Me and my Shadow?

I thought when I started riding T last year that she would be the last horse I rode. She was great; she had energy and initiative. I had to slow her down sometimes; that thrilled me no end.

What then was I doing on my last lesson before winter break riding Shadow, a Trakehner-Arab mare? I am still trying to decide if I was being disloyal to T and Morgans.

Dada says T has a lot of motion in her walk, and I know Dada is less confident of me and T than she used to be. And Shadow has a wider back and a smoother walk and has a dressage background.

The first time with a horse is probably hard for everyone as the horse adjusts to one's movements. I move a lot, so it is really hard on a horse to learn to ignore my body's slippings. T mostly did. Shadow stopped when she felt something was off. Dada liked that. Me? Not as much. It was real work to get and keep her moving.

After a while, we managed to get moving at a nice rate and she really curves in circles.

I was looking forward to riding her again - who am I to argue with Dada – but my work schedule has demanded that I stop for the winter now. It will be a good time to break. Dada and I will re-assess things in a while and see what's what.

Stress or something

I have spent the last 20 minutes looking through old photos to figure out where I used to put my hands. Dada said my trunk was swaying and I looked exhausted. She suggested it was stress, and she may be right. I know I have some stress in my life, but I felt pretty good.

I loved having the dressage letters out. It really makes me know where to ride. I thought I ride some decent circles and a good figure eight.

But my trunk was swaying. Part of the problem is that I need rubber bands to keep my feet in the stirrups. The left one came out today.

My hands, though, are the real problem. I wind up leaning forward on them. The set-up we have now has me holding straps for extra balance help. But there is to much leeway in the straps so I sway. I need something right at the top of the saddle that would encourage me to sit back.

Oh well. Maybe it is stress. I am going to take the winter off and see how I feel after that.

Book review: 'Equus' is great for horse lovers

I think I have a new favorite horse -- or at least member of the horse family: the Poitou Donkey. They look pretty good in this photo, but no where near as wonderful as they look in a new book called Equus by Tim Flach.

I got an early copy of this book to review here and it is pretty neat. You can see some of the photos here on his website. Click on "Equus."


He fills almost 300 pages with all different kinds of horses, from zebras to Arabian stallions with tons in between and almost nothing else living. There are the paws of a dog and part of a rider, but that was it; the rest is pure horse.

What I especially like is seeing breeds I have ridden in more natural habits:

• Mustangs, reminding me of Corey
• Halflingers, reminding me of Andy and other ponies
• Fjord ponies, recalling Finn

There are no photos of Morgans (Don't worry, T; I still love you). No Shire horses like Bella, either. That's OK; there are so many other cool breeds.

Most of the photos are grand, too. I don't care for some of the arty photos were Flach shows just part of the horse or something. I like the ones where he presents the whole horse in all its beauty.

And I know it would probably disrupt the art of the photo, but I wish the book put the little photo captions on the page with the photo instead of at the back. I want to read about what I see when I see it, not 200 pages later, and it is a pain to flip back and forth.

The scenery is so perfect, whether it is the American West for Mustangs or a glacier lake for the frolicking Icelandic Horses or sand dunes for the regal and rearing Arabian. Flach knows how to take a photo.

And that in the end makes this book a winner. You can look and find horses that are cute, horses you want to pet, horses you want to ride, horses you just want to see more of. Flach gives you that in Equus.