Spirit Triumphant

We did it! Spirit Field is real! And I rode!

Today was the day I have been waiting for. Judging by the crowd that watched my first lesson and the opening of Spirit Field, others have been looking forward to it as well.

We were at least 20 people joined together by a love of horses, riding and one amazing woman. I'd like to think they were all there to see my dramatic return to the ring but I know better: They were there to support Dada and marvel at what she has put together in just a few months.

I was worried early in the day that I might spoil it by committing an egregious equestrian fashion faux pas: I could not find my black practice riding pants and thought I'd have to wear my dress whites that are for competition only. In regular fashion it would be like wearing white shoes after Labor Day. I found the black pants but wish now I had worn the white ones and my tux because it was such an occasion.

There was food, drink, a cake that said "Spirit rules." The only thing missing was the warm weather. It was a little chilly. I didn't notice because I had on my helmet over a hood, and a monster protective vest over my body and half-chaps over my legs.

Then I got on Louie. I am comfortable enough in my sexuality to say that.

He was so great. He was easy to ride and easily motivated to walk. A little too easy, actually. I tried encouraging him by clicking my tongue a few times and he about started to trot.

He responds really well to the reins, too, so I have to go easy on him, and he does not mind walking close to the wall at all.

In short, he was a dream. Again, comfortable enough to say that about a guy.

Dada said at one point, "There is that smile." I don't think that smile disappeared the entire time I was riding. It was definitely there when we were trotting. I totally can't see a thing because my head bounces around so much but it is so fun.

And that wasn't all. After I rode, Caroline, who hadn't been on a horse in four years, gave Louie a workout.

It was a great day. Thank you to everyone who came out and those who couldn't make it but had us in their hearts and minds.

I'm riding again!

YAHOO!

I have a riding lesson Feb. 3! It's like waiting for Christmas.

In the Spirit

I made a tweak or two to the Spirit website.

Here we are!

Louie, me and Claren, my service dog.

Louie louie

We had our first board meeting this morning. It was good. Everyone on the board and the volunteers seems so enthusiastic and full of ideas. well, everyone but me.

Afterward was even better. We went to Spirit so I could meet the new horse, the one I'll be riding SOON.

Louie was great, even if he did bite me. I was trying to feed him carrots but I have problems opening my hand completely and when I did the carrot would fall off. Louie got tired of waiting for me to get it right and started scrounging around. He decided the back of my glove look good enough to eat and so he tried.

I was in a part of the field the horses don't go but of course Claren found the one little pile of poop to eat. But back to Louie.

He didn't look too tall or big, but he is very wide. Kate said he is so comfortable to ride and is very mannerly. What I noticed mostly is how hairy he was. It wasn't ugly or messy, and as it was about 30 degrees out and windy, I certainly did not begrudge him his coat. In fact, I was jealous.

We are still on track to start riding in a few weeks.

Get me on a horse, quick

My legs have been stiffening up on me lately. It is really annoying when your leg won't bend at the knee. I hope hope hope that the stiffness is the result of my forced retirement from riding and that it goes away when I start riding again.

All sorts of news

I am still not riding and miss it, but things are happening. We are planning the first board meeting of Spirit, there is a new horse at Spirit, I joined the U.S. Equestrian Foundation, and I learned a little more about this competition we hope I can join. It is at Morven Park in May.

The new horse is an 18-year-old Morgan with dressage experience. Louie is the brown one; Spirit is the whiteish one.

I am getting pretty excited. February (when riding will probably start up) can't come soon enough.

I'm official!

I got a letter today from the U.S. Equestrian Foundation with my National Classification card. Apparently, I need to carry it with me to all events. How about that? It's just a little paperwork, but it is pretty cool.

Spirit has a home

Dada found an unused pasture and the owner was happy to have a horse and little riding program there. It's a temporary home and pretty rustic, but it is a great start. Dada says she hopes I can start riding in about a month. How exciting!

Spirit seems like a wonderful horse. I fed her a few carrots, and when Dada opened the gate into the pasture she took off into it. She looked so amazing. She reminded me how much I miss riding. I won't even complain about having to ride outside in February, I promise.

Claren, my service dog, really liked the pasture, too. It is well-enclosed, so she can run free in it. Unfortunately, she decided eating horse poop was more fun than running free, so I need to work on that.

