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Adventures! With Horses!
Jul. 28th, 2010 08:04 pmOh man, I am sore in some odd places, but it was TOTALLY WORTH IT.
We had a minor kerfuffle at the start of the day where my mom had intended to pay her client after we went riding so she didn't flake out and forget the whole thing, but she thought she was supposed to be paid beforehand, so she didn't bother to meet us at IHOP like we had planned and we had to hunt her down at her house (two blocks away and we still got wretchedly lost) and almost got eaten by a pack of chihuahuas. But we did finally manage to get the ridiculous money issues resolved, and M got us saddled up and sent on our way with her daughter.
I have to admit, I was pretty nervous going into this. I don't think I've gone riding even once since I stopped taking riding lessons when was about 13, and I guess I thought that by now I would have forgotten how to even, like, sit up and hold the reins in my hands and I was instantaneously going to freak out and fall out and make a tremendous ass of myself. Needless to say, that did not happen! Some stuff was kind of weird - when I was taking lessons I mostly rode English, not Western, and while the difference is not huge, I kept forgetting whether I was using a neck rein or a direct rein, and the pommel was deeply confusing to me, and the stirrups felt strange. But I did okay, I think, in that I didn't fall off and kill myself or anything like that. And M gave me the more excitable horse, because she knew I'd taken lessons and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hanjuuluver hadn't, and I handled her all right - she had definite opinions about how fast we should be going and how far in front of everyone else she should be, which certainly made things more fun for me. I like not completely sucking at things. :)
The path we rode through the bosque was really pretty too - we went from up by my mom's apartment through the paths by the river to a pizza place in the village and then back again, about 3 hours worth of riding total. It's all cottonwood and salt cedar up there, lots of scrub brush and greenery because it's so close to the river, and nothing but birds and squirrels and lizards and the rare bicyclist to break the quiet. I always liked riding lessons because it was so goal-oriented - you go into the ring and practice a specific skill set until you get it - and that is both challenging and satisfying. But I think I like trail riding better, especially in such a nice area as the bosque. Except for the part where I got stabbed in the stomach with a branch. But aside from that it was pretty awesome!
And now I am going to take a hot bath and possibly ice my knee, because aside from the general 'new and strange physical exertion!!!' soreness, I did something to my knee to make it very sore and hurty. I don't even know, it's weird. Whatever, we still had a great time, and I would totally do it again.
We had a minor kerfuffle at the start of the day where my mom had intended to pay her client after we went riding so she didn't flake out and forget the whole thing, but she thought she was supposed to be paid beforehand, so she didn't bother to meet us at IHOP like we had planned and we had to hunt her down at her house (two blocks away and we still got wretchedly lost) and almost got eaten by a pack of chihuahuas. But we did finally manage to get the ridiculous money issues resolved, and M got us saddled up and sent on our way with her daughter.
I have to admit, I was pretty nervous going into this. I don't think I've gone riding even once since I stopped taking riding lessons when was about 13, and I guess I thought that by now I would have forgotten how to even, like, sit up and hold the reins in my hands and I was instantaneously going to freak out and fall out and make a tremendous ass of myself. Needless to say, that did not happen! Some stuff was kind of weird - when I was taking lessons I mostly rode English, not Western, and while the difference is not huge, I kept forgetting whether I was using a neck rein or a direct rein, and the pommel was deeply confusing to me, and the stirrups felt strange. But I did okay, I think, in that I didn't fall off and kill myself or anything like that. And M gave me the more excitable horse, because she knew I'd taken lessons and
hanjuuluver hadn't, and I handled her all right - she had definite opinions about how fast we should be going and how far in front of everyone else she should be, which certainly made things more fun for me. I like not completely sucking at things. :)The path we rode through the bosque was really pretty too - we went from up by my mom's apartment through the paths by the river to a pizza place in the village and then back again, about 3 hours worth of riding total. It's all cottonwood and salt cedar up there, lots of scrub brush and greenery because it's so close to the river, and nothing but birds and squirrels and lizards and the rare bicyclist to break the quiet. I always liked riding lessons because it was so goal-oriented - you go into the ring and practice a specific skill set until you get it - and that is both challenging and satisfying. But I think I like trail riding better, especially in such a nice area as the bosque. Except for the part where I got stabbed in the stomach with a branch. But aside from that it was pretty awesome!
And now I am going to take a hot bath and possibly ice my knee, because aside from the general 'new and strange physical exertion!!!' soreness, I did something to my knee to make it very sore and hurty. I don't even know, it's weird. Whatever, we still had a great time, and I would totally do it again.