Ride - 23rd Sept 07

 

A quiet ride today – and I’m left feeling slightly disappointed, though it’s difficult to put my finger on exactly why...  A last-minute change of personnel – the instructor that I usually ride out with was ill, and so I was riding with someone that I hadn’t been out with before – and there was perhaps a little less than the usual camaraderie...   I was riding a big bay gelding called Dicky, who is a deep stout-brown colour, and is an old-timer at the stables – he’s been there about 15 years, I think.

I’ve ridden him before, and really enjoyed it.  He feels very solid, which is nice; he is not at all spooky, and he’s a nice schoolmastery type horse.  I asked for him, because I’m still battling against feeling extra nervous before I ride, and the not-spooking was reassuring...  The ride before, I had discussed with my instructor that we would work on my canter seat this ride, and Dicky has quite a nice canter, not too stiff and quite easy to sit to.

The weather was lovely – autumn sunshine slanting low in a blue sky, and a kind of chill in the air which made it feel fresh.  The deer are in rut in the park at the moment, but I didn’t hear any calling – they were just more visible than usual:  we saw one harem group (females with one large male) and another group of males lying down together at the foot of the hill, and right at the end of the ride, one young, very nervous male (perhaps last year's?) who came out onto the horse path and goggled at the four horses riding towards him, before running away. 

I was happier with my cantering this time – I felt that I was relaxing to the movement of the horse better, and that my balance was better, though I was finding it difficult to keep the canter going – Dicky kept dropping back into trot and then not really listening to my requests to start cantering again.  I found the trotting quite difficult: he felt quite stiff underneath me, and it was a hurried, bouncy trot which I was finding difficult to absorb properly - felt quite bruised after.  And he didn't really listen to me as far as slowing down or stopping.

I think part of the reason that I feel disappointed is that I had been reading this book by Mark Rashid's assistant, Kathleen (Lindley, I think?) and had been reading about having this amazing partnership with your horse, and letting the horse communicate with you... and I was thinking about trying some of the things that she talked about - the breathing, the awareness and so on.  And I didn't really feel that any of that worked...  Another post soon, on why/how that didn't seem to work - but I think the disappointment comes from feeling that it didn't work because I wasn't doing it right...  hmmm...