Get the Spirit

The papers are filed. The name of the new riding stable is Spirit, just Spirit I did a little page about it so you can see our first horses.

The page looks a little screwy in Firefox and I am working on it.

Name that riding center

We have to find a new stable still, but the biggest obstacle these days seems to be the name. You need to put a name on the founding documents. Dada wants spirit, bond, soul, hope, dream and a few other words included. Kate wants a pun.

Here are my suggestions:

• Stirrup your soul, but that is partly appropriated (stolen) from a riding program in Georgia my friend Lynne told me about.
• Let's ride Equestrian Center
• Horse-sense Equestrian Riding Center
• Galloping Spirit Equestrian Riding Center
• Unbroken Spirit Equestrian Riding Center

Undoubtedly better names are out there. Please, suggest some.

Future's so bright, gotta wear blinders

Dada has been energized by the whole fiasco with LMU. She and Kate and some others are almost ready to start a new riding program. I will be working on a website for it soon. It will be an inclusive program. Able-bodied riders will be welcome, so will therapeutic riders and para-equestrian riders (yeah!). We all have much to learn from one another and from horses.

Here is how I think a para-equestrian program can benefit everyone:

As the rider, I experienced joy I have rarely felt as I learned that I could compete in a physical competition and win it.

Other riders at Lift Me Up also benefited. One day during a lesson, Georgia asked if one of her rider could follow my dressage patterns. He likes that, she said. It seems that I was someone to look up to, a successful, independent rider, even though I was disabled. I sure never felt like a star; maybe I should have become a prima donna and demanded cinnamon pop-tarts and a private mounting stall? Probably not.

Finally parents also benefited. At the first Lift Me Up function I attended, the mother of a young girl with cerebral palsy seemed shocked and delighted to learn I held a job, lived on my own, was independent. I hold no illusions about my speaking, but I would like to think that I helped this woman realize that an independent and happy future for her daughter is achievable.

Crossing the Rubicon

I wrote checks and put them in the mail yesterday to return the donations to Keep Matt Trotting. Lift Me Up had sent me the a big check, so it did not come out of my money. Now, though, I can wash my hands with Lift Me Up.

I am sad about that. Despite problems there, which I often attributed to paranoia but were quite real, LMU sat me on a horse. I still remember all the help and protective hands, but more than anything I remember that I rode a horse. Me! I'll always treasure LMU for that and hope that the people there can fix a troubled program.

But that's the past, now I am focused on the future and it looks bright.

Not with a bang but a whinny

A little T.S. Eliot, even though his poems do not always rhyme. He gets a pass.

I am taking a little break from horseback riding. I hope it is temporary and not as bleak as my title suggests.

I need to find a new place to ride. I don't want to say more yet, but I expect more horse news.

Ride 'em, cowboy

Maybe I won't ever be confused with a rootin', tootin' cowboy, but I did some real riding today. On Andy!

Andy is not a riding horse really. He is a good therapeutic riding horse, but that means he is good at walking with a leader.

But I got him walking today. Dada said it was the best Andy had ever been ridden. She also said she couldn't have done better. That, I know, is a lie. A nice lie, though.

Kate said how good I looked. She thought I felt bad about how my riding was going because I was laughing most of the time. Far from it, I just thought it was funny how hard I was working just to get Andy to walk. Andy takes frequent breaks, too, to relieve himself, which doesn't lend itself to serious riding.

Bella is still lame. Dada says she's improving, but there is no timetable for getting her back and under saddle. Charm remains ostracized. I actually offered to buy Charm with the money donated to the program for me. That didn't go over too well. We are still working on the best way to use that money.

So I may be riding Andy awhile. He will be my trainer. He improves my balance because his swagger keeps me rebalancing. He improves my leg strength because his stubbornness keeps my legs working overtime. He is a good guy.

Better late than never

At least I hope that is what Lynne Hansen, Mary Kiernan-Stern and Ham & Ellie Hamilton think. They all made some very generous donations to Keep Matt Trotting, but no one told me. To say I feel sick is an understatement.

We are figuring out now what the plan is for that money. But let me say again: THANKS.

