BUT that's all about to change now, because I finalllly got to meet a potential part-board of a horse. An English jumper. VERY English. I haven't been in any lessons for a long time, but it's funny how different Western and jumper is.
Jumper lesson: Canter canter canter. Jump jump jump.
Western: Railwork. Transitions. Obstacles. Patterns.
I guess that's where the old Western vs. English battle rears its' ugly head. For me, I don't see why you can't do all the Western ground work AND still jump. I'm not saying that some people don't do that. But the majority don't. I remember doing a lot of on the rail fast work, then jumping. But I digress...
The funny story about this part-board hookup is that I found out about this girl through my doctor. She worked for her at the time, and my doctor gave me her phone number. When she wrote down the name, in my head I couldn't help but think that the name sounded SO familiar. I asked Rider (from BC) whether or not we knew someone from college named that. She said, nope. Maybe high school? What are the chances that we DID go to high school together! She's a year younger than me, but we knew each other, just not the closest of buddies. Seriously, six degrees of separation is truly freaky and scarily true. So, all summer we've been talking about getting together to watch her ride, meet her horse, see the place etc. Every time though, something came up. Lessons cancelled, parents working - you name it, it probably happened. Such was our luck. I was starting to feel bad about not showing up and wasting away the summer. Not that it's been the greatest weather. So HUMID out that you can't really do much riding anyways.
So we finally make a date, and I get up there to watch her lesson and give her a try. She's a tough cookie, this mare. She's an ex-Thoroughbred racehorse. Generally not my favourite kind of horse, but she's very sweet. She has a stubborn streak though. And she's a fighter. I rode her for less than 10 minutes (and granted I'm out of shape) but I was K/O'd for the next 2 days. My shoulders were just two huge knots of pain. She fought me the entire time I was riding her. I didn't do anything super strenuous. I walked her around, asked for a trot, did some serpentines, a couple lope circles. Her face was in my hands the entire time. Her owner is super sweet and we worked out that I'll try, for the month of August, a couple of lessons on her to see how it goes. You can't get a true reading from anything in 5 minutes. And it's nice because at the end of the month there's no pressure to not commit. Takes a lot of pressure off of my shoulders too, because I hate having to say no to anyone. Once I hear back from her about lessons, I shall keep updating about it.
But this Saturday, I'm going with a friend to check out some new riding barns. :) Hopefully that proves fruitful!! I need a new barn. Stat.
xoxo
