Riding in the cold....

Well, we're indoors at Bobby's Ranch so it wasn't THAT cold... but I was bundled up pretty tight.

Brawney is not allowed to be used anymore for lessons because he's been bucking. Apparently he bucked someone off and her husband proclaimed him as dangerous. He's bucked (or kicked out rather) a couple of times when I've been riding him but I never came off the horse. Also, a friend of my instructor's may be buying him. Too bad. I liked him even if he was a pain in the ass.

So, I rode Elsie. After two weeks off, it felt like it had been two months or even two years. I felt like I had no control over the horse at all. Elsie is a fine animal but I think she realized I was going to take it easy on her. I kept thinking she was going to buck, but apparently she wasn't. Gun shy? Me? Apparently. I started the lessons with reins that were too short. I said as much to Rick. He didn't hear me or ignored me. Later, he said, "Those reins look a little short." No shit?

If I could get Elsie trotting, it as a nice trot. But I couldn't keep her trotting. I think I was inadvertantly giving her a stop command because she wouldn't just walk, she'd outright stop.

Another problem was that Stephen and I were on large horses and Chris and Kim were on smaller horses. Who's in the lead? Kim. So she gets a nice slow jog going and Chris is keeping pace, meanwhile Stephen on Denmark has to slow to a walk or crash into Chris and I have to do the same on Elsie. I finally got the okay to turn away from the group to get out ahead so I could keep a steady trot going and lost my control of the horse. She slowed again.

So, I need to focus on

a) telling, not asking, the horse to do something.
b) steering and keeping the horse's speed at the same time.
c) subtle commands


The fact my right hand went numb due to my CTS didn't help much.

Okay, not a great night. Next week had better be better.