Equestrian (Again) - 3/25/16

Earlier in our quest, we scheduled a few events when not all of us could go.  We've decided that a priority is now going to be to do the last of these events all together, as much as we possibly can.


In order to catch up R & L2 took a riding lesson to satisfy our equestrian events.  These are again something that would take much training (and cash!) to get far enough along in that we could actually do the "real" events.  Eventing and jumping trainers require riders be much more familiar with basics before allowing you to get some air on the horse.  Even dressage takes quite some time for horse and rider to "connect" and really show their stuff.


We at least got an intro to dressage from Julie at Trinity River Farms.  It was a beautiful Friday afternoon when Julie introduced us to our horses - Cool and Kodiak.  Both are trained in dressage so they had a good idea of what we were asking them to do even though we were newbies.  Cool is also a retired race horse who apparently takes retirement seriously...  The smaller Kodiak moved much quicker and even when Kodiak was in front of Cool in the ring, he still caught up!

RA on Kodiak

L on Cool

We worked on starting, stopping and turns - a basic first lesson.  The idea of dressage is for the rider to be as "quiet" as possible - very little movement of hands or feet.  The small pulls and nudges to communicate with the horse are critical for this event.  Turns are considered difficult because horses can't bend much in the middle, like a car.  So the smaller circle you can make, the better it shows off your ability.  We worked on tight circles where we keep the horse's rear legs as close to the center of the circle as possible, essentially "pivoting", and also on a larger walking circle.  We slalomed through cones that were set up, trying to keep the horses as close as possible to the cones without knocking them down.


Both of us had been on horses before - much longer ago for me.  I realized that this is really the only set of events that depends heavily on another living creature - and one that may not necessarily feel like being controlled.  It was a bit daunting once there and realizing that we were at the mercy of these gentle, but giant beasts!  Luckily, a simple introductory lesson was fine by them and I think they appreciated the attention they got before and after our ride with the brushing and chit-chat!


Another 3 events checked off for R and L2...  Though L2 is leaving this one open to possible future lessons!

Equestrian complete!