Another (finally) awesome day

Numenor October 2006
Originally uploaded by queenjill

I rode Numenor again this morning. He's a bit of a lazy bastard -- at least at the walk -- so I ended up poking him a lot with my new big-ass spurs. I'm not used to riding lazy-ass horses, so I was kind of nagging at him until Vitor told me that if I kept doing that, the horse would buck me off.

My morning lesson started OK -- not great -- and then went downhill from there. Vitor was yelling at me a lot because I couldn't keep the horse straight. Finally he put me on the long lines to help me out. We mostly worked on keeping the horse straight, with Vitor correcting my position. We did a couple of flying changes which were so smooth that I could hardly tell they'd even occurred. We did some half-pass at trot and canter. Finally Vitor just put me on a circle -- still on the long lines but with him in the middle of the circle -- and helped me find my own balance and balance/flex the horse and work on (for the horse) getting the hind legs stepping under and (for me) lengthening/shortening the stride with my post. I don't remember how it happened, but it all culminated in a canter pirouette that was so amazing. So light, so effortless. At the end I burst into tears just as the onlookers burst into applause. Amazing. Really amazing. All day, every time I've thought about it, I've cried. Amazing.

I hope I never forget it, although knowing me, I probably will.

In the afternoon I rode Niquel, who is a much more forward horse. It was a beautiful afternoon -- sunny and warm enough for shirtsleeves (for those of us who were riding, anyway) -- so we rode in the outdoor arena which is set back among the trees (all fall colors). I had a semi-private lesson with Vitor, who alternated between me and Debra. He kind of turned me loose to play around with Niquel but also coached me on my position and on bending the horse and the importance of the circle in getting the horse to load the hind legs correctly and set up for half pass. My left hip did not want to cooperate most of the time but it was fun anyway.

I have to find a way to come here more often. There's no way I can do this only five days out of the year. It'll take me a million years to progress at that rate.