, similar to a rocking horse.

Hand-gallop. Same as the canter, but all-out. The horse is streached, neck flat, legs a blur. Seen on television, when one watches races. One sits this in "Two-point" by lifting the butt from the saddle, just high enough that the rise of the horses swinging back, brings the back/bottom of the saddle to the lifted rump. On a pleasant horse this is an almost flat ride, though one feels as though one has never travelled so fast in one's life.

If the horse/rider team knows the trail, it can navigate an incredibly complex path of turns, and minor obstacles... though I think you might want to avoid jumping, until you are more confident.

When the trail is well known the shifts of weight, and the delicate inclining of the horse to the left, and the right, is a cross between flying, and floating. Delicate, and powerful. One of that category of things which is second only to good sex/lovemaking, in the sense of wonder and release it engenders.

TK

[justpat.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!!!!

The afterpain of horseback riding. I remember it well.

You're doing some very cool things right now.

[sdn.livejournal.com]

this is how my life is, just this weird ongoing adventure where I get to learn how to do all sorts of strange crap, and that's like my job kinda.

can i adopt this as my motto?

(one of my colleagues has taken the same plunge you have, except she's riding in brooklyn. good on you both.)

[rm.livejournal.com]

I'm riding in Brooklyn too -- where's she going?