Trails were lovely today and the sun was shining. Our trail buddy was very tolerant of trotting up his butt, as I had little control with my phone in hand. I was lucky to not drop my gloves or phone in my filming sequences.
It has been over twenty-five years since I did a solo trail ride bareback. Today was the day. Q was amazing, and gave me the confidence to ride on the buckle most of the way. When we came up to a road crossing, I got nervous because I could hear an unseen car climbing the road and was afraid it was the roadster sans muffler that had been gunning it up and down the road earlier. So I asked Q to trot, and he steadily complied with the smoothest transitions. Comfy and confident! The last time I had done this was with my first QH Rocky that I moved from Canada to Costa Rica (in the winter - bad idea) to live on the Pacific Ocean with me. We would go ride on the beach and in the ocean and bareback was the way to go. It was mostly walking around and I honestly don’t remember galloping bareback since my poney days as a teenager. Of course my new best friends bareback pad is amazing. It provides a little cushion, gives a stickiness to my seat with the suede-like top and adheres to Q...
Annual Trail Rides 202/200 (Bareback 29/40) Ive been reminded of the zen proverb about the empty cup a few times these last few months, and I think it is such a powerful analogy when it comes to learning and growth. Obviously, horses are an incredible catalyst to self-awareness, learning and growth and my Q is no exception. The zen proverb is based on a zen master receiving a student who has come to learn but spends all his time explaining to the master his great accomplishments and successes. The zen master invites him to tea and then proceeds to filling his tea cup until it is overflowing. The student exclaims while the tea is spilling over the the table, and the zen master says "you are like this cup. Overfilled. I can not add to your learning until you empty your cup." Its come to my attention recently that Q prompted me to empty my cup a few years ago, and it continues to be something I am working on. It started when he first arrived, and I could not touch his ears or pu...
Annual Trail Rides: 88/200 It was a busy riding week, getting out on the trails every day. Boy does it make a difference with Q who is increasingly soft and attentive. Im trying to ride with more intention of the pace within the gait I seek, and Q is confirming that he is listening. Ive been edging him into a slower lope without the reins and we break into a trot pretty often, which tells me Im on the right track. I finished Rashid book #4 this week, and it was another good one! (Good horses are never a bad colour) The side effect has been that I now want to buy another young horse to start. Its a ludicrous idea given the cost of board (which, by the way, just went up 20%) and is probably just a consequence of being a little bored and sheltered. Once “real life” gets going again Ill be back to barely having time for my wonderful Q. Today was a lovely ride to my annual pilgrimage of the wild lilacs. I brought along two young ladies from the barn and they enjoyed the detour, the pace, an...
The company and conversation is a nice change of pace as I ride out with others after many weeks of mostly riding alone. I have come to realize that our pace has changed and while we would never be competitive in a western pleasure ring, my Q has been pulling out a gorgeous and comfortable jog along the trail as my fellow riders seek to match his gait. We switch positions, go side by side, and it doesn’t matter what the other horse is doing ... he just sticks to his rhythm like a slow salsa or merengue. My coach and mentor who I haven’t worked with in years first taught me the jog and often used the reference of dancing, lightly shifting weight from left to right stirrup in the cadence you wish to horse to maintain. When we “get it”, it's just magic. While riding alone, I have gotten in to the habit of singing in tempo especially when jogging or loping and once Q achieves the set pace I drop all contact with reins/legs and just dance with him. So I guess w...
Annual Trail Rides: 160/200 (Bareback 17/12) This ride (#160) was just for me! Q gave me a blast of an experience, finishing 20 km in under 2 hours which was a blazing pace for us given the terrain. Up, down, narrow, wide, rooty, deep sand, asphalt and gravel sections, rocky sections, bogs, creeks ... we had a little bit of everything. We trotted where others would walk, and cantered where others would trot. We would not have been able to tackle that pace accompanied. I put a saddle on for this ride, and warned the barn staff that I was going for a long one, thinking it would take me 3 hours. Q was a beast! This ride also marked the official end of my glorious 6 week vacation, clocking in 35 trail rides. Thats a solid 5-6 trail rides a week, never once setting foot in the arena. And of course, Ive been blowing up my objective of bareback rides at 17. Now, I have 40 rides left for the next 3 months, and Im thinking of pushing the needle on the bareback portion. If I do 23 of the ne...
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