horse stuff

[rm]

Today I rode with a Western saddle, which, truthfully, I discovered I unpreferred pretty quickly. It provides a lot more room for my body position to be everything it shouldn't be. That said, it does make me feel more secure in terms of dealing with the trot, and that was the point, and I did make a lot of progress. Benny was being particularly nettlesome today -- his new thing is barring his teeth and then jabbing them at people, hard. He doesn't bite -- he just sort of rams you with them. Funniest moment, is when my instructor meant to use a whip to point Benny where to go (since his other thing today was "I can trot in the smallest circle ever! And look, it gets even smaller!") and accidentally hit me with it, and she totally expected me to freak out, and I was like "whatever." I remain a bit of a mystery around there.

At any rate, I get to ride Sham next week for the first time in ages... again with the Western saddle, but everyone knows that while Benny and I are a lot a like (think too much horse and think too much rider), I'm probably more comfortable with Sham, despite the fact that he's tall. Also, one of my big problems righ tnow is I keep bringing my heels up because it's the only way to mae contact with Benny really because he's so small and my legs are long, and it's causing me balance problems and spooking me and that doesn't happen with Sham.

Comments

[daverhodester.livejournal.com]

>>accidentally hit me with it, and she totally expected me to freak out, and I was like "whatever." I remain a bit of a mystery around there.

That IS a mystery! The last time I got smacked with a whip, it cost me a hundred and fifty bucks an hour. :-)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I hate western tack, I can't feel the horse at all.

My present rig is a honeycomb pad, a pad to raise the rear, a racing saddle(not much larger than a bicycle seat, and the top pad (all are fleece) with the girth.

It's like riding bareback, but I have irons. I can feel the muscles bunch.

TK