Flyer

Last week was a "bye" week for the barn, a rest week of sorts between summer lesson session ending and fall session kicking up. The week before, I had a great lesson on Winslow, and feel like we really reached an understanding in our relationship. He's still not my favorite, lol.

Sunflowers at the Arboretum

This past weekend, my best friend (of 20+ years, we discovered when we did the math) was visiting Raleigh from Boston. It was a lot of fun showing her around and we seriously enjoyed how much nicer the weather is here than in Tampa...we were able to do things outside every single day she was here, and it was wonderful. We are already talking about planning another visit, either back here or in Boston, but it will likely be after the first of the year before it happens, which stinks. It's hard being so far away, but we always just pick up right where we left off. I'm going to sprinkle some of the photos I took with my new 70-300mm macro lens (birthday gift from mom!) to spruce up the post a little :)

Pretty purple flower at the Arboretum

Bumblebee at the Arboretum

This week, lessons started again and my new lesson day is Tuesday at 7. Looks like this will be a semi-permanent slot, at least until next August, so I'm excited to get into a solid riding routine. Currently, my brain is so confused, because I've been riding on Thursdays, so it's pretty much convinced it is Friday. It's going to be a long 3 days of thinking it's Friday!

Last night, I rode Flyer, a BIG chestnut gelding. I feel like he's probably 17.2 or so, maybe even taller. He's gigantic.

I haven't been on him since he first got to the barn, maybe a little over 2 months ago. He'd been in about a week when I rode him in a lesson and it got a little hairy! He was super green and is a ride-from-the-seat-and-leave-my-mouth-alone kind of horse. That first ride was definitely challenging for me and I almost came off him twice doing a serpentine jump exercise, because he tried to give me a lead change and over-corrected his body in the opposite direction of how I was rebalancing! We ended up stopping so I could right myself both times, and then continuing on to the next 2 fences. He didn't do anything wrong--in fact, he really was trying to do the right thing! And K said, your body is in the right spot, he just can't get out of his own way. 

Butterfly at the arboretum

I was proud of myself for sticking to the tack, and had to laugh. I knew he was trying so hard and his intention was not to unseat me!

Anyway, last night was like night and day from that first ride. He's come a long way in terms of maintaining pace, strength and balance, in a very short time! I had a lot of fun on him, but I had some issues with my ankles, which made me feel extra weak in the saddle. As a result, I had trouble keeping my body back and not catching him in the mouth or hitting his back before he completed the jumps. Oops :( He was very forgiving about it and I managed to get it together for our last round of fences.

I'm going to get back to working out again. I think 2 weeks off AND not riding didn't do me any favors at all. But, beyond that, not sure why my ankles were bothering me. It almost felt like I was over-extending, but even taking my feet out of the stirrups and stretching them while I waited for my turn didn't really help long-term.