The ride was good. I was on Andy, and instead of just walking down the road, we went into the woods a little. Andy liked it a lot better than the road. He seemed quite happy. Even being led on a horse is pretty great.

Just fun

I rode Finn today. I have liked Finn's looks since I first came to Lift Me Up. He is a Norwegian Fjord pony, and Lift Me Up had to promise to groom him like a Norweigian Fjord pony. His mane looks a mohawk and he has stripes below his knees, almost like a zebra.

It was a fun ride. We went on a trail ride, which means I get help staying in the saddle. It was so nice out today; the ride was real pleasant.

Unfortunately, I am not sure how much longer these fun rides will interest me. At the start, all I wanted to do was ride, but Dada and everyone showed me I could do so much more. Now, it seems I am taking a step back.

I don't know if Charm is gone from Lift Me Up yet, but I am sure she is gone from my riding life. Bella is still lame, and it sounds like they aren't sure when or if she'll be back. So most of the horses there, I think, aren't that well-suited to me.

I am not going to quit, but hopefully it will grow more challenging.

Matt’s trotting

Bella is on the injured reserve with some lameness, and Charm has been expelled from Lift Me Up. Well, she still lives there, but she is not riding, or carrying a rider or whatever (More on that later). So a crafty old veteran came through for me. I rode Andy, the first horse I rode at Lift Me Up.

Andy is short, unlike Bella and Charm, but he is real wide. Quite stocky. He also doesn't take direction well. Dada says small horses are often a little stubborn like that. But he is a great follower, so a volunteer led Andy around the trails outside, while Dada and Kate were my sidewalkers.

It is way different, walking on a trail, way more bumpy than a ring. But I really tried to sit straight and hugging tight with my legs. It was hard, but Dada said I looked pretty good. It sure felt good, too.

And Andy trots. I can't trot on my own. I am not sure I ever will be able to, but it is so fun. I hardly breathe, mostly because I am laughing. It is such a neat feeling.

As far as Charm goes: I have a friend who has a farm deep in the heart of horse country, otherwise known as Middleburg. She said she'd love to adopt Charm. One of the benefits: I could ride her sometimes. Yeah!

Dressage Broadway-style

Wow, today was really great. There’s that song in My Fair Lady that Audrey Hepburn’s character sings “I could have danced all night.” I felt like I could have ridden all night. And just because I am quoting Broadway does not make me less manly.

Dada agreed with me that we could get a written test so I would not have to concentrate on hearing. So I made a test up last night. And today I rode it.

I did forget the serpentine at the end but otherwise it went pretty well. When I do a figure 8 my circles are pretty thin., so I need to work on that.

But it didn’t matter. The people watching clapped, and I did it a second time and they clapped again. It felt really good. Charm was generally real responsive to me. She walked great and when she slowed down I was able to get her going again.

The lesson wasn’t all about riding. Lift Me Up is letting Dada adopt Charm. So we have a horse! But now we need a stable and ring because she can’t stay at Lift Me Up. I can’t decide if this is a step forward or not.

Just a 1-pack

I began riding a little over a year ago, and one of the goals was to strengthen my trunk muscles. Judging from how sore my abdomen is tonight, we aren't there yet. Not even close. And it's not like I want 6-pack abs; I'd just like to do one sit-up.

But it was a good lesson. Dada emphasized sitting up straight and holding myself up without using my hands. It was tough, hence the trunk pain.

Also, I almost died again. Really. I had a "that which doesn't kill you makes you stronger" moment. Of course, I tend to have a lot of these. We were rounding a corner, I was on Charm, when the people watching said "Dada, watch out." We all stopped, and Dada grabbed Charm. I still couldn't see what was going on, but Charm could. She started getting all skittish and moving all around, and if Dada wasn't holding her I am not sure what would have happened. Charm did turn so I could see the problem; it was deer. Charm is not a fan of wildlife.

Kate ran the deer off and we got back to riding. One hard thing was Charm was following Dada around like a puppy dog. It was funny, but a little tough. And I need to talk to Dada: I concentrate so much on riding, it is hard to also concentrate on hearing her riding directions. I think it might be better if I had a written list of riding moves so I only have to concentrate on riding.

It also was the first time my mom has seen me ride in a while. That was cool.