I was about 11 when I found Dede (the trainer I bought Promise from). Once I started riding with her, I really started to come into my own and I got really, really good. She fueled my dreams of making the Maclay Finals, the Olympics, of going places. Obviously, that didn't happen because life got in the way and I fell in love with a barely started horse that had a lot of talent but was not going to take me to those places, no matter how much I believed in her!
Anyway, the farm Dede was at when I first met her was the one where I had started taking lessons when I was 6...it was under new management and had been totally redone and cleaned out. I really liked Dede instantly. We set up an evaluation ride and the rest is history.
 |
| Dede giving me a pep talk before my jumping round ca. 1997, with Sweet William |
Her lessons were always an adventure. And I was riding so often that I was really fit and really strong. And of course, I was a teenager, so I was damn near invincible. She constantly challenged me to be better and I loved every minute of it.
She had me read a lot of books, including Mary Wanless "Ride with Your Mind," which I still refer to occasionally. She also taught me geometry lessons on horseback when I was struggling with the subject in high school.
For a while, most of my lessons and shows were done on a horse named Sweet William. He was amazing. I knew that horse so well, and could get him to do so much for me. I really started to get the "feel" down on William. We spent a lot of time going over which foot was touching the ground, which foot was leaving the ground, how to ask for things at the exact moment of movement to get the correct answer quickly and beautifully. To this day, that sense of feel sticks with me. I very rarely have to look for a diagonal even on a new horse. I just feel it. I know to ask for bend around my inside leg as the inside hind is leaving the ground so I can manipulate where it lands while it's in the air. It was a hard thing to learn but once I got it, I never lost it.
 |
| Pretty sure she was tying a different color ribbon in his braids to remind me where to release |
 |
| Sweet William and I with our 1st of 2 Reserve Champion ribbons that day. He was such a good sport! |
With William and Dede, No stirrups? No biggie. No reins? No biggie. No stirrups or reins? Ok, I'm game. Gallop up the hill at the back of the property in half seat with no stirrups or reins? We did that ALL THE TIME! It was so fun, but I'd be a little unnerved by it now!
She would put me on all of her lesson ponies to school them and tune them up and I loved every second of it. For a while, I rode this Morgan mare that had been pulled out of a field at like 8 or 9 after having babies all her life, started under saddle, and then brought to the farm for some training. That mare was amazing. She was tiny, maybe 14hh on a tall day. I could almost wrap my legs around her, but she was game for anything and jumped a 4 ft oxer with me like it wasn't even there!
 |
| Our ribbon haul...3 firsts, 1 second, 3 thirds and 2 reserve champions |
 |
| I was such a dweeb, but I love that William was smiling, too! |
No comments:
Post a Comment