Riding on the Range

I got to ride my ole pal Brawny last night. We were back on the trails,
primarily due to the sheer number of people in the group last night.
Now Rick always told us he tries not to let the group get over six. We
had seven and even an assistant instructor. That made nine people on
the trail including all the instructors. Nine people of varying riding
skills, riding too close together, trying to trot and canter.

I was at the back near the girl assisting Rick. She was all of about
15 years old. Yeah, I'm getting riding advice from a kid again. I got
over it quickly.

Big problem was Frank was riding Elsie in front of me and Elsie didn't
want to canter. And naturally, Brawny, when he wasn't trying to eat
everything in site, tries to get going as soon as he sees any other
horse moving quickly.

Brawny has a pretty smooth trot so I mostly stayed in the saddle when
trotting but did some posting. Posting on Brawny really hurts my
knees. They made the stirrups a little longer than usual to help with
that but it meant my feet were slipping out when we cantered. But I
did get the rhythm after a while. I still wonder how Brawny would react
overall to commands when he's not following another horse.

It was not as beneficial a lesson as I'd have liked. I like the
smaller group. But we get what we pay for. As I get better, and have
weekends open, I may do more private or semi-private lessons.