Sorry for the delay, but better late than never, eh? These are the pictures from our lesson on 14 Jun. My friend Fronie rode Jasper, Gord rode Stretch and Kayla rode Thunder. After their lesson I rode Stretch. Fronie has only had 2 lessons but is now starting to jog. A bit hard on the boobs so she's on the hunt for a good sports bra. Put it this way - she keeps her cell phone in her cleavage, so they aren't little puppies! The Lord finally decided to take a lesson. He truly adores Stretch and I always catch him kissing him. It warms my heart ... and opens my mind to all sorts of possibilities. You know, like telling him he needs a better saddle, etc. Tee Hee! :idea:
This was the maiden voyage of the Stretch Limo. We put all our gear in the tack room, which by the way, for those of you who don't know, can also double as a jungle gym. Kayla had a ball swinging on the saddle racks! The Lord was very excited so he lead Stretch out while I was finishing piddling around in the barn. I told him I'd be there in a minute to help load. When I stepped out of the barn I couldn't see them anywhere and was thinking to myself, "now where the hell did they go? I only left them for a minute". Then I noticed that they were already in the trailer and Stretch was happily munching his hay. Now this may not seem like a big deal to you, but trailering has always been a problem for me. I was convinced that I was a trailer jinx because it didn't matter what horse I was loading there was always an issue. So I grabbed Thunder and he also walked right in. What a treat! It was a great way to start our adventure.
We drove to the Sliding K (my friend Katrina's place) and unloaded the boys. Got them set up on either side of the trailer and then started grooming. It was hard letting the Lord have his way with my boy but I was trying to think of the bigger picture. Get him hooked now and the possibilities are endless!
This is Fronie and Jasper. Fronie is a fashion diva so always has to dress for the "theme". She's a tonne of fun and keeps life interesting.
Everyone was ready so off to the ring we went. I was leading Kayla around - she's still nervous of riding by herself. And Katrina's ring is huge! Fronie and Gord were working on just getting their critters moving, steering and stopping. Kayla and I were down at one end of the ring and we happened to look over at the Lord, just in time to see Stretch going down to his knees. I didn't know what the hell was going on but I was trying to stay calm so that Kayla wouldn't panic. Then Stretch puts his butt on the ground. Meanwhile the Lord is just sitting there, cool as a cucumber. As Stretch starts to roll to the side the Lord calmly steps off him (his feet were touching the ground at this time), looks at Katrina and says, "what's HIS problem?" By this time Katrina was up to Stretch and had grabbed the reins while the Lord dismounted (without a mounting bock!). Then she backed Stretch up and made it clear to him that rolling was a no-no. The Lord then walked up to Stretch, wiped the sand off the saddle (and there was alot) and got back on and continued his lesson. Once we knew everyone was OK we had a good laugh. The Lord said the only thing going through his mind as Stretch started to go down was, "I've killed Tammy's horse - NOT GOOD!". I figured Stretch was dying too. Katrina then mentioned that most horses try to roll in her sand (it's absolutely beautiful stuff) at least once. Gee, thanks for the friggin' heads up girl!
I don't know if you can still see the sand on Stretch or not but his one side looked like an appaloosa for most of the lesson ...
After all the excitement was over it was my turn. I'm trying to learn the skills for trail class - next year I plan to show. Katrina was teaching me the aids for side pass. First we practised it without a log. Once I started to get the hang of it we added a log - well actually it was a piece of PVC pipe, but I told Stretch to imagine it was a log. Well let me tell you, Stretch is NOT going to pull any muscles in his legs from lifting his hooves too far over an obstacle. We cracked the pipe, scratched the pipe, made the pipe roll ... you name it, we did it. What a hoot!
And that was basically our day. It was a great time. Especially since it was the first time that Kayla, the Lord and I did something horsey together. Afterwards he kept saying his butt was sore and I told him it was probably because the saddle doesn't fit him properly (it's a used Griffith 16"). So now he's researching saddles and hatching a plan. YIPPPEEEEE !!!
Stretch and I warming up. I'm trying to convince him that he has to lope more than 3 circles before quitting. I don't think he's got the point yet!
Getting on WITHOUT a mounting block. Easy once you get your friggin' foot up around your ear!
Checking to see if my stirrups were adjusted correctly.
Trying to do the sideways thing without backing up. I can't even walk and chew gum at the same time ... what the hell was I thinking trying to learn to side pass?!
Tue Jun 23, 2009 1:16 pm
