Ride of independence

On the way home from my lesson today, mom said something like: I never would have thought you’d be riding alone after seeing that first lesson not quite two years ago.

Me either. But I am!

Today, no one touched me or Louie except to help me on and off and a little cooling-down lap when Dada guided Louie. It was great. Someone should have started humming the national anthem or something.

I performed both tests that I’ll ride next month, and Louie did so well. I still need a little work on the figure 8, but we are getting a pretty decent rhythm down. It was especially good on the first ride.

On the second one Louie decided to have a little snack during a free walk and lowered his head and stopped. I was able to get him going again and Dada said if he does that again to give him a little reminder with the reins that I am in charge. I need to remember the word little.” He started to snack again and I gave the reins a jerk that brought his head straight up. Sorry, Louie.

Dada also is working on my legs and feet. She emphasizes using my legs to get a rhythm going and keep it going. I often stop working my legs when we are going OK. Whoops. She said to use a pattern of left-right-left-right, I guess like walking. I need to get the rhythm of walking back.

When my feet are in stirrups, the front part of my foot pushes down. That is not how it is supposed to work, so Dada has started telling me to push my heels down. It is hard! But it feels better and I guess it is a good sign that Dada feels good enough about my riding to deal with the heel issue.

For my last ride I did a freestyle test. It includes a double figure 8 that is quite challenging.

But it is all so fun.