This picture is Buck (my favorite trail horse!) and Ceasar in the paddock scratching each other. It is so interesting to see the different interactions and relationships between the horses.
Had to switch into an earlier lesson today. Ended up with Christina, Brenda and Lucy and I rode Mr. Tee. He was a much better workout and harder to ride than Buck which shocked me -- it sure is different riding than watching! You need to work very hard to keep him on the rail (the periphery of the ring) by keeping near-constant pressure with your inside leg. Probably a lot less work at age 10 than 40-something!! It made my ankles kill.
Christina has been cantering Sweet Pea but today Linda was determined to get her to canter Buck. She was nervous (after my disastrous attempt to canter on Buck, I understood why) but she really stuck with it and did it! We were all cheering ... which Linda leveraged to challenge each of us to do more than we were planning. We all cantered! It was such a great, affirming and supportive experience. I think we were all near tears building off each others confidence and achievements which sounds sappy, but it was powerful!
In addition to cantering Mr. Tee (twice! no pulling back on the reins, but hard to keep him on the rail and me in the saddle) we got lots of my 'administrative' responsibilities done today.
Linda and I have nearly finalized the fall schedule -- no mean feat as we are bursting at the seams after school. Jeannie is going to have 3 lessons on Saturday of beginners and advanced beginners! But I also solidified our Thursday night Ride and Relaxation program by recruiting Kerry Holbrooke to run it! Watch for an email or announcement on the "What's New" page. It will be at 5:00 till 6:30 on Thursdays ... $50 per ride. 45 minutes of instruction and 45 minutes of wine tasting on the deck (hopefully with sunset)!
Also, Tasha spent some time here today and we were all SO glad to have her in the barn. She, Linda and I finalized plans for a Tuesday morning Yoga & Riding experience. Each class will do half an hour of Yoga floor work in the space downstairs in the house, then move to the barn for 45 minutes to an hour of tacking up and riding. Tasha has a numerous different aspects of riding and will focus an entire class on that -- for example: keeping your heels down (which sounds easy till you try to do it for 45 minutes on a bouncy horse!). She' ll do related yoga moves and then she and Linda will co-teach the riding portion which will be a continuation of that one area of concentration. I am often out of town on Tuesdays ... and I can tell I am going to be really jealous of the riders who can work this in to their schedules. It will also be $50 for the session and limited to four riders per session -- at least to start.
A pretty productive day. And in between I wrote a short op-ed piece that will be in the Washington Post this weekend! (alas, about politics and not horses or being a farmers wife ....)
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