Saturday, January 09, 2016

My Saddle

I am so excited over getting my old saddle ready to use.  I ordered new stirrups and leathers, which had disappeared when I had the saddle at the shelter.  Now all I need is a horse to put it on.  Kendall has agreed to let me ride Charlie, and I wanted to use an English saddle.  The advantage is that my legs are so short I have trouble finding a western saddle with stirrups short enough.  Besides that, I was trained English........dressage actually.  That's not to say I am good at it, but it is familiar.  When I was a kid going to riding stables I rode western because that's all there was.......or bareback.  Nothing would convince me to ride bareback now, but as a kid I would hold on to the horse's mane and gallop over fields and trails.  If I fell off, which I occasionally did, I'd just climb back on and do it again.

As an adult I felt more refined.....my cowgirl days were over.  I took years of lessons from two different experts in dressage.  My horse BJ  never really learned the fancy steps and moves, but we played at it.

I can't wait to put this 71 year old body to the test.

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